Way back in another life in a galaxy far, far away, I was a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. That’s a newspaper – it was a way for people to get daily news that was printed on paper. No, really, we use to get our news on large, long sheets of paper, and it use to come once a day - after the fact - unlike today where you can actually witness news as it’s happening.
One of the things that was continually pounded into my head as a journalist was “shorter!” meaning just keep your stories concise, answer the five “W”s and leave out the fluff.
“If,” my editor would say, “the reader – and I represent our readers - am not engaged in the first three words, you’ll write the damn thing over!” He was sort of putting me on but not by much. What I did learn is if you don’t capture the reader’s attention within the first five seconds, he won’t read anymore.
I think that’s a great framework for your video marketing project. You have the same situation as my journalistic experience, and it might even be worse. Because now, we’ve turned into a society of MTV attention deficit, flash memory, multi-tasking, information overload, two-career, financially-strapped victims of our modern living environment.
Show Up Ready-To-Go
That’s why when you’re putting your video together, it needs to be thought out and soundly prepared beforehand. Don’t come to your video session thinking you can wing it. Because when that light comes on your camera and it starts recording, something strange happens to us: our brains freeze up. The solution is preparation and practice before it’s your turn to get in front of that camera . Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time. I can tell you that even among professionals who have gone through the routine umpteen times, it’s still a longer process than originally intended. As they say, “Poop happens.”
By now, you’ve read through the introductory information on creating a marketing video, and you’ve completed the first step of the video creation process by composing a short, 300-word story about your company. The second step is taking your story and transforming it into a script, a dialogue that you’ll narrate in front of a camera. It’s different from the story itself because most stories are segmented into an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. In scripting, the idea is more of immediacy and a call to action by the viewer. That’s the intent of your marketing video. So let’s go through my nine rules for scripting your marketing video.
Content of Your Script
1. The 5-Second WOW! How will you trigger your viewer’s attention in order to get them interested enough not to click onto Lady Gaga’s latest music video? Do this by creatively announcing your best single benefit to your potential niche client. The benefit is something that fills a need or solves a problem for your potential client. Use action words and always keep it short. For those in your targeted market, they’ll stay; the others will move onto Lady Gaga.
2. “Who You Talkin’ To?” You may think that you have the greatest thing since sliced bread but the customer doesn’t give a hoot about you or your sliced bread. There’s an old radio-station acronym in marketing explaining why listeners will keep their stations dialed to WII-FM: “What’s In It For Me?” The client is always the one who decides to buy so make your video as if you’re talking directly to your customer about their needs. Remember the customer has an infinite number of options. What are you offering that answers the WII-FM question?
3. “I Want My MTV” That attention deficit/information overload is a reality of our society. So, whatever you do for this marketing video, “Keep It Short and Simple” (the KISS principle applicable to anything. I think Buddha first said it and look, we still remember him! How’s that for memorable marketing?) Always remember that your audience isn’t watching a movie absorbed in a thickening plot; they’re buzzing at Control Center bombarded by messages, problems and flashing visuals. You only have a very short period of time to get your message across – effectively!
4. We Root for the Underdog; We Want Love Stories We haven’t come to the point in our evolution that our brains are thinking with more logic than emotion. We still have that Reptilian brain conflicting with our prefrontal cortex and causing us to lust, desire, crave and occasionally go for that Dove Bar even though it’s sinfully bad, and doesn’t it feel soooo good! That’s why great videos capture our imagination, tug at our hearts and make us personally involved.
5. If It's Got To Be, It's Gotta Be Me In their research-based book, Groundswell, the authors, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, discovered that Internet businesses with the most successful were created by the personal connections their owners made with the public! You are the leading factor of your business success, not your website, not your marketing materials. Nope, it’s you because, again, it’s emotion. People will judge your company based on how you come across on your marketing video! They’ll buy from you because you’ve made an emotional connection.
6. That’s Entertainment! Okay, even though your viewers will buy because they’ve come to love you, you still need to get their attention. Boring is not an option. Do something that’s funny or light with humor. Of course, if that’s not appropriate for your business, then consider emotional drama to spark attention. Heck, aren’t we bombarded with bad news all the time? Do something that helps your viewer to escape, gives them an “Ah-Ha moment” and pulls on their heart.
7. But Wait, There’s More! I’m sure you’ve seen enough infomercials where they’ll offer you a dozen stretchable underpants “for not $39.99, or even $29.99 but just $19.99. But wait! If you order in the next 20 minutes, we’ll throw in another dozen at no extra charge!” In the same idea, you want to build momentum with your viewers to take action right now. So how might you incite a call to action with an explicit need for urgency?
8. An Offer They Can’t Refuse An interesting survey back in the 80s showed that “a money-back guarantee” made the buyer feel safe in buying. This assured him that if he didn’t like it, he could always return it and get his money back. Well, it turns out that 94 percent of the time, no one asked for a refund. The fact they could return it made their buying decision a no-brainer.
9. This Could Be the Start of a Beautiful Friendship It’s one thing to capture the attention of your niche market and make a sale but now you need to make sure you ‘ll keep that customer for the long haul. Research has shown that keeping your customer happy and repetitious is a lot cheaper than having to prospect all the time. What might you announce on your video to assure your clients will give you permission to stay in touch? One consideration is that people who represent your niche will look to you as the expert in what’s innovative, new and worthwhile. So providing an informational email, blog or website will keep your name out in front.
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