Gary V: Value of Branding

 

You must have heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, no?

Love him or hate him, the guy is a content marketing beast!

In this and the following couple of emails, I’m going to explore some of Gary’s secrets… and offer my opinion on them.

So if you’re a fan of his work – or even if you’re not – listen up as there’s lessons to be learned!

To begin with, Gary’s number one secret is that only brands survive. The purpose of your content or whatever else you do is to build your brand.

When I say “brand” please don’t think of big corporates who plaster their messages all over the place. Think of brand as creating meaning to you or your company – and an empowering emotional connection – one mind at a time. 

This is a much more practical way to think of branding. 

But let me get back to Gary’s point… 

Take voice search as an example. There are more and more devices and platforms that support voice search. However, you’re also getting a more limited number of search results, right?

At the time of writing only a few options appear from search. 

So unless you mention a specific brand, the search results will only contain the most relevant answer. 

Everything else is invisible!

Which is why brands dominate. 

Not only that… when people are fearful or doubtful, where do they turn? They turn to what they know. 

To what they are familiar with. 

Why? Because familiarity is related to trust. 

Which is why content marketing is such a darn powerful tool. It’s the most effective way for the “little guy” to build a brand in the mind of his or her audience. 

Without breaking the bank.

Remember: you can distribute your content for free. In fact, you can CREATE your content for free!

You just need a phone camera. 

Or a keyboard. 

And then, bit by bit, build a brand. 

What a time to be in business! 

It’s why Gary calls content “the greatest opportunity of the century”. He’s not wrong.