Hi there, this is Eduard Stinga, founder
of VideoPlasty.com and welcome to the
VideoPlasty Script Writing Mastery course
Today you'll learn how to write
effective video scripts that get people
to take action and trust me after going
for the course you'll start seeing the
same patterns and structure everywhere
around you from Fortune 500 videos to TV
commercials on your local network
I've been writing video copy and making all
kinds of videos for the past six seven
years now, ranging from explainer videos
and sales videos for clients all over
the world to TV commercials and short
films. During this time the videos that I
made for my clients have ended up
generating millions of dollars for them
Either as revenue or funding from
investors and in the process I learned
many things about this and I came up
with concepts or researched things that
have been tested and proven to work time
and time again. I did my best to put in
all the knowledge that I have about this
topic in this quick course and to make
it as actionable as possible, so that
after you finish watching this you can
go out there and start writing your own
script or if you're already doing that
you can go out there and improve your
existing or future scripts tremendously
which improves your conversions, which
ultimately adds more dollars to your
bottom line.
Video is known to be able to
improve conversions by up to even 300%
in some cases, but but even if you
improve your conversions by 10% or 20%
that's still a lot, just think about what
that means if you're driving thousands
and thousands of visitors to your offers.
Or another great thing that video can
help you with, for example, is we had one
guy recently that had us make an
explainer video for his mobile app then
went on and used that video as a pitch
to investors and raised two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars to fund his startup
and pursue his dream.
But if you're already here, I'm sure you don't need me
to emphasize the importance of video and
how many great things you can do with it
So without further ado, let's get
straight to it
The importance of a story
As a famous saying goes: "if a tree
falls in a forest and nobody's there
does it make a sound?"
My answer is "who cares?"
If nobody understands what your product or service is all about and how it can help them no
one will even notice you. You have this
itch this urged is this desire to share
your product or idea with the world, I
get it. I know how fulfilling it is this
your own product, idea or service, something that you've been working so
hard on something that you created out
there in the real world, where real
people are using it and real people find
it valuable. The problem is we all want
that feeling, but when a lot of people
want to impose their product, service or
ideas onto others... well, the problem
becomes quite obvious. We really just
don't have the attention to pay for that.
Sometimes the here and now reality feels
like another app competing for our
limited mental RAM. Even though you have
the best marketing or have millions of
people click on your website, if you
can't pitch your product in such a way
that it evokes emotions, triggers their
interest and leave them wanting more,
they'll simply click away, off to your
competitor... bye-bye potential customer!
The thing not to forget is every day we
are bombarded with information and
sources trying to get our attention we
might forget this when we work on our
business or startup, but when we step out
in the real world, when we step out of
the bubble, we notice it quite clearly
Email Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube, text messages, WhatsApp, phone calls
colleagues or clients demanding our
attention, so it's so easy to get
distracted!
But what's interesting to
notice is that some things do get our attention!
Think about it; on websites or in your
social media feed, videos that are short
and catchy get our attention, not the
long boring ones
The videos that we personally relate to and are the videos
that we find attractive, they talk about
a problem we have or a specific
situation we find ourselves in. Today the
laws of attraction rule and they state
that when there's so much competing for
our attention, we tend to go for the
source that engages us and our emotions
and that makes us listen
What you want to put out there matters,
but what matters more is that content is
relevant to what people experience in
that moment in time
We pay attention to
the things that are relevant to us and
in simple terms
content is king,but context is queen and
they go hand in hand
Videos that are long boring and poorly
produced often instantly give us a
feeling of that's not worth our time and
attention or what an amateur!
When it's about you, we click away, so think about it, when you're about to invest time and
money into a video you want one that
actually works, your investment should
not be wasted by producing a video that
looks rubbish and goes in nowhere
What makes a great script
Let's be clear,
there are a lot of different kind of
videos: documentaries, movies, television, commercials, you name it, they all have
their own strengths, benefits and their
own way of telling the story and just to
remove any confusions, we're talking
about explainer or sales videos here
You know, the small 60-75-90 second videos,
with cute animations or professional
moving motion graphics, they can even be
live-action or a mix of everything
combined, the main purpose is to get
people's attention, tell your story
trigger their emotion and activate them
to take action quickly!
And when we
realize that this is the main purpose of
explainer videos, that there are quite
some points that can really make a
difference between having a video that
just sits there collecting dust and one
that actually leads the viewer through a
process and engages them. When you know
what those are, you will see that those
techniques are not just for explainer or
sales videos, but are incredibly relevant
to a lot of other situations
Pretty much every time you want to positively
influence someone this will be the
strategy to fall back on. It's what I use
on my websites, in presentations and of
course in explainer or sales videos
These principles have stood the test of time
and quite possibly you already use some
of them in real life, but we fail to see
that the same rules apply when making an
online video
#1 - It's all about the viewer
Whatever industry you're in
people trust people, we are social
creatures that find enjoyment and
fulfillment from working and
collaborating with others
We buy from people we trust; people
make us feel seen and understood
People that give us a great feeling while
actually solving our problems
Now, when we think of an explainer video, we often tend to think that completely different
rules apply, however, although the medium
of delivery and interaction is different
video the person, rather than person the
person, connecting with your audience
through a video is pretty similar to
selling in person
From now on so your explainer videos as a virtual salesman pitching your idea or product to your
viewer, always in the correct, way even
when you're asleep. Of course, video to
person selling is different in a few
ways which we'll compensate with a few
elements in the script. For example,
asking questions to find out what the
client or customer wants or needs is
hard when you use a fixed video, but we
can focus our video on specific problems
and situations. This might not speak to
all of your viewers, but it makes those
that do fall under that category feel
understood. Those are the ones you want. A video speaks through the screen to the
viewer and because it establishes a
connection this way, it has to actually
talk to the viewer. Nobody likes a
completely faceless corporation or small
business that says "we can do this, we
have done this and this so many times
that our solutions are the best". People
aren't selfish in everything they do
only doing things for their own benefit,
but they do feel more engaged when they
are being talked, to they tend to listen
in "what's in it for me" mode
This personalization is established in two
ways: a) you talk in an informal way and
your industry basically determines
how far you can go with this. For example
if you explain your pitch or product to
a friend, how would you do it? This is
something you should try, how would you
tell your story to a friend? How would
you make them relate to what you're
saying?
You will find that there are a couple of
things that you're doing different when
you're... than when you're writing a formal
presentation, for example, you use more
filler words like "right?" or "so" and a more
casual use of language. That's also what
you should do, what you should use in
your video, to a certain
extent of course. Remember, an explainer
video is not a press release, it's a way
of connecting with your audience, so connect
and don't bore them with pretentious
talk. And b) you actually talk about them
and not you. In a conversation with a
friend do you only talk about yourself?
Probably not. One of the biggest mistakes
I see companies make is that they
produce videos and offer pretty well
where they only talk about themselves
What they've gone through, what they're
selling, what their prices are, how they
work, what cool features their products
have, but nothing about the viewer, not a
single thing. Now, there's a time and
place for everything and it might be
great for a stakeholders meeting, but
even then it should take into account
the wants and needs of the audience. It's
not something you should do to connect
with a potential client. You want to
enter their world, understand where
they're coming from, make them feel
understood and then tell your story the
solution to all their problems,
frustrations and obstacles, in his words
through his worldview. In one of his
talks, French philosopher Alain de Botton
said "At the heart of successful
entrepreneurship is an accurate insight
into the causes of human unhappiness. To
be an entrepreneur means essentially to
become an expert in the things that make
life difficult for people". This is
profound. Be an expert in the things that
make your audience's life's difficult.
What does an expert to do? They know
everything about a set of problems; who
has them, when they occur and how to
solve them. He knows the ins and outs and
he knows the details. Be an expert, talk
about the difficulties your target
audience experiences and the impact
those difficulties have on their
personal lives and their business lives,
talk about the lives of your potential
clients, because then they will listen. A
problem rarely ends with the problem
that's there's pretty much always a
bigger problem or need to be fulfilled
Talk about it! Wouldn't you pay attention
if someone would narrate exactly what is
going on in your life? Wouldn't that feel
like the person knew you even just a
little bit?
2) We are emotional
beings humans
Human beings are emotional
beings, often we do things for emotional
reasons and later justify them with
rationalizations. Think about it!
You or your girlfriend went shopping and came back with three pairs of new shoes
Did you or she really need new shoes?
Probably not, but the entire experience
of going out and trying different shoes
gave her a feeling of novelty, of
exciting variety, it also gave her a
feeling of significance, looking
beautiful in new shoes. Besides that it
probably also gave her a feeling of
connection and bonding when other people
were involved, for example friends
The same thing is true for videos. When a
viewer thinks your product or service
will give him or her certainty,
significance, connection and alleviation of
pain and a gain of pleasure, he or she
will most likely rationalize that she
actually needs it. So your product or
service doesn't even need to be the best
But you know, of course that's what you
should strive for. It's all about how you
market it. What core emotions do your
clients experience when they use your
product, service, idea or initiative? Now,
Anthony Robbins, who's a peak
performance coach of American presidents, mother Teresa, world-famous actors and
top athletes, identified the six core human needs every human seeks to fulfill, which
are certainty, uncertainty, variety,
connection, love, significance, growth and
contribution. We all have different and
often multiple ways of fulfilling these
needs and your product or service
fulfills one or more for your clients as
well. Maybe your product or service gives
clients the peace of mind to
continue their own services, in that case,
it provides certainty. Maybe your service
delivers food to clients all over town,
in that way it provides a sense of
variety, possibly even of significance,
when you can show off to your friends
Does your product allow others to grow
their business? If so that it might be
the case that they are coming to you for
a way to feel significant, because they
can reach more people, or growth or
contribution or for a mix of reasons. You
see, every individual customer is
different, but they all have common
underlying drivers, let's be honest, you
don't buy insurance because you want to
spice up your life, if you're in business and if you're
watching this you most probably are then
fundamentally you are in the business of
selling feelings and emotions
You sell peace of mind a way
A way of connecting, feelings of excitement from a new experience, you get the point
Research your target audience like a
detective and use your findings in
writing your script. By understanding the
core emotional reasons of people of why
people buy from you, you can talk to
those emotional needs, what's even more
interesting Robbins, found that even when
something or someone fulfils four or
more of our needs, we become addicted to it.
Isn't that fascinating?
So when
your product or service for example
gives people certainty, the variety, the
significance and connection, they will
quite possibly come back
Structure of a story that sells
So, how do you make all this practical? How do we create a script
that we can use as the foundation of a
video that actually talks to the viewer
about the viewer and triggers their
emotion? If you pay close attention to
the best videos out there, the ones that
not only look beautiful, but actually
spark engagement and action, you'll see a
common pattern appear, a structure that
we can use to tell our own story in a
convincing way.
Point #1 is
Identification or attention grabber.
First of all, at the start of a video, we
want to get a viewers attention, we don't
want, we don't have to be outrageously
loud or annoying, but we simply have to
trigger their interest in learning more
about your company and product and watch more of the video. This could be a
description of a situation that sounds
very familiar to the viewer, a bold
problem or fact that is undeniable or
something that surprises us, for example
stating that something is the opposite
of what our common sense tells us. Answer
this question to yourself. If you were
searching for a product like yours what
would grab your attention? For example, we
made a video recently for a company
selling a software to a demographic that
wasn't very good with computers and all
the available offers on the market were
just very, very complex. So the way we
started that video was "Feeling confused
with technology?"
That's it, that's all it
takes to grab their attention and make
them keep watching
#2
Problem, frustration or obstacle.
Often the video starts with a line or a
couple of lines that mixes both the
identification part with the problem
part. We might say something like "The
office was the workplace of the 20th
century, but in the internet era the
office is replaced by online platforms
where work is done by individuals who
work where, when, and for whomever they
want." This instantly captured the essence
of the problem, how we work is changing
rapidly. Companies that experience this
will say yes, that's me, that's my problem
That's basically the internal reaction
we want to trigger, that's me or that's
exactly my problem
#2:
Problem / frustration / obstacle, but you
know, with competitors or the status quo,
the usual way of doing business. I know
this looks similar in the number two, but
is slightly different. When a problem is
stated subtle or not so subtle, a
solution is not fulfilling if there are
already a lot of solutions out there. By
addressing the status quo, the way the
viewer might deal with the problem right
now, we can differentiate you from all
the others out there, their solution
isn't good enough. For example you sell
website design and development. Today
everyone's online we connect, shop and
learn, so when you want to stay relevant
you want to sell your products where
everyone is looking for them. An old, slow website doesn't cut it anymore
People expect to have their information
instantly. So you see in this case, the
first part focuses on the problem that a
potential client is after, the second
part on how they now deal with the
solution.
#2 - Magical, easy, instant solution
All human beings want
the shortcut, we all want that instant
solution, but life is not that black and
white and the devil is in the details
One product or service will probably not
solve all the problems, but if you want
to see your product or idea out there
actually being used, it's important that
you stand up and make yourself be
counted. And to do that it's important to
know that people are guided by a lot of
cognitive fallacies, flaws in our
reasoning and patterns of thinking that
are not based on reason, but on other
deep ingrained emotions like fear and
the need of security.
So one of the things that
people fall for and I still do
is the cognitive fallacy of polarized
thinking, in other words, we place things
or people in either/or categories, which
with no shades of gray allowing for the
complexity of most situations and persons.
It's our certainty bias, when we
introduce the company or product we want
it to sound like the actual solution to
their problems, not that "maybe this will
work" solution. Working with you is the
simple, magical solution.
#4
How-to or reaffirming the easiness
People want to know how things are done,
they want to understand what you will do
for them, so tell them, lead them by the
hand through your process. And as human
beings we chunk things often in 3s,
meaning we tend to think in 1, 2, 3, many
So if you're explaining a process, try to
chunk it down to 3 steps or phases. And I
know you might think, but what if we what
we do is much more complex than three
steps? Still, try to think from the
perspective of the viewer, they don't
want to watch a video 15 minutes and
hear about all the exact details, a lot
of them are still deciding if you're the
right match out there. If what you do is
complex, then do something like Step 1:
we'll come over for coffee and dig deep
in what you need; Step 2: we'll craft a
detailed proposal outlining everything
from timeline to breakdown of the cost,
so everything is crystal clear, before we
even start; and Step #3: we get to work
and update you every step of the way
The how-to is intended to reaffirm the easiness that you will bring their life
Don't make it complex, make it easy, basically
#5 - Benefits, not features
People want to know what's in
it for them, they don't necessarily care
about the features, they care about the
benefits that those features have for
them. It's great that your solution
solves their problem 25% quicker than
the competitor, but the viewer cares
about what this allows them to have
which is more time to do other important
tasks, spend with their kids or in the
couch with a partner, more freedom to do
what they want. Again, this is the moment
to go truly deep into their core human
needs
How can you frame the benefits of your
product or service in such a way that it
addresses the core human needs that your
audience seeks to fulfill
#6 - Credibility
Here we give the answer to
the question: "who are we to say that?"
We all tend to follow authorities. We trust
the advice of the doctor, because he's
the doctor, we trust the advice of a
lawyer because he's a lawyer, we trust the
company that's serving the royal family,
because they're serving the royal family
So how can we make a product or
company seem like an authority?
By displaying things that prove your credibility
Logos of well-known clients
The number of people already served;
or overwhelmingly positive testimonials
awards received, the credits of the
founders and the team, etc
One of the things that will give you credibility as well is by giving out a guarantee, for
example, get your first month free, or
we'll give you your money back if you
don't increase your website traffic by
20% or more.
#7 - Call to Action
When people know that you are talking to
them, that you can solve their problems
That you will make it easy for them and that
it will fulfill their emotional needs
it's time for action basically. Realize
that people often don't buy a product
right away when they see it, unless it's
very cheap or they were already looking
for something like it for ages. Most
people have a mild interest or are
shopping around, so a heavy call to
action like "Buy now" will not actually
attract them. Just like doing or closing
a sale in real life, relationships need
to be built and a video is the first
interaction. When you invite them to test
something out or read further or
download the free analysis, it will make
them trust you more,
you're not instantly trying to sell them,
you're just providing value. It's
important to make the call to action
specific though, you wanna invite them to
learn more about what you can do? Say
something like "download our free case
studies" or "watch our portfolio of happy
clients". Another thing that often works
is to remind people why it's important
to act and now, why should they do
something now, instead of a year from now
Scarcity and urgency are two
powerful things to add to your call to
action. We all tend to value something
that is scarce and act quicker when
something is urgent and important.
So just as a recap, we'll also do a step by
step structure, that you also be able to
download somewhere in this page, so we
can easily follow yourself and just fill
in the gaps
#1 - Identification / Attention. What
sentence would instantly get the
attention of your audience? A big problem
they have or a situation they recognize
all too well.
#2 - Problem / Frustration / Obstacle
What's causing
unhappiness in the lives of your
prospective clients
What are their frustrations, their problems,
the obstacles they experience
#2 - Problem /Frustration /Obstacle -  with
competitors or the status quo, the usual
way of doing business.
What things are wrong with the status
quo, the usual way of doing this, why is
it time for a new way to approach the
problem? And note, this doesn't have to be a
revolutionary startup idea, it can also
be a more reliable solution or just a
better customer service
#3 - Magical, instant solution. How do you
introduce your company so that it's the
easiest solution, even if it's a complex
solution, how is yours is still the easiest
#4 How-to or reaffirming the easiness.
How does your
product, service or process work? What
three steps will the viewer experience?
#5 Benefits, not features. What's
in it for them. What human needs does your
product or service fulfill
#6 - Credibility
Why should your viewers
listen to you? And how can you tell them
that in a subtle way?
#7 - Call to Action - what action
would you like your viewers to take?
Take into account that people often need more than one point of contact before they
buy, so a more subtle call to action, that
would invite them in even more could
work better.
The audio/video balance - so
we've laid out a structure that you
could use to write a killer video script,
these are the psychological principles
and techniques that Fortune 500
companies use to create online
commercials and videos. It's important to
notice, however, that the story is not
only told with voiceover. Although it's a
crucial element. Visuals play an
important role in the video as well.
Obviously, and the rule of thumb to make
is they have to convey the exact same
thing as a voiceover. So when you're
looking for a designer or designing the
visuals yourself, it's important to take
a moment and reflect on a couple of
points, which visuals will connect most
with your audience, which situations and
jokes will appeal to them, which visual
details illustrate their pain and
problems the best?
How can you convey a sense of
credibility with your visuals? And here's
a tip, show the thousands of clients that
went before them, show the logos of the
bigshot companies that you've served or
quick testimonials of clients, you get a
point, you can basically go for the same
structure, but then apply it to the
visuals, there is nothing worse than
having a video with a well-crafted story
in script, but with crappy visuals.
Alright, so that's pretty much it for
this course, you should now have
everything you need write amazing video
scripts better than pretty much most
people out there, all you need to do is
follow the structures and basically just
fill in the gaps. One thing I want to
mention though is that you should take
it easy and take it slow, it's a process
You're not going to write the perfect
script on the first try, write a first
draft, sleep over it and take a fresh
look tomorrow and see what you can
improve. You can also give it to a close
friend to read and see if he or she gets
the point that you're trying to send across
or if you're missing something. And also
keep in mind, that this is just a
guideline, every situation is different
and if your common sense tells you to do
something differently, by all means go
for it
Alright so this was Eduard Stinga founder of VideoPlast.com, I hope you
enjoyed watching this and that you've
learned a lot of new things. Now it's
time to go out there and make amazing
videos, we'll talk soon!
