A PROVEN CONTENT STRATEGY THAT GUARANTEES YOU MORE VIEWS! | #THINKMEDIAPODCAST #171
Speaker 2 :
For example, right now current market people are actively typing in how will a recession affect real estate? What does the recession mean for me? So sometimes, like, you get your idea for the hook, right? From that. Like that could be the hook. Here's how a recession affects real estate.
Speaker 1 :
And would you find that even like a Google search?
Speaker 2 :
Correct a little trends for you see.
Speaker 1 :
Google Trends or you see the prediction how will recession? You start saying, oh, the recession related to home buying is on people's minds yeah, like type in recession. You're right, the prediction tells you recession. Real estate yeah so then, you know, to make a video about that.
Speaker 1 :
Well, I'm fired up for this think Media podcast episode with Neil Dingra and we're going to be talking about how to make videos go viral, the Magic formula, and you've gotten millions of views and you've really developed it into a three-part viral video framework. And the first part is the hook. So tell us the framework, and then we'll break down each piece in this episode yeah so the framework is you got to start hot, we got to come out with the most value possible to stop the scroll. So you'd imagine people just scrolling up and down. We got to stop the thumb. So the way to do that with information is to just give the best hook and make it appeal to the most amount of people. So you could have a very narrow topic, like a niche topic based on your industry or whatever you're talking about. But we need to make that niche topic have broad appeal. So that's the best type of hook and that's kind of the 1st place to start. And when people say like what's the most important thing? That is the most important thing, because without that you can't even get into the topic.
Speaker 1 :
So it goes. Hook, problem, solution. We'll get to the other ones in a second, so let's break down the hook. You said niche, topic, broad appeal. Tell people a little bit about what you do and how your content could be almost too niche, but then how you brought in it correct so I'm in the mortgage, real estate, space, and probably some of the most boring subjects. You know, like nobody wants to learn about. Home loans and finance, but they do want to learn about financial freedom. They do want to learn about the solutions that your product provides. So I think a lot of people talk about the process and that's great on YouTube, but it's almost DOA on social because nobody cares about it unless they're in that niche. They're not actively searching for that content. So this is discovery content, meaning like people are just, you're just coming up in the feed, you're coming up in the feed. So it's got to be the most valuable content possible. So for me, I took these topics of mortgage, real estate and said hey, what is the thing the customer really wants? They want, they want to own a home, they want to build wealth, they want to get rich, you know, they want to avoid mistakes. So I started to take those topics and make it with a hook that would cause someone to learn about how they could make money, save money, or avoid a mistake. And those 3 rules like for my hooks, ended up creating hundreds of hooks. And that's how you get more views.
Speaker 1 :
That's amazing. So the question for the viewer is what would have the most broad appeal? What would go maybe a little bit wider so that they can reach new people? And then ultimately, how do you create a poignant hook that will grab attention? And then there's some tactics that I noticed you do in your vertical videos, like the 1st frame is kind of the thumbnail and you also have. Kind of a text hook. What is that best practice? Especially for Instagram where you posted?
Speaker 2 :
That's a really good point. So obviously we're talking about the verbal hook, what you say. It's the first line out of your mouth in the beginning of the video. There's also opportunity for a written hook that appears in the middle of the screen. Your eyes are kind of drawn to it. The video pops up vertically right in the center of the screen for two to three seconds. You've got a written hook. And so that's kind of like it could be exactly what you said. Sometimes that's too many words. So you make us, you know, abbreviated version of what you said. Or like if it's chopped from this podcast, we would make the hook, the written hook, what the hook's going to be. But obviously we didn't say those words, so it could be what you said or could be just what you wanted to convey to the viewer. Now, I've seen the style recently where people are leaving the hook up for the entire video and they're just putting it at the top. So that's a trend that we're starting to see work for some creators. But for the most part, you want to have that written hook up 3 seconds. So people can visually see it, they can hear what you're talking about, and then they decide to stop scrolling, maybe give you their attention for a few seconds if you got them, hopefully you can keep their attention.
Speaker 1 :
So you've got the written hook on screen. Therefore, one of the skills to develop is how to concisely communicate powerful ideas that get attention. You could actually, one of my favorite things to do is Google headlines. Like best headline formulas. Digital marketer I'm speaking at an event called TNC. They're they have great articles on like top 50 headlines and you can kind of copy paste. It's kind of a way of thinking in marketing it's called copywriting, right? And so having those powerful headlines may or may not be the literal thing you're saying, but on screen you want it to be simple and easy to understand. And I've heard too, you also want to kind of avoid. Complexity and best practice is like a fifth grade or less reading level.
Speaker 2 :
So I saw one that was fourth grade right so fourth. Grade so how to get rich or three tips for getting rich will. That makes sense to me. But if it was like, you know, 3 tips on how to bonus depreciate real estate, it's a good niche thing for people who understand, but you might miss them. Or if you're using terminology so you want as broad of appeal as possible. Tell me your process before we get to the rest of the formula. If you're sitting down and planning for a shoot day where you're going to be creating these videos, are you scripting your videos word for word? Are you just outlining them and are you writing those hooks for yourself or do you have someone helping you now that's able to use those good headlines? Come up with those good headlines. What's like a workflow of how many videos you do at once and how you create them?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah so I would separate the writing from the shooting. So a lot of times people sit down to shoot videos, but you don't know what you're going to say. You know what you're going to do, you waste your time, right. So I want to be intentional about what I'm doing. So for the writing part, I will sit down, research topics that are trending, what are consumers searching for like Google trends, answer the public, you know, finding those things and then of those ideas, then starting to think of like just working on the hook. So I write them myself. And then As for the rest of the video, you know, we'll collaborate, the team and I. Sometimes we'll just throw ideas around like how maybe how does this sound, guys? Or we'll just start writing together. And for the most part, we'll write out what we want to say. But we may deviate from that in the video because we wanted to not sound like Super scripted super Robot, so. The hook is definitely scripted like that line is set in stone, but the next lines you could just speak freely if you're if you feel comfortable with it. Some people like knowing exactly what they're going to say so they could put on a teleprompter. But for the most part what I do is I make sure I know the hooks and then I have bullet points on what I'm going to say and I try and just keep it concise. I think like the best performing reels for me are, you know, under definitely under a minute. Sometimes 35 seconds or less have been the ones that did the best for me amazing and so the next part of the formula is the problem. What is that?
Speaker 2 :
So it's like, you know, it's it could be in your hook or it could be something separate. So I'll give you an example for real estate, for example. Like you know the hook is, you know, here's a big mistake I see young home buyers making. The problem is they're waiting till they have 20 % down to buy their first home solution. Do this instead and then I talk about, hey. Paying PMI is not that big of a deal, super cheap if you have good credit and it's actually going to make you money rather than waiting. And during that time, prices go up, you know, so I put in the hook is basically to get them into the video, and then I tell them the problem they're facing and then give my solution. Now sometimes the hook could actually have the problem built into it. Like, you know, this is a, you know, this is a huge mistake to avoid. Or here's the top three things you need to do, and then you just go directly into your solution. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a separate step, but sometimes it can be gotcha so the problem help the listener understand. Are you trying to agitate a problem? Is the whole video kind of based around solving a problem, especially in the education niche if you're teaching something and any other lessons you've learned about problem?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah so you think about if you made a T chart, you know problems and solutions. So if you're in any business, what are the problems your clients face? How do you solve those problems? So those problems that your clients face are things that they're actively searching for solutions for online. They're literally typing it into Google. Like for example, right now current market people are actively typing in. How will a recession affect real estate? What does the recession mean for me? So sometimes, like, you get your idea for the hook, right from that. Like that could be the hook. Here's how a recession affects real estate.
Speaker 1 :
And would you find that even like a Google search?
Speaker 2 :
Correct, a little trends for free.
Speaker 1 :
Google Trends or you see the prediction how will recession you start saying, oh, the recession related to home buying is on people's minds.
Speaker 2 :
Yeah, like type in recession, you write the prediction tells you recession real estate yeah so then you know to make a video about that. And then, you know, magically that video gets way more views than the one that, you know, you didn't use that headline.
Speaker 1 :
Ok so help me make a viral real so I help people with Youtube and so problems. I don't know how to start. It's a little broad. I don't know how to make a video, I don't know how to make a thumbnail, I don't know what camera to buy. So those are some problems. And then the solution I could give it. How could I sauce up those hooks?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah so on YouTube, you know you're talking. About general questions that clients have or people or viewers have. Now if you're in a position where you have specific knowledge on how you did this or your clients did this to make the hook even more powerful, you can say here's how I did this or here's how I made one point seven million dollars. With my youtube channel last year yes that's.
Speaker 1 :
A great hook, right? Here's how my client got. Here's how my client got 2000000 views on their third month or you know, whatever. Like if I were to do it for reals, I would say you know, here's how I grew an audience to a hundred thousand in six months or in nine months or whatever your whatever your achievement was, you could throw it in there powerful it's super powerful because it's real. Now if you don't quite have those results yet, that's okay, you can just be an enthusiast. You don't have to flex. But so then you could say here's how you can. So here's how you can blow up your YouTube channel in 12 months or less. And then you get into it, you know, so I think, I think you want to put what they really want in that hook first. That makes so sense. So if the problem is I want to make money with a small audience rather than being so on the nose, I could say here's how I made twenty two thousand dollars last month in affiliate yeah.
Speaker 2 :
Because you have to think like why do they want a YouTube channel? They want to be Youtube famous. They want to make money. They want a better lifestyle. Here's not improve the quality of your life. Yes, here's how you can quit your job with Youtube so quit your job as the hook. Yes then if the problem is make money on Youtube But you can hook it so many different ways. And you said that earlier, you said you kind of could have sometimes come up with 100 hooks.
Speaker 2 :
Yeah, so, and the thing that's funny is like as we're talking right now. We get into a mode where we could just write 100 hooks right now because it just clicks and then you start to roll. So that's what happens to me anyways. I don't know if I'm unique, but that's the way I start riding them. And then I come up with a bunch and it's actually fun because you're hacking attention. It's like a video game, Instagram. Like, how do we stop the thumb? Well, let's try it this way. You know, let's try it this way. Let's put the hook here, you know, and then you start to see what works and you replicate. Are you ready to start or grow your YouTube channel? Do you feel stuck and need help connecting the dots? Join this free web class where you'll learn the step by step playbook for Youtube success. We've helped thousands of purpose driven entrepreneurs just like you grow their influence with video. Register today for this exclusive training at thinkmasterclass.com so I want to talk a little bit about, you know where we going to go next and what's this all lead to. But the first part of your three-part viral video formula is the hook, the second part is the problem and then the solution. Is something that you're teaching. What other tips do you have on solution? Or just let's make that concrete for the listener?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah, I think you need to give real solutions, but not make it so complex. So a lot of times the mistake creators make is you got a 30 to sixty second video, you're trying to pack a lot of information in there. It's hard to do that on a real now you could direct them to the Youtube video where you give the full strategy and you could put that in your caption. So I think for most creators the solution is going to be. Give them some tangible advice that would really help them, but don't overdo it. And then when in doubt, just expand in the caption so the caption could say expand on it and then direct them to a longer form video on YouTube if you have it. And that's the best way to do that. So you know, for me I try and just educate them on one thing because it's going to be difficult to add a bunch of topics in 3040 seconds. And also one of the things I noticed that gets you a lot of views is getting the people to complete the video so better way to I mean just to increase your odds of completing the video you make.
Speaker 1 :
A shorter video, shorter.
Speaker 2 :
That's easy.
Speaker 1 :
So for you, where are you uploading? Is Instagram your main place?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah, so I'm doing Instagram and then I'm repurposing the content on tik tok, Youtube shorts, LinkedIn, and then now Facebook reels as well.
Speaker 1 :
And so which one is the best to rank them in order for getting results for you? You're doing real estate, mortgage, money, advice, investing. What are best performing for you in order?
Speaker 2 :
It just depends on your goals. So I know a lot of people love tik tok right now because they're blowing up on tik tok. I haven't gotten much business opportunity from tik tok, so it hasn't been a focus of mine. I really love Instagram because it leads to this community that you can build on direct messages. So for me, the cool thing about Instagram is Instagram is trying to catch up with tik tok, so they're actively telling creators, hey, produce more reels. We're going to give you free reach so they're pushing your content for free. And I don't know how long that lasts, but the cool thing about Instagram is now that you build this community, if you engage with people now, they'll do business with you. So I'm just trying to have more conversations. The best way, best platform for me to have more conversations is on Instagram because they see the stories, they see the feed content that leads to conversations in the d m ‘s. Not at least the deals flow. You can't do that on YouTube right now. I don't know the they have direct messages on tik tok, but it's not very it's just not user friendly. It's not really working. It's a lot of spam. So the best place for me to start would be there and you know you might get more traction on one of the other platforms. So that's why I say to start creating there and then repurpose it elsewhere. I think a lot of creators start on tik tok, but then their branded videos are tik tok and I think the other platforms don't like that with that logon. So you have to like remove it first.
Speaker 1 :
What are you seeing happen on Facebook and LinkedIn for you?
Speaker 2 :
So i figured, hey, I've already got the video. I've gone through the trouble of writing the hook, coming up the script, shooting it, producing it, posting it. Now I'm having in the beginning was me, but now I'm having my assistant just take that same video, put it on Facebook reels. Facebook reels are blowing up now all of a sudden because Facebook's post is promoting the same thing. Linkedin, I don't get as much traction, but I still reach people that I would not reach elsewhere. So I've noticed on LinkedIn, people on that platform you'll find that are on no other platform. So they're not active social users, they're just only on LinkedIn. So for example, I've connected with like attorneys and those types of people and the only way they would have found me was on LinkedIn. So you may as well put it up.
Speaker 1 :
And so, LinkedIn reels, are they available to everybody?
Speaker 2 :
There's no reels, it's just in feed video.
Speaker 1 :
So you're just uploading a vertical video?
Speaker 2 :
In vertical video in feed on LinkedIn. It's not going to get promoted like it is on the other platforms, but it still does well gotcha and then what are you experiencing with YouTube shorts? You're repurposing the same videos?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah so I think YouTube shorts is the same thing. They're trying to promote those and get and catch up. For me, I haven't seen my YouTube shorts blow up yet because I haven't focused on it. But I know other creators in our groups and programs that we talked to that are getting a ton of traction on Youtube shorts with the same exact video. So I think you can definitely try different things. It seems like the raw podcast, like cut from long form, does better on YouTube than it does on Instagram, so there's little nuances to each one. But if you don't want to go ahead and create directly for each platform, I would just start with one. Start with.
Speaker 1 :
One and so basically your system is. You're planning and preparing all your videos, shooting them in batches, and then once you have them, you can distribute them across five different platforms. At that point, you don't really have anything to lose. You're playing on house money. If Instagram's working for you, the four other platforms are only possible more reach, more personal brand, more growth yeah and then you can also do other types of content on those platforms. So for example, I like to create a short version of the video for Instagram and all these platforms and then a longer version of that topic where you can go deeper and put that up on YouTube.
Speaker 1 :
O if you teach 3 tips for buying a home, Oregon, investing in real estate or something, you've consolidated it down to a less than 60 second version. And are you staying under 60 seconds so that your platform universal because Tick Tock lets you go longer, Facebook might be shorter and I think you have to get so do you just stay under 60 seconds?
Speaker 2 :
Yeah, I do for sure, because I've just noticed those perform better because we get more completions, easier to retain people.
Speaker 1 :
But if you plan out a vertical video that is under 60 seconds, that may turn into a Youtube video that expounds on the points correct so you could just go deeper because you're not really giving much information, you're just giving really quick headlines and then. You could make an 8 minute video of that for YouTube and it will do well. Now it may not go viral, but that doesn't matter at this point.
Speaker 1 :
So the final thing I want to land the plane on is by committing to creating content like this. What was your journey in terms of how this grew? You mentioned six months, like how much outputs, how much time in your week you have a whole business to run. So what did you commit to and what was sort of just the nuances of that curve if someone's listening to this? You know, you definitely can't guarantee the same results, but you could probably guarantee results. Like you start doing the work, you start putting out vertical videos. You are thoughtful about the hook, the problem, the solution, but it's not going to be without work. Talk about them out of time work, kind of like was it slow at the start then it started to pick up in the journey of you doing this.
Speaker 2 :
Yeah, I think in the beginning people are, you know, I don't have time for content because they don't see that the content is actually going to save you time, so. Every business owner or anybody in sales has certain time they dedicate to prospecting. This replaced all the prospecting time for me because now it's more inbound. So in the beginning I would just have to juggle more. So you know, you just allocate the time. So I would just tell people to put it on their schedule. So I just make the time for writing as if it was an appointment, as if it was this podcast. It's on the calendar. You got to do it and then the time to shoot. Now you have your scripts ready to go, you can just go into lab and shoot. And I think if you do it in an efficient way, it doesn't have to take up so much time. And other thing is like most strategies, the reason why people quit is because they don't get any traction. So you go to the gym 2 weeks and you're like, I'm not getting ripped, so I quit. You know what's the point? But like in this is 1 area where you could start to see traction in the 1st 30 days. And so when you start to see that and you start to get the traction, it becomes like, oh I like this. I'm actually getting somewhere like somebody reached out to me. Or I'm building an audience and it's fast. And I think when this today is like a DD culture, getting some results going is probably the best way for you to get committed to the strategy. And now you're actively like wanting to put more of that time on the calendar because you're seeing the benefit sooner than you would have. Like a couple years ago it didn't even there was no way to go viral on Instagram or you know, tik, tok it wasn't there. So now that you have this opportunity, I think it's going to incentivize you to do it more.
Speaker 1 :
And from the start, did you invest in other people helping you?
Speaker 2 :
No, I saw in the beginning I would just shoot them. Then I would be spending two hours at night editing them and it was just like, you know, if you're running a business now, it's getting you just, it's not the highest and best use of your time. So eventually it started outsource to edit. So I think what would be a great framework for people to use is to find a place where you could shoot these videos, get your equipment dialed in. If you want to shoot with a phone, that's great. We have students in our groups that shoot with just cell phones. Just get the light and the audio dialed and get a good, you know, get a good setup going. And then shoot those videos and upload them to an editor. Because you spending the time chopping them up, putting the title in the text and doing all this is like you know it's going to take you a lot of time and it might keep you from creating that might be the bottleneck. So if I shoot 10 videos in a batch, give them to the editor. Now a week later I got a folder on Google Drive with 10 videos ready to post and I can just keep that going and not get bogged down in the edit because I've seen a lot of creators. They're like, I don't want to outsource the edit because I know you do it the best. And then it becomes a bottleneck because you're adding like one at a time or two at a time, and you're not posting enough.
Speaker 1 :
If someone's listening to this and they're making 50 to eighty thousand dollars a year running their own business or working another job trying to build out this side hustle, what would you say about investing in your business like this? So you're going to put in the sweat equity from sitting down, shooting, buying some accessories? For their phone buying a light kit now they're shooting the videos. How much is it going to cost for them to edit if they upload that, and what justification would you encourage that listener to for why they should invest?
Speaker 2 :
Well, I think you know, you've, you're in a certain position in life because you're playing a game which is very linear. You know, you put in this amount of work and you get this amount of money. And what's cool about building a personal brand and putting out content, building an audience is their upside is unlimited right so there's very few things you can invest in that have that type of upside. You know, you imagine putting money into like a early stage company, that's you. In this case, you're the early stage stock and it doesn't cost you a dime in the beginning could just cost you the time, maybe a little bit of money. But in that case like now you have a return that's not symmetric to the amount you put in. So you put in an amount of time, your return could be massive. So when you start thinking in those terms now you see like hey there's opportunities coming for you that you don't even know yet. And I didn't know many of the opportunities I have today would come from just putting out content and building an audience. Like even just being here with you, right. The only reason that happened is because of putting out videos and you had to start somewhere. So I think in the beginning people just don't really connect those dots. They want to instant ROI But just know that there's some big things out there based on examples of other people who have come before you.
Speaker 1 :
If people want to connect with you, follow you online, check out what you're doing, where you at.
Speaker 2 :
So the best places on Instagram at Neil home.
Speaker 1 :
Boom, Neil, thank you.
Speaker 1 :
Thank you.
