Aha! :: Elliance Blog

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Manufacturing Marketers Adopt Social Media

Skepticism abounds amongst manufacturing marketers, yet the leaders are doing absolutely stunning things with their social media touch points. Great use and reuse of photographs, videos and engaging conversations. Here are a couple of my favorites: GE Pinterest page: GE Google+ page: GE Facebook page: GE YouTube page: GE Twitter page: John Deere Facebook page: […]

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Getting Responsive

Once upon a time, a project (the making of, let’s call it, “The Product”) would go like this: Having finished discovery, the project lead, an information architect, and a content strategist would articulate the site’s purpose, structure, content strategy, and page requirements. This would take the form of a package of deliverables including spreadsheets, site […]

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Story-minded higher education branding

Girl walks across campus. Not the kind of information that higher education marketing types rush back to their desks to share with the world. But as This American Life creator Ira Glass reminds us, sometimes the distance between information and story can be covered in one simple question: And then what happened? On the campus […]

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It’s Time to Embrace Accessibility SEO

The Internet has evolved precisely at the same time in history as an evolution in the treatment and integration of people with disabilities. In recent years, cognitive and physical handicaps have become better understood and diagnosed, and growing fields like occupational therapy and mental health have revolutionized the concept of what it means to be […]

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What the Army (and a photo shoot) can teach you about Social Media

Most of us understand, if only by feeling, the power of great photography. But on a recent client photo shoot I was reminded how much your approach to photography—just like your approach to social media—can influence your brand. Do you stage everything? Shoot the obvious? Capture what’s natural? Leave room for the unexpected? Have a […]

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PPC Strategy: Is Yours Driving Incremental Clicks?

It’s the age-old question: if you’re ranked organically for a particular search term, is targeting that same term with PPC a waste of money? New research from Google suggests that it’s not. The original study that Google released back in 2011 was a bit shocking.  Within real advertiser accounts, Google observed that when PPC ads […]

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Wagner College Turnaround Years

Once in a long while, I come across a book that I just can’t stop reading until I finish it. And then I have to read it again and again to savor it. For a guy who finishes a book every week, only a few books have had a magical impact on me. These include […]

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What do declining bee colonies have to do with branding?

Brand managers, take note. Researchers are finding out that insecticides introduced in the 1990’s are causing the decline of bee colonies two decades later. Similarly, the impact of poor branding may not be felt for a decade or two, but ultimately it will catch up. I see several colleges, companies and non-profits doing a reckless […]

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The Elusive Engagement Metric (and how to build it from scratch)

Marketers enjoy web analytics, because we like to count things. Naturally we love Google Analytics, because it lets us count our total website visitors, total time spent on our pages, top converting pages, referral sources, top cities, browsers, and more. Counting has never been easier (or more fun). One thing marketers don’t like is guesswork. […]

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Higher education branding — a writer’s dilemma.

We recently pinned home pages from 50 of the country’s top liberal arts college on a large work wall. Our motive? Learn something about story, content strategy and voice — favorite topics among Elliance creatives. Here is a confession — there’s nothing I avoid more than turning the art of writing on itself. Yes, I […]