A successful video often isn’t the result from flashy equipment or special effects combined with a catchy music track… It’s usually a cleverly written video script
When people are surfing Youtube for non-entertainment purposes, they are searching for answers – solutions to problems, how to do things in detail, reviews and testimonials or something to inspire them. And on this search for answers, people are ruthless when rummaging through videos. If you don’t hook the viewers’ attention straight away with the right intro (5 -10 seconds), then they will bounce off to the next video.
This is bad for a number of reasons. The first is; what is the point of spending all the time and effort to create a beautiful promotional video when 90% of your viewers click off within the first 10 seconds?
Another reason is bad viewing stats – Youtube has an algorithm that monitors the average view time of any given video so it can determine if it is worth a good search ranking (Google does this with websites too). So if your video has a high dropout rate from the start, Youtube will deem it “poor quality content” and leave it at the bottom of the heap, with the rest of the “duds”.
Many business owners are often left scratching their heads because their business video doesn’t seem to make much difference… They have a wonderful video (as a whole) but nobody is watching because they spent far too much time on the glittery intro, or too much time is spent rambling on about something insignificant that most people don’t care about. Always examine and split test your videos… If you ask people for their sincere opinions (not yes men) on the engagement factor of your video, then you might get some valuable feedback that can drastically change its success.
Another mistake business’s make is using too much industry jargon. Yes, you are an industry expert but just keep it to plain English – common sense is very common so make sure your choice of words is easy to digest so you can keep the viewer’s attention. Another is the overuse of complex words to try and make yourself sound “extra professional” – keep it simple or peoples eyes will start to glaze over.
The single most important part of a successful video script is a great intro. Make sure the first 10 – 20 seconds is as interesting you can make it! Your goal is to have the viewer hang off every sentence that leads them to the next.