It's worth the effort.

Whether you’re a big, powerful corporation, a tiny nonprofit struggling to be heard, or a small business hoping to grow, you have a brand, and it’s worth some attention and valuable staff time. Failure to pay attention to how your staff or membership or reps are communicating about your organization is a pretty sure indicator that, eventually, if not already, your brand is going to be fuzzy, feckless or forgotten. Does it matter? Only if you hope to have a future.

But don't expect the work to do itself.

I think we all agree on this: It is less costly and more profitable to retain the customers you have than to convert new ones. Everyone says it, and I think we all believe it. But do we pay only lip service to it?  With competition for attention, money and loyalty, it behooves every company, association and nonprofit to consciously work to retain their current customers.

Maybe I should just get a life...

Recently I made a bold assertion to my friend with whom I often commiserate about the ills of the world, Citizens United, Seattle traffic, and the price of tea in China. I said something reckless like this: “You know, almost every commercial I see on TV is for a drug or medication – just one after another. It looks like big pharma owns the airwaves.” The next day I thought, Boy! Was that irresponsible! Do you know it to be true?

Get attention and drive action 

Isn’t it every marketing professional’s dream to write unforgettable copy that gets attention – real attention? Even if you have no aspirations to marketing fame (or even if you’re not a marketing professional but you’re just stuck “doing the marketing”) you want to write copy that will get attention and cause your readers to take action.

Here’s an idea: If you want to sell your expertise, first give it away. If you want people to pay you for your wisdom or knowledge or understanding, start by giving them some really good free samples! Share what you know, with no strings attached. In that way you develop your reputation as an expert. 

Whether you’re a true marketing professional or a staff member who has simply been tasked with taking care of marketing (or a chief executive who has no marketing specialist but understands that someone must do marketing), the very first, critical step is to accept that fact that it’s the perspective of the audience that counts.