A Lawyer’s Guide to Writing Successful Marketing Video Scripts

All great video marketing campaigns start with great video scripts. Voiceover, music, visuals—these all enhance your story, but that story needs to be on paper first. Your creative team can only do so much to enhance your vision, so it’s important to give them a strong foundation. We’ve created plenty of videos for our clients, so we know what will make the process easier and save headaches down the road. In this post, we break down the marketing video script process into simple steps.

Why Do You Need a Video Script?

Remember when you were in school, and your teacher told you every paper needed an outline? Well, this is true of every form of content. Very often, if you go into the video creation process without a script, then you’re going into this video without a game plan. It can be very difficult to think of every point you need to hit, your call-to-action, and what wording is best on the spot. Creating a script doesn’t mean your video will sound rehearsed. It’s simply just creating a road map to ensure your video hits on all the points you need to relay in a cohesive way.

Although script writing seems like a big to-do (38% of marketers say pre-production takes the most amount of time), it’s absolutely essential if you want your video creation process to go smoothly.

1. Define Your Audience

Like any piece of content, who your audience is and what they want/ need should be the cornerstone of your writing. Here is where you’ll hash out who will watch the video and what you want them to do after viewing it. Start by defining your target audience for this video. Lean on your audience personas that you’ve created (or create some if you haven’t already) to truly understand your audience’s challenges and how your video will mitigate these challenges. What are your audience’s pain points? How can you alleviate this pain? What offerings will this video include to alleviate the pain? What action do you want your audience to take?

2. Map Out Your Key Takeaway

Now that you have your target audience defined, you must decide what you think the main point of your video should be. Think of this as the thesis statement of your paper. You should have a clear takeaway in mind that you want your audience to walk away with. And this takeaway should evoke some type of emotion that will cause them to take action.

3. Create a Plan 

Before you get into the details of your script, you need to document a plan that covers all aspects of the video. We suggest creating a brief that will provide guidance during the entire creation process. The brief should cover items such as the main goal and message of the video, what call-to-action you’ll use, the target audience, tone of voice/ tone indicators, any body movement accompanying the script, cues, and the key points you want to relay. 

4. Write an Outline

To begin your marketing video script, document the main points your video will cover in a logical and cohesive order. If your video is “7 steps for starting an LLC”, then you would likely have an intro, a point for each step, and a conclusion with a call-to-action (CTA).

When writing a marketing video script, it’s essential to finish with a CTA. This is the point where you encourage your audience to take a specific course of action. Make sure it is clear and sounds appealing to the audience so they are more likely to do what you are suggesting.

5. Be Conversational 

Before you get into the nitty-gritty of the script, you need to think about what tone and voice you’ll use. We suggest using the same style as you would when conversing with a friend or close client. Avoid being too formal, using technical vocabulary or legalese, and sounding too self-promotional. Your goal is to sound relatable and friendly. Have your subject practice the script speaking to a colleague or friend to ensure their tone of voice sounds natural and conversational.

6. Deliver Your Value Proposition Early

People tend to decide within the first couple of seconds if they will continue watching a video or turn their attention elsewhere. Let them know what you’re marketing early so they don’t miss it even if they decide to leave. Your first few moments must be brief, but attention-grabbing and must make the value proposition of what you’re marketing clear. You also need to introduce yourself and tell the audience exactly what they will get if they continue watching. Keep the tone light but informative, and explain the value of what’s to come. 

7. Keep it Concise

Your online audience simply doesn’t have much patience. Thanks to TikTok, short-form video is now performing much better than longer pieces. If at any moment they don’t like what they hear or don’t find it valuable, they will move on. Lawyers need to use short sentences in their video script that get right to the point. Don’t use fluff, and don’t repeat minor points. Once your script is complete, read over it again and maybe ask a colleague to do so as well, with the goal of removing any information that isn’t necessary or takes too long to make your point.

According to Hootsuite, these are the most ideal video lengths:

• TikTok: 7-15 seconds
• Twitter: 44 seconds
• YouTube: 2 minutes
• LinkedIn: 30 seconds

8. Make Timing Clear

When writing scripts, the grammatical structure should help dictate the speed and cadence you or your subject is speaking at. Break up your text into paragraphs to help dictate when the speaker should naturally pause. Remember to keep these paragraphs short and concise.

9. Consider Other Elements

Your video will flow much better if, as you plan your script, you think about the other elements included in the content. Give some thought to music, sound effects, visuals, graphics, etc. Write down all of the details on your script. It could look something like this: “We’ve brought in expert XYZ to explain how to complete this step. [show XYZ headshot for 2 seconds].” 

10. Read it Out Loud

Once you finish your marketing video script, it’s always a good idea to test it by reading it. Read every word just as it’s written, don’t improvise. You might want to do this in front of an audience and get their opinion as well. If anything feels unnatural, you have time to make changes. You may also want to time it, particularly if you are trying to line up other elements (as mentioned above). 

Related: 10 Video Marketing Examples from Lawyers Doing it Right

Takeaway

For your videos to be effective, they need to follow a clear plan. That includes creating a marketing video script that will provide guidance throughout the creation process. There are a lot of pieces involved in developing a compelling video, but at Good2bSocial, our extensive experience has taught us how to script, plan, and produce videos depending on your budget and expectations. Contact us today to discuss your video marketing objectives and the ways in which we can help.