Last year, Hubspot presented a slideshow featuring “101 Awesome marketing quotes” from famous marketers and inbound marketing professionals.Quotes can be inspiring. But we have to be careful.  Whenever you find one bit of “marketing wisdom” that you think is right, you can, with a little creativity, come up with one that says the opposite-- and seems just as right. Here’s my exercise in doing just that.

1. Last year, Hubspot presented a slideshow
featuring “101 Awesome marketing quotes”
from famous marketers and inbound
marketing professionals.

2. Quotes can be inspiring. But we have to
be careful.
Whenever you find one bit of “marketing
wisdom” that you think is right, you
can, with a little creativity, come up with
one that says the opposite-- and seems
just as right.
So here’s my exercise in doing just that.

3. “Conventional Wisdom” is only cure
for conventional wisdom.

4. “When you enchant people, your goal is not to make
money from them or to get them to do what you
want, but to fill them with great delight.” Guy Kawaski
 "Delight your customers all you want. The real
test is: as they stare in wonder, are they
reaching for their wallet?" (Brandon Towl, A
Sack of Hammers)

5.  "Great content is the best sales tool in the
world." Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion Blog, via
Hubspot
 "If content were the best sales tool, everyone
would be trying to advertise in encyclopedias.
Content doesn't sell; context does.“ (Brandon
Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

6.  "Make the customer the hero of your story." (Ann
Hadley, via HubSpot)
 "Customers want to feel special, but they also
want to look up to heroes. No one watches the
Olympics and thinks ‘That was an inspiring
story, but do I know this person?’ " (Brandon
Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

7.  "If you wait until there is another case study in your
industry, you will be too late." (Seth Godin, via
HubSpot).
 “There are two types of business project: the sure
thing, and the innovation. In the first, the more
case studies means safer. In the second, your goal
is to be the case study.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

8.  "Nobody cares about your products except you.
Create great content!" (David Meerman-Scott, via
HubSpot)
 “Nobody buys a Coke thinking ‘Mmm, I love the
Coca-Cola company's beverage related
content!’” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

9.  "Bring the best of your authentic self to every
opportunity." (John Jantsch, Author of Duct Tape
Marketing)
 “If someone has to remind you to act
authentically, you won't be authentic.
Really, you've already failed.” (Brandon Towl, A
Sack of Hammers)

10.  "Your culture is your brand." (Tony Hsieh of
Zappos, via HubSpot)
 “Your culture is not your brand.” (Brandon
Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

11.  "You can't just ask customers what they want and
then try to give that to them." (Steve Jobs, via
HubSpot).
 Actually, I like that one a lot.

12.  "More contact means more sharing of
information, gossiping, exchanging, engaging-- in
short, more word of mouth." (Gary
Vaynerchuck, author)
 "The more we connect, the more we
instinctively filter. Gossip can thrive in a small
village, but who has time to keep up with 500+
contacts?" (Brandon Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

13.  "... one way to sell a consumer something in the
future is simply to get his or her permission in
advance." (Seth Godin, via HubSpot)
 “Nobody buys when you ask for the sale.
Instead, show them something cool." (Brandon
Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

14.  "Let your originality-- your specialness, your brand
personality-- come through in your online
content." (Ann Handley, via HubSpot)
 "Instead of trying to be unique, try sounding
like you're part of something. People have more
personality than brands, and interesting
people make for interesting content." (Brandon
Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

15.  "When you want to change things, you won't
please everyone." (Sheryl Sandberg, COO at
Facebook, via HubSpot)
 “And if you don't want to change things, you
won't please anyone.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

16.  “The weird set an example for the rest of us. They
raise the bar; they show is through their actions
that in fact we're wired to do the new, not to
comply with someone a thousand miles away.” Seth
Godin, via HubSpot
 “Being weird isn't the same as being
unique, brilliant, or visionary. Being
unique, brilliant, or visionary are those things.
There are just as many people who are weird
and annoying, clueless, or downright
dysfunctional. We break barriers when we hit
limits, not by waking up with a new
personality.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

17.  “No matter what, the very first piece of social
media real estate I'd start with is a blog." (Chris
Brogan, via HubSpot)
 “No matter what, I'd start any social media
project with an identity and a voice. Before a
blog, you need something to say, and a new way
of saying it." (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

18.  “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, via HubSpot)
 “No matter what technology brings, human
psychology has been largely the same across
time. Master that, and you can market in any
era, come what may.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

19.  “For B2B marketers, our biggest obstacles are usual
complexity and fear of failure. We need to be
willing to fail.” (Tim Washer, Corporate Comedian
at Cisco, via HubSpot
 “For B2B marketers, our biggest obstacle is
refusing to make the tough choices. Trying to
be everything to everyone, trying everything
new, leaving no channel unturned. Do some
research, rule out what's not gonna work for
you. Pick something, because that's how you
become authentic." (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

20.  "My theory is that, in the age of the internet, it's
what you write, not where you write it, that
matters." (Dan Lyons, via HubSpot)
 "Bullshit. Huff Post, Forbes, and Fast Company
will always have more readership than
mylameblog.com. If the internet existed in
Shakespeare's time, he'd still need to get
syndicated to get noticed." (Brandon Towl, A
Sack of Hammers)

21.  "It no longer makes economic sense to send an
advertising message to the many in the hopes of
persuading the few." (M. Lawrence Light, former
CMO Mcdonald's, via HubSpot).
 Actually, I like the sentiment here, but it's totally
impractical. Maybe I’d believe him if I saw this
quote in a private message.
 But as a side note: remind me to never nominate
Light to help out on a tight Presidential campaign.
That’s a great case of really needing to persuade the
few, and doing so by advertising to the many…

22.  “In today's Information age of Marketing and Web
2.0, a company's website is the key to their entire
business." (Marcus Sheridan, via HubSpot).
 Um, no.
 Plus, "String together all the catch phrases you
want, it won't make any asset of yours more or
less valuable. Only hard work does
that." (Brandon Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

23.  "Increasingly, the mass marketing is turning into a
mass of niches." (Chris Anderson, author, via
HubSpot)
 “All marketing is, and always has been, niche
marketing. It's just that the big niches have lots
of strong players competing, and they all want
to convince you to go chasing after their
scraps." (Brandon Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

24.  "The way that you can understand all of the social
media is as the creation of a new kind of public
space." (Danah Boyd, Social Media Researcher for
Microsoft, via HubSpot)
 “Social media is like being at a huge party, with
everyone talking at once. You can flit from
conversation to conversation, or focus on one;
raise your head when you hear your name, or
keep quiet entirely. It's not public or
private, but something new. Just make sure you
know who's hosting the party, and
why.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

25.  “For corporate marketers, podcasting is low-
hanging fruit.” (Paul Gillin, author, via HubSpot)
 “For people with something interesting to
say, podcasting is low-hanging fruit. For
marketers: good luck.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack
of Hammers)

26.  “Inspiration is the most important part of our
digital strategy." (Paull Young, Director of Digital
Content at charity:water, via HubSpot).
 “Inspiration can be good or foolish. Hire good
people, you'll get the good kind. For all other
strategies, better track your ROI." (Brandon
Towl, A Sack of Hammers)

27.  "Increasingly, search is our mechanism for how we
understand ourselves, our world, and our place
within it." (John Battelle, via HubSpot).
“No, that's philosophy. If you were right, our
understanding would never be much deeper
than Miley Cyrus, Black Friday deals, and ideas
for training your dog.” (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

28.  "For business, our internet love affair was a gift
from the gods." (Gary Vaynerchuk, author, via
HubSpot)
 “Internet marketing is a bit like internet
pornography: lots of people are into it, but it’s
mostly an exercise is self-
gratification." (Brandon Towl, A Sack of
Hammers)

29. Interested in me or anything I had to say?
My marketing skeptic’s blog:
http://www.asackofhammers.com/
Or contact me through:
brandon [at] wordshaveimpact.com