Aha! :: Elliance Blog

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Slow and Steady Wins the Race: How Snail Mail Can Give Your School an Edge

Everyone understands the importance of making a good first impression. Be on time, make eye contact, shake hands, don’t forget your manners and always send a thank you letter. While a handwritten thank you letter could help you land your dream job, personalized notes and letters can also play a significant role in higher education […]

Elliance
How can a website redesign help an organization crystallize their goals?

The statistics are rather unsettling. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 1,658,370 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2015 and 589,430 people will die from the disease. I wrote about my own cancer scare years ago for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and I always thought I could only fight cancer […]

Elliance
3 overarching tensions we hold at Elliance

Recently a colleague asked me about the overarching tensions we hold as a Pittsburgh digital marketing company serving clients worldwide. After some reflection, I compiled a list of three that we instinctively hold: 1. Delivering on Business Strategy & Creative Outcomes. Our clients have described us as a hybrid firm, a cross between business smarts […]

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What did I learn this year about higher education marketing? The rockstars are everywhere.

In light of my yellow Elliance copywriter’s desk making its first journey around the shy Pittsburgh sun, I got to thinking about what I’d learned about higher education marketing in the last year, and if there was anything the handful of schools I’ve worked with had in common. It seems to all boil down to […]

Living Norbertine
Should you buy experience or insight?

We recently met around the conference table at Elliance to discuss the pros/cons of pursuing an RFP opportunity —  a major state research university wanting to sharpen its brand focus and tell a better capital campaign story in order to raise a nice round $1 billion dollars. Needless to say, with that kind of money […]

Elliance
The new content problem, and how responsive design just isn’t enough anymore

Over the past few years, the web industry has been very focused on devices. So much so that responsive design is defined as “building web content that shows up well on any device.”But focusing on devices isn’t enough anymore. By focusing only on devices, we are missing other experiences. Our web content is no longer […]

JKCF website redesign
Social Marketing Meets New Product Launch

Most people draw a clear line between conventional marketing of products and services, and social marketing, which broadly defined applies marketing principles to change human behavior in order to improve health or benefit society. But what happens when you bring a social issue forward that almost nobody knows even exists — one that goes to […]

Elliance
Are your higher education marketing materials memorable?

As a writer who spent the first 10 years of her professional life as an agency copywriter, I approach writing with two specific questions: Who’s the target audience? What’s unique about this client? I had a creative director once who often quoted David Ogilvy and I still remember this classic: “Never write an advertisement which […]

Elliance
Things that inspire us

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do at Elliance: Designed by Apple in California Productivity future vision by Microsoft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozLaklIFWUI What inspires you?

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One of the best responsive design college websites?

We recently launched the William Woods University website with the thought that it might be touted as one of the best responsive design college websites. Our guidelines were simple: 1. Authenticity 2. Simplicity 3. Integrity 4. Findability 5. Usability 6. Beauty How did we do? What do you think? and in responsive mode Visit the […]