5 Killer Marketing Lessons You Can Only Learn From Gary Vaynerchuk

In five years, Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family’s wine business 2000%.  When Gary Vaynerchuk graduated from college his family’s business was a three million dollar business.  Over the course of five years, his family business became a sixty million dollar business.

This type of growth in business is insane and every company in the world wants a part of it.  Now, Gary Vaynerchuk is a marketing genius.  He works hard and he constantly searches for the latest trends from Snapchat to Facebook video. Gary Vaynerchuk shares his marketing strategies through his books, blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook videos, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.

Here are five of Gary Vaynerchuk tips for marketing to help you grow your own brand.

1. Be relevant

Gary Vaynerchuk believes that social media, mobile, and video are the way of the future.  In order for companies to stay relevant, they need to start investing their time in to these difference avenues.  According to Gary Vaynerchuk, desktop impressions will dwindle because mobile is where everything is going.  So, it’s really important to focus on the format and accessibility of your site for mobile devices.

In recent blog posts, Vaynerchuk has praised the creators of Instagram for creating a 100% mobile app.  According to Gary Vaynerchuk, Instagram creators, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, caught the wave and now they’re riding in to the future.  Since its release in 2010, Instagram has amassed over 500 million users.

With the addition of Instagram stories, Instagram is keeping up with the trends after seeing Snapchat’s quick success.Snapchat, according to Gary Vaynerchuk, “is the hottie at the gym looking for attention.”  The way the app works, users only have 24 hours to watch a snap. This urgency is genius because people have to constantly check and stay on the app to stay informed.  Snapchat brings in two billion views a day.

For Gary Vaynerchuk, YouTube is going to be in the past and Facebook video is the future.  On YouTube, Gary Vaynerchuk sees a tension among its billion users fighting for exposure.  The flood of marketing and users on YouTube will lead to its downward spiral because there is too much competition.  He believes that companies and brands should focus on Facebook video because it’s “good at everything.”  According to Gary Vaynerchuk, Facebook video is “smart, shareable, and personal.” Just look at the stats!  Facebook video has 4 billion daily video streams.  (Yes, that says BILLION!) Vaynerchuk believes this number is “only going to continue to grow with time.”  In a recent blog post, Gary Vaynerchuk even said,“Facebook is becoming TV’s competitor.”

Whether you’re looking to expand you’re Instagram following or create a viral Facebook video, you need to have a strategy based on the habits of your target consumers.  For a successful marketing strategy, Gary Vaynerchuk says, “[you have to] understand where your consumer is, and meet them there. Don’t make them come to you.”

2. Have Quality over Quantity

To build an engaged and dedicated following, you have to put out quality content.  It won’t matter if you put up a post everyday if they’re just click baits with no relevant content.  “Click bait” posts won’t generate a following that will comeback to your site.  People who comeback daily or weekly will help you build an engaged following and a successful brand.  Through quality posts, your followers will see your content as a resource and share your content with family and friends.

According to Gary Vaynerchuk, quality is important because it helps you stay genuine. “If you promise amazing, exclusive content and you deliver, you’ll keep intrigue high.”

3. Be accountable

This rule applies to everything in life.  By being accountable, you are being responsible for your actions.  If you can’t fulfill the promise then don’t make it. When you make a promise you have to do everything you can to fulfill it.In Gary Vaynerchuk’s words, ““You take it, you eat it, you drink it. Your word is bond.”

He says, “Salesmanship and bullshit are very similar in nature” In order to succeed you have to be a good person.  Sales make profit but if there is no generosity or accountability behind your sales then your business will not last.  Gary Vaynerchuk equates this idea to “listen[ing] to your dad.”

4. Keep an Open Mind

In this technological age, things change quickly. You can be on top of the world today and be on the bottom of the world tomorrow.  So in order to be successful you have to be open to new ideas. Part of keeping an open mind is a focus on self-improvement.  If you’re constantly learning and improving then you are staying relevant and open to new ideas.

For some companies, Youtube and Instagram look like the best marketing strategies.  However, marketing has taken over those sites and overloaded them. With all these different users, there is a lot of competition on YouTube and Instagramfor exposure and engagement.  According to Vaynerchuk, Youtube has already started its downward spiral and the new wave is Facebook video and Snapchat.

5. Invest in your future

You have to invest both time and money in to building your brand or company.  When you invest your time in to building your brand, then you are creating quality content.  Once you have built a brand, take the money you earn and put it back in to your brand.  When you invest time and money, you are investing in your future.According to Vaynerchuk, “people respond to effort.”

This is the reason why Twitter video and Facebook video are gaining popularity.  You are giving people quality responses rather than a quick text in shorthanded messages.  For example, a few seconds of recorded video increases personal engagement with your audience and shows that you care.  The effort you put in will be rewarded because your followers will appreciate the extra seconds you put in to responding to their tweets or posts.

Gary Vaynerchuk explains the importance of Twitter video in his recent blog post,

“It takes me nine to twelve seconds to make a video and reply, but those extra seconds hold a lot of meaning. Not to mention it’s more personal, visual, and we are living in a world where the visual is often regarded as a better engagement than the written…That is what excites me most about Twitter video. Giving time to people. More time. Personalized time. And that is awesome.”

Successful marketing is not based on luck.  You can’t close your eyes and throw a dart, hoping it lands on the bulls-eye.  You have to do your research, make a plan, and work really hard to see the plan through.

In an interview with Smit Patel, Gary Vaynerchuk describes the two things you need to successfully build a brand:

1. Talk about something you really know well.
2. Keep working really hard on it.

These two things summarize our five lessons perfectly.  In order to create quality content, you have to know what you’re talking about.  To keep followers engaged, you have to work hard to stay relevant, be accountable for your actions, and invest in your future.  If you build a brand people can trust then you will succeed because people will follow for the value and insight that you possess.