Alice Elliott's blog

Thoughts of a visual marketer

Forget your blog, forget your readers, forget SEO

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

There is nothing worse than setting up a blog and then forgetting about it – like someone said in a Twitter post, “a blog with no new content is like a cheese sandwich”. Although this made me smile, he is right. An inactive blog is the same as a brochure website, looking pretty but with [...]
Blogging less can be effective too

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

I would like to reprint a portion of a post How to get more time to blog by Michael Martine of Remarkablogger, Blog Consultant and Blog Coach. I hope he doesn’t mind, but it raised some points that I wanted to share with you and hope you would find interesting.
Blog Less
Despite the fact that nearly [...]
Websites and blogs: how are they different?

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Actually a blog is a kind of website, as they have many similar attributes.
They both occupy a presence on the internet, use an URL or web address, need a host server to keep them online, contain information such as text content, pictures, links and keywords, both benefit from search engine optimisation and can be tracked [...]
New business? Want a website? My advice is: don’t!

Friday, June 26th, 2009

You’re an entrepreneur and you want to start up a business. Great.
The first reaction to getting a slot on the internet is to get a website. Wrong!
Why wrong? This is because websites are notoriously expensive things! How much cash do you have? I suggest you should have a good think before you go throwing it [...]
Create a call to action on every webpage

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

I really don’t mind giving my opinion on website design. And it’s always so nice to comment on a really good one for a change.
A photographer friend of mine asked for my reaction to his new website design while it was being renovated. My first reaction was very positive, with its clean, clear, crisp lines [...]
What should you say and how to say it within your leaflet campaign

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Quick reference:
How to get your leaflets to start working for you
How to get your successful leaflets to look good
It’s not what you say, but how you say it, that contributes towards a successful campaign. Be aware that your customers come first; after all, your business would not exist without them, so therefore they need to [...]
Consistency is the key

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Whilst cleaning my bathroom I was struck by the Body Shop bottles on the shelf. That got me thinking on a variety of levels.
One: how the contents of the bottles matched the colours on the labels. Silly really, but I liked that consistency.
Two: the labels themselves were simple and uncluttered, and each bottle matched its [...]
How can your newsletters become successful?

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

Recently I was asked this question: “I need to know what is the success criteria of a newsletter, how could we know it will be appreciated or not?”
Success of a newsletter will be measured by the response you get from your readership, how many more subscriptions you get from word of mouth or referrals, recommendations [...]
What goes into a newsletter?

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

When you write about a specific subject in your newsletter, the best way is to break it down into its basic components, and explain it simply using everyday language. This exercise is more difficult than it sounds, because the idea is to make it not only interesting, but to appeal to as many readers as [...]
Simplicity in website design

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

I was invited by a local school to come and talk about their website. It was quite a good website as primary school websites go, but it did need some direction and modernisation.
School websites ideally should contain three areas: a brochure style department based on the prospectus; some official pages that contain necessary information required [...]