Greatest Quotes on Marketing and Advertising of All Time

Powerful marketing quotes

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I blog a lot about marketing and advertising here. I kept looking for marketing quotes from across the internet every time I needed one and I thought to myself, "I might as well write my own article with all these quotes if I'm going to reference it so much."

So, I did.

Here are some of my favorite quotes that apply to marketing and advertising.

Some of these were directly about internet marketing and some were more broad but are applicable to marketing and advertising.

You'll know which are which. Leonardo Da Vinci for example wasn't much of a marketer, but he had insights that can help one.

Quotes About Providing Value

1. “You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them.” - Pam Moore


2. “The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.” Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It!


3. “Content marketing is like a first date. If you only talk about yourself, there won’t be a second one.” –  David Beebe, branded content producer


4. "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." - Albert Einstein


Quotes About Social Media Marketing

5. “Social media is a contact sport.” –Margaret Molloy


6. “Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.” –Jay Baer


7. “Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.” – Erik Qualman


Quotes About Content Marketing

8. “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” –Andrew Davis


9. “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world you are one.” –Robert Rose


10. “Content is the atomic particle of all digital marketing.” –Rebecca Lieb


11. “You cannot buy engagement. You have to build engagement.” Tara-Nicholle Nelson


12. “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 Godinauthor of All Marketers Are Liars


13. “You can’t expect to just write and have visitors come to you. That’s too passive.” –Anita Campbell


14. “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” –Tom Fishburne


15. “Before you create any more ‘great content,’ figure out how you are going to market it first.” –Joe Pulizzi, author of Content Inc.


Quotes About "Less Is More" Marketing

17. “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 in one big way.”– Shiv Singh


18. “Less is more. Keeping it simple takes time and effort.” –Jeff Bullas


19 “An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove.”—Robert Fleege


20. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” –Leonardo Da Vinci


Quotes About Building Something People Love

21. “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.” – Brian Chesky, cofounder of Airbnb


22. “Give them quality. That is the best kind of advertising.” –Milton Hershey


Quotes About Listening to Your Customers

23. “Amazing things will happen when you listen to the consumer.” –Jonathan Midenhall, CMO of Airbnb


24. “Conversation with customers will increase sales, even if the product or service is never mentioned.” – George Farris


25. “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


26. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” –Peter Drucker


27. “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.” –Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes.


Quotes About Social Proof in Marketing

28. “When people feel insecure about something, they look around for validation. Show them that other people trust you.” –Francisco Rosales


29. “Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers.” –Jonah Berger


30. “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


31. “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook


32. “Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room – remember that. And more importantly, let’s discover why!” – Chris Ducker


Quotes About Storytelling in Marketing

33. “Good content isn’t about good storytelling. It’s about telling a true story well.” - Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes.


34. “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


35. “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” –Roger C. Schank


36. “Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” –Seth Godin, author of All Marketers Are Liars


Quotes About Using Data in Marketing

37. “Every trackable interaction creates a data-point, and every data-point tells a piece of the customer’s story.” –Paul Roetzer


38. “Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.” – Dan Zarrella


39. “On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only 2 out 10 will read the rest.” – Brian Clark, CEO of Rainmaker Digital


40. "Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving” – David Ogilvy, The God Father of Advertising

Quotes About Brand Building

41. “The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability." –Simon Mainwaring


42. “Your culture is your brand.” –Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos


43. “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” –Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon


Quotes About Integrity in Marketing

44. “If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” –Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks


45. “Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealized, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust.” –Richard Branson


46. “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” –William Bernbach


Quotes About SEO

47. “In 2004, good SEO made you remarkable on the web. In 2014, good SEO is a result of being remarkable on the web.” – Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz


48. “Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” –Wendy Piersall


49. “Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.” –Tony Zambito


Random Marketing Quotes

50. “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” –Thomas Jefferson


51. “Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” –Beth Comstock


52. “Not viewing your email marketing as content is a mistake.” –Chris Baggott


53. “Never let ads write checks your website can’t cash.” –Avinash Kaushik


Click to Tweet All Quotes

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” –Tom Fishburne

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“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 in one big way.”– Shiv Singh

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“Content should ask people to do something and reward them for it.” –Lee Odden

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“Before you create any more ‘great content,’ figure out how you are going to market it first.” –Joe Pulizzi, author of Content Inc.

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“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, author of All Marketers Are Liars

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“An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove.”—Robert Fleege

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“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” –Andrew Davis

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“Content is the atomic particle of all digital marketing.” –Rebecca Lieb

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“Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.” –Jay Baer

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"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." - Albert Einstein

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“Social media is a contact sport.” –Margaret Molloy

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“Content marketing is like a first date. If you only talk about yourself, there won’t be a second one.” –  David Beebe, branded content producer

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“The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.” –Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It!

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“You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them.” Pam Moore

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“Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.” – Erik Qualman

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“You cannot buy engagement. You have to build engagement.” –Tara-Nicholle Nelson #marketing #quotes

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“Less is more. Keeping it simple takes time and effort.” –Jeff Bullas #marketing #quotes

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“You can’t expect to just write and have visitors come to you. That’s too passive.” –Anita Campbell #marketing #quotes

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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”Leonardo Da Vinci #marketing #quotes

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“Give them quality. That is the best kind of advertising.” –Milton Hershey #marketing #quotes

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“Conversation with customers will increase sales, even if the product or service is never mentioned.”George Farris  #marketing #quotes

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“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Peter Drucker #marketing #quotes

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“When people feel insecure about something, they look around for validation. Show them that other people trust you.” –Francisco Rosales #marketing #quotes

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“Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room – remember that. And more importantly, let’s discover why!”Chris Ducker

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“The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability." –Simon Mainwaring

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“In 2004, good SEO made you remarkable on the web. In 2014, good SEO is a result of being remarkable on the web.” – Rand Fishkin #SEO

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“Amazing things will happen when you listen to the consumer.” –Jonathan Midenhal #marketing #quotes

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“Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.” – Brian Chesky #marketing #quotes

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“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  #marketing #quotes

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“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.”Ann Handley #marketing #quotes

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“Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers.” Jonah Berger #marketing #quotes

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“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook

Click to Tweet

“Good content isn’t about good storytelling. It’s about telling a true story well.” - Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes.

Click to Tweet

“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” –Roger C. Schank

Click to Tweet

“Every trackable interaction creates a data-point, and every data-point tells a piece of the customer’s story.” –Paul Roetzer

Click to Tweet

“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only 2 out 10 will read the rest.” – Brian Clark

Click to Tweet

“Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.” –Tony Zambito

Click to Tweet

“Not viewing your email marketing as content is a mistake.” –Chris Baggott

Click to Tweet

“Your culture is your brand.” –Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

Click to Tweet

“If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” –Howard Schultz #marketing

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“The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” –William Bernbach

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“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” –Thomas Jefferson

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“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” –Wendy Piersall #SEO

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“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

Click to Tweet

“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

Click to Tweet

“Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.” – Dan Zarrella

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“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” –Jeff Bezos

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“Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealized, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust.” –Richard Branson

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“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” –Beth Comstock

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“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” –Seth Godin

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"Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving” David Ogilvy, The God Father of Advertising

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“Never let ads write checks your website can’t cash.” –Avinash Kaushik

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  1. Awesome ? Thanks for sharing. I am working into Digital Marketing Services, so definitely it will help me. My favourite one is “Content is the atomic particle of all digital marketing.”

  2. > “Never let ads write checks your website can’t cash.” > –Avinash Kaushik, digital marketing evangelistLike most things that digital “marketers” claim as their own, this is stolen from a conventional print advertising man, Howard Luck Gossage.

  3. Hi Nate, I really enjoyed all of these, I just need to write the best ones on a sticky note and have them in front of me every day 🙂 “Social media is a contact sport” love the wordplay in this one!

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