Marketing Profs

So maybe these 10 Commandments didn't come from the Mountain. And they're not carved on clay tablets—but on high-tensile polyfiber.

Yet any marketers worth their salt must follow these commandments if they are to find the Promised Land.

1. Thou shalt not view marketing as a department

When you get right down to it, everyone in your company is a marketer. From the receptionist whose voice is the first thing your buyers hear to the delivery person whose rear-end may be the last thing they see, each of your employees plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of your marketing efforts. Good companies imbue every employee with a healthy reverence for the customer so that the company, from every point of contact that it has with its market, knows how to market.

2. Thou shalt follow the 90-day rule

Your customers, prospects and champions (those who refer business your way) should hear from you every 90 days. People are simply too busy to remember you otherwise.

If you don't follow the 90-day rule, you risk getting shouted down by any competitor of yours who does.

3. Honor the concept of tinkering, with all your heart

If you're a child of the '70s like me, you remember the hugely successful rock group Fleetwood Mac. But I bet you didn't know that its seemingly overnight success came only after years of tinkering. That's right, before the release of the monster album Rumours, the band endured no less than 14 personnel changes across 10 years. In marketing, as in rock and roll, success seldom happens with your original lineup.

4. Thou shalt not quit