Writing A Video Script: Understanding Your Audience.

Whether you choose to create your own explainer video or use a professional company to produce one for you, understanding how to write an explainer script is vital.

In this post we’ll look at why identifying your target audience is an important early stage in the script writing process.

Stories need structure….

At Joe Mule Creative, we believe that the best explainer videos don’t just sell a product or service, they tell a story. Like any good story, an explainer script should have a structure that leads the audience through the video.

The ‘traditional’ Explainer Video Structure:

• What problem does your product / service solve
• How does your product / service solve this problem
• Why should the audience choose your company
• What should the audience do next (call, email etc)

In order to write an effective script using this structure, it’s important to have a good understanding of who your target audience is. The most effective explainer videos place the audience at the heart of the video, addressing (and then solving) their problems.

Here’s an example of how understanding your target audience can shape your videos structure, from a video we recently created for social media analytics platform Sentylitics…

In the earlier stages of this project, we worked with the marketing team at Sentylitics to identify the core audience for this video – marketing managers who were running campaigns across multiple channels that wanted a deeper understanding of how their brand is being perceived online.

Developing a customer profile

Think about this as an in-depth description of who your typical customers would be.

Try and narrow your target audience down as much as possible by things like age, location, gender and job role – this will help you write a script that addresses them directly.

PRO TIP: For certain projects, it can be helpful imagine your target audience as an individual person that has all the attributes you’re targeting – this can help you write a script that speaks directly to them.

Once you’ve established who your target audience is, you’ll find it much easier to identify and describe their ‘pain points’ and write a script that walks them through your story.

If you found this helpful you might find our free video marketing eBook helpful:

Thanks for reading!