Alice Elliott's blog

Thoughts of a visual marketer

How to get more people to open your newsletters

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

One of the features of Appletree’s newsletter system JAC shows how many of your newsletter’s recipients have opened it (and there is also a new feature that shows you who has opened it too and how many times). One statistic is that newsletters with large mailing lists seem to show a [...]
What uses does a business list have?

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Now you have got your list (read how in my previous post), it’s time to use it to educate, entertain and stimulate your readership to use your business. Even if you haven’t got many numbers, intelligent and consistent use of your list will encourage further sign-ups, as prospective subscribers will want [...]
Businesses shouldn’t slow in the snow

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Has your business suffered due to the recent bad weather?
Thinking about this, I realised that with today’s technology, you really don’t have to do the traditional thing any more, which is going in to work. Doing online marketing for your business can be done from almost anywhere!
I’ve been trapped at home since Reading experienced at [...]
Never give up on your marketing

Monday, June 15th, 2009

I read somewhere that small businesses really ought to spend 40% of their time doing marketing if they want to survive. 40%! That’s quite a lot, especially if you’re a sole trader or only have a few employees, but if you think about it, a lot of what you do would be already considered as [...]
Should you blog, tweet or start an e-newsletter?

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Guest blog by LisaMarie Dias, e-newsletter diva
As a designer of e-marketing materials, people will often ask “Should I blog, tweet or start an e-newsletter?” While the question is usually posed as ‘which one’, I will often answer “Yes” in an attempt to help them re-frame the query. There are valid reasons to start any one [...]
How to use e-newsletters for effective marketing

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Marketing is about long term relationship building, and a superb way of keeping your customers informed about your business over a long period of time is through a newsletter.
I have written at length about paper newsletters in the past, but now is the turn of the electronic version or e-newsletter. These are a very effective [...]
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 [...]
Get noticed above your competitors

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Today I met a office furniture company while out networking. They were an established foreign firm who were looking to expand into Europe and the UK, and had formed a Reading branch. The sales rep was out networking around various groups to tout her wares, which included a well designed brochure sporting the clean, simple [...]
HTML versus content in newsletters

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

So many e-newsletters are designed using HTML it is now assumed this is the norm. But does HTML contribute to your newsletter getting more likely to read?
The e-newsletters I most enjoy reading (which seem to be published by successful businesses) are quite plain, just with a logo and a few pictures. Content seems to be [...]