Sample chapter from the how to write an explainer video guide:
The 5 questions to ask before writing an explainer video script
In order to write a good script, we need to start by learning more about the client’s world. We need to understand what they do, how they do it, the market they exist in, and then crucially: the key information they actually need in a video.
Don’t worry if you have no prior experience of what a client does, this can actually work to your advantage when writing a script - if at the end of the process you’ve written something that you can understand and learn from, then others will be able to learn from it too.
At the start of the project, ask your client the following five questions:
- Who is the audience for the video?
- What’s the key point people should remember after they’ve watched the video?
- How should they feel after watching the video?
- In your market, what are the challenges and problems people face?
- How does your product or service solve or alleviate the problems?
Tip: Put these questions in an online questionnaire format using a service like typeform or google forms, that way your client can fill the answers in online.
It may be that the client doesn’t actually know the answers to the 5 questions, if this is the case then more research is needed especially when figuring out the client’s market and any existing problems out there.
Working with your client to figure out the answers to the five questions together is a great starting point for a project, not only will it help build your working relationship, it can actually be incredibly valuable for your client’s business overall.
The answers to these questions will form the content of our script later in the guide, in the next section we’ll look at what makes a good script structure.