Quotes can be great. Whether you use them for practical advice, or just to inspire you on a difficult day, these little nuggets of wisdom can provide the spark you need.

Marketers know how to come up with fresh ideas, but they should also know the value in listening to others. As Wilson Mizner once said, “If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research”.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to curate a list of insightful marketing quotes from various gurus, mavens, and well-known marketers. Pour yourself a coffee and soak in their wisdom.

Marketing Quotes

We start off with general marketing quotes, featuring insights from David Packard and Ann Hadley.

Just because you can measure everything doesn’t mean that you should.

I know that half my ad dollars are wasted, I just don’t know which half

Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.

Personally, I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms.

No great marketing decisions have ever been made on qualitative data.

Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.

Your brand is not what you sell.

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.

Targeting millennials is no better than targeting snake people.

SEO is not something you do anymore. It’s what happens when you do everything else right.

Marketing goes wrong when it is perceived by companies as a bolt-on activity.

Make it simple, but significant.

Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.

Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touch points.

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.

Inspirational marketing quotes

Content Marketing Quotes

It seems there is more and more content competing to be heard online. Have a read of these content marketing quotes from the likes of Seth Godin and Lee Odden.

Content is king.

Content marketing is really like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.

Content is king, but distribution is queen. And she wears the pants.

Content marketing is all the marketing that’s left.

Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.

The key ingredient to a better content experience is relevance.

Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world you are one.

For those of you who think comedy won’t work for your brand, ask yourself: Will it work for your customers?

You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.

Content is the reason search began in the first place.

The key is, no matter what story you tell, make your buyer the hero.

Content is the atomic particle of all digital marketing.

Social media quotes

Social Media Quotes

Social media is a vital part of the marketing mix but some find it a difficult beast to tame. These social media quotes offer pearls of wisdom from heavyweights such as Jay Baer and Brian Solis.

People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it’s surfaced through friends and people they know and trust.

The number of people publishing content on social networks is growing at a staggering rate. Standing out means not trying to be all things to all people. Stand for something specific and focus on going deep on that topic with your messaging, engagement, connections and content.

Social media allows big companies to act small again.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.

I am all for conversations, but you need to have a message.

On social networks be helpful 85 percent of the time by sharing and engaging, 10 percent publish original content and less than 5 percent talk about what your organization does.

Publishing a stream of fragmented, unrelated posts on your social media channels is an easy way to lose followers – and credibility. This is a tactic that is easily said, and harder executed. Pay attention to industry news, read other people’s posts, and think before replying.

Behind every tweet, share and purchase, there is a person. Care more about the person and less about the share.

Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.

We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.

motivational marketing quotes

Marketing Advice Quotes

Finally, we have some marketing quotes that offer practical advice, from well-known names such as Guy Kawasaki and Rand Fishkin.

The best way to sell something – don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, & trust of those who might buy.

Marketing used to be about making a myth and telling it. Now it’s about telling a truth and sharing it.

Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.

Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.

If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.

Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a mission statement’.

What helps people, helps business.

As marketers, we should be changing the mantra from ‘always be closing’ to ‘always be helping’.

The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.

Increasingly, the mass marketing is turning into a mass of niches.