The single most important lesson I learned at Rootscamp 2010 is this:

Fire your gurus.

I know. I don't like typing it anymore than you might like reading it. But it's the simple truth. People who "have a gut feeling" about your messaging but who can't back that feeling with experimentally generated data are useless -- be they supporters, politicians, or board members. When they're right, they're lucky. When they're wrong, they're dangerous. In either case, odds are they're wasting your money and your time.

Let them down gently. It's not you. It's them. Ask for your CDs back and while they're off rereading a well-thumbed copy of "What's the Matter with Kansas?" (as a native Midwesterner, I can tell you, "not much"), take a gander at some tools that'll dramatically improve your email conversion rates, such as Salsa's built in A/B testing tool.

A/B testing is just one example of ways to introduce randomized experiments into your messaging. Why? Because that's the only way to find out what works and what doesn't. Your gurus may have a "gut feeling," but my experiment has hard numbers. That's the only message that matters. If participation at the Rootscamp 2010 data sessions was any guide, our future is brightly lit by experiment-driven messaging, which means a brighter future for us all.

Unless, of course, you're a guru.