3 Lessons From Gary Vaynerchuk to Make You a Better Content Marketer

Gary Vee is a social media wizard. I’ve been following him for over three years and find him a constant source of inspiration.

As a master of brand-building and achieving long-term social media relevance, there’s a lot we can learn from him about content marketing.

So without further ado, here are the top three content marketing lessons we can learn from Gary Vee:

 Prioritise Underpriced Attention

The foundation of Gary Vee’s social media strategy comes from attention arbitrage. Like a stock trader, Gary has perfected the skill of “day-trading attention”, and reaps the benefits of investing in underpriced attention.

There’s always a curve to any marketing channel and if you time it right, you can win big.

Here are the different growth phases:

·        Early adoption phase: Relatively unknown; mostly organic posts [Underpriced]

·        Middle phase: Platform gains popularity; a balance of paid ads and organic posts [Realistic pricing]

·        Saturation phase: Peak number of users; paid ads are prioritised [Overpriced]

·        Extinction phase: Users lose interest and find a new platform

Gary Vee is a master at attention arbitrage and it’s a key reason he continues to dominate social media. He invests his time into the channels that will maximise his brand growth.

The key is to be an early adopter and post lots of organic content before it prioritises paid advertising (like TikTok at the moment). And once paid ads are introduced, it’s also a good idea to invest in them before the price appreciates to its actual value. That’s the game.

If we could all go back in time to when emails had 90% open rates or Google Ads were less than a dollar per click, we would all instantly invest big. Gary’s been doing this for the last 20 years, which is why he’s such a master.

Takeaway: Be open-minded towards current social media channels and be guided by the data, not by personal bias.

Top tip: Currently the two platforms that are experiencing a surge in organic traffic are TikTok and LinkedIn. If you’re looking to reach a large audience, they both offer a huge growth opportunity.

Document, Don’t Create

According to Gary, we should be posting at least six pieces of content a day.

It’s an overwhelming amount, but it’s also an amazing content marketing strategy if you can sustain it.

The truth is I think the number of posts varies on your individual content strategy. If you’re looking to develop a more niche audience it may require fewer high-quality posts. But if you’re going for rapid growth, it’s important to go hard and fast, like Gary.

Now you may be wondering how Gary Vee can sustain such a high output of content? And the answer is this:

Document, don’t create.

Instead of trying to create original thought-pieces, it’s possible to gain much more brand awareness by documenting our business journey.

Documenting has two benefits:

1.    You’ll never run out of content

2.  You’re uniquely qualified to talk about your own experiences

If social media is teaching us anything, people are seeking more raw and unfiltered personalities for the brands they buy from. It’s not a coincidence that people are gravitating towards video content, like short-form TikToks and long-form podcasts. It’s the ultimate way to see who’s running a brand and establishing trust.

People are attracted to positive energy, and if you’re putting in the work to achieving your goals — they’ll pay attention. And there’s nothing more inspiring than real businesses documenting their journey.

Takeaway: Don’t overthink your content, embrace the journey and be authentic. People will reward your courage with their loyalty.

Top tip: By creating long-form content like a podcast, live-stream or interview, it’s possible to repurpose this content into lots of smaller pieces of content. So one interview can actually create over ten pieces of social media content.

Focus on Legacy

As Gary Vee frequently states, 99% of us won’t actually follow his advice.

We know it will lead to significant brand growth, but we still won’t do it.

And that’s because posting over six pieces of content on social media requires unbelievable amounts of hard work and patience.

I think the biggest lesson we can learn from Gary Vee is that brand-building takes time. In our social media-driven world, it’s tempting to want instant gratification, but the key to long-term success is patience.

Takeaway: The best content strategies focus on the big picture. They ask where we want to be in five years from now and carry out the actions to make this a reality.

Top tip: Don’t obsess over social media statistics. Post consistently and try to improve on your last post.

Conclusion

In the world of content marketing, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new tips and tricks, but if you follow these three content marketing lessons, you’ll see noticeable results.