Looking for inspiration from smart marketers or need a quote to bolster your argument? Whatever your reason, here are 200+ marketing quotes for you.
We’ve included quotes from all domains of marketing including content marketing quotes, famous marketing quotes, digital marketing quotes, social media marketing quotes, storytelling marketing quotes, advertising quotes, and customer-centric marketing quotes.
Let’s dig right in!
Motivational marketing quotes
- “Creating marketing that works should not be rocket science.” — Allen Gannett
- “Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” — Beth Comstock
- “Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” — Bryan Eisenberg
- “Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.” — Dharmesh Shah
- “The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do it.” — Sergio Zyman
- “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” — Joe Chernov
- “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.” — Guy Kawasaki
- “Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at.” — Leo Burnett
- “Make your marketing so useful people would pay you for it.” — Jay Baer
- “Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” — Chris Brogan
- “Market like the year you are in.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
- “Smart brands don’t just ride trend shifts. They start them.” — Ann Handley
- “If dogs don’t like your dog food, the packaging doesn’t matter.” — Stephen Denny
- “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year old, you don’t know it yourself.” — Albert Einstein
- “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” — Tony Robbins
- “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
- “Know thyself. Know the customer. Innovate.” — Beth Comstock
- “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” — Tom Fishburne
- “It’s not what you sell that matters as much as how you sell it!” — Brian Halligan, CEO & Co-Founder, HubSpot
- “Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” — KB Marketing Agency
- “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.” — Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO, Airbnb
- “Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just the marketing or sales or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans.” — Dharmesh Shah, CTO & Co-Founder, HubSpot
- “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” — Beth Comstock
- “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”— Albert Einstein
- “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” -Simon Sinek, Founder and Visionary of Start With Why
- “Content is king.” -Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft
- “On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only 2 our of 10 will read the rest.”- Brian Clark, CEO of Rainmaker Digital
- “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” -Peter Drucker
- “It starts and ends with the customer.” – Carolyn Lowe From ROI Swift
- “To continue winning the internet marketing game, your content has to be more than just brilliant — it has to give the people consuming that content the ability to become a better version of themselves.” — Michelle StinsonRoss, Managing Director of Marketing Operations, Apogee Results
- “To continue winning the internet marketing game, your content has to be more than just brilliant — it has to give the people consuming that content the ability to become a better version of themselves.” — Michelle StinsonRoss, Managing Director of Marketing Operations, Apogee Results
Content marketing quotes
- “Before you create any more ‘great content’, figure out how you are going to market it first.” — Joe Pulizzi and New Barrett Authors of Get Content Get Customers
- “Content marketing is really like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.” – David Beebe,
- “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” — Andrew Davis
- “Content marketing comes down to commitment. There’s no halfway. You’re either in or you’re out.” – Joe Pulizzi
- “Your blog is your best networking tool.” – Andy Crestodina
- “No matter what your content is about, if someone clicks through to see your content, they’re looking for an answer to something. Rather than giving them the runaround, give them what they’re looking for. Answer their question simply and clearly and with as little jargon as possible.” – Kevin Ho
- “The paradox is the more info you give away, the more people will buy what you have to give.” – Brian Clark
- “Content is fire, social media is gasoline.” — Jay Baer
- “Content is king, but distribution is queen. And she wears the pants.” — Jonathan Perelman
- “Engaging content is far more about brains than budget.” — Ann Handley
- “Fifty-six percent of traffic comes from 10 percent of content. Invest in your home runs.” — Lymari Morales
- “Good content isn’t about good storytelling. It’s about telling a true story well.” — Ann Handley
- “What separates good content from great content is a willingness to take risks and push the envelope.” — Brian Halligan, CEO & Co-founder, HubSpot
- “Quality content means content that is packed with clear utility and is brimming with inspiration, and it has relentless empathy for the audience.” — Ann Handley, CCO, MarketingProfs
- “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world you are one.” —Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer, The Content Advisory
- “Focus on the core problem your business solves and put out lots of content and enthusiasm and ideas about how to solve that problem.” — Laura Fitton, INBOUND & Influencer Relations, HubSpot
- “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” — Andrew Davis, Author & Keynote Speaker, Monumental Shift
- “You really have to create legitimately great content and a legitimately great Website to rank in Google.” -Brian Dean, Founder of Backlinko
- “Have your own content; support your own content.” -Pat Flynn, Founder of Smart Passive Income and author of Will It Fly
- “I think the hardest part for any startup is to rein in the desire to ‘throw shit against the wall and see what sticks’ versus being more strategic in their focus and truly iterating. A content-first approach is a lower-cost, lower-risk way of achieving the same.” — Stephanie Hay
- “It’s a great time to be a content creator. There are so many highways and not enough cars.” — Scooter Braun
- “Make the prospect a more informed buyer with content.” — Robert Simon
- “The future of content marketing is in your hands.” — David Hahn
- “The key ingredient to a better content experience is relevance.” — Jason Miller
- “There are three objectives for content marketing: reach, engagement, conversion. Define key metrics for each.” — Michael Brenner
- “The ultimate content strategy is listening.” — Marcus Sheridan
- “Content marketing is the gap between what brands produce and what consumers actually want.” — Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group
- “You need to create ridiculously good content—content that is useful, enjoyable and inspired.” — Ann Handley
- “Your top of the funnel content must be intellectually divorced from your product but emotionally wed to it.” — Joe Chernov
- “One of the best ways to sabotage your content is to not tie it to your goals. Know why you’re creating content.” — Ellen Gomes Sr. Content Marketing Manager, Glint Inc.
Digital marketing quotes
- “Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” — Wendy Piersall
- “Instead of one-way interruption, web marketing is about delivering useful content at precisely the right moment when a buyer needs it.” — David Meerman Scott
- “Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” — Anonymous
- “It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than doubling your traffic.” — Bryan Eisenberg
- “Not viewing your email marketing as content is a mistake.” — Chris Baggott
- “The internet is a big place and yes, most things have already been done… You have to be even more creative.” -Jon Henshaw, Senior SEO Analyst at CBS Interactive
- “Digital marketing is not an art of selling a product. It is an art of making people buy the product that you sell.” — Hecate Strategy
- “Don’t build links. Build relationships.” — Rand Fishkin, Founder, SparkToro
- “Optimize your website for just being a good user-friendly website. It’s generally the most important thing that you could focus on.” -Lydia Gilbertson, SEO Analyst at Distilled
- “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not experimenting enough.” -Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo at AppSumo
- “Content is the atomic particle of all digital marketing.” -Rebecca Lieb, Analyst and Founding Partner, Kaleido Insights
- “Google is the new corporate homepage.” -Jeremiah Owyang, Founder of CrowdCompanies
- “Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” — Chris Brogan, President, Chris Brogan Media
- “Less is more. Keeping it simple takes time and effort.” — Jeff Bullas, CEO, Jeffbullas.com Pty Ltd.
- “Before you create any more ‘great content,’ figure out how you are going to market it first.” – Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett, Co-authors
- “Your website should be your calling card, or your business front door.” — James Schramko
- “Search marketing, and most Internet marketing in fact, can be very threatening because there are no rules. There’s no safe haven. To do it right, you need to be willing to be wrong. But search marketing done right is all about being wrong. Experimentation is the only way.” — Mike Moran
- “You can’t just place a few ‘Buy’ buttons on your website and expect your visitors to buy.” — Neil Patel”Today it’s not about ‘get the traffic’—it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.'” — Adam Audette
- “SEO is like a resume, you polish it so you have your best foot forward.” — Matt Cutts
- “Mediocre marketers think in terms of campaigns. Great marketers think in terms of growth frameworks. “ – Neil Patel
- “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne
- “Inspiration is the most important part of our digital strategy.” – Paull Young
- “It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic.” – Jeff Eisenberg
- “It’s hard to find things that won’t sell online.” – Jeff Bezos
- “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” – Erin Bury
- “In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.” – Doug Warner
- “Stop selling. Start helping.” – Zig Ziglar
- “There’s never been a better time to be in advertising, and there’s never been a worse time.” – Aaron Reitkopf
- “We want to know what consumers are looking for, what their values are, and how can we meet their needs. It’s not just about Big Data; it’s about translating that into the truth.” – Gayle Fuguitt
- “You have to understand as a marketer that consumers are functioning in the age of efficiency.” – Mitch Joel
“Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.” – Jonah Sachs - “The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife.” – David Ogilvy
- “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook
Social media marketing quotes
- “It’s important to be where your audience of potential customers is today, and where they might be tomorrow.” — Andrew Delaney, Senior Manager of Social Media, HubSpot
- “Social media was designed to SHARE what you’re doing and who you are, not BE what you’re doing and be who you are.” — Richie Norton, Author
- “Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart, and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show.” — Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO, VaynerMedia
- “Social media marketing is about creating content that brings your audience together as a community and inspiring authentic conversations while increasing your brand’s awareness.” — Krystal Wu, Social Media Community Manager, HubSpot
- “Our head of social media is the customer.” — McDonald’s
- “Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.” — Dave Willis, Writer & Pastor
- “Social media is about the people! Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide you.” — Matt Goulart, Founder, Ignite Digital
- “Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers.” — Bryan Weiner, Board of Directors, Cars.com
- “I use social media as an idea generator, trend mapper, and strategic compass for all of our online business ventures.” — Paul Barron, CEO, Foodable Network
- “Going viral is not an outcome; it’s a happening. Sometimes it happens; sometimes it doesn’t. Just remember, fans are vanity and sales are sanity.” — Lori R. Taylor, Founder, Rev Media Marketing
- “As social media grows and matures, showing a return becomes critical.” — Heidi Cohen
- “Empower your readers with social sharing buttons.” — Mike Stelzne
- “Getting the Like is easy. It’s a light action. Anything else requires trust.” — Jon Loomer
- “I am all for conversations, but you need to have a message.” — Renee Blodgett
- “Get social. Go deep. Give back.” — Joshua Weinberg
- “Just as you don’t need to be on every single TV channel, I don’t believe a brand needs to be on every single social media one in a big way.” — Shiv Singh
- “I am all for conversations, but you need to have a message.” — Renee Blodgett
- “If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.” — Fast Company
- “Getting the Like is easy. It’s a light action. Anything else requires trust.” — Jon Loomer
- “It’s a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don’t understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television.” — Amy Jo Martin
- “Put your energy into making things that are likeable, not some douchey social media strategy.” — Matthew Inman
- “No matter what, the very first piece of social media real estate I’d start with is a blog.” — Chris Brogan
- “People share, read, and generally engage more with any type of content when it’s surfaced through friends and people they know and trust.” — Malorie Lucich
- “Sell-sell-sell sales methods simply do not work on social media.” — Kim Garst
- “Social media are tools. Real time is a mindset.” — David Meerman Scott
- “Social media allows big companies to act small again.” — Jay Baer
- “Remarkable social media content and great sales copy are pretty much the same—plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader, listener, or viewer.” — Brian Clark
- “Social media are tools. Real time is a mindset.” — David Meerman Scott
- “Social media has changed marketing. Now it’s not just about what you say. It’s also what your customers are saying to everyone else.” — George Farris
- “Social media creates communities, not markets.” — Don Schultz
- “Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” — Brian Solis
- “Social media is about the people. Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” — Matt Goulart
- “Social media is a contact sport.” — Margaret Molloy
- “The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words ‘engage,’ ‘honestly’ or ‘marketplace.'” — Jeffrey Zeldman
- “The next time you hear a social media myth, question it. Ask for the proof, and ask out loud.” — Dan Zarrella
- “Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.” — Erik Qualman
- “We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.” — Craig Davis
- “When it comes to social media, focus on advice and education first, information second and entertainment last.” — George Farris
- “We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.” — Pierre Omidyar
- “Women tend to make 85 percent of household health care decisions. Facebook is where they make them.” — Angie Teates
- “Build it, and they will come’ only works in the movies. Social Media is a ‘build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay.'” — Seth Godin
Storytelling marketing quotes
- “If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.” — Jay Baer
- “If something is top of mind, it’s much more likely to be tip of tongue.” — Jonah Berger
- “Marketing dilutes the power and impact of a story told live. So get that right first.” — Michael Troiano
- “By listening, marketing will re-learn how to talk.” — Doc Searls and David Weinburger
- “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” — Seth Godin
- “Storytelling can be a powerful force for good or evil, and we—consumers of content, creators of stories, and businesses hungry for results—need it to be good.” — Shane Snow
- “Successful storytelling builds brand equity, and businesses with high brand equity don’t need to draw as much attention to themselves and their achievements as those that are still establishing their value to the customer.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
- “Storytelling can be a powerful force for good or evil, and we—consumers of content, creators of stories, and businesses hungry for results—need it to be good.” — Shane Snow
- “Storytelling is the oldest profession.” — John Hazard
- “There is a craft to storytelling.” — Patricia Travaline
- “Take the human perspective and make it understandable and digestible.” — Angie Teates
- “The most pivotal moments in people’s lives revolve around emotions. Emotions make stories powerful.” — Brandon Stanton
- “There is a craft to storytelling.” — Patricia Travaline
- “When people put their kids to sleep, nobody tells bedtime facts.” — Jonah Berger
- “You have to love something to want to frame it. So there’s a story in each custom product we make.” — Susan Tynan
- “Nothing sticks in your head better than a story. Stories can express the most complicated ideas in the most digestible ways.” — Sam Balter, Sr. Marketing Manager of Podcasts, HubSpot
- “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” — Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple
You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” — Beth Comstock, Former CMO & Vice Chair, GE - “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” — Brandon Sanderson, Author
- “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” — Robert McKee, Author
- “The brands that win are the brands that tell a great story. When it comes to transmedia storytelling, the brands that win are the brands that tell many great stories and are able to connect them all together.” — Mitch Joel, Author & Founder, Six Pixels Group
- “At its very core, marketing is storytelling. The best advertising campaigns take us on an emotional journey — appealing to our wants, needs, and desires — while at the same time telling us about a product or service.” — Melinda Partin, Senior Director of Marketing & Digital Strategy, UW Medicine
- “We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.” —Jimmy Neil Smith, Director of the International Storytelling Center
- “Stories are how we learn best. We absorb numbers and facts and details, but we keep them all glued into our heads with stories.” —Chris Brogan, Author, Marketing Consultant, Journalist, Speaker
- “And do you know what is the most-often missing ingredient in a sales message? It’s the sales message that doesn’t tell an interesting story. Storytelling…good storytelling…is a vital component of a marketing campaign.” —Gary Halbert, Direct Marketing Guru
- “Stories are not indicators, they ARE the organization.” —David M. Boje, Professor of Management, New Mexico State Universi
- “Great storytelling can make the difference between someone paying attention to you and someone just tuning you out.” —Christopher S. Penn, Digital Marketing Authority
- “Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.” —Robert McKee, Storynomics Author, Speaker
- “In order to tell better stories, brands must actually be better stories. Our brave new media world hasn’t just put audiences in charge; it has also given them the tools to instantly peel back the curtain on marketing campaigns and to look at the substance behind them.” —Jonah Sachs, Author, Executive Director, Speaker, Thought Leader
- “Marketing is the art of telling a story that moves people to act.” —Bernadette Jiwa, Author, Marketing Guru
- “Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make but the stories you tell.” —Seth Godin
- “No matter what you do, your job is to tell your story.” —Gary Vaynerchuk, Author, Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur
- “People think in stories, not statistics, and marketers need to be master storytellers.” —Arianna Huffington, CEO, Author, Columnist, Founder of The Huffington Post
- “If marketing is more like storytelling, we can count on more engagement from potential customers.” —Ardath Albee, B2B Marketing Strategist, Author, Speaker
- “Effective content marketing is about mastering the art of storytelling. Facts tell, but stories sell.” —Bryan Eisenberg, Online Marketing Thought Leader, Author, Speaker
- “Your content is not about ‘storytelling’; it’s about telling a true story well.” —Ann Handley, Writer, Marketer, Speaker
- “A story is a trick for sneaking a message into the fortified citadel of the human mind.” —Jonathan Gottschall, Collegiate Fellow, Author
Advertising quotes
- “Banners have 99 problems and a click ain’t one.” — Scott Sorokin
- “If you have that goal-first mentality, you are setting yourself up for more success. Really, budget shouldn’t be your limitation.” -Rachel Wiinanen
- “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” -Milton Hershey
- “Nobody cares about what you sell. They care about opportunities that are available to them to solve their problems.” -Matt Johnson
- “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” -Henry Ford
- “People aren’t stupid. Consumers know that if you’re getting ads these days, it’s because you’ve left some sort of digital footprint.” -Richard Jones From Cheetah Digital
- “Retargeting is a really great way to bring back the people who visit your website that first time but don’t buy.” -Nick Steeves From Wishpond
- “Advertising isn’t a science. It’s persuasion. And persuasion is an art.” – Bill Bernbach
- “If you break the rules, you’re going to stand a better chance of breaking through the clutter than if you don’t.” – Tom McElligott
- “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” – David Ogilvy
- “You must make the product interesting, not just make the ad different.”– Rosser Reeves
- “For every curiosity headline that succeeds in getting results, a dozen will fail.”– John Caples
- “No sentence can be effective if it contains facts alone. It must also contain emotion, image, logic, and promise.” – Eugene Schwartz
Customer-centric marketing quotes
- “Don’t find customers for your product. Find products for your customers.” — Seth Godin.
- “Conversation with customers will increase sales, even if the product or service is never mentioned.” — George Farris
- “The static snapshot of a single buyer is a key problem with buyer personas today. Organizations need to watch the continuous film of their buyers—instead of just looking at a snapshot in time—so they can see how the full story unfolds.” — Tony Zambito
- “Think like a customer.” —Paul Gillin
- “Make the customer the hero of your story.” — Ann Handley
- “People shop and learn in a whole new way compared to just a few years ago, so marketers need to adapt or risk extinction.” — Brian Halligan
- “People spend money when and where they feel good.” — Walt Disney
- “Strong customer relationships drive sales, sustainability, and growth.” — Tom Cates
- “Sell the problem you solve. Not the product you make.” — Unknown
- “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” — Peter Drucker
- “The importance of gratitude is never forgotten.” — Deborah Lee
- “Think like a customer.” —Paul Gillin
- “To be successful and grow your business and revenues, you must match the way you market your products with the way your prospects learn about and shop for your products.” — Brian Halligan
- “What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.” — Seth Godin
- “When you start with what’s at stake for the buyer, you earn the right to their attention.” — Jake Sorofman
- “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” — Steve Jobs
- “You can’t be everything to everyone, but you can be something to someone.” — Drew Davis
- “You can’t convince anyone of anything. You can only give them the right information so that they convince themselves.” — Eben Pagan
- “Whether B2B or B2C, I believe passionately that good marketing essentials are the same. We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context, and connection.” — Beth Comstock
Whatever your business does, these quotes fit perfectly well to give the marketing team a dose of inspiration. Share them with your friends.
Tell us your favorite ones in the comment section below.
