The best way to Write a Video Script [Template + Video]

Movies inform a narrative. In line with 92% of entrepreneurs, video is crucial to their strategy. So, the storyline ought to be efficient, whether or not creating video scripts from scratch or utilizing a template.

Though creating, organizing, and modifying compelling movies may be prolonged and scary, an excellent script could make or break the success of your video.

So, why don’t we take you thru the steps on how one can begin your scriptwriting course of?

Any primary video is elevated with a script, however there’s extra to creating a video. You’ll want correct tools, sound, lighting, units, and the forged and crew. When combining these, it may be difficult to verify there aren’t any errors.

A powerful video script can seamlessly convey all of it collectively. Plus, having an in-depth script will enhance your group’s confidence and end in a greater video final result.

How to Write a Video Script

Video Script Template

Video Script Example

1. Select your audience.

Any advertising challenge is healthier with the appropriate buyer persona. This is especially true with video.

Because videos often take more time and investment than an online ad or blog, your video must speak to a specific audience.

So, before you start developing characters or a brief for your video, you need to figure out who your video is for. Your target audience for your video script can impact:

• The length and format of your video.
• Where you post your video.
• Setting, costume, and lighting.

If your video is for brand awareness, you may broadcast to a large and diverse audience. But what if you‘re introducing a product or feature?

In that case, you’ll want to focus your audience on the buyers who are most likely to feel the pain point your product solves.

You might want a different approach if your video is for employee or customer retention. You’ll want to review data, reviews, and testimonials before you begin your script brief.

This will help you create the story and dialogue your audience will respond to.

2. Set a goal for your video script.

Videos are usually team projects. Without a single focus, every person could come to the video with their idea of what it’s about. As the project continues, this can turn a simple video into a convoluted mess.

That’s why starting your video script is essential by just thinking about your goal. So, before you jump into a storyline, character, or setting, figure out the why.

Why are you making this video?

Do you want to teach people about your product? Are you introducing a new pricing structure? Are you trying to expand into a new niche?

If you‘re not sure about your goal, think about the problem you’re hoping this video will solve.

For example, say you’re struggling with conversions for a new product.

• Is it because you’re breaking into a new niche? A product video on the right social media platform for this niche might be right.
• Do users need better instructions? You might want to add a product tour or instructional video to your website.
• Are you getting good reviews? You may want to partner with influencers to build a reputation for this product.

Don’t jump into your video script without deciding on a single goal.

Then, use your goal to set the metrics you‘ll use to measure the video’s performance once it goes live.

3. Choose the main character for your video.

Video marketing helps you show your viewers what your product can do instead of telling them. And characters are essential to storytelling.

Choosing the main character for your video before you begin your script will help you focus on telling a story, not just selling an idea. This will help your audience connect and engage with your video.

You may already know that your main character is your ideal customer or your CEO. They could be a celebrity, a cartoon of your product, or a narrator who speaks in your brand voice.

But if not, before you start writing your video script, decide who will be the focus of your video.

If you don’t know who your main character is, go back to your goal and target audience. Think about who your buyer persona wants to hear from as they reach that stage of their journey.

Next, outline your main character. You can use the habits, quirks, and voice of your main character to paint a picture for your audience that helps them remember and relate to your video.

Once you’ve figured out your main character, you can decide how they relate to your product. Do you want to talk about their back story? Are you going to talk about a specific experience they had and how your product helped?

4. Create a brief.

Creating a brief allows you and your team to document the answers to the most important project questions. This helps everyone involved understand the who, what, when, where, and why of your video.

Say you‘re three-quarters of the way through the editing process. If your boss or colleague wants to completely redo half of your video, that’s a huge problem.

Challenges like this can impact your budget, timing, and campaigns. But with a brief, you can refer to the goals and project plan your team mapped out together and say, “Actually, that’s not what we agreed to.”

Then, you can move forward.

Focus on your goals, topic, and takeaways in your brief.

A brief doesn’t have to be fancy, nor does it have to follow a specific formula. However, there are several vital questions it should include to craft an effective video script.

• What‘s the video topic? (The more specific, the better. For example, if you’re in the house painting business, you might choose a topic like “buying the right paint brush.”)
• What are the key takeaways of the video? What should viewers learn from watching it?
• What‘s our call-to-action? What do we want viewers to do after they’ve finished watching the video?

You can easily create a brief in Google Docs to serve as a living, breathing template that you revise over time – and that your team can collaborate on.

 

5. Use your brief to write an outline.

Once you‘ve picked a topic and written a brief, it’s time to start constructing your video script. We recommend starting with an outline to give structure to your video script.

This way, you can break your video into subtopics and decide how your dialogue (or monologue) will progress.

Are you basing your video script on a blog?

You can‘t just rewrite a blog post and call it a day – there’s a specific way to write a blog-based script so that it shapes an effective video. Alicia Collins can teach you a bit more in the video below (and yes, we wrote a script for it).

Like Alicia says in the video above, a video script shouldn‘t simply regurgitate the blog post word-for-word. Blog posts are ideally written to be conversational.

But there are pauses and verbal explanations you’ll need to add to your speech patterns that you wouldn’t have without your script.

But, using the blog post’s subsections is a helpful starting point when figuring out how your script will progress from one section to the next.

Are you writing an original video script?

Start with a well-structured outline. Many video scripts follow a three-part structure that includes:

• An introduction and hook to draw viewers into your video.
• A problem, pain point, or question comes up.
• A conclusion and resolution of the problem, including a call to action.

This is a basic video script structure, but you can go in many ways as you outline your story. This structure will help you write a script that covers the details that make your video believable and valuable to your audience.

As you create your outline, think about where natural transitions happen.

For example, say you’re writing a video script about the life of a new product. You might outline your script with the steps a business might take to launch a product, including:

• Coming up with the idea.
• Doing market research.
• Designing the new product.
• Producing a test product.
• Editing the product for mass production.
• Audience testing.
• Marketing and sales strategies.
• Product launch.

Your primary goal is to engage your target audience with a situation they can connect with. This can help them understand how the challenges you share in your video relate to the problems they want to solve in their own lives.

6. Start writing your script, section by section.

Your video script doesn‘t have to be fancy. You’re not trying to submit this script for any awards – its purpose is strictly functional.

A good script makes it easy for the people on camera to get their messages across while sounding and acting naturally.

Write conversationally.

Writing a script isn’t the same as writing a college paper or marketing research report. You want to write the script how you want the video subject to speak.

Saying, “I’m gonna create a video after reading this blog post” on camera will read much better than, “I am going to create a video after reading this blog post.” Keep sentences short and crisp, and try to avoid compound sentences.

Make it thorough.

A script doesn’t just include dialogue. If your video will require multiple shots, characters, or scenes, include these details. Be sure to include any necessary information about the set or stage actions, such as a wardrobe change.

Basically, you want the script to be thorough enough that you could hand it off to someone else to shoot, and they’d understand it.

Write for the audience and the platform.

Make sure you‘re keeping your script conversational for the people you’re trying to connect with – and infuse humor, tone, and inflection accordingly.

For example, if you‘re writing a short-form video for Facebook, you might want to consider keeping your script choppier with sentence fragments.

But if you’re producing a long-form explainer video for your website, make sure you’re as thorough as possible.

Script every single word.

It’s understandable to think you can just jot down the main bullet points for a script and then just wing it on camera, especially if you know your subject matter.

This approach makes it tough to communicate a message as clearly and concisely as possible, and it usually results in a lot of redos.

So, we suggest scripting every last word. Doing this will keep you organized during filming and save you loads of time later.

7. Edit your video script.

Writing is tough, and it‘s easy to get stuck if you expect your video script to be perfect on your first draft. It’s worth doing two to three rounds of edits to cut any unnecessary words in your writing.

These are a few more tips for editing your script so that the video script can make your final video shine.

Give yourself a break.

Step away from your script after you write it, and don’t go back until you can look at it from a fresh perspective.

Check for transitions.

Dialogue and actions will move your story forward. So, look for moments in your script that feel abrupt or awkward. Then, add details that will help your viewers understand what is happening.

Cut the extras.

Great writing and interesting dialogue will be bad for your video if they don’t advance your story. Edit out these parts and save them for a later project if you think they can be useful.

8. Do a verbal run-through off-camera.

Now that you know how to write a script, it’s time for a table read. This is the part where you practice bringing your script to life on camera.

Why practice? Because some words look great on paper, but once you read them aloud, they just don’t sound right. Reading your video script out loud can help you make the language more conversational and your sentences shorter.

You can read your script aloud while editing, but the table read is where you really get to fine-tune the tone. It’s when you can mix anything that sounds too proper, improper, robotic, or otherwise inappropriate for the message you want to convey.

Check out this video for a fun example of a table read:

Video Script Template

Nothing is more frustrating than nervously trying to write an effective video script while staring at a blank sheet. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all of the ideas floating around.

So, where do you even start? How do you sort and narrow all the ideas to write a strong screenplay? Furthermore, how do you direct this creative tempest into a script that engages the audience?

Well, starting with a template makes it that much easier. Here are some of our video marketing starter packs with a free video script template you’ll be able to contemplate. Additionally, take a look at the HubSpot video under for more information.

Let’s discover a number of templates for various kinds of movies:

1. HubSpot’s All-in-One Video Script Template

You possibly can modify scripts to match their model voice and the preferences of their viewers by including sections and prompts which may be custom-made. This permits for extra environment friendly storytelling and message supply.

HubSpot‘s template enhances the general high quality of movies whereas saving effort and time by making certain the graceful integration of textual content and visuals.

We’ve integrated each side mentioned on this weblog put up utilizing HubSpot’s video script template under.

Download the template and get started today.

2. How-to Video Script Template

How-to movies, generally known as tutorial or tutorial movies, stroll viewers via an idea, exercise, or talent in a collection of levels that make sense and are easy to duplicate.

So deal with it like a step-by-step information, and right here’s what you can begin with:

Intro

Don’t beat across the bush right here. Merely state what you’re about to debate and why the reader ought to give attention to this subject.

Define

Go forward and break down the process step-by-step in easy phrases and add examples to make sure higher comprehension. You possibly can add troubleshooting recommendation for frequent errors to foresee the reader’s questions.

Wrap It Up

Your conclusion ought to be to the purpose, solely specializing in the principle concept. Use language that encourages readers to start out the method instantly.

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3. Product Demo Video Script Template

Scripts for product demonstration movies have a selected aim. They inform a narrative and supply visuals that result in a single final result: to advertise consciousness and pique the curiosity of different potential patrons.

Past merely demonstrating a product’s performance, these scripts additionally strategically place the product into a number of levels of the client journey, highlighting its advantages and answering any queries or wants the potential buyer could have.

Let’s have a look at how one can create such a script:

Intro

This could solely embrace the essential particulars of your product, i.e., what it does and why it is helpful. Make certain to spotlight a differentiating issue in order that it intrigues the viewers.

Steps + Options

Present a short overview of the product‘s noteworthy options, spotlight the way it addresses an issue or meets the audience’s targets, and conclude with a direct illustration of the best way to use it.

To simplify the person’s journey, be sure your video script balances an academic tone and fascinating hooks.

Name-to-Motion

In the long run, stress the importance of the factors you may have made. After that, add a name to motion (CTA) that directs them to make a purchase order or request extra data, relying on the place they’re within the buyer journey.

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Onboarding Video Script Template

The onboarding course of includes lots of data sharing relating to the place, group, company tradition, and function. You possibly can present workers with correct data with an onboarding video script template.

It gives an organized framework for discussing essential matters, dispelling misunderstandings, and accelerating onboarding. Company organizations sometimes have model tips that present all of the required data, so benefit from these assets.

Intro

Present a short overview of the group’s historical past, mission, and imaginative and prescient in the beginning of the scriptwriting course of. Then, use worker testimonies to spotlight the company tradition and values.

Break it Down

For any new worker, you could present them the important thing milestones, how they will obtain them, and even the KPIs the corporate has set.

Relying on what kind of data you need to share, you can discuss studying alternatives, firm frameworks, and rather more. Guarantee you do not bombard them with an excessive amount of data on the primary day.

Contemplate splitting your script into 2 or 3 completely different ones so you’ll be able to cowl all of your firm has to supply.

Redirect Them

As soon as you’ve got lined all of the fundamentals, you’ll be able to direct your workers to different firm assets for extra data.

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These are just some examples of video script templates, however many extra are on the market.

So, right here’s my secret components to make sure you ace all of them: Be direct, share as a lot as you’ll be able to with out overwhelming anybody, and at last, direct your viewers the place you need them to go.

Video Script Instance

There are lots of other ways to jot down a video script. Normally, the format you employ will rely on the size and complexity of your video. Including columns may help you set up essential data like:

• Dialogue by scene
• Run time
• Impact and audio cues

In addition to the video script template above, the examples under are different methods you’ll be able to strategy your video script.

Single-column script:

Two-column video script

4-column script:

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1. Create a strong starting.

You could have extra viewers throughout the first 10% of your video than at another time. So, your high aim when writing a video script is to hook viewers in the beginning in order that they preserve watching till the top.

Use the primary few traces to introduce the principle character or narrator and what the viewers will study by the top of the video. You possibly can supply in-depth particulars later in your video.

For instance, in the event you’re educating viewers the best way to optimize their weblog for search engine optimization, your introduction could be:

“Hello there! I am [narrator’s name] from [company], and within the subsequent [length of video] minutes, I am gonna educate you the best way to get your weblog rating on Google.”

And don’t overlook that some viewers will likely be watching your video with out sound. Viewers who’re silently scanning your social media or web site will nonetheless have to rapidly perceive what your video is about.

2. Be concise.

In relation to advertising, shorter movies are typically extra compelling than longer movies. In actual fact, 68% of individuals stated they’d reasonably study new services and products via a “brief video,” in response to a survey by Wyzowl.

To make brief movies, you want a brief script. Do not write a script any longer than two pages; in the event you can preserve it to at least one web page, that may be even higher.

The result’s a succinct, participating video that permits for a easy modifying course of.

3. Write briefly paragraphs.

Time is vital while you‘re writing a script. In case you’re studying at a mean tempo, you will cowl about two phrases per second.

Quick paragraphs make it simpler to grasp the timing of your script as you write and edit it. In addition they make it simpler to make use of a teleprompter.

So, attempt to preserve your paragraphs to 3-4 sentences at most.

4. Assist any B-roll with the correct callouts in your principal narrative.

In case your video will transition from an individual talking in entrance of a digital camera to a close-up shot of your product or an illustration, write these cues into your script.

This fashion, anybody who reads it is aware of to introduce these items to the viewer.

What’s B-roll?

These secondary pictures are sometimes called B-roll, which occur whereas the individual continues to talk off-screen. B-roll is likely one of the principal variations between a weblog put up and a video script.

For instance, if a weblog put up reads, “Check out the graph under,” it clearly refers to a graph embedded under that sentence. This phrasing will not work on digital camera.

As a substitute, your video script would possibly learn, “Within the graph, you see right here” – when you present the graph on-screen.

Give cues to your characters or narrator.

These written exceptions assist cue your expertise to take sure unstated actions whereas reciting the script. It’s additionally a good suggestion so as to add open loops in order that your viewers has an concept of what’s coming subsequent.

This may make them extra keen to attend via a bit that they won’t discover participating.

 

5. Use graphics to make your video stand out.

Visible cues are vital so as to add to your script. Graphics make it easier to make your dialogue simpler for viewers to grasp and bear in mind.

Choices for graphics you’ll be able to add to your movies embrace:

• Pictures.
• Animations.
• Infographics.
• Transferring textual content.

It may be tempting so as to add visuals only for the cool issue. However each picture you add ought to supply worth to your viewers. And if you concentrate on these visuals as you write your script, they’ll really feel extra pure in your last video.

6. Add some selection to your script.

Writing video scripts is enjoyable, so guarantee that the enjoyable exhibits. As you write and edit your script, strive new issues to boost your dialogue, visuals, and construction.

These are a couple of concepts that may make it easier to add one thing new to your scriptwriting.

Create backstories in your characters.

For instance, say your principal character is speaking about discovering a greater toothbrush.

If her again story is that she was a cookie-loving pastry chef who’s susceptible to cavities, sharing her again story lets your viewers know what impressed her when she was first beginning out.

Use opposites.

Opposites are a well-liked idea in improv appearing, they usually may help while you’re including selection to your script.

For instance, say your script options two formidable characters. One might be formidable as a result of they received poor grades in highschool they usually need to show themself.

The opposite is formidable as a result of they’ve all the time carried out nicely in class, they usually need that to proceed. These completely different motivations will assist make their conversations extra fascinating.

Get impressed.

Movies, movies, books, and footage can all make it easier to create a extra vivid world in your video script. You possibly can apply your inspiration on to the scenes you write or use it for motivation while you’re feeling caught.

Suppose visually.

One other manner so as to add selection is to step again and have a look at the large image. Writing an overview of your script on notecards or utilizing a card for every scene may help you get a way of the place your script may have some work.

7. Plan to repurpose your video content material.

Whereas an amazing last video is your final aim, you will additionally need to plan for the long run as you write your script.

Most advertising movies will not simply put up to a single platform. Your group will share clips on social media, in e mail, and through shows.

So, it is sensible to plan for repurposing. As you write, take into consideration moments in your script that might be participating on their very own.

Even in the event you‘re writing a script for a brief video, attempt to write with fast clips in thoughts. For instance, in the event you’re making a two-minute video, plan to drag out a couple of five-second clips.

Use a Video Script to Create Unimaginable Movies

A video script could be a fast define or a rigorously written work of genius. Both manner, it is going to type the muse of your video and have a significant impression in your outcomes.

Once you’re scripting, you’ll be able to let your creativity run wild, check new concepts, and push boundaries. Use these steps, ideas, and templates to invent and experiment. Get to work and assist your corporation soar.