In the white section below are some decent starting points. They focus on thinking about your audience, and then telling them a story.
In the gray and black sections I’ve included some videos that talk about techniques, shot selections, transitions, and telling a story through the cinematography you select.
I’m providing a short rundown or checklist on the videos in the black stripe. The ones in gray should be self explanatory.
Video 1 – Paul from Biteable
“7 Secret Ingredients for a Video Ad”
To start..
- Who are you targeting?
- What problem are you solving?
Then, the 7 magic things starting at 1:57
- #1 – 2:14 – Empathize and solve their problem.
- #2 – 2:41 – Evoke emotion.
- #3 – 2:58 – Benefits, not features.
- #4 – 3:30 – Speak to your niche.
- #5 – 3:32 – Avoid waffle.
- #6 – 3:48 – Call to action.
- #7 – 4:07 – Make it feel native.
Then the rest of the video talks about being creative by using one of Biteable’s pre-fabricated templates. Biteable is like the Canva of video editing. It costs about $600 for a one-user license, or $1,200 annually for a team of three to logon at the same time.
Video 2 – from figandlight
Talks about story, first.
Talks about how most YouTube videos spend most of their time talking to you about technical aspects of making a video – not starting with the story.
Also talks about steps and process.
Video 3 – Maria from Wave
How to Tell a Story in a 15-Second Video
4 Simple Steps
- Focus on the main message.
- Think through the structure.
- Apply your creativity.
– Open ended? Original? - Apply Emotions.
Video 4 – Amanda
How To Write A Promotional Video Script
6 parts
I like she included “Social Proof” as part 4.
Yes, this is important, but notice she’s not suggesting leading the video with this. Students love leading with this. That may very well work for a TikTok video, but rarely in other places. Without the problem statement up front, or already Top-of-Mind Awareness for the viewer, we lose context because we don’t really know (a) who the heck the speaker is, or (b) why we should care.
Again, testimonials are important, but not as the first contact point for an audience – and that is demonstrated in research on Google, YouTube, and Meta’s business pages, which unfortunately not enough people read.
This gray section includes videos from Jacques Crafford.
I like his stuff. For us we can ignore his camera and gear recommendations – although he’s spot on. Yes, they’re focused on the technical side of telling a story, but he is thinking beyond just the mechanics. Besides, in several of his videos he mentions that in many situations he favors using handheld cameras, and not fancier gizmos like a gimbal.