Video has become an indispensable tool for businesses to communicate their message effectively. Whether you’re promoting a product, explaining a concept, or telling a story, video can captivate audiences in ways that text and images alone cannot.
However, creating a great video requires more than just pointing a camera and hitting record. It requires careful planning and a compelling narrative. Both come from a well-crafted script.
In this article, we explore why you need a video script, the common pitfalls to avoid, and the basic steps for writing a killer script that will resonate with your audience.
Why You Need a Video Script
Video has the unparalleled ability to convey emotion, capture attention, and leave a lasting impression on viewers. Whether you’re a business looking to market your products or services, an educator trying to explain a complex concept, or a filmmaker telling a story, video can help you achieve your goals more effectively than any other medium.
When you consider that a whopping 73 percent of consumers prefer engaging a brand through video, and more than 91 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool, the power of video marketing is undeniable.
But, to create the kind of videos that actually engage customers and compel them to respond, you can’t just wing it. An effective video starts with a great script, and by “great” we mean a script that is short, simple, entertaining, informative, and most of all, memorable.
All of that takes intention, and that requires someone to sit down at a keyboard to write a script that checks every single one of those boxes.
Choosing Your Style
One of the first decisions you’ll need to make when creating a video is deciding on the style. Deciding the video style before starting the script gives the scriptwriter direction. Each style has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice will depend on your specific goals and target audience. Here are some examples:
- Talking Head: A talking head video is one of the easiest and least expensive options for an organization with access to someone who has the right on-screen presence to carry a video. With the right person, creating your video could be as easy as pointing the camera at your professional spokesperson and saying, “Action!”
- Animation: Animation is highly engaging but can be expensive. With the right animator in your corner, creative options become almost limitless. Some animators like to work with a completed script, while others prefer to be part of the drafting process, so selecting an animator early in the process is important.
- Explainer Video: When your main goal is to help your audience understand a topic, explainers are the answer. Animations work well here, but an explainer can be as simple as a person making a drawing on a whiteboard. Be creative but most of all, be as clear and concise as possible.
Voice-Over Talent
Whether you use animation or stock footage, you’re going to need a voice-over artist to read your script and bring your words to life. Finding one can be tricky, but there are several websites devoted to helping you find the perfect voice-over talent for your project.
Video Script Basics
Think of the script as your roadmap for the video production process. It provides an outline, a framework, and direction for the entire project, helping to ensure that everyone involved is on the same page and working towards the same goals.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a novice filmmaker, having a well-crafted script can make all the difference in the success of your video.
There are five basic elements to every video script:
- Introduction: Grab your audience’s attention from the start with a compelling introduction that sets the tone for the rest of the video.
- Main Message: Clearly articulate the main message or takeaway that you want your audience to remember.
- Benefits To Your Customer: Remember that your video should be focused on what’s important to your customer, so keep those bullets short and sweet and most of all, relevant to what actually matters to them.
- CTA (Call to Action): End the video with a clear call to action that prompts viewers to engage further with your brand or message.
- Contacts: Provide any necessary contact information to encourage viewers to take the next step.
Basic Steps for Writing a Killer Script
Before you write your script, there are a few things you’ll need to do first.
- Meet with Key Leaders: Unless you’re a team of one, you’ll want to meet with anyone with a stake in your organization’s messaging to gather their opinions and objectives. This will help ensure that the final product meets their expectations and delivers the desired results.
- Craft a Strong Message: Once you have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the video, it’s time to craft a strong message that resonates with your audience. Keep it simple, concise, and focused on the needs and interests of your viewers.
- Prepare the Outline: Before you start writing the script, it’s essential to create an outline outlining the key points you want to cover in the video. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your message is clearly communicated.
- Write a First Draft: This is where you try to put everything possible into the script without making it too long, or too wordy.
- Read Aloud: This step is crucial if you want to know how long the video is going to be and how your words sound when spoken out loud. This is the stage where you refine your script and get everything ready for the final stage.
- Finalize the Draft: Polish the script and pare down the words to the absolute essentials that crackle with creativity and shine with brilliance without boring your audience.
Remember that video is a collaborative medium, and the script is just one piece of the puzzle. Work closely with your videographer, art director, or animator to bring your script to life visually, ensuring that the words and images complement each other seamlessly.
By following these basic steps, you can write a killer video script and create a video project that effectively communicates your message, captivates your audience, and achieves your goals.
Common Pitfalls To Avoid
Regardless of the style you choose, there are a few common mistakes that you’ll want to avoid.
- Show and Tell: Keep in mind that video is a visual medium, so your script must include more than just words. Think about what people are watching as they’re listening. Do the visuals complement the script? Or are you merely showing them what the script is saying? That’s called a “See-Say.” It’s a common mistake of inexperienced scriptwriters. Visuals should complement, not copy, what the audio portion of the video is saying. Take advantage of both the video and the audio capabilities at your disposal to craft a script that both shows and tells the story without duplicating your efforts.
- Make Your Customer the Hero: Another common pitfall is to make your script about yourself and not about your customer. If all you do is talk about how great you are, or how long you’ve been in business, or how much you’ve grown as a company, you’ll never engage your audience. Why? Because customers don’t care about any of those things. What they care about is how to solve their problems. Either you can do that, or you can’t. If you can’t, they’ll move on until they find someone who can.
- Less Is More: Your goal is not to overexplain your company to the customer. You want to engage their imagination so they can see themselves as the hero of the story. Your job is to help them save the day. That shouldn’t take more than two minutes, which is the industry standard for effective video marketing. One minute is even better as long as you have time to say everything you need to say and still have your voice artist reading your script at a comfortable pace.
How To Make It About Your Customer
How do you convince your customers that your company is the one they’re looking for without talking about yourself? Try thinking of your customer as the hero of the story. They want something. They need to find a solution to their problem. They’re unsure about what path or product is the best one for them.
That’s where you come in.
You’re not the hero of the story, but you’re the wise mentor who can show them the way. Think of your company as Gandalf and your customer as Frodo. He wants to go on a grand adventure to save the Shire, but he’s never done this before. He’s unsure of what he needs to do or where he needs to go.
Thankfully, you’re there to point the way and guide him along the path that leads to victory. If he takes your advice and trusts your expertise, he can be the hero who saves the day, makes his boss proud, and maybe even gets a promotion and a raise for listening to your wise counsel.
If your script can put your customers at the center and position your company as the wise mentor who can help them achieve their dreams, you’ll tell a more compelling story that engages the right customers.
Let’s Get Creative
Whether you’re creating a marketing video for your business, an educational video for your students, or a promotional video for your nonprofit organization, remember the video script is the first step to crafting an effective masterpiece that engages your audience.
If you’d like to learn more about how Red Mallard can help you create a compelling video for your business, contact us today. We look forward to collaborating with you.
