How to write a sales video script

Working out how to write a sales video script isn’t easy.  How should you explain what to say and show and what should the key messages be?

Like any task, break it into components, starting with a communications objective. For example, ‘to improve the attitude of brand switchers by 10% over the next six months’. Sure, small businesses aren’t measuring ‘attitude’, but writing a purpose of some sort does define why you are making a video.

With your purpose in mind, picture your target audience as one real person. Your avatar. What does this person’s daily or weekly routine look like? Why do they need you, and how will your solution fit in to their routine. What do they think and feel about your offer? Where is this person in the decision process – are they aware of your product category, or are they already regular users but not always of your brand?

Visualising an audience of one makes it easier to come up with a story which fits their circumstance. What do you want to persuade them to do, and what are your arguments for doing so based on where they’re at now? Of course you will want to portray your market positioning and why are you better suited to solve their problem instead of your competition.

Picturing your client’s struggles and challenges can feed straight into a problem<->solution format.  I recently wrote scripts for a chain of Indian cuisine food bars in shopping malls.  I pictured an office worker looking at their boring plain white cheese sandwich at noon, and instead deciding to go to the mall for something much more tasty, but still quick and low cost.  The script and imagery wrote itself from there.

Mind Map of a video script

Sometimes I’ll do a mind map, other-times just a list of ideas. Don’t worry about being creative, or getting your grammar right. That will come once you have the bones. With the bones down, flesh them out with description, emotion and facts. But not too much. A one or two minute video only requires one or two pages of A4 text.  Edit the script back to a key message with three or four supporting points. Keep it simple and don’t try to say everything, folk just won’t remember it.

Your script should have an introduction, body and conclusion.  Like any presentation, “tell them what you’re gonna say, tell them, tell them what you just said”.  All stories have a have an arc and a plot or ‘log line’ but this can be the subject of a future article.

If you’re like me you’ll have special mental relaxation moments which are good for inspiration. Go for a walk, run or cycle ride. With a bit of mild focus around a topic, thoughts come together and you get great ideas.

The graphic below is how I generally write a script, with scenes describing the vision on the left and the dialogue on the right. This post from Hubspot goes into more detail.

Example script

Example video script

If you’re a business in Melbourne looking for help writing video scripts, please get in touch.

 by Keith Rhodes