Decoded: Content Marketing with Gary Vaynerchuk – Part 1

Anyone involved in content marketing knows that the World Wide Web is full of concentrated knowledge, expert tips and training on SEO and SEM, social media marketing, content strategies, link building and much more. But in everyday life there is often no time to follow all these digital experts and platforms. That’s why we created our blog series “Decoded”. Each post is dedicated to a different specialist and his input on a topic from online marketing. This time it’s the turn of content marketing and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk.

Content Marketing: Gary Vaynerchuk's Tips for Success - Part 1

You can use high-quality, targeted content to inspire prospects and customers about your brand, service, or product. But to be successful, you need not only a well-developed strategy but also practical ideas on how to develop content and distribute it to your target audience.

Today, content is more diverse than ever: there are website texts, blog posts, vlogs, podcasts, photos, Instagram stories, GIFs and much more. One guy who really knows his stuff for content marketing and social media is Gary Vaynerchuk.

Who is Gary Vaynerchuk or GaryVee?

The US entrepreneur (*1975) recognized the opportunities of the Internet early on. GaryVee, as he calls himself, launched the Wine Library website in 1997 and increased the sales of his family business from three to 45 million dollars within five years.

With his brother AJ, he founded the full-service advertising agency VaynerMedia in 2009 and was already offering social media monitoring to his clients when most companies were still laughing at social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. Today, he's a true content machine, posting a new video every weekday on his YouTube channel GaryVee, and on other social media channels. In addition, there are blog posts, podcast episodes, posts and much more.

By the way, if you want to learn even more about content marketing, check out the #Decoded blog posts on Neil Patel (SEO), Michael A. Stelzner (social media marketing) and Noah Kagan (email marketing).

Tip 1: How to reach 35 million views with a single keynote.

If you're a busy guy like GaryVee, you need to know how to make the most of content. Every day he releases a new episode for his TV channel - and each one is about 45-60 minutes long. To best distribute this content on social networks within his target audience, he uses micro-content. In this way, he can reach up to 35 million views with a single keynote.

How does micro-content work?

GaryVee describes his model like an inverted pyramid. He creates a central "content piece." This can be a daily vlog, a keynote, an interview, or a podcast. From that one piece, his team creates more than a dozen smaller content snippets, which are then published on his social media channels - in a form appropriate to the social network and audience. To stay with videos: LinkedIn videos should be a maximum of 10 minutes long, Instagram videos a maximum of 1 minute and Snapchat videos even a maximum of 15 seconds.

Attract viewers and listeners in the first round with micro-content.

The first posts on social media aim to draw users to the new content and get them to watch, listen, or download. Gary invites them to comment diligently and time code their favorite parts.

Analyze user comments and incorporate them into new micro-content.

Gary's team then looks at all the comments and incorporates the results of the analysis into new micro-content. The idea is to select those passages that have most excited viewers/listeners. The best clips are then posted again on social networks - always to draw attention to the original content piece. However, some micro-content is also suitable as new original content, as we present it with customized text and headlines.

Create short videos, photos with quotes, GIFs, and in-depth blog posts.

You can keep broadening the base - or rather the top of the pyramid. Gary's most memorable words become photos of him with quotes. From memorable gestures, his team creates Animated GIFs that users can use to add to their own dialogue communications. He posts 15-second clips as Instagram Stories to re-engage viewers with the micro-content.

Finally, key themes from the original content piece are turned into blog posts. In doing so, Gary brings in one to three additional focal points to offer his readers something new.

To see what viewer numbers Gary has achieved with each micro-content, check out his blog post, „How to Grow and Distribute Your Brand’s Social Media Content“.

Tip 2: How to successfully build your own brand with an authentic appearance and a "learn as you go" philosophy

A company consists not only of its products or services. It interacts with its customers; it has a reputation in the marketplace, and it reflects certain values. Gary Vaynerchuk is very successful in branding: he associates all of his entrepreneurial projects with his name: the Q&A show "#AskGaryVee," the "DailyVee" blog, and his podcast series "The GaryVee Audio Experience," to name a few. This has allowed him to gain 8 million followers on Instagram alone for his channel.

Don't think long and hard, try it out

Just start small and see what the reactions are. Take those reactions to plan your next steps and adjust your strategy. If you seek advice from others, only you can decide what to implement. It all depends on your strategy, your will, and your (or the company's) interests.

Also, don't worry about oversharing, i.e. posting too much content.

According to Gary, the market decides what is too much information. It's about finding a balance between you and your market: First you decide what content to post, then the market decides if they like that content or not.

Stay authentic and natural

Decide which topics you want to talk about and which you'd rather not talk about. This is especially true for those of you who are building a personalized brand. For example, Gary has chosen not to post anything about his children, nor to get involved in discussions about healthcare or crypto currencies.

His mindset: "I'm not really interested in judging people, especially if we don't know the full context. I am, however, very interested in loving people until they prove something else. I'm compassionate, empathetic, and sympathetic. And I don't need validation from others. I am in my cocoon, and that is what you need to practice. Period, end of story."

Publish audience-focused content

If you want to successfully build your brand, publish content that benefits your target audience. Show them what problems the target audience has that your products or services solve. Explain how things work in your field and help them educate themselves on your topic area.

For example, as a successful entrepreneur, GaryVee shares a lot of expert knowledge in his videos and podcasts on how people can get their own startup off the ground.

Tip 3: How a mix of passion and practicality can make your storytelling work on social media.

In the cinema, you watch a two-hour movie and let yourself be captivated by the story. In the social media feed, you turn down content that can't be captured in a few seconds. So context plays an important role in storytelling. No one watches a 30-minute video on Instagram or reads a 500-word text on Facebook. What makes the difference is whether your story fits the context AND elicits a positive response.

Storytelling as it was in 2009?

GaryVee takes a very critical view of storytelling in social media: he feels that most people in businesses and media agencies are telling stories in 2019, as if we were still in 2009. His approach to this is to think about what will happen 24-36 months from now, and from there, create a backward-looking plan and think about how to get to that point in the future, step by step.

The media and communications landscape has changed

We no longer live in a world where the TV program decides when we watch which movie or news. Today, all content is on demand: each individual decides for himself when and for how long he accesses certain permanently available content. Communication has also changed. Hardly anyone calls anymore, rather we send messages, whether on WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter. That's why storytelling has changed, too: In your content marketing strategy, consider this change in media consumption, and modern communication channels, so you can continue to reach your target audience and get them excited about your products or brand. So don't just think in terms of one channel, but pursue an omni-channel strategy: be present wherever your target group is on the move.

Exploit the potential of social networks

Through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, you can reach hundreds of millions of people every day with your content. These free platforms, along with myriad technologies and tools, make it easier than ever to create content at a low cost, compared to the investment required to do so a decade ago.

Know the differences between social platforms

To make your storytelling work, you need to adapt the story to the social network you're using. People are on Facebook for different reasons than they are on Instagram or Pinterest. Familiarize yourself with the different social platforms and tailor your content to them. With that said, any type of story can work as long as it appeals to emotions. Be serious, sentimental, funny, sad or nostalgic in your messages.

Analyze reach within your target audience

Every social media platform has reach. You just need to find out what the reach of each network is within your target audience. For example, TikTok isn't just for fun videos. There are already quite a few brands that successfully use the social network in social media marketing. These include Mercedes-Benz, Zalando, Lidl, WWF Germany. Even the German Federal Ministry of Health has a TikTok account.

Document content instead of always creating new content

Documenting means you have a central "content piece" that you break down into smaller sections for further publishing. Remember the concept of micro-content above?

Even if you don't have a huge team to help you, you can easily record and distribute podcasts on your smartphone using tools like Anchor, for example. Reorganize the transcript of the podcast episode a bit and publish it as a blog post. Or record a video of yourself at the same time as the podcast, cut it into short sequences, and post it on social media.

You can find out more about storytelling on Facebook, Instagram and the like in Gary Vaynerchuk's blog post „How to Tell a Story on Social Media“.

What does Gerrit from Crispy Content® have to say about it?

"GaryVee has perhaps not yet completely solved one of the biggest problems in content marketing - scalable content production - but optimized it in such a way that it no longer has to be a blocker in campaign creation. Especially as a content marketer with a certain sense of mission, I prefer developing new things rather than recycling existing ones. But does that make sense from a commercial perspective? Mostly, no.

I wonder every time a new concept comes to mind (in recent years, that's been the "Content Marketing Excellence" method, the "Methodical Content Marketing" book, the "Making Content" online course, and the "ROI-driven Content Marketing" sales pitch) what GaryVee would do in my shoes. Create less, recycle more - but I learn ;)"

More tips on content marketing and social media marketing

Staying authentic in your presentation, using content pragmatically and exploiting the potential of social networks - this is how you can increase your reach, reach your target audience and get them excited about your products and services. Just get started!

More tips from Gary Vaynerchuk on content marketing and social media marketing will be available soon in Part 2, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check out the other posts in our Decoded series. Neil Patel reveals lots of SEO hacks, Michael A. Stelzner is one expert on social media marketing, and Noah Kagan has tips for successful email marketing.