Case Study: Gary Vaynerchuk
New York Times Bestselling Author Gets Thousands of Additional Books Sold In Just Six Weeks
New York Times Bestselling Author
Gets Thousands of Additional Books Sold In Just Six Weeks
New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk was in the final stages of promoting his book, #AskGAryVee ahead of his launch.
Although he had hit the New York Times bestseller list with his previous books several times, Gary knew that he can’t take such accolades for granted. Making the New York Times list is as much an editorial choice as it is a numbers game. Gary knew he had to promote above and beyond the efforts he had made in his previous campaigns.
Campaign Goals
Gary’s goal was to achieve New York Times Bestseller status, increase his brand awareness, get paid speaking gigs, connect with influencers and do online podcast interviews combined with bundle book sales.
The team has expressed that they’d like the opportunity for Gary to connect with influencers they didn’t already have access to…
In the case of the #1 social media influencer in the world, contributing meaningfully here was no small feat.
And while book launch campaigns typically take a minimum of 6-8 months, Gary has asked us to do this in just six weeks, supporting his in-house team to help ramp up even more pre-orders ahead of the launch.
Our Approach
Our approach was to connect Gary with successful podcasters and influencers whose audiences are entrepreneurial and would be interested in learning from his tactical, no-nonsense approach.
In an effort to maximize Gary’s results and make sure we use his time wisely, we sought out online entrepreneurs and influencers who were already fans of Gary, and would be happy to invest in purchasing large bundles of books in exchange for the opportunity to do an interview or have him speak at their events. We also negotiated the terms to include paid ads that interviewers would fund out of their own pockets to promote their interviews with Gary.
Results
In just six short weeks, we were able to execute an accelerated campaign supporting Gary’s team, resulting in thousands of additional book sales.
We started by curating a list of select influencers, podcasters, and online entrepreneurs we have relationships with and double-checked with Gary’s team that they hadn’t reached out, to make sure there was no overlap.
Given the quality of our deep-seated relationships with some of the top entrepreneurs in the online marketing space, we got the green light from Gary’s Director of Business Development, Alex De Simone, who said: “Anyone on the list below is fair game. Some I’m not familiar so if you think they’re appropriate I’ll trust your word.”
We started by curating a list of select influencers, podcasters, and online entrepreneurs we have relationships with and double-checked with Gary’s team that they hadn’t reached out, to make sure there was no overlap. Given the quality of our deep-seated relationships with some of the top entrepreneurs in the online marketing space, we got the green light from Gary’s Director of Business Development, Alex De Simone, who said: “Anyone on the list below is fair game. Some I’m not familiar so if you think they’re appropriate I’ll trust your word.”
We started by curating a list of select influencers, podcasters, and online entrepreneurs we have relationships with and double-checked with Gary’s team that they hadn’t reached out, to make sure there was no overlap.
We started by curating a list of select influencers, podcasters, and online entrepreneurs we have relationships with and double-checked with Gary’s team that they hadn’t reached out, to make sure there was no overlap.
Given the quality of our deep-seated relationships with some of the top entrepreneurs in the online marketing space, we got the green light from Gary’s Director of Business Development, Alex De Simone, who said: “Anyone on the list below is fair game. Some I’m not familiar so if you think they’re appropriate I’ll trust your word.”
We quickly reached out to the best of the best in our Rolodex, and negotiated deals where these influencers and podcasters would each purchase at least 500-1,000 copies of the book to give away to their audience, in exchange for the interview. In some cases, we’ve even negotiated that these influencers would run paid online advertising campaigns that they funded themselves to promote their interviews.
We were also able to secure a speaking gig for a large live event for Gary with thousands of attendees. We coordinated the agreement expectations for a large bulk book order in lieu of Gary’s regular (high five-figure) speaking fees.
We connected Gary with influential entrepreneurs such as Giovanni Marsico, Regan Hillyer, Katrina Ruth, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Allison Maslan, and more to help grow Gary’s reach through these entrepreneurs’ rabid following.
The immediate direct results of the connections we’ve made for Gary and the interviews we facilitated include 7,500 additional books sold, a number of high-level virtual interviews reaching over 250,000 people organically (plus more through paid advertising funded by the interview hosts), and a significant speaking engagement in Toronto, Canada.
By supporting Gary’s in-house team, we’ve helped accomplish his goal to hit the New York Times bestseller list with over 100,000 books shipped in the first week.
In Gary’s Own Words…
I really appreciate the help and I know the team got a lot of value out of you helping set up interviews... That takes time and effort and relationship."
