How To Write The Perfect Explainer Video Script

The 10 most important points on how to write the perfect Explainer Video script

The great thing about a video is that it has the power to deliver a compelling story about your products or services in just 60 seconds. However, before you get excited about the animation part you need to think about the script. This is the basis for a super-successful explainer video. A persuasive script will ensure that your new explainer video is a hit, and does what it’s supposed – enable you to sell more stuff.

1. Know your audience

Think about your audience, what are their possible objections to using your service or buying your products? Understanding these crucial factors will help you understand what turns them on or off. Often we’ll help our customers by doing a conversion rate study on their website prior to producing an explainer video. This research allows you to better understand what your customers are looking for.

2. Short is good

Generally speaking, Internet audiences are pretty fickle. Someone checking out your website will leave after around 2 – 3 minutes. So that’s why explainer videos tend to be around 60 – 90 seconds long. Your script should reflect these factors and in most cases stay under 90 seconds.

3. Get you message over fast

Think about the message of your entire video and put it in the first 30 seconds. Make it just one sentence long so the audience immediately understands what the video is about. They’ll then pay attention to the whole video.

4. Be direct

Be direct with your audience and you personal words like “you” and “your”. Don’t waste time telling your viewers what they know already, instead focus of things they care about, what will bring trust and what sort of action you want them take. You want to engage and make friends with your audience that will create an environment and connection where you are more likely to be able to sell your product or service.

5. Get the pitch and tone right from the start

When writing an explainer video script you should try and picture your prospects. This will help you make sure that the tone of the video is correct. For example, the tone to a builder may be different to the tone used for an IT buyer. It’s useful to summarise the video production in a sentence and what actions you want the user to take.

Many explainer videos use character animation. So, to help write realistic dialogue it’s worth imagining real people as the various animated characters. This really helps visualise the overall story, tone, pace and idiosyncrasies of the characters. The script will then flow.

6. It’s all about the story

Nearly all explainer video productions use a tried and tested ‘direct mail’ style approach to the structure. They firstly present a problem, then present a solution, explain how it works and then drive viewers to an action.

People are turned off by boring stats and dull content. By using examples of how you have solved a problem that they relate to you’ll pique interest and engage. This will help build trust, friendship and a compelling reason to buy from you.

7. Use humour with care

Lot’s of explainer videos use characters and humour to carry the story. Humour is great when used wisely, but can equally be distracting if used clumsily. It’s important to make your audience smile and engage (in order to make you look remarkable and your message memorable) so humour should be built into the dialogue, voice over or visuals in a subtle and effective way.

8. Test it out

It sounds obvious, but many people will write an explainer video script but not test it out on friends and colleagues first. By getting feedback you’ll be able to refine you messages and story.

9. Not too fast

It’s really important that the voice over for your explainer video production has time to breathe and leave natural pauses. All videos need ‘light and shade’ and not just quick fire dialogue. You should aim for the voice over to be around 125 words a minute to ensure that the audience can digest what you’re telling them

10. Use professionals

There are lots of people out there producing explainer videos. If you decide to use a video production company then ask to see examples of what they’ve done and testimonials from clients. It’s a good idea to find a team with a good knowledge of SEO and conversion rate techniques as well as this will show that they understand the buying patterns of your Internet audience.

If you are looking to drive your sales and include an explainer video on your website then we’d love to help you. We have worked with lots of companies to help them achieve significant online success with persuasive explainer videos that have killer scripts! We’re based near Birmingham in the West Midlands and work all over the UK. Contact your friendly explainer video experts today on 01527 910050.