Al Elliott
I’m a proper marketing nerd.
I created my first website back in 2002, and I was instantly hooked on all things digital.
I’ve written some books on marketing (the first few are cringey), started plenty of businesses (with my fair share of failures) and now I spend my days running a few small companies and doing private consulting for progressive businesses who are as obsessed with results as I am.
Companies
Dallas Matthews Web Design
If you want a website that you can impress your mates with down the golf club, then please go elsewhere. At Dallas Matthews, we build websites that do one thing extremely well: convert visitors into buyers. Course, they look good too, but we’re all about generating sales not winning awards.
Convert Magazine
After months of research, I discovered that there wasn't really a magazine dedicated to email marketing. So I created one! Convert is a weekly magazine that rounds up all the latest news, tools, reviews and hacks for anyone who wants to sell more stuff to their email subscribers.
Oblong Digital
At Oblong Digital, we create email campaigns that your customers will love. Forget your fancy templates and beautifully designed newsletters - your customers just don't care. We know that the number one thing that turns readers into buyers is empathy; So we spend all our time crafting copy (words) that will elegantly, but persuasively lead your prospects towards your ‘buy now’ button.
Oblong Research
How do we always seem to know the perfect thing to write? No, we’re not mind-readers - we actually ask the customer what’s important to them. Drawing heavily from Ryan Levesque’s great book ‘Ask’, we spend hours defining your perfect customer’s problem, then help you create products, services and adverts that speak their language.
Gladstone Property Group
My partners and I have been investing quite heavily in UK property since 2005, and have a healthy portfolio of buy-to-lets. Our plan is to expand this over the next few years.
Skills
I’m one of those ‘curious entrepreneurs’ which means I like to learn new skills regularly. Here’s a list of the top skills I’m most proud of:
WordPress Development
I love creating new websites, and for most projects, WordPress is a great choice. With an intuitive dashboard and almost unlimited plugins, content creators just love it.
Web Development (PHP)
When WordPress doesn't cut it, I reach for my favourite PHP framework, Laravel. It's an intuitive, yet powerful PHP framework, that makes developing web applications an absolute joy. (I couple this with the CSS framework Bootstrap - or sometimes Bulma - and recently have been dabbling in Vue.js)
Email Marketing
I’ve been creating email campaigns since 2004 (I've even built an agency dedicated to email marketing) and although I’ve used most of the major platforms out there (Mailchimp, Drip, Infusionsoft etc), my go-to these days is the amazing Active Campaign. Course, an ESP (Email Service Provide) is only as good as the emails you send, so...
Copywriting
There’s no point sending an email if it doesn’t encourage an action. I’ve been honing my storytelling skills for years, and that helps me write emails, landing pages, websites and adverts that get results.
Facebook Advertising
People, think Facebook is complicated, but it’s actually really simple. Just say the right thing, to the right person at the right time. Couple that with an almost obsessive knowledge of conversion-first marketing, and I can craft campaigns that get you the results you want, for the budget you have.
Travel & Homelife
When I'm not crafting campaigns or building websites, my wife and I will travel with our little Podenco dog, Peanut.
It's a proper 'rags-to-riches' story for our Peanut. We rescued him when we lived in Malaga, Spain, after he was found in a bin at 2 weeks old. However, since he's joined our little family, he might be one of the most well-travelled dogs in Europe, racking up over 32 border crossings so far...
After 5 amazing years living in rural Andalucia, we made the decision to see more of the world, and have been travelling full-time since 2017. Our aim is to visit every country in Europe (just 6 to go!), but our hearts belong to the Balkans, and especially Mostar in the heart of Herzegovina.
If we do settle down, we think it'll be rural Mostar, with regular trips to our favourite Indonesian island of Lombok.
Get In Touch
Why not schedule a call, so we can talk about your latest project or solve a problem together.
Projects I can help with
- Email Marketing: Automation, segmentation, newsletters, opt-in forms & debugging
- Copywriting: Landing pages, adverts, emails, welcome sequences & brochures
- Web Development: Landing pages, WordPress websites, custom web apps, automation & forms
- Customer Research: Surveys, customer conversations, UX testing, MVPs and product development
- Lead Generation: Facebook ads, Google Search, referrals, joint ventures and list-mining