How to write a video explainer script

An animated explainer video can take the hard work out of explaining what your business does and what you have to offer. It has to be brief, but cover all the important information your viewers need to know. A good “explainer” video can serve multiple purposes for your company. It can give someone interested in your services a quick rundown of what you do, it can boost your SEO and give you a huge lead for new customers.

Here are a few ways you can write a great explainer video, not merely a bit of filler for your website.

Speak to Your Audience

Picture the customers you want to attract to your business. Are they young or old? Male or female?
If you want to draw these customers in you have to speak to them directly. Use words like “you” and “your” when writing your script. Give them what they want, after all, this video is for them, not you. You’ll want to put the most important point of the video in the first 30 seconds, this is the “hook,” and if you get your viewers onside early.

What action do you want your viewer to take? To look at your new product? To visit your website? Or your Facebook page Start writing your script with this end goal in mind. It’s much easier to work backwards from what you want to achieve than to hope inspiration strikes you.

Keep It Brief

If you’ve made it this far into this article, congratulations your attention span is better than most. It is difficult to hold someone’s attention these days, and with good reason. There is so much content out there at your fingertips that you have to make sure you don’t waste your viewer’s time. No-one will watch a 10 minute video for something that could be said in 1 minute.  Just like this paragraph, keep it short.

Tell a Story

The best way to explain something to someone is to tell a story. Present your explainer video in its proper context by showing the niche you fill and the problem your company will fix. Avoid dull, dry content whenever possible. Instead, use the visual medium  to your advantage by showing real people your company has helped, or benefits your customers have seen. The better you can tell stories about your own brand, the more likely your viewers are going to understand what your company can offer and what it can do for them.

Present the problem, show the solution, and drive the viewers to take action.

Get on their level

Is your product or company something people are already familiar with? Say you make custom bicycles, you won’t need to introduce the concept of bicycles to your audience as unless they’ve recently returned from Mars, they’ll know what you’re selling. In this case you’ll want to focus on what makes your bikes different. Is it their beautiful design? Durability? Or is there a unique feature on your latest model? Focus on that and let the audience fill in the gaps.

If your product is a new piece of tech, or a brilliant new piece of software, you’ll have to approach your script differently. In short sentences, write a list of unique or interesting features it has, and keep it under 1 minute in length. If you can’t explain it in a minute, then it’s going to be very hard to sell. In your script you can also separate the page into two columns, one side visual and one side audio. If you’re going to use a voiceover, that’s fine, write their voiceover dialogue in the AUDIO column, and in the VIDEO column write what the audience will be seeing, whether that be a screen capture, some beautiful shots of the product or a demonstration of how to use the product.