How to Drive Sales With Video with Ken Okazaki - Part 2

Welcome back to Real Estate Business Builders. This is part two of Ken Akasaki's how to Drive Sales with Video. We all know that video is important, but are we actually doing it? And if we're doing it, are we doing it the right way? If you missed part one, go back one episode, because this is not something you want to miss. So enjoy part two of how to Drive Sales with Video.

So if we go back to the beginning, I pose this question, quality or quantity? And what I want to dial in here for you is to show you that it's not quality or quantity. It's actually in order to get to quality. If you're starting out, if you don't already have a big fan base, if you're not, if you don't have more people pulling you, begging you for content than you trying to push it out, then you need to do a lot of quantity in order to get to the quality. Because let's think about this. If you want to become a professional speaker, what do you do? You speak on more stages. If you want to get good at riding a bicycle, you ride the bicycle. If you want to get good at ice skating, you spend a lot more time ice skating. If you want to get good at creating video content, you create a lot of video content. It's through the quantity that you achieve quality. Nobody in their right mind would spend hours studying, days, months, studying how to ride a bicycle, and then expect that the first attempt is going to work out really well. It's just not how it works. It's just getting on, falling, getting on falling, getting on, falling. And then finally you make some progress and you keep going and going and going. And it blows my mind how many people think that they need to hire a consultant, they need to take another course, they need to buy a software, they need to buy a camera and a computer and a light and this microphone. And it's like you're trying to build this contraption when you haven't even figured out how to keep your balance on a bicycle. And that's the same with video. Start with your phone, make a whole bunch of video using a simple format, and then that's how you achieve quality. Now, quality comes in a lot of different ways, but for me, quality means it's the quality of the action that your viewer takes. It's the quality of the message your viewer understands, and that's the quality you want because then you can move an audience and get them to actually do things. So I am going to pause here for a second. Let's see if I got any questions here. You can hire a social media professional. Juan that is absolutely true. If you know some people, that's great. You could share that resource. I have a few ideas too. Rita says, my daughter is a video producer. I'm going to use her. Perfect. Child labor is awesome. I do it all the time. Rita also says, I've been talking to her about doing this for me. She's on board. Thanks for scheduling the speaker. Thanks, Rita. Batching is key, says lars. Then recommend 30 second video on TikTok. What about YouTube? Patricia really good question. YouTube has two main categories. You've got the YouTube normal videos. You want those to be about 12 minutes long. That's the ideal length. But then YouTube has a whole new category called YouTube shorts, and the exact same videos will work on YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. Dan says, what a great insight. Quality will improve. Quality, absolutely. I mean, Lars is so damn good at coaching. It's because he's done several thousand hours of coaching, right? Whatever you're good at, whether it's real estate or something else, you're good at it because of the thousands of hours you've put into it. I'm good at video because I've done so many thousands of hours of video. It's that simple. Lindsay says, hey Ken, how do you analyze which of the variables makes the top videos the most successful? When there are so many variables in the beginning, I'd recommend you start with just looking at the content structure, because I think you're going to get tripped up if you look at the more complex things like I look at things like literally what percentage of the frame is being filled by the person's face, how many words per minute they're speaking, right? How much, how much hand gesturing is there, how many, you know, emotional words versus logical words are being used. Now that gets really complex. But in the beginning, it's the topics you want to think about. I'm talking about health, I'm talking about money, I'm talking about, you know, my story. And then once you dial in the topics, then you can start getting more granular. But none of this will make sense unless you have a volume of work out there. If you put out two or three videos, do not expect to see a pattern there. If you put out at least a hundred videos, that's when you can start measuring. And usually a hundred videos is going to take, you know, five, maybe ten sessions for you. So get the volume of work out there, get the body of work, then start Measuring and then figuring out what's successful. Joel says how important is SEO research? Keywords, tubebuddy, etc. Joel not important at this point at all because TikTok format is not SEO driven. It's really not. It's discovery driven. What that means is when people it used to be on YouTube, you search for a solution, right? How to fix washing machine or in how to find a real estate broker.

Right?

And, and SEO will bring that up nowadays with TikTok YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, you're being shown things that you didn't search for. You're being shown things that you didn't subscribe to or follow. The algorithm is throwing stuff up on your feed because they are looking at your previous previous behavior online. That means your viewers and they're showing you what they think you're going to like. It's guessing AI is in there saying oh I think they might like this and they're pulling it from everywhere. So in order for you to get noticed, it's not about followers anymore. Like there some people have very, very few followers but hundreds of millions of views. It's because people don't need to subscribe to you. What needs to happen is you need to make really good interesting content and then it will get suggested to your viewers. So it's not about SEO, it's not about followers, it's about making more interesting content. It's that simple. Okay, so I hope that answers your question, Joel, but if you're making the full length videos, which is another topic for another day, then you do want to think about SEO. Ed asks how do you measure performance top performed by view count. The most important metric is minutes viewed because you, you could have a 10 minute video and people watch seven minutes of it, right? Or you could have a one minute video and people would have to watch seven of those for it to equal the same amount of time. So it's how many minutes aggregate are being watched and most of the social media platforms will give you that number. But if you just need the quick and dirty, then it's views first, then comments second, likes third and then shares. Okay, in that order. Analysis paralysis will absolutely. Fatima says how many hashtags are effective? Hashtags are not effective like they used to be. I think on Instagram it's still kind of a thing, but mostly for photos for reels. Again, like I said before, people aren't searching hashtags. The everybody is copying what TikTok did to become the most visited website in the whole world more than Google and what they did is instead of showing you what you say you want, they show you what your underlying behavior tells them you want. So people aren't searching hashtags. People are simply the algorithm is feeding stuff to them. So that's where the game completely changes. It's not hashtags, it's not SEO. It's making interesting videos. Okay, so if there's any other questions, I'll take them right now. Otherwise, I'm going to spend like five minutes with one of you to help you plan and shoot a video. Live with me. Mary says, pick me. So that's the disqualifying phrase.

Hey, Ken, I've got a couple questions here.

Okay, let's do it in the Q and A.

So responding to comments and liking them, is it important to engage with, you know, comments and liking comments on your videos?

Absolutely, if they're. You're going to start recognizing what buyer or like prospect comments look like. I think that in the beginning, the majority of your comments are going to come from your friends and supporters. And we love our friends and supporters, but they're not your customers.

Right.

So. And you're going to start recognizing what their comments look like. Like, hey, great work, you know, great video, Ken. And you know, I'll give them a thumbs up, but I also know I'm not going to, you know, spam their inbox and say, hey, let's get on a call and talk about buying this, you know, this property that I found. Because, you know, they're just there to support you. So comments, look for new comments from new commenters, because that usually means someone just discovered you. If there's likes, then I think it might be worth, like in the beginning stages, looking at who liked your video and seeing what kind of profiles are looking. But in the end, when I, when I gave you three different things, ways to ask. One of them is dm, the other is comment.

Right.

So when you look for comments, the best kind are when you tell people to type a certain word to indicate interest in what you're talking about. So if I say something like, hey guys, I'm about to do, I'm about to put together a free masterclass where in this masterclass, I'm going to give away 40 titles that perform the best for my clients. And one of them actually, these are titles for videos. And one of these actually got 14 million organic views, which, by the way, is a real thing. If you would like me to send this to you or you'd like to attend my masterclass, which by the way come together. Then just type the word 40 down below. Now if that piqued your interest, you type 40. There you go, Steve. First one. And that's a specific comment attached to an intent.

Right.

So this is how we're using the comments section as a lead indicator. Now what's happened is that I've gotten you to, in a way, start the conversation by telling me you're interested in something. So now when I message you, you're not going to say, hey, who the heck are you and why are you writing me? Stop spamming me. It's going to be more like, hey, thanks for commenting 40. And the conversation starts with you responding to their comment. Therefore they're kind of the initiator here in the one on one thing because I was broadcasting to, you know, everybody and then you commented specifically to me. So that's one thing to think about when you're soliciting. Engagement is, is give people a reason to, to connect with you to start a conversation. Is this making sense as far as like what engagement to look for?

Yep.

I'm going to. There's three more questions I'm going to. We're going to do them rapid fire. So Jeremy, who has a YouTube channel. He has. He was growing videos to tens of thousands of views after four months of consistent posting. But then they dropped to the hundreds in the last couple of weeks. Anything go on with Instagram or Facebook that you know of? It's okay if you don't know anything about it.

I, I would just say that be prepared for more turbulence like this. It's. They're always recently with TikTok and all this uncertainty, everybody's, you know, adjusting the algorithms. So when stuff like this happens, it's, it's really hard to tell. You should. Your guess is as good as mine right now.

Okay.

Any preference between like walk and talk videos versus shooting from a static place?

Absolutely. My preference is the one that performs better. Try both. See which one performs better.

Awesome. Outfits and videos any. Does anyone care about an outfit? This is a guy asking, but here's.

What I would say is, is plain clothes. That means no complex patterns. What happens with complex patterns is it's. It's harder for the eyes to focus on your face.

Right.

I always wear completely plain clothes because it brings the eyes up here.

Right.

If you have patterns and stuff, people get distracted, they look around too much and it's just, you just want the attention up on your face and that's why you want plain clothes when you're performing in general. Unless it's about the clothing itself.

So. So if you're batching, if you're doing your month worth of content, Ken, is you'll wear that T shirt for all of them or change to a black or it.

You know, I stopped getting hung up on. On what I wear.

My.

If you look at my wardrobe, it's all just plain clothes. I don't have any pattern. I think. Yeah, I have no pattern. So I wear just whatever I'm wearing that day. And every time it'll probably be something slightly different, but it's generally going to be darker clothes because that brings. Okay, what happens is when you have really light clothes, like white, then the camera, most cameras are going to bring the brightness down and it's going to make your face look darker. So I want my face to look brighter than my clothes. It's just a contrast thing. And, and it brings the attention to the. Your eyes will automatically go to the brightest part of the screen. So that's just a side thing that I wasn't even planning on sharing. But when it comes to closing, think of it like that.

We've got about 15 minutes. I want, I want you to do your thing with. Okay, one or two, folks.

Okay, here we go. Here is if you want to do the session with me and if you don't, then completely ignore this. But you want to type the word me with 12Es. If you get 13, you're disqualified. If it's 11, you're disqualified. Oh, Rita. 1, 2, 3, 4. Rita has nailed it. Rita, you're the one. Go ahead and unmute yourself. Lars, could you help spotlight Rita here with me?

Yes.

Congratulations.

Whoever on the team can grab Rita. Oh, there she is. All right, add spotlight.

All right, awesome. Hey, Rita, nice to meet you.

Hi, how are you?

I'm fantastic. You've been so engaging this time and I love your clothes, by the way. So nice. We're going to go pretty fast here because that's the whole point of this. And I'm going to. Without much preparation, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to ask you some lightning round questions and help you formulate a piece of short form content that's going to help your business.

Okay, you ready for that?

Okay, so tell me real quick, who do you help and how do you help them?

I usually help friends and family who are dealing. A lot of them are dealing with houses that they may be inherited and they need to deal with that or something like a property that they've kept for years and now they're trying to get rid of it or something.

So someone's trying to sell their. Get rid of. Sell their property.

Right.

Right.

Friends and family. Now, tell me, typically. Well, when's the last time you've actually done this successfully?

Like. Like yesterday.

Yesterday. Excellent.

Yes.

You must have a lot of friends and family now.

I do.

You do, Absolutely. Now tell me. Think of somebody. Don't tell me who they are yet, but put a certain person in your mind who you help to achieve this, and they are over the moon, happy about the result. You got them. You got that person in your mind?

I do.

Okay.

Man or woman?

Woman.

Okay.

Age? Like, 20s, 30s, 40s?

50S?

Actually. 50s and 60s seems to be my age range.

But how about this particular woman? How old is she?

60S, 60s.

Okay.

Married?

No.

Single.

Okay.

Kids?

No kids.

Okay.

Now, what's her occupation?

She just retired from being a cashier.

Okay.

Retired cashier. Now, tell me about the property that you helped herself. How did she get it?

Her sister died.

Okay.

She inherited it.

And she inherited it, and it was pretty low value, but we, you know.

So when you say low value, what was the estimated value and the sale price, like, when. When she got it?

115.

Okay.

Now, I'm sure you helped her in some way. How much did she end up letting it go for?

$105,000.

$105,000.

Okay.

So what was special about this that you helped her get? So if it was worth 115,000 and you sold it for $105,000, is it like the speed that you're able to do this? Was that what was. Made her so happy, that.

That had a lot to do with it?

We.

I worked with her a lot through the, you know, sort of cleaning out the property and for sale so that it would get the most because there were people offering her. Offering her 60 for it.

Okay. So.

Okay, that's.

That's good to know. Now, when. When professionals work, there's usually some kind of process involved.

Right.

For example, when someone comes to me, I take people through three simple stages. Number one, I got to figure out what their goal is. What's your ultimate goal? A lot of people are just like, I want to, you know, get X amount of leads and sales, and I got to figure out exactly where they're at, how much experience do they have, and, you know, what's their skill level. And the third thing is we create a roadmap to go from where they are to where they want to be, and then I present that plan. Now, in your case, if you were to break down how you help this woman and put into either three or four stages. Could you walk me through that?

Our first stage was just really dealing with her accepting the value of the property that she was actually dealing with, not her remembrance of what it was or her imagination of its sort of larger value. Then we talked through the cleaning it out and getting it ready for sale, doing what she had to do to. And I couldn't do that for her. I could just poach her into it.

So would you say you supported her through that?

Maybe.

Yes.

Okay.

And the third part is probably finding.

The right buyer, right?

Right. Putting it, setting up the listing, taking great pictures that it made the house look so much better than it actually was.

Okay, now tell me about how long was this turnaround time?

We listed and got it sold, got a ratified contract within two weeks.

Two weeks. Okay, so what would you say about this process? Was she the most impressed? About what? What's the thing that you think she's so like, makes her over the moon happy about your services?

Well, we've known each other since we were children, and so it was my commitment to getting her to the finish line with this whole process.

Got it, Got it.

So we're gonna. All this information you just gave me, I'm gonna show you how this can be packaged into a hook, a story and an ask.

Right.

So the hook is going to be. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of phrase this and then second, I'm going to direct you to do it for me. And this is all being recorded. You could ask Lars later on if you can get it. So the hook is going to be, I just helped a 60 year old single woman sell a house for over 100 grand in less than two weeks.

Right.

You make that bold statement, right?

Yes.

Second one is I've done this multiple times and I always use the exact same three steps. Number one is acceptance of the real value of your house, not your pipe dreams. Number two, preparing for sale, including taking photos with a technique that makes them look much more valuable than you might have even remembered it. Number three is finding the right buyer and all that legal stuff that needs to happen.

Yes, Right, Right.

And then so that's the story, right? I mean, that's, that's the teach you, teach them your process. And the third one is, if you're looking now, if you have a property that just needs to go yesterday, then type the, type the word yesterday down below and let me show you how that works.

I love it.

Right, so now I'm going to direct you here. You're literally just going to repeat after me.

You ready?

So the bold statement is I just helped a single 60 year old woman to sell a house for over 100 grand in less than two weeks. All right, now look right at the camera. I can count you down. 3, 2, 1.

I just helped a 60 year old woman sell a house that. Oh, I can't. I can't remember the words now.

Sell her house for over 100 grand in less than two weeks.

I just helped a 60 year old woman sell her house for over 60 grand in less than two weeks. I did this last week for a $270,000 too.

Okay, you could have done that too. That's fine.

Yes.

So. So we got the hook in there. And I want everybody to realize that you don't have to do the whole thing at once. You do one section at a time. You only have to be a rock star for like 10 seconds at a time. That's it.

Right.

Okay.

And then your editor is going to cut this up. So the second part is, I've done this multiple times. Because you want to build authority, right? I've done this multiple times and I always use the same three steps. Can you see that for me?

I've done this multiple times and I always use the same three steps.

I want you to gesture with your hands. Number one, I need my clients to accept the true value of the property, not the pipe dream.

Number one, I need my clients to accept the real value of the property, not the pipe dream.

Number two, I help them prepare to sell and I want to share. And I use a special technique with photos to increase the value.

Can you do that again?

Number two, I help them to prepare the property for sale. And I even use a special technique with photos to help increase the value.

Number two, I help them to prepare the property for sale. And I also use a technique to make the photos look great so that property really pops.

Okay, let's do that one more time. Number two, I help them prepare the property for sale. And I even use a special technique with photos to help increase the value.

Number two, I help them prepare the property for sale. And I even use a technique so the photos are great for sale to prepare it for listing.

Okay, we're gonna do this just that last part again. I know we're running out of time. And I even use a special technique with photos to help increase the value.

I even use a special technique with photos to increase the value.

Perfect.

And Then number three, I help them find the right buyer and do all that complicated legal stuff that nobody else wants to do.

Number three, I help them find the right buyer and help them through that complicated legal stuff that no one wants to do.

Perfect. If you want me.

No.

If you want help to get rid of your property like it's on fire and comment fire down below.

If you want help to get rid of your property like it's on fire, comment fire down below.

Okay, one more time with a bit of excitement and point. Yes.

Okay.

Okay, go for it.

If you want me to help you get rid of your property.

Let's not do.

Let.

Let's not do me and you, because that's a bit too direct. You might scare people off like they're making a commitment. If you want help to get rid of your property like it's on fl. Comment, fire down below.

If you want help to get rid of your property like it's on fire, comment help down below.

Okay, Help works. That's it. It's that simple, guys. It's a wrap. And what's going to happen, Rita, is if you hand this over to. Was it your. Your daughter.

Daughter, yes.

She'll know exactly how to cut that up and make it into concise. I'd say. This is a 35 second piece. And that's it. You've got it. My work here is done and we have created a superstar. Rita, you discovered a superstar. So I. We have three minutes left. Lars, I'm going to hand the mic back to you. I thought we might have time for two people, but there was just one. You guys understand? No, no, don't be sorry at all. I had so much fun. I think that everybody here did too. And if you were paying attention, you would probably have come up with a whole bunch of ideas on how you can produce the kind of content that's going to get your audience engaged and find somebody, most importantly, to help direct you like I did her. Give her that feedback. It could be remote and you could just record on zoom or there's a lot of other tools. If you reach out to me later on, I'll share with you what we use. I don't have time to do it right now. Lars.

Yes. So, Ken, what's the. What's the easiest way. I know you've got a super valuable Facebook group. What's the easiest way folks can get into your world?

Yeah, I think probably the best way is go to videomarketingcommunity.com and that'll redirect my Facebook group. To be honest, it's a little bit. I haven't posted in there for a little while, but since we're doing this, if anybody comes in there, I'll greet you personally and you can ask me all your questions in there. And I've got a whole bunch of free content in there that. That I think will is a great start.

Yeah, there's so much good stuff in there. So. Video marketing, community.com Ken, appreciate you. Appreciate everything you do for our community. We'll talk soon.

All right. Thank you.

Awesome.

Oh, man. Hopefully you enjoyed those two episodes as much as I did. He is someone that knows how to use video to drive sales. In your real estate business, if you know you're at the point in your journey journey where you want to grow, but you don't know how, you don't have a roadmap, you don't have a blueprint. You're not surrounding yourself with agents that are doing double, triple, quadruple, 10x more business than you're doing, it's time to take the next step. Grab a free business growth assessment. Just go to rebs growth assessment.com that's rebs growth assessment.com and we'll see you over there.