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Digital (i.e. web+search+social+mobile) has changed everything in the world of marketing. Digital is doing to marketing what quantum mechanics did to newtonian mechanics. Let me share five indicators of a tectonic shift taking place right under our feet: 1. Communications models are now based on themes, not on THE BIG IDEA. The evidence of this is all around us. Think of your favorite brand and see how it is speaking differently to various audiences in different channels. Interestingly, a richer multi-dimensional argument has replaced cartesian coordinates stemming from a single point. Google, with its smart semantic and natural language processing capabilities, is able to understand themes and is creating winners by serving up theme leaders via Google search. 2. Iterative experimentation is replacing getting it right the first time. Analytics/testing are being used to narrow winning messages and weed out losers. Marketers are increasingly relying on A/B testing to guide message refinement. Intuit-Write-Measure-Adapt loops are replacing the traditionally linear research-write-measure … Continue reading
Posted in: digital communication, Digital Marketing
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In my experience, if you want to put your higher education brand to a quick and dirty reality check — what engineers call “stress and failure” analysis — there are two places to look. First, review any and all content that’s scored high enough to be placed in the feature area of your home page over the past six to 12 months. Does it consistently provide visitors compelling, living proof of what makes your particular approach to higher education distinct and worthy? Does it invite prospects to easily project themselves into the experience — a.k.a. does it advance the hero’s story, instead of simply spouting an institutional claim? Finally, does it overachieve as content — by delighting, stirring or otherwise inspiring our prospective hero? A second “stress and failure point” involves the campus tour — where well-intended student guides and admissions counselors often receive little or no training in how to translate a brand line or position into tangible examples … Continue reading
As a firm steadily building a reputation for higher education marketing and branding, we often receive phone calls and RFPs from colleges who quickly disclose a sense of urgency — “we need help” — without necessarily understanding what they want to buy or how a firm like Elliance can make a difference. Given the sandstorm of confusion that accompanies any mention of higher education branding, it’s understandable. Much of the blame falls on those who claim to be branding experts. Too often they use doublespeak and proprietary methods to dazzle and distract buyers from their own better judgment. In my experience, the tools and habits of brand work are simple, albeit not that common. Here are 8 simple rules or things you should expect from a quality brand firm or professional: They should ask good, hard questions — dozens and dozens. They should avoid their own confirmation bias or any other form of group think. They should measure some, but … Continue reading
Here at Elliance, we practice what we preach — sending responsive emails just as we encourage our clients to do. Our upcoming newsletter will be our first. (If you don’t currently receive the newsletter and want to check out the result, contact us with the ‘Sign Up for Newsletter’ box checked.) The importance of making websites responsive is well known — it’s been the hot topic in web design for some time now. But there isn’t as much being published about the importance of responsiveness in emails. Think about the emails you read today. What did you read it on? On your desktop email client, like Outlook or Thunderbird? On your browser using GMail, Hotmail, or corporate webmail? On your phone or tablet using a built in client? In the few hours I’ve been awake this morning, I can tell you I’ve read an email using each of these methods. I’m not an edge case when it comes to my … Continue reading
Posted in: responsive design
In 2013, we started making our wireframes responsive, instead of drawing them in Omni Graffle as we had for the previous ten years. And it’s great, but one of the challenges we immediately ran into was figuring out how to convey page notes in the responsive context. To solve this problem, we created a tool we’re calling “Metaframe,” and today we’re releasing it under the Creative Commons Attributions Sharealike 3.0 Unported license for use, modification, and redistribution. Metaframe creates a responsive presentation layer for responsive wireframes (or mockups or design comps – any HTML page). It’s a very lightweight package, and it’s dead-simple to use. How simple? To install, you simply reference two files alongside your other Javascript and CSS. To add a note, you add the class “notation” to the HTML element you want to annotate, then write your note as the value of the custom attribute, “note”. (The Elliance GitHub page has precise directions and example code.) Metaframe … Continue reading
Posted in: responsive wireframes
Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail! Anyone who remembers watching the Super Bowl 29 years ago this week may recognize that speech from the now iconic “1984” TV spot that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer. Apple officially aired the original commercial just once, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, about the time that Los Angeles Raiders running back Marcus Allen broke the hearts of every Washington Redskins fan with a 74-yard-long touchdown run. Apple and its agency, Chiat/Day, created … Continue reading
For those of us working with and for colleges and universities , the increasing focus on online education has been an undeniable force in the past year or two. This article, published today in the New York Times, discusses an agreement between San Jose State University and Udacity, which is intended to offer remedial and introductory courses to perhaps hundreds of thousands of students in California, better preparing them for the next steps in their lives. At Elliance, we’re hearing from communicators every week who are interested in learning how to promote online programs, connect with prospective students, and strengthen the reach and health of their institutions in entirely new ways. For a firm like Elliance, the issues of communication and recruitment are intriguing. The “if you build it, they will come” philosophy has proven unsuccessful for most. Instead, a proactive initiative that combines new and traditional means of promotion helps hit the mark more closely for our clients. Email … Continue reading
I’m writing from my small town in Vermont, where schools are closed for Superstorm Sandy, but the sun is shining and it’s as pretty a fall day as we’ve had this year. The lights stayed on. My thoughts go out to those millions of people who have been less fortunate. Like the rest of the country, I spent a lot of time yesterday searching for information about the storm. Were my friends and family safe? Was it headed my way? Were there D batteries available anywhere in Addison County? Now that the threat has passed, I find myself thinking about how I seek, access and evaluate information online in a crunch. Perhaps there are some lessons for us here when the storm clears: 1) New Media. While I’m a loyal fan of print, I bypassed traditional media completely yesterday. Even the evening news (yes, I still watch it religiously) wasn’t up to date enough. The 24-hour news cycle has spoiled … Continue reading
Whether you’re an association, a non-profit organization, a university, a bank, or just an occasional blogger with delusions of grandeur, the communications landscape today is fascinating, challenging, fast-paced and, above all, complicated. The standalone monthly magazine is becoming a thing of the past. Email newsletters have long since ceased to be the answer to our prayers. Thanks to search engine results, your website’s home page may or may not be the entry point for new users of your site. As communicators, we must now face the sometimes overwhelming reality that our readers may be connected to our words and images anywhere, any time, and in any format. So how are we to meet all of their needs? Here are a few things I try to remember when I’m puzzling it out. First, who am I talking to? Knowing your readers, anticipating their needs and their interests, and accurately offering the information that they’ll want is critical. Writing to your reader … Continue reading
Suddenly it’s very quiet. How would you react if 25% of your active customer base got up and left on the same day? Would you become concerned? Perhaps, if you’re a business owner. But not if you’re a college enrollment manager, right? Because it’s commonplace. It’s commencement, and students are leaving in droves right now across every college campus in America. So what about this newly graduated 25% that everyone has in common? What are they taking with them: Degree? Check. Confidence? Check. Knowledge? Check. New skills? Check. Life-long friendships? Check. A deep affinity with the school? Hope so. Brand message? Huh? Too many institutions treat their brand message simply as a marketing campaign. Without question, it can be a campaign and can contribute to solving many urgent marketing issues like boosting enrollment, attracting new faculty, or funding a capital campaign. Still, that’s selling it a bit short. The best institutions treat their brand as something more – an ethos – … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Branding