Gary Vaynerchuk (aka Gary Vee) is an entrepreneur and marketing expert known for his forward-thinking digital advice. Through books, speeches and online videos, he shares tips on grabbing consumer attention amid endless content noise.
Vee stresses the importance of building lifetime value by capturing audience attention first before chasing immediate conversions. He advises jumping on emerging platforms early before competition makes cutting through difficult.
In this article, we highlight 10 key content marketing ideas inspired by Gary Vee’s teachings to help rethink your own content approach:
- Prioritize attention and loyalty over one-off sales
- Identify rising platforms and secure first-mover advantage
- Cultivate relationships with relevant micro-influencers
- Repurpose evergreen content across platforms
- Align strategies with mobile consumption habits
- Lead with utility and solutions over pure product pitches
- Jump on trending news and insert your perspective
- Show more personality and behind-the-scenes access
- Respect your audience’s limited time and attention
- Test creative hooks that generate breakthrough moments
Follow these principles to create value-driven content fueled by innovation, testing and understanding your consumers.
1. Prioritize Capturing Audience Attention and Building Lifetime Value
One of Gary’s core philosophies is to focus first on capturing audience attention rather than solely immediate conversions or sales. He stresses that the real value comes from holding consumer attention over the long-term.
When you create content tailored to pique your audience’s interests first and hold their attention, it pays compounding dividends over the long run. Instead of evaluating content merely on one-off conversions or sales directly from each piece, shift your mindset towards the long-game.
Truly compelling content earns authority and trust, laying the foundation for many future transactions and expanded lifetime value per person. This longevity allows for greater marketing efficiency over sustained periods versus needing to continually win back attention.
Action item: Analyze content performance not just through a short-term sales lens but also metrics around engagement, shares, followers growth, watch time and loyalty.
2. Identify and Test Emerging Platforms Before the Masses Catch On
New emerging digital platforms often present a prime window of opportunity around reach and costs before competition saturates.
Gary points to now massively popular networks like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok which rapidly rose from niche apps to dominant platforms once they hit product-market fit and tapped into cultural trends. Early adopters could establish a presence and build large followings with relatively organic unpaid reach during the growth phase. However, as more brands and people flooded these networks, rising above the noise requires more paid efforts.
Gary stresses identifying these fast-growing emerging spaces aligned to your audience and jumping in to test content well before they go fully mainstream. You likely won’t nail the right formats or strategies immediately. But getting in early allows you to iterate and claim your positioning, which pays dividends for years as platforms scale up.
Action item: Keep pulse on nascent social apps and evaluate both quantitative and cultural signals to spot potential breakouts. Build first-mover advantage on emerging winners.
3. Cultivate Relationships with Relevant Influencers and Micro-Influencers
The rise of influencers introduces opportunities for brands to align with personalities who’ve already captured audience attention. Gary is especially bullish on the long-tail of so-called “micro-influencers.”
He points to research showing micro-influencers driving stronger engagement and conversion rates compared to broad celebrity influencers. These niche social media personalities with highly targeted follower bases often generate better ROI, lower acquisition costs and more authentic integrations.
Gary recommends putting in the work to identify and build relationships with relevant influencers whose interests align with your brand and products. Explore opportunities for them to feature your company or co-create social content to tap into their engaged following.
Action item: Use tools to map micro-influencers in your niche on Instagram and TikTok. Reach out to personalities who authentically resonate with your brand to explore partnerships.
4. Adapt and Repurpose Evergreen Content Across Platforms
While original bespoke content for each platform has advantages, developing truly evergreen content allows for more reuse and mileage across channels.
Gary is a firm believer in adapting existing high-performing content for the idiosyncrasies of emerging platforms that serve different use cases. For example, turning long-form podcast interview snippets into short vertical videos for TikTok consumption.
Testing content across platforms provides signal on what resonates best with subsets of your audience addressable on each channel. You can then double down on expanding and localizing themes, topics and formats gaining the most traction.
Action item: Identify evergreen content with strong engagement and indicators of staying power. Repurpose this content by highlighting different angles and packaging it appropriately to play into each platform’s consumption patterns.
5. Design Content Strategies to Align with Mobile Consumption Habits
Phones surpassed desktops as the dominant device for accessing online content and information. Gary stresses mobile habits must shape content methodology, pointing to the sheer amount of time users spend on apps like Instagram that are leaned into for phone usage.
If seeking awareness and conversions, your website and landing pages need to be mobile-friendly at a minimum. But also prioritize content development for platforms dominated by mobile like Stories, vertical short video and optimized long-form streaming.
Design content easily digestible on small screens during fragmented moments of attention rather than solely articles and horizontal desktop video.
Action item: Google Analytics can reveal website metrics on mobile vs. desktop traffic breakdowns. Survey or interview customers on their content consumption patterns including preferred devices.
6. Hook Attention with Compelling Creative Even for Targeted Content
The rise of data and segmentation powered by platforms allows content to get to very specific groups based on interests and behaviors. However, Gary argues that creative execution remains crucial even for targeted content in order for people to actually engage.
In crowded streams where content fights for limited user attention, creative concept and presentation generates the breakthrough moments and emotional resonance needed to prompt reactions. Creative sparks the motivation to share as well.
While data does enable efficient content targeting and reduces waste, don’t neglect the importance of compelling creative direction and hooks tailored to your audience’s preferences that prompt them to stop scrolling and respond.
Action item: A/B test different visual styles and hooks keep an eye on emotional sentiment in comments. Survey consumers on the creative elements and messages that grab their attention and compels them to engage.
7. Lead with Value, Utility and Solutions
While more overt marketing messages have their place strategically, Gary advocates leading with useful information people actually want versus pure product pitches.
Content that directly helps people, provides utility, answers burning questions for them or solves pain points demonstrates value from your brand. Position thought leadership content around topics and issues associated to your space without immediately asking for the sale or email subscription.
Earn authority by creating informational content people find valuable when seeking guidance. Filtered straight pitches tend to perform worse than leading with utility now.
Action item: Analyze search and social conversations to identify FAQs and struggles your audience faces. Develop useful need-to-know content addressing these issues that provides real utility.
8. Jump on Trending Topics and Newsjack Timely Issues
The churn of trending topics presents possibilities to create timely content pegged to rising issues that tap into pre-existing attention and interest.
Gary cites riding the waves of immediate consumer curiosity whether sparked by current events, breaking news or cultural meme moments as a window to drive relevance, traffic and sharing.
Staff can monitor trending platform analytics to identify opportunities to put out your brand’s point of view to insert yourself into these high-momentum conversations through things like reactive TikTok Duets.
Action item: Use social listening tools and Google Trends to quickly spot rising search and sharing trends. Staff a content calendar to plan timely content that allows your brand’s lens on trending news events.
9. Show Personality, Transparency and Behind-the-Scenes Access
Gary believes today’s media landscape demands some personalization and intimate inside access versus solely polished brand manifestos. He spotlights the importance of conveying authentic personality and giving people an insider view behind-the-scenes.
While professionalism has its place, Gary has thrived by infusing his content approach with raw takes, humor and self-deprecation that feels genuine. He pulls back the curtain to showcase unfiltered realities versus pure rehearsed pitches.
Letting audience inside access humanizes companies behind logos, deepening connections beyond products alone. People gravitate towards the personal side of brands they support.
Action item: Explore showcasing more staff coverage, behind-the-scenes footage or inside access content that resonates. Survey consumers on their reactions to tonal and thematic content variety.
10. Respect Your Audience’s Limited Time and Attention
Amid overwhelming inputs competing for consumer attention, Gary stresses respecting people’s limited time. He warns adding unnecessary friction through interruptive ads or other deterrents can damage audience goodwill.
Surprising or delighting people with positive content experiences earns brand value versus perceptions you’re overwhelming consumers already dealing with content overload.
Evaluate obstacles or distractions inserted into the user journey by your content approach. Look for opportunities to conserve and enhance audience attention in non-invasive ways.
Action item: Use link click-through-rates and metrics around drop-off rates to identify unnecessary content friction. Ask consumers directly about pet peeves on wasting their time from brands.
Key Takeaways
Successful modern content informed by Gary Vee’s philosophy stays on top of fledgling digital spaces and pays attention to real consumer habits versus theoretical best practices. Always focus on creating genuine value for people first before pushing products.
With consistent testing and innovation around engaging platforms and formats, your content efforts can effectively drive brand building and fuel business growth. Measure what matters in terms of lifetime attention won versus one-off vanity metrics.
Hopefully these content ideas and action principles inspired by Gary Vee provide a helpful push towards refreshing your own social content productions and strategy. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Featured image provided by Andrea Piacquadio; Pexels; Thanks!
