Aha! :: Elliance Blog

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Look, there goes your brand.

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 […]

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I See Your “Search Plus Your World” and Raise You a “Social Sidebar”

Search results have gone social.  There’s no doubt about it. Earlier this year, I wrote about Google releasing its own social network, Google+, and quickly integrating that content into regular search results for those visitors who are logged into a Google account. Bing is now taking a similar leap, re-vamping its entire search interface to […]

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Why Won’t Devan Replace His Broken iPhone?

I have a friend named Devan. Like a lot of my friends (and a lot of your friends too), Devan has a cell phone. It’s an aging iPhone 3G. You can tell it apart from the iPhone 4 (and 4S) by its rounded edges and plastic case back. Devan’s had this phone for three years […]

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Is Your Website Content Accessible and Universally Usable?

New content that you add to your website may not adhere to accessibility best practices. Perhaps content authors forget, lack proper training or oversight, or don’t realize its importance. Either way, a segment of your visitors may suffer because of an inconsistent—and a downright frustrating—website experience. Here’s how to fix it.

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Marketing for Manufacturers: Dawn of a New Era

Once upon a time, marketing departments at manufacturers were sales driven organizations. They were run by people who rose through the ranks of sales and assumed the titles of VP for Sales & Marketing. They shied away from less familiar branding and marketing techniques that their B2C brethren lived for more than one hundred years. […]

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Shifting Budgets to Inbound Marketing Strategies

During these times when consumers tend to ignore billboard ads, block telemarketing calls, and fast forward through television commercials, inbound marketing is a hot topic. Tactics typically categorized as inbound marketing are ones that encourage interested prospective customers to come to you, as opposed to simply purchasing their attention through advertising and other methods of […]

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Using photography to expose your brand essence.

A regular regimen of quality photography is one of the most powerful, influential, and simplest things a school can do to invest in the long-term health of its brand. Overstated? I don’t think so. A couple weeks ago, my colleague Kate Tomlinson wrote about a photo shoot we recently completed for a client and what […]

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Video Powered Higher Education Branding

Anyone involved in higher education marketing and branding could learn something from the annual ritual known officially as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting, or more commonly, the Draft. In the early days of the league, the Draft played out in quiet seclusion, owners and general managers holed up in a New York hotel, ordering […]

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Nuts about Nuts

The New York Times wrote a great and fun story about a nut company that just spent a fortune for the domain nuts.com, despite having a wonderful brand to itself and a thriving online business at nutsonline.com. We had a nice debate internally about all the search and brand impact of this decision. Read Abu’s […]

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The Unbearable Narcissism of Mobile Users

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the need for judicious consideration of whether to embark on an app-building journey or build a mobile-friendly website. A couple of days later, Buzz Andersen at Tumblr said something in an interview that rings true for most of us not profoundly drunk on the Kool Aid of the […]