We had dozens of brand demotions to choose from, but these 9 commandments stood out:

I. Thou shalt not set fire to money.
You can invest in radio advertising all you want, but iPod, XM and Pandora listeners will never hear you. Radio’s not the only medium in a death spiral, so seek professional help.

II. Thou shalt not print brochures.
It’s the buggy whip of branding. Do you expect your prospects to, like, read? Dude.

III. Thou shalt not say “sales funnel.”
It’s a dreadful metaphor. Think about it: everything that goes in a funnel stays in a funnel until time and gravity work their magic. The truth is, prospects abandon you for many reasons, some of them very different from what was true in the dim dark past of say, 2003.

IV. Thou shalt not obsess about customers.
If you’re a marketer, “Customer-centric” can be “Prospect-blind.” Yes, you love and serve your customers. Very admirable. But if you fail to understand how your prospects are different, you may miss the chance to grow your business exponentially. [READ MORE ABOUT THIS]

V. Thou shalt not bury your message in a coffin.
If you’re still using snail mail, for the sake of all that’s holy, don’t hide the message in that easy-to-chuck paper shroud, the envelope.

VI. Thou shalt not name your startup.
Begin on the right foot. Use professional namers to keep you from making errors you’ll have to repair later.

VII. Remember QR codes? From 2010?
Yeah, neither do we.

VIII. Thou shalt not cold call – it’s a bonfire of benjamins.
We know. Father did it. Grandfather did it. A boiler room of dial-and-smile grunts, grinding away to provide leads. Well, if they’re working for nothing, the ROI might be satisfactory. As this commandment says, only if.

IX. Thou shalt not be content with less content.
Seriously. To build visibility, this is the key commandment. Content is king, and you can’t let your blog and website be static for weeks. Curated content does you some good. Original content does much better – it creates visitors, links, mentions – and better SERP.

You may disagree with some of these, in which case, thou shalt not hold back.