Mark W. Schaefer > Quotes

“The most important characteristic of content marketing today is not quality or quantity. It’s insight. And that is the differentiator lacking almost everywhere.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
–Nelson Mandela”
― Mark Schaefer, KNOWN: The Handbook for Building and Unleashing Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age

“Earn the invitation”
― Mark Schaefer, Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins

“Business results on the web don’t come from content; they come from content that moves. Even if your content is great, there’s no guarantee it will rise to the top in an increasingly competitive world.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“The fact is, we cannot love a logo, a jingle, or a piece of branded content. But we can love a person.”
― Mark Schaefer, Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins

“What is our North Star? Why do we exist? Can we clearly articulate why the world is better with our organization in it? What difference do we make? How can people help? How are our founding values specifically relevant to the world today? Who are they relevant to? What headlines do we want to be written about us in the future? What are some characteristics, beliefs, values, and passions that are common to our customers? Are those same characteristics common to our employees? How does that impact the character of the company and why people love us? Are our employees part of our community? Would they lead it? Is our company mission statement the same as our purpose? Why or why not? Is there a seed of an idea there? How is the world changing in a way that unites us with our community? Why do our customers buy our products? Is it because of a shared belief or value system? Do our customers share a vision of the world? What would our future look like if customers helped us build it? How could a community serve and inspire our customers in a way we’re not offering today? Are there people we care about who feel isolated and could benefit from a community? What’s a problem we can only solve together through community? How would a community help us practice what we preach? Whose dreams are we fulfilling?”
― Mark W. Schaefer, Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy

“Business results on the web don’t come from content; they come from content that moves.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“Did you know that vending machines kill four times as many people each year than sharks?”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“Having the courage to be good instead of perfect is a part of blogging success and the trade-off you have to make to be consistent.”
― Mark Schaefer, Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time

“The Top Five Reasons to Write a Book”
― Mark Schaefer, KNOWN: The Handbook for Building and Unleashing Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age

“Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“Do we play by Facebook’s rules and hand over our money so we can reach our own hard-earned fans with our content? Do we just sit by and watch our great work become a de-valued commodity?”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“But another way to look at this is that the social web is simply bringing us back to our marketplace roots where personal connection, immediacy, and word of mouth validation are the most important marketing considerations. We’re returning to the way people have ALWAYS wanted to buy from us – person to person. Humans buy from humans.  And now you have the opportunity to humanize your company and join in the commercial renaissance, too.”
― Mark W. Schaefer, Social Media Explained: Untangling the World's Most Misunderstood Business Trend

“When you write a blog post, always try to connect the subject matter to your unique experience, your story, and perspective. This”
― Mark Schaefer, Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time

“there’s no reason you can’t be yourself, unless you’re a naturally mean and sucky person.”
― Mark W. Schaefer, Tao of Twitter

“my customer simply started a blog, you can see this would result in years of fruitless frustration. If your marketing department can’t give you an assessment of the information density in your industry and a plan to combat it (or maintain a lead) then you need to be asking some hard questions.”
― Mark Schaefer, LESSONS: Essays to Help You Embrace the Chaos

“Creating great content is not the finish line. It’s the starting line.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“Nobody is born a thought leader. It’s something you need to earn in the mind of your audience, slowly over time. You should approach the process of becoming known with humility and respect to those who came before you.”
― Mark Schaefer, KNOWN: The Handbook for Building and Unleashing Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age

“Be relevant, consistent, and superior.”
― Mark Schaefer, Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins

“The future is more than copy writing. The future of marketing is copy igniting.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“I once read that your purpose is the thing you are willing to suffer for.”
― Mark W. Schaefer, Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy

“This book starts where great content ends. There are enough books out there touting the need for amazing content. That’s a given. But epic content simply earns a seat at the table today. The real power only comes to those who can create content that connects, engages, and moves through the network through social sharing.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“The key to finding your remarkability is to think about what makes you surprising, interesting, or novel.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business

“The persistent myth that surrounds much of marketing today is that content is king. And if you can just produce enough of this scintillating, ripped-from-the-headlines, epic and amazing stuff … dripping with keywords, stuffed to the headlines with relevance, decorated with Pinterest-worthy graphics and videos, and podcasts and listicles … you’ll win.”
― Mark Schaefer, The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business