Gary Vaynerchuk Shares 13 Minutes Of B2B Marketing Strategies | INBOUND

Summary

In this speech, the speaker reflects on their success in building a liquor business using Google AdWords, emphasizing missed opportunities due to not fully leveraging this tool's potential. They discuss the importance of being proactive and hands-on in marketing, especially in using Facebook ads for B2B sales. The speaker highlights the value of creative content in marketing and the need for a balance between branding and direct sales efforts. They stress that creative execution is crucial for capturing and retaining audience attention, advocating for a deeper understanding of both art and science in marketing strategies.

Takeaways

• 💡 The speaker emphasizes the importance of practitionership in creative abilities and paid media amplification to drive business actions.
• 📈 Google AdWords played a crucial role in building the speaker's family liquor business from $3 million to $60 million, though he regrets not investing more to achieve even greater growth.
• 🔍 The current best marketing arbitrage is on Facebook, especially for B2B clients, as it allows precise targeting of decision-makers within companies.
• 🚫 The speaker discourages the use of bulk email marketing on LinkedIn, advocating for more personalized and effective approaches.
• 💻 Practitioners should learn and execute Facebook ads themselves rather than outsourcing, ensuring they understand and can manage the process effectively.
• 🎯 In B2B marketing, targeting specific employees of desired companies on Facebook can lead to high engagement and conversions.
• 📊 The speaker highlights the importance of attention and creative quality in marketing, stating that creative is the variable of success.
• 📺 Super Bowl commercials and Facebook videos are identified as the top two marketing strategies for broad and impactful reach.
• 📈 The speaker believes that Facebook combines marketing, branding, and sales effectively, offering underpriced attention compared to other platforms.
• 🎨 Successful marketers need to balance art (creative) and science (data/analytics) to capture and convert attention effectively.

Q & A

What business did the speaker build using Google AdWords?

The speaker built his family's liquor business using Google AdWords, growing it from a three to a 60 million dollar business.

What was the speaker's strategy with Google AdWords that contributed to the growth of his business?

The speaker bought the keyword 'wine' for five cents a click, leveraging the arbitrage opportunity in Google AdWords to grow his business.

What does the speaker regret about his use of Google AdWords?

The speaker regrets not spending more money on Google AdWords, as he believes understanding the arbitrage opportunity could have grown the business to 150 million dollars.

What is the speaker's view on the current state of marketing in the B2B sector?

The speaker believes that B2B marketing is currently not utilizing the full potential of platforms like Facebook, and that there is a significant arbitrage opportunity in marketing for B2B.

What is the speaker's opinion on the effectiveness of bulk emails on LinkedIn for B2B marketing?

The speaker is critical of bulk emails on LinkedIn, stating that they are ineffective and that marketers should avoid this practice.

What marketing strategy does the speaker suggest for B2B businesses to use on Facebook?

The speaker suggests running Facebook ads targeting the employees of specific companies, using personalized creative content to grab their attention.

Why does the speaker believe that Facebook ads are currently underpriced?

The speaker believes that Facebook ads are underpriced because the full value of the attention on the platform has not yet been recognized by marketers.

What was the speaker's experience with email marketing in 1997?

In 1997, the speaker had a 200,000 person email newsletter for Wine Library with a 91.3% open rate, which was high due to the novelty of email marketing at the time.

What is the speaker's stance on the importance of creative content in marketing?

The speaker emphasizes that creative content is the variable of success in marketing, and that it should be respected and developed alongside the scientific aspects of marketing.

What does the speaker consider to be the number one marketing play today?

The speaker considers a Super Bowl commercial to be the number one marketing play due to its ability to capture the attention of the entire country.

How does the speaker view the role of creative content in the context of attention economy?

The speaker views creative content as the key variable that can convert attention into successful marketing outcomes, whether it's on Facebook or through traditional media like the Super Bowl.

Outlines

00:00

😲 The Missed Opportunity in Digital Marketing

The speaker expresses surprise and regret at the underutilization of digital marketing tools, specifically Google AdWords, in growing a business. They recount their experience building their family's liquor business using AdWords, purchasing the keyword 'wine' for a mere five cents. Despite traditional marketing efforts, the speaker admits to not fully capitalizing on the potential of AdWords, which could have significantly increased their business revenue. They emphasize the current importance of social media platforms like Facebook for B2B marketing, criticizing the common practice of sending bulk emails on LinkedIn and urging the audience to avoid this ineffective strategy. The speaker also highlights the need for marketers to understand and exploit the arbitrage opportunities in digital marketing platforms.

05:01

🚀 Leveraging Facebook Ads for B2B Success

The speaker provides a tactical approach to using Facebook ads for B2B marketing, stressing the importance of not outsourcing the task and instead becoming knowledgeable about the platform. They suggest targeting employees of specific companies with tailored content that addresses the needs of decision-makers within those organizations. The strategy involves creating videos or images that start with a direct question to the relevant executive, such as a CFO or CTO, to grab their attention. The speaker predicts that this method will lead to the content being forwarded internally, acting as an introduction to the sales team. They also discuss the arbitrage opportunity in marketing, particularly with Facebook video ads, which are currently underpriced but expected to become more expensive as their value becomes widely recognized.

10:03

🎯 The Power of Creative Content in Marketing

The speaker discusses the critical role of creative content in marketing and the importance of balancing marketing, branding, and sales for business growth. They argue that while many understand the technical aspects of digital marketing, such as cost per click and conversion rates, there is a lack of focus on building a strong brand. The speaker emphasizes that creative content is the variable that determines success in capturing and maintaining attention. They use the example of a successful Facebook video campaign related to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, which generated significant views and engagement, to illustrate the impact of creative marketing. The speaker calls for a greater appreciation of both the art and science of marketing, urging the audience to develop skills in areas they may be lacking.

Keywords

💡Google AdWords

Google AdWords is an online advertising platform where advertisers pay to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or video content. In the video, it is mentioned as a key tool that the speaker used to grow his family's liquor business significantly by purchasing keywords like 'wine' at a very low cost per click, illustrating the concept of advertising arbitrage.

💡Advertising Arbitrage

Advertising arbitrage involves buying advertising space at a low cost and using it to generate high returns. The speaker reflects on how he could have leveraged Google AdWords more effectively to grow his business even further, indicating that recognizing and exploiting such opportunities can lead to substantial business growth.

💡B2B (Business-to-Business)

B2B refers to transactions and marketing strategies between businesses rather than between a business and individual consumers. The speaker highlights how B2B clients, particularly on social media platforms like Facebook, can benefit from targeted ads because the businesses know their specific customers and decision-makers.

💡Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are a form of online advertising where businesses pay to have their content displayed on Facebook. The speaker emphasizes the current underpriced value of Facebook ads for both B2B and B2C marketing, predicting that their cost will rise significantly as more businesses recognize their value.

💡Creative

In marketing, 'creative' refers to the content and design of advertisements. The speaker stresses that creative quality is the variable that determines the success of marketing campaigns, arguing that even with the best targeting strategies, poor creative will lead to failure.

💡Attention

Attention in the context of marketing refers to capturing and holding the interest of potential customers. The speaker identifies attention as the primary currency in marketing, arguing that all marketing efforts aim to secure attention, which must then be effectively utilized with high-quality creative content.

💡Branding

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for a product or company in the minds of consumers. The speaker distinguishes between branding and sales, noting that effective marketing requires a balance of both, and uses Nike as an example of a brand-driven purchase decision.

💡Bulk Email

Bulk email refers to sending large volumes of emails, typically for marketing purposes. The speaker criticizes the use of bulk emails in contemporary marketing, suggesting that personalized and targeted communication is far more effective.

💡Super Bowl Commercial

A Super Bowl commercial is an advertisement broadcast during the Super Bowl, known for its high viewership and significant cost. The speaker claims that despite the high price, a Super Bowl commercial is currently one of the best marketing investments due to its massive reach and impact.

💡Underpriced Attention

Underpriced attention refers to advertising platforms where the cost of reaching potential customers is lower than the value of the attention received. The speaker points out Facebook as an example, suggesting that current low advertising costs on the platform provide a great opportunity for marketers.

Highlights

The speaker admits to underutilizing Google AdWords, which could have grown his family's liquor business from $60 million to $150 million.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the arbitrage opportunity in marketing, particularly in the digital space.

A call to action against bulk email marketing, urging for more personalized and less generic communication strategies on LinkedIn.

The speaker shares his experience with a high open rate email newsletter in 1997, highlighting the evolution of email marketing.

A critique of the current state of email marketing, with the speaker arguing that bulk emails are ineffective in 2016.

The speaker provides a tactical approach for B2B selling using Facebook ads, emphasizing the importance of doing it in-house.

Targeting employees of specific companies with Facebook ads is suggested as a strategy to reach decision-makers.

Creating personalized content for different companies to increase the likelihood of it being shared internally.

The speaker predicts a significant increase in the cost per mille (CPM) for Facebook ads in the coming years due to increased demand.

The value of creating content that starts with a direct question to the target audience, such as 'Does your CFO know...?'

The speaker's belief in the power of Super Bowl commercials as a marketing strategy due to their massive reach.

The effectiveness of Facebook video content for building brand awareness, as demonstrated by a recent successful campaign.

A plea for marketers to understand both the creative and scientific aspects of marketing to achieve success.

The speaker argues that creative is the variable of success in marketing, and its importance in capturing and maintaining attention.

The importance of balancing marketing, branding, and sales for business growth, and the role of platforms like Facebook in achieving this.

A critique of the tendency to focus on either the art or science of marketing, with a call for a balanced approach.

The speaker's final thoughts on the necessity of understanding and respecting both creative and analytical skills in marketing.

Transcripts

i am flabbergasted by the lack of

practitionership

in the actual creative ability and paid

media amplification of creative to make

a business action i for a lot of you

that don't know built my family's liquor

business really on the back of google

adwords google adwords came out i bought

the word wine for five cents a clip and

even though i was doing direct mail and

doing local television and billboards i

get a lot of accolades in this ecosystem

from building my dad's liquor store from

a three to a 60 million dollar business

but the truth is i stand here tonight

and admit to you not excitingly

that it should have been 150 million

dollars because if i actually understood

how unbelievable the arbitrage was on

google adwords i would have spent a lot

more money on it and grew my business

much more but i was too patient i did

well not enough i did not go all in and

i built a nice business but in reality i

left a lot on the floor tonight as we

sit here tonight

as we sit here tonight

the number one arbitrage in marketing in

the world and i don't give a if you

do b2b how many people in b2b raise your

hands uh-huh

i know you

how many people in b to c

uh-huh so even better i'll i'm go this

is why i do this it allows me to go in a

certain direction

b to b clients for me at vayner and the

startups that i'm involved with are

doing even better than b2c clients on

social specifically facebook because

there's one amazing thing about b2b

we and i'm in it now with vaynermedia we

know

the name of the customer

we know the businesses we want we even

know the decision maker we want the

problem is we suck

we get real lazy and we send bulk

emails on linked in

can we make a pledge tonight actually

you know what let's do this if you're

willing to pledge to no more bulk email

horseshit spec email on linkedin stand

up so i can clap for you personally make

a pledge

let's let's wait get up

more this bulk email

don't sit back down dude with the beard

get the back up i see you i'm

talking to you yeah you there we go

let's no no no no no no no let's clap it

up for this pledge no more

enough

thank you

guys best part is the doesn't work

how many people here have done email

marketing in their career raise your

hands

are you looking for your seat

hey you look for your seat

got it okay how many people here

have done bulk have done email marketing

in their careers i'm just curious

in 1997 i had a 200 000 person email

newsletter for wine library and wine

library.com that had 91.3

open rates

not because i was a hero but because

email

marketing hadn't existed yet

the thing that i'm most fascinated by is

that i know as a marketer and i'm a

marketer as a marketer

the number one thing the thing that i

know more than the sun will come up

tomorrow

is that marketers

ruin

everything

it's what we do

when i saw that little ghost i'm

gonna up that ghost

i got you snapchat i'm gonna ruin the

out of this platform

you show me attention

and i'll show you a place that i want to

sell

and that's how it gets changed

and bulk email in 2016 is insanity

nobody's opening that and what just

because you have an algorithm that says

hey gary and by the way i saw 10 of

these emails today all the in

this room that have the hey gary thing

that's in a different font than the rest

of the email you suck

right i mean enough of that

jesus

b2b

i'm going to go tactical because i want

to leave with i want to you know lately

i've been trying to get even more

tactical in my keynotes because i love

the emails that i get where hey thank

you so much it helped my business

here's the tactic i'm going to give you

the best blueprint i have for b2b

selling right now and i really hope it

brings you some value and i'll go into

i'm going to go into detail i'm going to

get a little nerdy if you're in a b2b

environment you have to run facebook ads

and you have to do it now they cost

about five to six dollars cpm right now

on average the cost of these cpms will

be 30 36 months from now i'm saying this

because i know i'm gonna have the video

of this and in three years you're gonna

see me share this clip and be and i'm

gonna tag it i told you so

it's gonna be thirty dollars a cpm

because everybody's gonna figure out how

much attention is really on that

platform so the supply and demand curve

is gonna change just like wine now is a

six seven dollar word got it

okay so now you're gonna run facebook

ads and

first and foremost you're not gonna

outsource it to somebody else you're not

gonna find little susie that's 23 in the

office and be like you you're young you

know social media you're not gonna do

that

you're gonna actually spend 10 hours and

read and watch videos it's crazy you can

learn anything so many people like gary

but i don't know how to use the

instagram product i'm like i get it you

go to google and you search it

okay

that's what you do it's not super

complicated it's crazy anything you

don't know you can search in two seconds

everybody's crippled like they don't

know it's there you do that

and so here you become a practitioner

you actually deploy the facebook ads

yourself so you have some ability and

knowledge so somebody can't hose you you

need to be the person that knows it the

best

you then

target there's a way to target employees

of

ev one more time b2b raise your hands

you guys know who you're going after

i want you to target the employees of

that company

one by one the employees now you take a

step back now you know you're targeting

15 17 22 different businesses if you

want to get really crazy you target them

one by one and you make videos or

pictures just for that company but if

you want scale you can put them all in a

bucket

and now you're gonna make a video or a

picture you know a billboard or print ad

or a television commercial

and you're gonna make it and what you're

gonna do is you're gonna make the

creative start with does your cfo know

does your cto know does your cio know

you know exactly who in that

organization

in that organization is the person that

needs to see that content and you're

going to start the video or your picture

with that statement

and i promise you

for hundreds of dollars

depending on the size your business

sometimes for a thousands of dollars

that person is going to get 12 to 25 to

100 people forwarding them that piece of

content and that piece of content will

be the gateway drug to your sales team

to convert and close it works every time

that's it right i can talk about you

like that right it's practical black and

white you got it right i can talk about

one life and all that but that's

up in the clouds right that's

like who gives a right yeah i care

okay that's one good next

two

the single best arbitrage in marketing

and i want to take a step back i want to

make sure everybody understands

i i think the slide was up there we'll

end with a slide i day trade attention

i am not a technologist i'm not a

digital at this i'm not a

blogger what the

i'm somebody who's obsessed with

attention

from when i was six years old and

instead of standing behind the lemonade

stands i would sit and watch cars drive

by and figure out where to put the signs

i'm sick

you know

to now so i stand here and actually say

if you have the money in i would say

hubspot

if i ran the marketing the number one

thing that i would do

is run a super bowl commercial

i stand here today as a marketer that

trades attention and i believe that the

number one deal in marketing today

is actually a super bowl commercial it's

six million dollars but the entire

country whether they watch it on youtube

or during the game will know exactly

what you're up to

now most people it up because they

try to make some funny video for 30

seconds and then we forget

but that is to me the number one play

the number two play in the world is

facebook video because i believe that

facebook video not confined to 30

seconds

has the ability to build enormous

awareness vaynermedia had a very special

thing happen last week i don't know if

any of you guys caught this but when the

cubs won the world series we ran

who's from chicago

finally right 108

when the cubs won the world series we

ran an ad an ad after the world series

first it was nike then it was us and we

brought back harry kerry from a classic

1984 commercial and that went big and

everybody said we were geniuses and i

got a lot of emails that night and it

was super awesome and i replied to

everyone saying wait until tomorrow

what tomorrow was was the next day we

deployed a two minute plus video where

harry kerry we took 30 years of him

calling games and chopped it up and had

him over two minute video call the final

out of the cubs winning the world series

that video

has 30 million plus views at this point

and has drove a lot more incremental

growth and awareness and b2b activity

for the brand than the commercial did

though the commercial media

like

buying the commercial and making sure

you all saw it cost

multiples

20 30 times more expensive than what we

deployed in a facebook environment

this is what's happening my friends i

want you to become historians of

marketing i want you all to understand

what marketing is we have confusion in

the marketplace of marketing and

branding versus sales we have a lot of

people in this room that are digital

natives and they really understand sales

they understand optimization ui ux they

understand cost per click they

understand how you convert and change

things and things of that nature but

what they don't do is actually brand and

market and if your business is growing

you have to have a healthy balance of

marketing and sales and branding my

friends

i did not buy these sneakers

because nike cookied me and sent

me to some website and converted

me

i bought it because of brand

and there's a lot of people here that

are mixing it up and the reason facebook

is so special is it's the first platform

that i've seen that does marketing and

brand and sales in one place with

underpriced attention if you grew up in

google like i did there was no brand

there we all had blue letters and brand

was eliminated so if i had one plea for

the collective room tonight from a

marketing and branding and business

standpoint it is that we have to

understand the following and this is

tough for the digital landscape but very

easy for the madison avenue landscape

creative

is the variable

creative is the variable of success

the one thing that we all trade on in

this room no matter how

and what you do

whether you're b2b or b2c whether you

sell sneakers or wine or books or your

services no matter what we are all tied

to attention we are all battling for

your attention but once you have my

attention

that creative is the variable

if your video sucks i can give you

9 000 ideas on facebook you will lose

and that to me is something that has to

be debated in this ecosystem much more

the other world i live in madison avenue

where they believe in commercials

they're the other way they just think

it's art if you understand and start

respecting both art and science math and

creative equally friction creating that

diamond you will be a successful

marketer over the next decade the

problem is we usually fall into one camp

or the other so if you sit here tonight

please start understanding respecting

and building your skills around the one

that you don't actually do

because what's happening is we have

unbelievably overpriced attention