It’s becoming harder to drive sales with content marketing, and that’s also true with video. There’s just more competition than ever before.
As an entrepreneur, you have to deal with a sharp rise in folks abandoning traditional jobs to squeeze in right next to you in the world of entrepreneurship.
The result? More people are generating content to lure online audiences. It doesn’t end there, though. You also have to tussle with big businesses and their huge budgets crowding the internet with a constant deluge of content.
With everyone jumping on the video marketing train, just doing video isn’t going to get you to your destination. That means every video you create must have a specific intent and purpose.
A video script lets you design the strategic experience the audience should have when they watch your video. It’s the experience that sets up the transformation of a viewer from prospect to customer, driving up your sales.
So, in this blog, we’ll explore how to write a script for a video. Here you’ll find six critical tips to get you started with the video scriptwriting process. Learn this skill and every video you do will play its part in helping you grow your audience, improve conversions and boost income.
Here’s what we’re going to tackle:
- What is the Goal of a Video Script?—drilling down to the goal sets your video up for performance.
- How Writing a Video Script Gives You an Edge—learn the difference between videos that get watched and videos that get results.
- How to Write a Script for a Video—video scriptwriting tips to make your videos work for your business.
In today’s hyper-competitive environment, the battle for attention is tough. With more businesses aggressively courting their customers and clients, the power dynamic shifted dramatically. Ordinary people have far more control over how they choose to spend their time and, ultimately, their hard-earned scratch.
A tonne of choice is paraded in front of online audiences every day. Free tutorials, free books, free consultations; audiences have a smorgasbord of seductive options to choose from every time they log in.
With that said, if you’re creating videos to market your business, you need strong compelling content that grabs and holds attention. When you’re producing videos to connect with people it helps to imagine your audience with hands on hips saying, “Who are you and why should I care?”
It’s critical to stand out if you’re going to have any chance of, first, engaging viewers and, secondly, inspiring them to action.
In a sea of choice, you have to be a beacon that draws people in.
1: What is the Goal of a Video Script?
There are two goals in each video you create—the goal for your viewer and the goal for your business. If you don’t meet the goal for your viewer then you can’t meet the goal for your business.
The objective for your viewer is a great viewing experience. You want your audience to be engaged, enjoy your video and get value from it. Once you hit those targets then you increase your chances of achieving the business goal for your video.
First, there’s the immediate business goal—the call-to-action. It could be prodding viewers to join an email list, book a call or download your app. Then there’s the overarching goal—building your brand by proving your worth, authority and credibility. The overarching goal is to get viewers to see you as someone they can do business long term. You’re nurturing relationships and each video is a key part of that courtship process.
To use a sporting analogy, the immediate business goal in each video is the game. The overarching business goal is all about the championship. Don’t worry, we’ll explain more about this later on.
2: How Writing a Video Script Gives You an Edge
With the crush of content online, you need your videos to cut through the noise to get attention. Getting that attention, though, is only the first step. Once you’ve wrangled that attention, you have to make the best use of it.
There are many other entrepreneurs making videos in your niche. The question is, how do you give yourself an edge over the competition? We’ll explain by giving you a tale of two content creators.
One entrepreneur is making videos reasonably well, and the presentation is affable and charming enough. However, beyond likes and comments, the content doesn’t stimulate any tangible results like increased sales.
On the other hand, another entrepreneur making videos in the same niche is getting more concrete business results, building long-term relationships with folks who are willing to spend when offers are presented. This entrepreneur begins the video content creation process with a video script. Through their scripts, their content is far more deliberate about what they’re trying to accomplish with video for their business. More thought and effort is invested in convincing audiences that, ‘This person knows what they’re talking about. This person is an expert.’
Writing a script helps you get clear about what you need to say and ensures every sentence has a place and purpose in the video. That’s the difference between videos that get likes and comments and the occasional email sign-ups and those that build a powerful business.
Our take: There will always be thousands of entrepreneurs creating videos to market their businesses. Online audiences will follow many of them, but will only buy from some of them. The choice usually boils down to the quality of impact a video has on them.
Entrepreneurs who put thought and planning into their videos create a better overall experience for the viewer. They earn trust, build connections, nurture relationships and create brand loyalty. Programming that outcome for your video content happens in the scriptwriting process.
3: How to Write a Script for a Video
If success leaves clues then successful videos tend to follow certain steps. It’s true that there are many different types of videos. Ultimately, though, effective video scripts usually boil down to a few specific actions and characteristics.
We’re going to take you through a few key steps for writing video scripts that can help you achieve the goals you’ve set out for your business.
1: Identify your target audience
A good script begins not with words, but the action of pinpointing the audience your video is meant to resonate with. Without a clear understanding of who you’re trying to reach, your videos will always fall short of their target.
As an entrepreneur creating videos to market your business, your target audience is, essentially, viewers who can go on to become your customers. When writing your video script, you need to speak to your ideal customer otherwise your content will misfire.
Who are they? What are their goals? What are their interests? Where do they spend most of their time on the internet? That’s the sort of information that will help you to put together a useful audience profile.
Our take: You can wind up spending an awful amount of time creating content for people who’ll never convert from viewer to customer.
There’s a syndrome in producing videos for business purposes we like to call feeding the fish. This is what happens when videos are done with no specific audience in mind. Consequently, you’ll get a lot of nibblers, but not your ideal folks—the people likely to appreciate the true worth of your content and the benefits of diving deeper with you.
It’s crucial that you identify the audience who will best appreciate and value what you do. That has to happen in the scriptwriting process.
2: Sketch an outline
You have two choices—you can write an outline or you can just dive right into the scripting process and then endure two or three frustrating rewrites, fixing errors made in the mad dash to just get one video written and shot.
When you start your scriptwriting with an outline, you have a solid roadmap that will get you where you need to go much faster, and with far fewer wrong turns.
A basic video script outline should include your video topic, opening, main points, closing and a call to action.
Our take: A script outline is possibly the most strategic step of the video scriptwriting process. Given that you want to write something that speaks to audiences and accomplishes the goals we talked about earlier, an outline gives you a bird’s eye view of how you’re setting out to hit those targets.
In examining the outline, you can make the necessary tweaks before going further into the writing process to be sure the video performs as intended. It’s all about getting it as close to right the first time around.
3: Write a great hook
Start off with a strong opening when writing your video script.
We’ve been banging on quite a bit about the unending buffet of choice your audience has. It’s not just thousands of other videos trying to capitalize on their attention. There’s also other forms of content, plus the daily bits of their lives each battling to carve out pieces of their precious time.
When viewers click on your video, that’s just your foot in the door. Getting them to let you all the way in means saying something that encourages them to keep watching.
At the very beginning of your video, they need to know WHY they should care about the information you’re going to share with them. This is called your hook.
Our take: One of the easiest ways to come up with a strong hook is by tapping into a niggling pain point viewers might have. That way, the first words they hear resonate with their own experience.
When your video opens with a relatable pain point or challenge, getting the viewer to watch the rest of your video becomes far easier. They’re now invested in getting an answer to the problem you’ve flagged.
4: Structure your information logically
Identify the points you want to include and then organise them in a cohesive, logical manner. Remember, you’re creating a strategic experience you want your audience to have when watching your video.
The content should be easy to follow, laid out in a way that makes sense and is simple for the viewer to grasp and retain. Avoid randomly jumping from one idea to another. Viewers will lose track of what you’re saying. If that happens, they’re likely to lose interest in your video.
So, when you’re writing your video script, you want to create a logical progression from one point to another.
Our take: This is a good spot for a throwback to what we were saying earlier about the goal of your video script.
Each video should be programmed to achieve a certain goal. That goal is encoded in the video through the script. In structuring your information logically, you create an illuminated path for the viewer to follow—Point A to B then C and, ultimately, to your call-to-action. See how that works!
5: Relevant Story
One of the things we really love about creating video content is putting our own unique stamp on our message. 100 people may create a video about learning to speak confidently on camera but no one tackles the same topic quite as we do.
So, how do you achieve a unique stamp on your content? Well, you want to use relevant stories in your videos. Infusing your video content with stories that riff on the main topic does two things: it helps you stand out from others, but more importantly, it nurtures those all-important relationships with audiences.
You want people consuming your content to feel like they really know you, even though you’ve never met. That’s the power of storytelling in your videos.
Now, when we say relevant stories, we’re talking about splicing in accounts of your own personal experiences. These stories should link back to the main theme of the video. They’re what will help viewers see you as a real person with similar hopes, dreams, flaws and aspirations.
Our take: In the two-pronged goal of each video, the relevant story works to accomplish the second we identified—the overarching goal. Nurturing relationships is key to getting viewers to see you as an indispensable partner.
Any video can flood viewers with tips, techniques and sage advice. There’s no shortage of information online. What people are searching for is a connection and the trust that follows.
Even though viewers can see and hear you in your videos, you’re still a stranger to them. Personal stories bridge that one last gap left by the digital divide between us, letting viewers in. In turn, they let you in as someone they’ve come to know.
6: Have a clear call-to-action (CTA)
Yes, it’s the old call-to-action we’ve already alluded to. The purpose of the CTA is to nudge viewers along to the next step of the journey with you. This is the part of the video where you maximise your investment of time and effort in creating content for audiences.
It’s safe to assume you’re not making videos merely for the love of the medium. Ideally, there should be an equal exchange to justify the effort you’ve put into creating good content. The viewers have gotten valuable information, so it’s only reasonable you get something in return.
Your call-to-action must be specific and enticing enough to get viewers to act.
Our take: Don’t underestimate the people who’ve made it to the end of your video. They’ve seen the value in what you’ve shared and were interested enough to see it through.
In your call-to-action, viewers should get a sense that there’s a real benefit to taking the next step. They must see how they can benefit from taking the action you’re asking from them.
For example, you don’t simply want to ask people to sign up for your newsletter. Instead, ask them to sign up for a free guide, checklist or cheat sheet that will help them move their goals forward. This is the kind of call-to-action that will keep the engagement going.
Video Scriptwriting: A Foundation for Video Success
One of the biggest challenges we’ve encountered with our clients is this: they know their videos can get them better results, they just don’t know how to achieve it. This beginner’s guide to scriptwriting can help improve the performance of your video content, both with audiences and your business.
Now, there’s more to video scriptwriting than we could possibly have wedged into this one blog post. However, with these basic ingredients, you can immediately start fine-tuning the videos you make to market your business.
As crowded as the online landscape is with wall-to-wall digital content, video continues to dominate as a powerful tool to connect with audiences. In the right hands, hands empowered with the skill of video scriptwriting, your videos can be an unstoppable force.
