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Heather Rast

Where Does Social Media Fit With Brand Culture?

by Heather Rast · December 2, 2011

Creating and maintaining the right culture is essential for sustainable business. Probably more so today, given our access to tools and technology, and ever-increasing adoption. Zappos, Askinose Chocolate, Tom’s Shoes, and Land’s End are just a few of the brands recognized for centering entire company operations – from product to policy – around a set of carefully chosen values. Those values are the structural basis of every decision, action, or passive outcome that comes after.

These brand values – brought to life as deeds and messages – begets culture. When values flex and bow, culture is weakened. And the brand becomes fuzzy, internally and externally. Toss on some social media and you’ve got a heck of an operational and communications failure.

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12 comments

Tarnished Silver Bullets and Other Reasons Your Business Fails

by Heather Rast · October 28, 2011

Is your business waiting for a big, shiny solution? OK, maybe not waiting – you guys probably do some stuff each day. But are you really attacking core problems in a systematic way? Or merely having meetings about more topical stuff and pontificating what to do about it? Are you waiting for silver bullets to be withdrawn from a velvet-lined box?

Ah, the fabled silver bullet. Heralded for its ability to banish evil threats and transform the despairing neighborhood once more into an idyllic place of joyous recreation and swift commerce. Surely those will make the hairy problems go away, right?

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26 comments

Customer Touch Points: Do It Right Or Keep Your Hands To Yourself

by Heather Rast · September 9, 2011

It’s a simple concept, really. Increase the number and frequency of high-quality touch points with your customers, and you stand a better chance of being top-of-mind when it’s their time to buy. Touch points are a way of sending “I care” or “Here when you need us” messages to your customers.

While the touch points serve marketing’s self-interests, the smart marketer knows the touch points must place a kernel of “happy” in the customer’s minds and hearts, too. Otherwise, it’s a waste of resources, both time and budget.

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7 comments

Has Now-ism Killed Marketing?

by Heather Rast · August 19, 2011

As consumers we’re drawn to products and services that are:

  • Quick
  • Easy
  • Inexpensive

Walk down the aisle of any electronics or grocery store. You’re greeted with a sea of bright boxes, eye-catching imagery, and alluring claims. Starbursts, even.

Does any of that actually work? Does the most intuitively designed, highly functional, best-made product make the sale? Does the celebrity endorsement tip the scale? As marketers, we’d like to think so (otherwise, what’ve we got to work with?). But is it remotely realistic to think this way?

What really motivates people to buy?

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4 comments

How much does business transformation cost?

by Heather Rast · July 28, 2011

If you’ve ever worked with a freelancer or consultant before, or conducted a review to select an agency, this question probably permeated the room like the cloying, flowery-sweet perfume your Aunt Beatrice bathes in: How much will it cost?

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15 comments

Getting The Most From Your Hired Help

by Heather Rast · July 8, 2011

Ever find yourself in need of a freelancer or consultant? Someone who specializes in whatever the weak link is in your operations or marketing? The last thing you want to do is work yourself up into a lather and waste time trying to figure out how to configure a SQL database when you could be making and shipping the stuff that actually generates revenue.

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Your Website Is Killing Me

by Heather Rast · June 16, 2011

“Omit needless content.” –The Elements of Content Strategy, Erin Kissane.

Three words. Huge implications for online business communication. Insight from a smart woman with pink hair.

Erin is the author of a “brief book for people who make websites” published just a few months ago.  She’s the former editor of A List Apart magazine and knows a thing about information architecture, user experience, content strategy, editing, usability, and a whole bunch of other geeky web stuff that as interwebs users, we take for granted until we find ourselves staring a site that sucks.

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Silos & Spaghetti: Why Your Users Need You To Care About Content

by Heather Rast · May 26, 2011

Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web and founder of Brain Traffic, a content strategy firm, had this to say during her keynote at the inaugural Confab conference in Minneapolis on May 9 (paraphrase).

“…the audiences who need our content want access right now, wherever they are, on the device they’re using, as quickly as possible, in formats to suit their purpose. But our content isn’t ready for that. Our organizations have been preparing content in silos for decades. [Content is] inconsistent between channels and lacks governance.”

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14 comments

5 Reasons Your Marketing Is A White Hot Mess

by Heather Rast · May 5, 2011

“Whaa? Are you talkin’ to me?” Yeah, I’m talking to you. Whether you’re part of a small marketing team or just a regular ol’ small biz (where everyone wears a marketing hat), I’m talking to you. Specifically, you team managers or small business owners who, along with an assistant and intern, do it all.

Or maybe I should say, do it all wrong.

White. Hot. Mess. Your marketing programs may be in poor shape for some of these reasons (why stop at 5?):

  1. Misplaced value
  2. Vague or inconsistent priorities
  3. Not beginning with the end in mind
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