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The New Year welcomes opportunity and a chance to take another perspective. As a digital marketer, you may have faced challenges and accomplished success. Hopefully, you learned much about what worked and what didn’t. To inspire you in the New Year, take a look at these 30 enlightening digital marketing quotes.

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne, Founder of Marketoonist

This short piece of advice is so relevant in today’s digital marketing landscape. Consumers are savvy. They are very aware of what’s an ad, whether that be a banner on a website or paid search. The modern digital marketer needs to find ways where marketing is a natural conversation; not an intrusion.

“The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife.” –David Ogilvy, the Father of Advertising, Founder of Ogilvy & Mather

This quote has new meaning in the digital marketing world, as it’s really a reminder that you must understand and know your audience intimately. Otherwise, you’re not relevant to them. And treating them like they are stupid, which is often the result of a condescending tone, certainly isn’t going to find you any favor.

“Without facts and principles, data is useless.” –Bob Hoffman, Writer, Speaker and Type A Group Partner

Digital marketing creates and requires data. But just having data isn’t going to change anything. Data must be accurate and have context to be actionable.

Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” –Seth Godin, Bestselling Author and Blogger

No matter the product or service you provide, there is a great chance that it’s a commodity, or at the least, you have many comparable competitors. Thus, differentiation has to take another route. That route is content. When your brand tells a great story, consumers begin to trust and like you. That emotional response is key to conversion in the modern marketing world.

“Content is fire; social media is gasoline.” –Jay Baer, Bestselling Author, Marketing Expert and Founder of Convince & Convert

This quote shows the relationship between content and social media. Content doesn’t matter if it’s not distributed and consumed, and social media can’t survive without content.

“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.” –Craig Davis, former Chief Creative Officer at J. Walter Thompson

This quote supports the idea that for marketing to work, it must be interesting. Don’t be the interruption to what someone wants to consume, be consumable instead.

“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” –Wendy Piersall, Author, Blogger and Artist

Google ranks your content based on the actions of others. It doesn’t reward you simply because you are using popular keywords. It is much more interested in seeing that users read, share, and engage with your content.

“Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” –Chris Brogan, Chief Executive Officer of Owner Media Group

Consumers need to trust you. Trust comes from relationships and how your brand has treated others. Without this trust, it’s nearly impossible to make meaningful conversions.

“Does your content lead readers on a journey, or does it merely stuff them as leads into a pipeline?” –Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs

Content should be a journey. It should hit users at all the stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. If your content doesn’t continue to inform and be relevant, users will get turned off. A pipeline is only as good as the quality and readiness of leads.

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.”–Andrew Davis, Bestselling Author and Keynote Speaker

Content is the key to revenue. It’s the most important thing you create to develop relationships. Without it, you’re just throwing darts at a moving target.

“Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice underlie much of what’s successful on the Web.” –Rick Levine, Author of The Cluetrain Manifesto

Does your brand have a voice? What are the attributes of your voice. Authenticity should be one of those. Without authenticity, your brand’s voice won’t ring true to audiences.

“Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.” –Jon Buscall, Chief Executive Officer of Moondog Marketing

Content marketing is not a one and done. It’s a constant factor in everything you do in digital marketing. Never treat content marketing like it’s not an integral part of your digital marketing plan.

“Content is not king, but a president elected by the votes of those whom it aims to rule.” –Raheel Farooq, Teacher, Writer and Voiceover Artist

This quote has such power. Many digital marketers think of content as a king, ruling everything else. Success of content is rather something that the community and audience decide.

“90% trust peers on social networks (even strangers); only 15–18% trust brands.” –Danny Brown, Award-Winning Marketer and Author

This quote represents the power of social media influence. If the masses say its’ good, it’s believed. If a brand says so, there will always be skepticism.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” –Simon Sinek, Bestselling Author, Motivational Speaker and Marketing Consultant

The “why” of your brand matters a lot more than your features and benefits. If your “why” is compelling, users will stick around to learn more.

“Every email is a customer survey of your target market, by testing they vote on what resonates best with them.” –Kath Pay, Founder and Senior Consultant at Holistic Email Marketing

Email still has a great role in digital marketing, but you’ve got to bring value to inboxes, not noise. Understanding what users respond to allows you to get better with every email.

“You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” –Beth Comstock, Vice Chair of General Electric

This quote reminds marketers of the power of simplicity. If you can’t quickly tell a user how something will change their life or solve a problem then it’s unlikely you’ll make the conversions you desire.

“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, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Marketo

Don’t just create content to create it. There needs to be a goal. What action do you want users to take after reading? With goals for your content, it’s rather meaningless.

“Take a risk and keep testing, because what works today won’t work tomorrow, but what worked yesterday may work again.” –Amrita Sahasrabudhe, Vice President Marketing at FastMed

One of the few certainties in digital marketing is change. So, you can’t become complacent. But you also should count out previous successes. It’s a test and learn world.

“Mediocre marketers think in terms of campaigns. Great marketers think in terms of growth frameworks.” –Neil Patel, New York Times Bestselling Author and Marketing Expert

It’s very narrow minded to think on the campaign level. Think holistically about growth prepares you to continue to evolve your marketing to fuel growth.

“To continue winning the internet marketing game, your content has to be more that just brilliant, it has to give the people consuming that content the ability to become a better version of themselves.” –Michelle Stinson Ross, Director of Marketing Operations at Apogee Results

Great content is a pillar of digital marketing. The content must be relevant and interesting, but often it needs to be inspirational. Your content should answer the user’s question of “How will this improve my life?”

“Stop selling. Start helping.” –Zig Ziglar, Author and Motivational Speaker

Have you noticed how “selling” has become a negative word. No one wants to be sold. Users want to find solutions and build relationships. Your job as a brand is to educate and inform. If you do that well, selling happens naturally.

“We must move from numbers keeping score to numbers that drive better actions.” –David Walmsley, Chief Customer Officer at House of Fraser

Metrics do matter, but there is a lot of confusion on which ones. Gathering numbers just to “keep score” is fruitless tactic. Look at numbers, and learn from them. Any meaningful metrics will drive action.

“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”  –Milan Kundera, Novelist, Playwright and Poet

In modern business, regardless of industry, a successful company focuses on innovation and telling the stories of that innovation. Everything else is simply the result of these actions.

“Companies that speak in the language of the pitch are no longer speaking to anyone.” –The Cluetrain Manifesto

Always selling is not a conversation a user wants to hear. If all your content is pitch focused, you’re forgetting the why and the how of your brand. Seek to counsel and educate first; that’s what will ring true for audiences.

“I want to do business with a company that treats emailing me as a privilege, not a transaction.” –Andrea Mignolo

Speaking to a potential customer is using their time. Approaching with respect for that fact will put you in a better position from the beginning of any interaction.

“Design like you are absolutely right, then optimize like you were wrong from the start.” –Jordie van Rijn

Making strong choices requires having the utmost confidence in your decisions. Being open to criticism and ready to change on the fly will keep those choices working.

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

One of the simplest marketing methods in history.

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

Strong choices require failure. Failure makes you stronger. ????

“Instead of one-way interruption, Web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the right moment that a buyer needs it.”–David Meerman Scott

The beauty of digital marketing is that the conversation is no longer a unidirectional spray of messaging. We want to engage customers at exactly the right time.

These 30 digital marketing quotes offer great insight into the current state of digital marketing and beyond. When thinking about your strategies and tactics for the New Year, keep these quotes in mind, as they may help you stay on course, facilitate new ways of thinking, and be the solution to your audience’s challenges.