In the video production world, after getting ideas from a client one of the primary things that need to be created is the script.
It’s important because everything else is based on it.
If you mess this part up your video won’t work as intended.
The formula that was taught in the explainer video course wasn’t invented by the course creator.
Like with many formulas for copywriting (which scriptwriting is a part of) there are common elements that get used to persuade.
Usually, those formulas are made for longer-form content like sales letters, advertorials and the like, but not really for 20 or 30-second video adverts.
The beauty of what you’re about to learn is that it could be used for both short video ads and long.
…and if you’re a bit handy with video creation, you can use the visuals to drive the story without needing to use a bunch of words.
Intrigued? Great. Let’s get started…
Here’s the foundation and what everything sits on: The P+S+H+C:
Problem – Address the pain your customers are having
Solution – Introduce your product as the answer
How It Works – Briefly describe how it works
Call-To-Action – Tell people what to do next
If you’ve done any form of marketing, you should already know this. This is just the start.
The S.U.C.C.E.S.S lesson…
Next, we move onto the S.U.C.C.E.S.S part of the formula. It’s an acronym…
This is from the book Made to Stick – Chip & Dan Heath
They are like the seasoning that you will add to the P+S+H+C.
How?
You use S.U.C.C.E.S.S to qualify every line of your script and give it a score of 0 – 7. With 0 = it doesn’t use any of the S.U.C.C.E.S.S elements and 7 = it uses all 7.
Let me just add that not all sentences will require a perfect score of 7. Some sentences won’t warrant it. It should however at least have a score of 4. If it doesn’t you should rewrite it.
Let me put it into context:
Let’s say you’ve got a fancy super deluxe tote bag product for sale. If we take the beginning problem section of your script and call out the problem/pain your customer is having we start off by writing something like…
“Trying to find your keys when you’re in a rush is a pain…”
We can score it by asking and answering with the following scores:
- Is the sentence simple? Yes = 1
- Is the sentence unexpected? No = 0
- Is the sentence concrete? Yes = 1
- Does the sentence have any credibility? Yes = 1
- Is the sentence emotional? No = 0
- Does the sentence have a story? No = 0
- Does the sentence make you smile? Yes = 1 (not with the words, but it could be done visually).
- TOTAL = 4
Let me give you another example for the same fictions fancy super deluxe tote bag product but this time for we’ll move on to the second sentence:
“Having to rummage around until you give up playing hide and seek and in frustration tip all the contents of your bag out.”
Lets put it through the scoring system again…
- Is the sentence simple? Yes = 1
- Is the sentence unexpected? Yes = 1
- Is the sentence concrete? Yes = 1
- Does the sentence have any credibility? Yes = 1
- Is the sentence emotional? Yes = 1
- Does the sentence have a story? Yes = 1
- Does the sentence make you smile? No = 0
- TOTAL = 6
We can go on, but I think you get the point.
A great way to lay this out is in a spreadsheet.
Create a spreadsheet with 9 columns. Title each column with sentence, simple, unexpected, concrete, credibility, emotional, smile and total.
List each sentence in its own cell in a column on under sentence. Then, score each sentence with a zero or number 1 under each of the success columns.
Once you’ve scored each sentence, add each row up and total up the score for each sentence.
Again, if any sentence total is lower than 4, you will need to rewrite it. See the example in the image below…
That, my friend, is the keys to the kingdom!
The perfect video script formula
At this point, you might be wondering why I gave you what I refer to as being the Perfect Video Script Formula.
It’s simple really…
You will need a good script if you’re to create a video that gets you results…
…and as mentioned previously a good script is the first thing you need to have to produce a great video no matter what you want the video for.
Whether it’s to drive traffic to your product page or as an advert for converting browsers into buyers.
This is just the first part of the equation when it comes to putting a great video together.
The second part of the equation is to know what types of product videos are a great fit for using the perfect video script formula…