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Michelle Pierce

Three Fast Email Marketing Tips

1) Clean up your list.
Some email marketing services don’t automatically remove bounces. Other times, people email you to unsubscribe instead of using the handy-dandy “unsubscribe” link in your emails (crazy, I know). Take the time to go in and make sure that your list is up-to-date. Remove any bounces or unsubscribed email addresses, and add or update any new email addresses.

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

What Our First President Can Teach You About Marketing

For most Americans, George Washington is one of our most admirable founding fathers. As the general for our army during the American Revolution and our first President, he led a long and distinguished life and helped to shape our country in those first years.

Considering yesterday was George Washington’s birthday, here are some words of wisdom from our first President.

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

Does Your Website Answer These Five Questions?

All first-year journalism students have this fact drilled into their heads: Every story you write must answer the following questions within the first paragraph, if not the first sentence:

Who? What? Where? When? Why?

We’re trained to answer all the major questions readers will have in the shortest amount of space possible. Why? Because readers skim.

People also skim on the web. Does your website answer all the major questions they’ll have? Take a page out of the journalist’s book, and make sure you answer these questions on your home page:

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

Three Quick Website Maintenance Tips

As the AVC editor-in-chief and word ninja, it’s my job to take care of all the little details.

Here are three quick tips that can 1) improve user experience and 2) will make it easier for search engines to read your site.

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

Seven Unbreakable Website Usability Rules

1. Thou shalt forgo happy talk and splash pages.

Happy talk is any text on your site that fills up space without actually saying anything. For example, “Welcome to our site! We’re so glad to have you.”

Splash pages are another archaic leftover from the early days of the web. These pages feature little more than a “click here to enter” button, and, like happy talk, they do little more than take up space.

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

Four Unbreakable Social Media Rules

1. Thou shalt be active.

In social media, you have to establish yourself as part of the community. Don’t just set up an account, make a couple of status updates or send a couple of tweets, and then decide that it’s not working. Social media marketing is not a magic bullet (nothing is). It takes time, and the most popular people online have been doing it for years.

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

Brand Identities, Bunnies, Moms, and Coffee – A Collection of Posts

We’re a grand total of two days away from Christmas (Have you finished your shopping/wrapping? Because I sure haven’t. Oh no.), and while we’re preparing for the holidays, I thought I would share some of the posts I’ve found in the past few days that have really made me think. Or smile. Or in one particular case, laugh until tea shot out my nose. (I don’t recommend that.)

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Posted in: Naked Writing, TGIF

Michelle Pierce

Four More Writing Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make

This is not the first time I’ve touched on this subject, and I doubt it’ll be the last. Here are four more writing mistakes you should avoid:
Peak/Peek/Pique
A pet peeve of mine is when I see people use the phrase “peak my interest” or “peek my interest.” It’s “pique,” dammit.
“Peak” is a noun, and means [...]

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

So You Want to Be a Web Slinger

So you’ve finally realized just how darn beneficial the web would be for your business. Now the biggest question: how on earth do you get started?
HAHA! Worry not, my friends. Here are a few useful things to know to help you make the most of your site.
Getting started with design
Design is the part [...]

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Posted in: Naked Writing

Michelle Pierce

Michelle’s 30-Second Guide to Possessives

Last time we discussed the ever-elusive apostrophe, I kept it short and sweet, touching on the most common rules that we run in to while writing. However, when it comes to making possessives, it’s a little more complicated than adding “apostrophe + s.”
Never fear, though. Here at Aqua Vita, we’re all about clear communication [...]

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Posted in: Naked Writing

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