Searching for a little marketing inspiration? Look no further. We’ve taken some of our favorite quotes — new and old — from some of the brightest creative minds out there. Each speaks an important truth about the world of marketing and business today.

Make the most of your social scrolling and enjoy a combination of classic and contemporary pearls of wisdom to spark conversations, generate ideas, and keep that marketing brain humming on all cylinders. 

Quotes on Digital Transformation

1. “It’s no longer the big beating the small, but the fast beating the slow.” — Eric Pearson

2. “We’re only at the very, very beginning of this next generation of computing and I think that every industry leader will be the ones that transforms first. I don’t care what industry you’re talking about.” — Kim Stevenson

3. “90% of CEOs believe the digital economy will impact their industry, but less than 15% are executing on a digital strategy.” — MIT Sloan and Capgemini

4. “We went from being the Flintstones to the Jetsons in 9 months.” — Dan Schulman

5. “The next five years will be more disruptive than the last 15. This is NOT business as usual. A lot of technology that came in three years ago doesn’t work anymore.” — Saul Berman

6. “When digital is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.” — George Westerman

Quotes on Buyer-centricity 

7. “The customer expects you to have knowledge of their stuff, not just your stuff." — Jeffrey Gitomer

8. “Listen to your customers, not your competitors." — Joel Spolsky

9. "The first step in exceeding your customer's expectations is to know those expectations." — Roy H. Williams

10. “I don't subscribe to the thesis, 'Let the buyer beware,' I prefer the disregarded one that goes, 'Let the seller be honest.'” — Isaac Asimov

11. “Most consumers don’t mind hearing from brands as long as it is a solution, where we are not trying to sell something, but we are trying to solve something.” — Kelly Frederickson

Quotes on Creativity

12. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein

13. “To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” — George Kneller

14. “Creativity about life, in all aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” — Leo Burnett

15. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker

16. “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” — Edwin Land

Quotes on Marketing

17. "In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss: to market to your best customers first." — John Romero

18. “If you form a strategy without research, your brand will barely float and at the speed industries move at today brands sink fast. — Ryan Holmes

19. “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

20. “Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.” — Jonah Sachs

21. “Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” — Bryan Eisenberg

22. “Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” — Mike Volpe

23. "If you're a good marketing person, you have to be a little crazy." — Jim Metcalf

24. “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” — David Ogilvy

25. “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” — Joe Chernov

26. “Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.” — Seth Godin

27. “Make your marketing so useful people would pay you for it.” — Jay Baer

28. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” — Simon Sinek

29. “Today it's important to be present, be relevant and add value." — Nick Besbeas

30. "Great execution is the ultimate differentiator." — Margaret Molloy

31. “The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing.”  — Tom Fishburne

32. "Know thyself. Know the customer. Innovate." — Beth Comstock

33. "Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction." — Tony Zambito

34. “If you are an artist, learn science. If you are a scientist, cultivate art.” — Karin Timpone

35. “We’re all learning here; the best listeners will end up the smartest.” — Josh Bernoff

Quotes on Storytelling

36. “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

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

38. “The stories that spread today empower us and give us belief in our own heroic potential.” — Jonah Sachs

39. "You can't sell anything if you can't tell anything." — Beth Comstock

40. “Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart.” — Jonathan Lister

41. “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

Quotes on Social Media

42. “The first rule of social media is that everything changes all the time. What won’t change is the community’s desire to network.” — Kami Huyse

43. “Pushing a company agenda on social media is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine.” — Erik Qualman

44. “Social media allows big companies to act small again” — Jay Baer

45. “Social media success formula: Content + Engagement + Conversion. Rinse. Repeat.” — Mari Smith

46. "This is not an information age. It's an age of networked intelligence." — Don Tapscott

47. “You can’t tiptoe into social media. You have to jump into the pool. People have a natural fear of it. But the scary part is not being there. Your customer is already there.” — Dave Saunders

48. “Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.” — Dave Willis

49. “‘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

50. "Social media are tools. Real time is a mindset.” — David Meerman Scott

51. “Social media is a contact sport.” — Margaret Molloy

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

53. “If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.” — Fast Company

54. “Social media is about the people. Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” — Matt Goulart

Quotes on Content Marketing

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

56. “Good content isn’t about good storytelling. It’s about telling a true story well.” — Ann Handley

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

58. “If your content isn't driving conversation, you're doing it wrong.” — Dan Roth

59. “Content is anything that adds value to the reader's life.” — Avinash Kaushik

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

61. “My goal is to spark something within the reader and allow it to initiate an idea they then can grow.” — Warren Whitlock

62. “Don’t settle: Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” — Chris Brogan

63. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” — Benjamin Franklin

Quotes on Branding

64. “Branding demands commitment: commitment to continual reinvention, striking chords with people to stir their emotions, and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.” — Sir Richard Branson

65. “Identity is cause; brand is effect, and the strength of the former influences the strength of the latter.” — Larry Ackerman

66. “If you don’t give the market the story to talk about, they’ll define your brand’s story for you.” —David Brier

67. “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.” — Elon Musk

68. "Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touch points." — Jonah Sachs

69. "Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.” — Seth Godin

Quotes on Simplicity

70. "If you can't explain it to a 6-year old, you don't know it yourself." — Albert Einstein

71. “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance. ― Coco Chanel

72. “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” — Dr. Seuss

Quotes on Teamwork

73. “Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

74. “In the long history of humankind those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” — Charles Darwin

Quotes on Innovation

75. "Marketing's job is never done. It's about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day." — Beth Comstock

76. “New ideas are sometimes found in the most granular details of a problem where few others bother to look.” — Nate Silver

77. “I’d rather apologize than to be so timid as to never try to do anything smart or brave.” — Lee Clow

78. “If you’re not failing now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything innovative.” — Woody Allen

79. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” — Tony Robbins

80. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford

81. “If you don’t have room to fail, you don’t have room to grow.” — Jonathan Mildenhall

82. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

83. “If you’re looking for the next big thing, and you’re looking where everyone else is, you’re looking in the wrong place.” — Mark Cuban

84. “Be where the world is going.” — Beth Comstock

85. “Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too short to think small.” — Tim Ferriss

Quotes on Inspiration

86. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you’re a leader.” — John Quincy Adams

87. “Inspiration doesn't respond to meeting requests. You can't schedule greatness.” — Jay Baer

Quotes on Motivation

88. "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

89. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” — Zig Ziglar

90. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

91. “If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough.” — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

92.  “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford

93. “Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

94. “You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do, and you must.” — Seth Godin

95. “Bring the best of your authentic self to every opportunity.” — John Jantsch

96. “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

97. “Do one thing every day that scares you.”― Eleanor Roosevelt

98. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

99. “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” – Seth Godin

BONUS: 5 Quotes to Fuel Your Marketing Passion Today

100. “A year from now, you'll wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb

101. “Do or do not; there is no try.” — Yoda

102. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” — Ayn Rand

103. “Don’t bunt. Aim out of the park. Aim for the company of immortals.” — David Ogilvy

104. “It’s quite fun to do the impossible.” — Walt Disney

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