10 Important Steps To Creating A Great Video Script

With your planned video, the idea is to influence as many people as possible in as strong a manner as possible. Your video must have an impact. It must speak to your target audience in a meaningful way so that they remember it. The following 10 steps are key to creating a terrific video that does what you want it to do:

1. Start With a Brief

In grade school, we all learned to write an outline. In it, we would put the topics we were going to write about into groups and categories. Creating a video brief is the grownup version of what we did as 10 and 11-year-olds. You have to include all of the things that you want to cover in the video because at the end of the process, before filming, you have to go back to your brief to check to see if you actually did cover everything you intended to cover.

2. What Is the Target Demographic? 

This isn’t really No. 2. It’s more “co No. 1.” You have to tailor the video to the audience you wish to reach. You’re not going to use hip terminology and slang if your video is marketed to seniors, for example. You have to research tastes and trends regarding your product and customise the script to the applicable audience. You may think that your target demographic is people between 18 and 25, but if the research shows that people 26-33 prefer products of that type, then those are the people to whom you must tailor the script.

3. For the Love of a Story

Everyone digs stories. Check out who the life of the party is at your next engagement: It’ll be the raconteur. In a way, you have to be a raconteur when delivering the text of your video. However, you certainly don’t want to read like Napoleon Dynamite or Gilbert Gottfried. The best place is somewhere in the middle. Make sure that the story hits “The Five Ws”: who, what, where, when, and why, with “why” being the most important. Take the data from your study of the target audience and tell them the story in the way research shows that they prefer.

4. A Matter of Length 

On November, 19, 1863, two men spoke at Gettysburg: Abraham Lincoln and Edward Everett. Everett was the leading orator of his day, famous for keeping audiences spellbound. He crafted what is quite possibly his greatest speech, which was two hours of brilliance that moved the audience to tears. Guess what? No one remembers him except historians. Instead, Lincoln’s two minute speech of 272 words became the greatest of all presidential speeches. It was written on his knee on the back of an envelope as he travelled by train to Gettysburg. Keep your script short but memorable.

5. The Hook

In today’s world of the five-second attention span, you have to grab the listener’s attention right away. To do that, you need a “hook.” This is a turn of phrase, a gimmick, or a visual cue relevant both to the purpose of the video and the culture of the times. One of the most famous and effective hooks belonged to McDonald’s. The, “You Deserve a Break Today,” jingle is still remembered, and likely hummed, by folks everywhere. Even 100 years ago, Packard’s line was, “Ask the Man Who Owns One.” Great lines, jingles, and visuals live forever.

6. Speaking of Visuals … 

This is not a book nor an article. It’s a video, so you should use applicable visuals and effects for the video. Don’t overdo it, however, because jumbled videos, while eye-catching, are going to cause confusion no matter who your desired audience is. Pick great music. Highlight your brand. Pick texts that fit the rhythm of the music you picked. All of these items and techniques will create memorable moments in the video, which will lead to increased interest in your product or service.

7. Checking How it Sounds 

You might think it’s the greatest idea ever … until you read it aloud. Suddenly, your groundbreaking and stunning ideas sound like fourth-grade twaddle. Don’t just read it aloud to yourself either. Read it to colleagues. Read it to focus groups. Make sure that you get many points of view about it. Then, as the final arbiter, choose the best bits from all the advice you’ve gotten. Then, fix the script and proceed.

8. No Improv 

You haven’t spent all that time and energy crafting, assessing, and revising your script just to have the performer say something that’s not in it. Even if you’re the one who’s going to read it on camera, don’t vary from the work you’ve already done. Otherwise, what was the point of doing the work in the first place? Trust yourself. You did good work on the script before you even turned on the camera.

9. The Call to Action 

The purpose of your video was to entice someone to buy your product or hire you to fulfil a service. If you don’t add the call to action, then the viewer will be like, “Wow, that was cool!” and then promptly forget everything. Create a sense of urgency in the customer. Don’t browbeat, but a simple, “Contact us to find out more,” will do wonders.

10. Finishing Touches 

Before starting the camera, go over everything. Have others check it too. Be painstaking. Correct mistakes. Polish phrases. Make sure that the technology you’re using to create the video is in good working order. Take a deep breath. Press record, and knock ‘em dead!