The online landscape has become heavily saturated with brands vying for the attention of their audiences. With just seconds to grab and maintain people’s attention, creating an appealing video that speaks to your audience is crucial to its success — and it all starts with the script.
Here are seven tips to help you approach writing a script for your business videos.
Hook your viewer at the beginning
The beginning of your video is where you’ll have the highest viewership, and it’s your only chance to draw in consumers and entice them to continue watching. According to Meta, many of the most successful video messages on the platform are less than 15 seconds long.
Start your script with a persuasive opening line or a punchy hook, then introduce your topic and offer a broad overview of the video’s contents. Without a strong introduction, viewers will quickly lose interest and continue scrolling down their feeds, forgetting about your content.
[Read more: How to Create How-To Videos to Grow Your Audience]
Write in short paragraphs
Short paragraphs — generally, no more than three to four sentences per paragraph — are beneficial to both the writers/editors and the narrator, as they’re easier to read, provide a clearer understanding of the script’s timing, and ensure the perfect amount of information.
Draft a script that’s lengthy enough to thoroughly get your message across, without being too long that your viewers lose interest. Depending on the topic, your video's optimal length may vary. For videos that are selling a product or service, between 45 and 150 seconds is best; walk-through videos intended to teach the audience can be longer.
Use a template
Writing a script with the help of a template can take the guesswork out of the drafting process. Templates provide an outline of everything your video will need to attract your target audience — including audio and visual cues, guidance on graphic design elements, and the optimal platforms to share content. Plenty of free, customizable options are available online to suit the needs of businesses in any industry.
You shouldn’t look at your video as a one-time-use asset.
Stay true to yourself and your vision
A business video is a great way to showcase and solidify your brand’s personality and establish it as a thought leader. However, it’s important to stay true to your vision and create authentic content; otherwise, it could give viewers the wrong impression.
Being true to your vision is essential to the success of your content, as viewers can easily distinguish between genuine, value-providing content and content that only serves to attract more viewers. Create a video that feels conversational, is easy to follow and educational, and highlights your business's approachable persona — this will strengthen your viewers' bond to your brand and keep them returning for more.
[Read more: How to Make Any Space Look Better for Video with Lighting and Background]
Be concise
Appeal to your audience by writing snappy, succinct videos. Shorter videos with a clear message are better suited for users’ online attention spans, which last an average of 47 seconds. To keep your video concise and engaging, shorten your script by outlining the main topics you want to cover and sticking to those points.
Aim to draft a script that’s under a page in length when possible, but make sure it doesn’t expand beyond two pages — anything longer and you’ll likely lose the attention of your viewers.
Use graphics
As you’re writing your script, consider where visual elements will add value to the viewer. These attention-grabbing elements, which can help make content more memorable, can include infographics, animation, filters, text, or photos. However, they should only be added if they fit naturally in the video and will improve the content, rather than distract from it.
Not every viewer will watch your video with audio; providing users with captions and graphics makes your video accessible to a larger audience — thereby increasing its reach and viewership — regardless if they’re listening to the audio or not.
Repurpose your content
You shouldn’t look at your video as a one-time-use asset. Rather, aim to create content you can reuse in various ways over time, such as in email blasts, during presentations or meetings, or shared on the company website.
Throughout the writing process, create quick moments in the script you can use as short-form content suited for social media or to be shared via email. While the entire video may be much longer, drafting sections that can stand on their own as shorter clips will allow for greater use of the content.
[Read more: 5 Unique and Clever Ways to Use Video on Your Website]
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