2011's Most Useful Marketing Lessons

The marketing lessons shared below, just a sampling of what we heard from you and your colleagues, are thoughtful, focused, practical and based on experience. In many cases, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Everyone is a marketer, so make sure staff is skilled at it

"All staff members, volunteers and board members who answer the phone (or have any other public-facing role — or simply mention the organization at a party) are marketing your organization. Make sure they do it well. Our part-time data
base staffer was recently deluged with calls from angry members unable to register for our sold-out conference. I crafted talking points for her and the rest of the staff on how to break the bad news in the most positive way possible so callers would renew their annual 
memberships."