If you want to add more video content to your social media efforts this year, here’s a pre-production checklist you’re going to love. It will help you to stay focused while giving you the structure to crank out videos as often as you want or need.
Write and edit your script following this basic structure:
☐ Opener: Grab the viewer’s attention.
☐ Problem statement: Outline the problem the viewer is facing.
☐ Solution: Demonstrate how your product, service, people, or business can help solve the problem.
☐ Call to action: Direct the viewer to take action by filling out a lead form, visiting your website, purchasing your product, or whatever action ladders up to your goals.
☐ Create a storyboard. Identify key scenes, determine where dialogue will take place, annotate specific takeaways and create a rough sketch (or a masterpiece, depending on your artistry) of each frame.
☐ Gather equipment and props. You don’t always need a fancy camera. Mobile phones also create high-quality videos.
☐ Plan each stage of the shoot. Consider how you might use various shots (e.g., environmental, detail, wide-frame establishing, birds-eye) for additional social assets before, during, and after launch.
☐ Identify the place(s) and times you’ll film. Take natural daylight into consideration for timing.
☐ Determine who will need to approve for each step.
What is a video storyboard?
A storyboard is a visual outline for your video. It’s made up of a series of thumbnail images that convey what happens in your video, from beginning to end. It also includes notes about what’s happening in each frame. A finished storyboard looks like a comic strip.
Get your free storyboard template.
5 Easy Ways to Add Captions to Video
Here are five, free tools you can use to create video captions. Captioning your video is good for more than just search engine optimization. It also makes your content easy to engage with (without sound), boosts audience attention and comprehension, and improves the accessibility of your content. Here are five captioning tools you can use.
- Google Drive
- YouTube Editor
- Pinnacle Studio
- CaptionMaker
- Aegisub (like Notepad)
Engage Viewers
What kind of video engages viewers? Here are eight types you can try. Once you find that magic formula, incorporate video into your content calendar regularly.
- Encourage customers to interact with the video (like a panning video)
- Behind-the-scenes look
- Tap into customer’s interests
- Reunions (emotional, reconnect, feelings)
- Live streaming
- Explainer videos (the meaning behind something, how-to, etc.)
- Inserting brand voice into pop culture
- Social awareness
Video Script Writing Made Easy
Writing video scripts can be more difficult than creating the video itself. Here are some tips to create a repeatable process and to make writing video scripts easy.
Biteable and WordStream offer these tips:
- Identify your target viewer.
- Write like you speak.
- Keep paragraphs and sentences short (15 – 20 words).
- Write out visual and audio elements (see this template).
- Write the script; then trim to fit. Use Script-Timer.com to calculate the length of your script.
- Use a template.
- Read it aloud before recording it.
Get your video script template here.
Now that you have the parts, it’s time to begin planning your next video project. What topic will you cover? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.