The Five Hallmarks Of A Truly Effective Video Marketing Script

The heart and soul of marketing video are not the typical belts and whistles that see in such a video. It’s not the diagrams, it’s not the infographics, it's not the layout, it’s not even the very interesting accents of the voice-over actors. It has nothing to do with that. It definitely has nothing to do with how smooth, flawless, or sharp the images are. 

 

Instead, what makes a video truly effective is its content. I am of course talking about its script. Screw up here and you have just wasted your money on creating a marketing video. That video is not going to do what you think it should do. How can it. It doesn't have the tools. It doesn't have the capacity, it doesn’t have the ability because the script is lacklustre. 

 

How do you write highly effective script? How do you outsource it? How can you tell whether the video script that have for your marketing video is solid? It will have the following five hallmarks. Ideally you should insist on all five. 

 

Hallmark #1: Plain English.  

 

There is a reason why really successful politicians speak at the eighth-grade English level. This is quite puzzling to many untrained observers because a lot of these politicians actually have advanced degrees like Juris Doctor or medical doctor and MBA degrees. Why do they speak like eighth graders. Eighth-grade English has very few five-dollar words. Most words are short, easy to understand and very accessible. 

 

This is why politicians and trained speakers speak at this level. It is the lowest common denominator. If you keep it at that level most people would understand. Highly effective video scripts are written in plain English. They don’t try to dazzle or impress the viewer by blasting them with all sorts of jargon terms and acronyms. You come off as somebody who is trying to hide ignorance when you do that. You end up looking like somebody who is trying too hard to impress the viewer. 

 

In fact, if you overdo this and you just blast the viewer with so many long, flowery, or even technical words they might even think you’re pretentious. You might come off as somebody who is trying to be something he or she is not. Plain English enables you to come off as more sincere, authentic, and real.

 

Hallmark #2: They are short. 

 

Let me tell you, most people do not have the time of day to listen to a long speech. There are better things to do. This is the reason why most people don't even read online articles. They just scan for keywords. If see the keyboard that they’re looking for, that's when they slow down and they would read a little bit more of the article. Otherwise, they’re just scanning through. It’s kind of like going through your Facebook feed on your mobile device. You don’t have the time to thoroughly read every link. That’s just not going to happen. You’re too busy for that. The same applies to video. Highly effective marketing videos are short and to the point, but they get the job done. 

 

They tell a very convincing personal story, it communicates a wide range of benefits tied to the solution the video promotes. They do this using many different signals and it operates on many different levels. It operates on an emotional level, logical level as well as a conceptual level. You have to understand that the ability to tell a story quickly enables you to communicate clearly in a very short period of time. You don't have to give a long speech for that. 

 

Hallmark #3: Easy to vocally emote. 

 

Well-written video marketing scripts are very easy to vocally act out. You just need to read a word and read the next word that follows it in the sentence to instantly know that you have to either raise your voice a little bit, sound concerned, sound suspicious, sound excited, and a hundred other emotional signals you can send with your voice. 

 

Great scripts are very clear as to the kind of emotional twists and turns they demand. Bad scripts make you sound like you’re just reading off a TelePrompTer or you’re just reading a book. It’s dull, lifeless, and very generic. You run the risk of sounding like some sort of robot.

 

Hallmark #4: Effective scripts mention case studies or stories. 

 

If you are able to tell a story you, will be able to connect with people on a very personal note. I have yet to see a person who is convinced by just raw data. You have to at least present that data into a form people can engage with. This form is called a story. Believe it or not, people use the story form to make sense of the world. You should do the same with your marketing videos. By including a case study or tool, in the video, you make it clear to the prospect that you’re not just making stuff, but there is some hard science or hard numbers behind the claims of benefits the video is talking about.

 

Hallmark #5: Emotional call-to-action. 

 

Highly effective video marketing scripts tie the benefit the prospect would get from buying a product with the call to action. Effective scripts don’t just say click the order button or click subscribe now. Instead, they talk about the benefit and tying it to that action. For example, the script would say gain the confidence you felt you’ve lost by losing the spare tire around your midsection. Take action today. Isn’t that much better than just saying click here or clicking the link in the description below.

 

Whether you are writing your own video or having it written by somebody else, make sure the five hallmarks listed above are present in the script. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time. 

 

This is the Secret Ingredient of Highly Effective Marketing Videos

How many times have you seen an online video that has motivated you to buy something? Chances are, you can count those experiences with two hands.

 

While the internet doesn't have a shortage of interesting, quirky or memorable videos, these qualities, in and of themselves, don't necessarily mean that you would buy a product that these videos talk about.

 

Often times, the videos that you personally enjoy really don't have any sort of commercial agenda. They are not pushing anything. They are not promoting anything. They don't want you to do any kind of action that puts dollars in the bank account of the people behind these videos. They are just for fun.

 

And this is the reason why a lot of people are confused about video marketing. A lot of video marketers out there are under the impression that as long as their video gets shared and a lot of people talk about their video or find their video cute, memorable and interesting, that somehow, some way, this would lead to dollars appearing in their bank account.

 

I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you, but that kind of thinking is magical thinking. You might as well start imagining rainbow-colored unicorns raining down from the sky, each grabbing a pot of gold with their horse teeth.

 

You have to think clearly when doing video marketing. There are really no two ways about it. Because it's too easy for you to crank out one video after another and have very little to show for it.

 

In fact, if you run a company, it's very easy for you to devote thousands upon thousands of dollars on video marketing, only to see your brand continue to struggle. This is due to the fact that people really have their wires crossed when it comes to videos' effectiveness.

 

Here's a short list of people's misconceptions regarding "effective videos." Effective videos are: cute, memorable, quirky, funny, interesting, weird, awesome, fascinating, earth-shattering, insightful.

 

What's missing? It should be obvious. Highly effective videos bring home the bacon.

 

Even if the video looks amateurish, even if it looks like it was shot and edited by somebody who is eight years old, at the end of the day, effective videos bring home the bacon. Dollars and cents rule the day.

 

Sadly, a lot of the online marketing conversations regarding video marketing lose sight of this fact. They focus on how many likes it had on Facebook. They get all excited about how many times the video was retweeted or whether a celebrity mentioned the video.

 

It did not occur to them that a video that is shared throughout all four corners of the globe, but doesn't generate one cent of revenue is a money loser. That's the bottom line. It really has to go back to conversions.

 

The secret to video marketing is conversion. The video has to lead to conversion directly, or must be part of an online supplemental content that eventually makes conversion possible.

 

On top of this, great marketing videos also establish solid brands. When somebody's watching a great marketing video, they know where that video came from. They know that when they go to that source, there's a lot more where that video came from.

 

They also have the expectation that when that source produces video after video, they can expect a certain level of quality. They can expect a certain range of benefits. That's how powerful brand-based videos are.

 

But as insightful as this discussion may be, and as important as conversions and branding are, if you really want to get down to the nuts and bolts of highly effective marketing videos, you have to get to the secret ingredient.

 

This secret ingredient separates brand videos that don't really go anywhere and brand-building videos that develop solid brands. This secret ingredient also explains the difference between marketing videos that explain a lot of information and are great resources but make very little money, and videos that are able to generate a profit.

 

What is the Secret Ingredient? PRESENCE

 

Highly effective marketing videos pack a lot of presence. You can tell that this brand stands for something. You can tell that the product being endorsed, explained, outlined and discussed by the spokesperson truly speaks to your needs. This is only possible when the video has presence.

 

Now, one of the most common misconceptions regarding presence is that only human beings can have presence. In other words, the video has to have a person looking at the camera and connecting with you eyeball to eyeball for presence to ooze out of the video.

 

Absolutely wrong. Seriously. Even an animated video using talking animals can have presence.

 

Presence is that human state of mind where you feel that the content that you are engaging with is speaking to you on so many different levels. That is presence.

 

And unfortunately, a lot of marketing videos, and these are videos that are specifically written, produced, edited and crafted to generate dollars simply overlook presence. They think that as long as they have the "formula," conversions will happen. Completely wrong.

 

They think that as long as they mention certain concepts, the money will appear. Absolutely false. You have to create videos with presence. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.

 

What complicates matters is that presence is defined in many different niches.

 

If your niche involves kid's athletic gear, presence is going to have its own specific form. If your niche involves academic admissions, then presence for your videos is going to be nuanced a little bit differently.

 

That's what is tricky about this. But it's kind of like looking for the needle in a haystack. But believe me, it's a golden needle. It is worth the search.

 

This is the secret ingredient that will turn your marketing videos into gold-digging machines. It's definitely worth figuring out the secret ingredient of presence in your particular niche.

 

Why Do Most Marketing Videos Suck?

One of the most potent forms of punishment I ever inflicted on myself involved a time when I intentionally sought out and searched for all the marketing videos on YouTube. Believe me, it was an endurance. I was basically whipping myself going through all that stuff.

 

I don't mean this as a joke, and I'm not exaggerating here. A lot of that stuff is really, really bad. If you think some Hollywood movies are all too forgettable cinematic disasters, well, check out a lot of the marketing videos on YouTube.

 

It is no surprise that they only have less than ten views. It's no surprise that a lot of these materials have basically been buried in the guts of YouTube. Some of these were actually uploaded as long as the founding of YouTube.

 

What's going on? Why do most of these marketing videos suck? Why do they have to suck? How can they drop the ball that badly?

 

Well, after I went through video after video, certain patterns started to emerge.

 

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a rocket scientist, nor am I a brain surgeon, but it's very easy to spot these patterns. It's very easy to trace these patterns back to the failure of these videos.

 

I'm not speculating on their failures because video has failed when it only has less than 100 views. You can't escape from that conclusion. You can't dance around it. I mean, even if your video converts on a one-to-one level, a hundred views for an 8-year-old video is failure.

 

Why do they suck? Here are some clues based on my very painful personal research.

 

Mass Quantity

 

It's obvious that a lot of the videos that I was going through and viewing were mass uploaded. In fact, it looked like they came off the same template. It's as if somebody took the same script, created video after video using the same script.

 

The results were really sloppy. It's as if this person didn't even bother to actually watch the video produced. They probably just used some sort of software to crank out one video after another. Totally weak. Totally worthless.

 

There they are, lying in the gutter of YouTube. No views. Not even digital rats to chew at them.

 

No Presence

 

Another common feature that I observed among these sucky videos is the fact that they did not create presence.

 

Now, please understand that a lot of these videos don't look like they suck. Some have clever discussions. Some even look like they spent a tremendous amount of money on high level animation.

 

But regardless of how slick certain elements are, and despite the fact that sometimes these elements came together to produce a really nice effect, at the end of the day, there was no presence. It felt like the video wasn't speaking to my needs.

 

The video didn't really go a long way in making the brand behind the video come to life. It wasn't doing any of that. It was just lying there. It was flat.

 

Remember, they had cute parts. Some parts may even look like it's working. But in the big scheme of things, it had no presence.

 

Doesn't Fit a Niche

 

One of the most annoying class of videos that I ran into during my painful research on YouTube involves videos that try to be all things to all people at all times. As you can already tell by my description of it, these videos are doomed to fail.

 

As the old saying goes, you can please all the people some of the time, but you cannot please all people all the time. That's just not going to happen. It would be foolish of you to even try.

 

And unfortunately, a lot of videos produced out there that are supposed to be marketing a particular product and trying to make money, don't even bother to create a tight fit between their product's niche and their video. They don't even go through the motions. It's as if they have forgotten the whole concept of niche.

 

Let me remind you, if you select the wrong niche, you're probably going to lose money. If you no idea what a niche is, then you're probably just taking shots in the dark and are wondering why you're not achieving any kind of success selling stuff online.

 

Niche is everything. And these videos just committed the cardinal sin of being clueless regarding their niche, or failing to address their niche adequately. Whatever the case may be, they missed the mark.

 

They Don't Build Brands

 

Finally, a lot of marketing videos out there suck because they don't even bother to create brands. They really don't. They just drop video after video, hoping against hope that somehow, some way, somebody would load the URL mentioned in the video.

 

Nobody does it. That's why there are only ten views.

 

You have to build a brand, otherwise, your business is a commodity. It's just another face in the crowd. It's just another cog in the machine. Totally replaceable and, unfortunately, totally forgettable.

 

Make no mistake, if you are serious about taking your video marketing results to the next level, you cannot take any of the factors I raised above lying down. You have to roll up your sleeves and do some hard planning and some hard work to make sure that your videos deliver the brand-building niche presence they need to truly make an impact.