There’s no doubt about it: When it comes to effectiveness in content, nothing else holds a candle to video. It is the most powerful and expressive medium available to marketers. Business people from all walks of life and in every conceivable industry are looking for (and finding) ways to incorporate video into their marketing efforts.
So how do you go about increasing the odds of success with your videos? It’s important to understand that video incorporates several different kinds of content into one delivery method. You have the task of stimulating interest visually, audibly, and persuasively.
Since I run a copywriting company and we deal with that last part almost exclusively, I’m going to talk a little bit today about that last part and give you some advice on how you can incorporate killer copy into your videos and create scripts that compel people to action. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way and that I look for when our writing team is tasked with writing video scripts for clients.
1. Determine How Long the Video Is Going to Run
How long do you think it will take to deliver enough information about your product or service to get people to click through for more information or to make a purchase? How much is too much? Sometimes just a tease is enough to pique people’s interest, other times they want more detail. It all depends on the product, your audience, and… I’m going to say it again… your company’s ideal avatar.
You dohave one of those by now, don’t you? Please say you do…
Ask yourself how long you think you could realistically hold the attention of the type of person who is going to be viewing your video(s). A lot of excitement and hype is generally good for about 30 seconds. A more moderately paced sales pitch might grant you a minute or a minute and a half. Slow, straightforward information with a flat delivery will probably earn you about 10 seconds if you’re lucky. The best videos are the ones that take the strongest aspects of each and get the job done in a minute’s time or less.
That’s not to say that every video has to be that sort or that long. I’m a firm believer in split testing, so I always recommend having at least three versions of your script – a 30-second, 60-second, and 90-second version – and seeing which one gets the best response.
When you order a script from a copywriter or custom writing service, you need to be clear about the pacing of the message so the writer knows how much copy to write for your script. High-energy scripts are usually faster-paced and will require more words. Writers with experience in script writing (particularly copywriting for broadcasting) are best-suited for jobs like these since they are more likely to have experience writing spoken-word copy with time limits.
2. Stay Viewer-Focused in Your Copy
I won’t dwell too much on this one. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you already know my philosophy about marketing copy: your video script’s focus needs to be the viewer, not the product or service. Your video script copy needs to do three key things: present a common problem or “pain point,” identify the audience as being affected by the problem, and promise a solution. It’s easier than you think to pull that off in 30 seconds.
3. Gauge the Conversational Value of the Copy
Remember that there is a huge difference between the written word and the spoken word. Don’t be a stickler for grammar and punctuation in video scripts. The best writers know how to write just like they’re speaking, and it should come as no surprise that we throw grammar right out the window when we speak. Sometimes an excess of punctuation can also confuse the pacing, so some writers choose to keep it to a minimum.
If you find the pacing confusing, work out a punctuation scheme with your writer that makes it easier for you to know when to pause, speed up the pace, pull it back a little, etc. Ideally (if they’ve been provided with enough information and examples), your writer should be able to write as you and reading the copy should seem very natural to you or whoever ultimately voices the script.
4. Make Your Call to Action Clear
Again, I talk about this one a lot, so I’ll make this short and sweet: You need to tell the viewer precisely what you want him or her to do with the information you’re delivering. It is also very helpful to time your CTA to coincide with visual cues that reinforce the notion of taking action. So few videos pull this off with any degree of accuracy that if you and your video production team get good at it, you’ll probably get more click-throughs based on production quality alone.
So, there’s your winning combo: Settle on a length or experiment with variations on the length, keep it about the viewer, be natural and conversational in your copy, and be clear about what you want your audience to do with the information. If you can achieve that balance, your script will be the true star of the show in your marketing videos.