How to write a video script for your website

Will your video increase business? Will it go viral? Use these tips to improve your odds.

Sometimes a video is the best medium for your message. It can pack so much information into such a short timeframe, while conveying tone, emotion, visuals, music… Indeed, a short (one- to two-minute) video is often the best way to introduce your business, whether it’s a splash on your website home page, or playing in a loop at your trade-show booth.

Of course, video isn’t for everyone, or every purpose. Most obviously, it takes more time, effort, and expense to create than, say, simple written copy. But if you’ve decided it’s right to pull the trigger on video, congratulations! It’s worth the investment. Here are some pointers to help you do it right.

Start with your audience. We’ve said this before, and we can’t say it enough. Even though your video will be promoting your business, it’s not about you. It’s about your customers. It’s about addressing their concerns, keeping them engaged, and convincing them that your business is the solution to their problem(s). Empathize. If you were them, what information would you be seeking? What kinds of tone (humor, serious, hard-sell) would you most likely respond to? See our other posts about “starting with your audience” for more tips.

Distill. It’s safe to assume that you’re starting with a lot more than two minutes’ worth of information to present. Don’t worry—that’s almost always the case. But there are ways to bring your message down to its essential elements, because you need to accommodate your viewer’s attention span, and even one to two minutes is a lot to ask!

If you’ve already done some marketing, leverage some of the elements you have already created, such as your defined customer value proposition, elevator speech, or seven-second sound bite. Don’t have them? Don’t panic. You can still create your script. (Although those other elements are still important to have, and you should create them, even if it means getting help.) Simply list all the benefits your business provides to prospective customers. Make as big a list as you like. Next, prioritize them in terms of how important they would be to prospects who will only give you one minute of their time. That list will get real short, real fast. Voilà: you've got the key points to cover in your script.

Work within your budget. Unlike other media, video is expensive. In written copy, it’s easy to describe, say a vast room inside a castle. On radio, you can “create” that space by simply adding an echo. But on video, you might need an actual location, or a set, or a background illustration or 3D rendering for animation. So know what you can afford to do before you script anything. On the high end, you can have sets, multiple actors, costumes, props… like making a movie. Mid-range, you might have motion graphics, music, and a voiceover. Low-end, you might just have a voiceover, titles, and still photos. But if that’s your budget, don’t fret; even a “glorified PowerPoint” can be very effective if done correctly.

Start with the big ideas. Many people, having seen a properly formatted video script (either in two-column [i.e., “Video” and “Audio”] or Writers Guild [WGA] or screenplay format), assume that that’s the way to start. It isn’t. It’s far more important that you get good ideas and set them down first. So if you think your video will have a “hero” who represents a prospect, and your business will make his or her life better in, say, three different ways, start sketching that out first. Sometimes it’s good to just think of—and write down—the audio, with little notes to yourself as to what the key visuals will be. You can easily add those in later on. Ditto for music, sound effects, on-screen titles, transitions, etc. As a final step, you can format your script in two-column style (see the sample on our Portfolio page), which will be helpful to your production company.

Open with a tease. The very beginning of your video is arguably the most important part. Your audience won’t wait for your exciting ending if they weren’t hooked from the beginning. So a grabber/teaser/enticing question can be very helpful to your structure. And it also sets up the payoff—in which your business saves the day. And of course your video should end with a clear call to action—what you want them to do as soon as they finish watching that video. Visit your site? Call you? Go to your store? That’s up to you.

Make it produce-able. Read your script aloud and time it with a stopwatch. Share it with your production company and get their feedback; they can often offer tips to make it more effective—and save costs—with simple tweaks. If they’ll be developing storyboards for you, critique them carefully; this will save you money later on, since full production and revisions thereof are more costly. (Want to see how that script from our Portfolio page turned out? Check out the produced video here.)

Consider getting help. While the guidelines above can certainly help you, there’s no denying that scripting a decent video—not to mention a killer video—takes time, effort, and skill. Production experience and a flair for the language don’t hurt either. And the stakes are high, given that video is a relatively expensive and time-consuming medium to produce. If you find the prospect daunting, or simply want to keep your time free for core activities, consider bringing in expert help. The results will be the best you can get, and the investment will pay strong dividends. Contact us and let’s get a quote in your hands.

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