Champion blogger Seth Godin has updated and republished his list of “What Every Good Marketer Knows”. As the name suggests, Seth’s list captures some of the core beliefs that guide Good Marketers in their daily habits. Seth’s published some 37 nuggets of marketing wisdom, but we’ve opted to choose the ten we consider the most significant. What else could we call them but the Ten Marketing Commandments?

Here’s the list [NB: in some places we've added some of our own comments, flagged in italics.]

1. Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always [always, always, always!] does better than unsolicited junk.
2. Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations [but your product/service has to deliver as well, or the conversation will turn nasty].
3. People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
4. What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
5. Good marketers tell a story.
6. Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
7. Good marketers measure. [Everything. All the time. And analyse the results. And obsess about them constantly].
8. Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
9. Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work [but only for those who don't abuse the privilege of being invited to join the conversation].
10. Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy. [Marketing is everything you and your organisation say, do and practise].