One of the most influential online marketing experts in the world reveals his social media secrets.
It’s safe to say that the consumer market isn’t what it used to be. Entrepreneurial spirit has reached millions of people worldwide. Every one of them wants to create the next big thing, so staying relevant is a pretty challenging task.
With the evolution of the market, marketing has evolved as well. We’ve moved beyond billboards and TV ads to social media instead. Today, content marketing is the name of the game.
If you’re an entrepreneur, or aspiring to become one, creating a strong content marketing strategy is essential. This extends far beyond just sharing your story on your website. Every tweet, blog post, and Instagram live video tells a story about your brand. Posting on social media frequently is the key to creating a digital marketing funnel.
To not become boring to your audience, you need to keep finding new ways to create engaging content. Running out of ideas for your content leads to running out of ideas to increase sales. Creating fresh content continuously can seem like a daunting task if you’re new to this. But help is on the way. You can emulate some valuable secrets that Gary V uses to engage with his audience.
Who is Gary V?
Gary Vaynerchuk, or Gary V for short, is an entrepreneur and a self-made millionaire. He’s the owner of VaynerMedia, a company that offers a full spectrum of advertisement services. He’s also the chairman of VaynerX, a media and communications company. He is without a doubt one of the most influential online marketing experts. But what is it that led to his enormous success?
The short answer is – social media. While working in his family’s wine business, he started a YouTube series called WineLibraryTV. His enthusiasm, as well as the ability to engage with his audience, is what led to him filming 1000 episodes in five years. This helped him to grow the revenue of his family business from $3 to $60 million a year.
Since then, he’s done a lot of important things. His passion for online marketing and business has taken him very far. His social media presence is pretty much unrivalled. This is because he’s recognized the importance of quality content before his competitors.
Gary V took advantage of the rise of social media to advertise his personal brand. This move was a starting point for the creation of VaynerMedia. The company has received a lot of attention, all thanks to his social media marketing funnel. Today, VaynerMedia services many Fortune 100 clients.
But he didn’t stop there. He has his documentary series, restaurant reservations app, and a new company called The Gallery. He’s also a public speaker, investor, and business podcast host. Listing all his accomplishments would take a while, but you now have an idea of the fame he enjoys.
Can you imagine all that success came as a result of a good digital marketing funnel? It’s a truly mind-blowing achievement. The good news is, you can develop one as well. Gary V is passionate about helping entrepreneurs, so he often shares his sales secrets with them. To help you learn how to improve sales and marketing skills, let’s go over some of Gary’s best advice.
Tip #1 – Use the Top-Down Approach to Create Content
To come up with an idea for a blog or Instagram post, a seemingly logical thing to do would be to start at the beginning. This is what’s referred to as the bottom-up approach. It means that you sit down and think about every new post as a separate project.
Although this isn’t a terrible approach, it does come with some flaws. First of all, it usually takes a long time, since you always need to come up with something new. Also, you expose yourself to perfection paralysis and find yourself overthinking everything. This will take up a lot of your valuable time, and your audience doesn’t like to wait.
If you want to develop a good social media marketing funnel, a better way to create your content would be to start at the top and then make your way to the bottom. But what exactly does this mean?
It means making a rough blueprint or choosing a theme that you can follow on a regular basis. After you do this, you can work on the details to give your content some finishing touches. The reason why this is a better option is that it’s generally easier to come up with ideas once you have a topic. It also serves as one of the best increasing sales strategies. If this seems a bit confusing, let’s look at an example.
Let’s say you have a tea shop, since these are becoming increasingly popular. A good theme would be something like #ThursdayTeaTime. Every Thursday, at a fixed time, you would post a video, or go live on social media. Now that you have a topic, you can think about what that would look like.
For example, you can invite your audience to have a cup of tea with you. You would drink your brand of tea and discuss it with them. This way, you can promote your brand and engage with your audience through a Q&A session. You can ask them about their favourite flavour or blend, which can then give you new ideas for your own product.
This is a great way to improve sales techniques and have a better social media presence. You can use this strategy no matter what you do. Think of a topic related to your brand that your audience will find interesting, then work out the details.
Tip #2 – Document Instead of Creating
Forcing your mind into creativity mode can get a bit exhausting in the long run. Thinking about what to do next will lead to a block at one point. But what do you do in these situations? It’s simple – you stop creating and start documenting.
Before businesses started recognizing the value of social media, they primarily used it to take a closer look at other people’s lives. Whether it’s celebrities or your friends, you follow them because you want to know what they’re up to. So why not integrate that into your digital marketing funnel?
Documenting means giving people an insight into the process, rather than just the final product. It consists of giving your audience an opportunity to get to know you and relate to you. There are many reasons why this is a good strategy.
First of all, you get to engage with your audience, which is one of the most important marketing funnel stages. You also give people a look behind the scenes, so they can see your personality and all the work you put into your projects.
Let’s take photography as an example. If you’re a photographer, your final product can also serve as a way to document your work. But why not take a step further? Make a tutorial on how to take better photos. This will give your audience an insight into the work you’re doing. You might also inspire people to do it themselves, so they’re more likely to follow you.
You can also do an unboxing or review of a piece of equipment. Your fans will want to see this and you might start getting sponsorships, which can further improve your work. This makes you open to new work relationships and helps broaden your audience.
No matter what you’re doing, documenting is the way to never run out of ideas for your content. It can also help you learn how to improve sales skills. Since people like following people, rather than products, you can’t go wrong with this strategy.
Tip #3 – Re-Purpose Your Content with the ‘Sawdust’ Method
For a long time, people have considered sawdust to be nothing but a by-product of woodworking. And then they started realizing that there are all kinds of products you can make out of it. Gary uses this as a great analogy for content creation.
What it means is that, once you’ve created any content, a variety of opportunities open up for you to reuse the content in other projects. A Facebook post can become an idea for a topic for a blog post. That blog post can then become the inspiration for a YouTube video, and so on. You can mix and match pieces of your content to create fresh and creative new content.
Or you can go the opposite way and create micro-content out of your larger projects. You can extract a part of a long YouTube video and turn it into a podcast. You can take a screenshot of an Instagram live video and share it across different platforms. The opportunities are virtually endless.
Whichever way you decide to go, this technique offers an easy way to create high-quality content. Its main advantage is that it combines perfectly with other strategies. This will allow you to create a streamlined social media marketing funnel.
This can also be a great advice on how to improve sales performance. If you’re a vlogger who has decided to create his own merchandise, you can use this method to boost your sales. Take a piece of your vlog, post it on Instagram along with a link to the merchandise, and you’re good to go. This way you can raise awareness of your brand, which is among the essential digital marketing funnel stages.
Incorporating the sawdust method might be a bit confusing at the beginning. But once you start, it only gets easier with time, so you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. When you learn to identify content that you can reuse, you’ll never run out of things to share with your audience.
The Final Word
Now that you know some of the best tips for creating quality content, go ahead and experiment with them. They can help you engage with your audience in the best way possible. You’ll quickly learn how to improve sales and marketing skills.
Combining these strategies is a sure-fire way to engage with your audience. It will also help you expand your business in the long run. It may take some trial and error but it will be worth it, since developing a sustainable marketing strategy is essential to your success.
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