You’ve got a message best delivered in person, but you can’t overcome the time or distance between you and the person or people with whom you want to share it.
Video’s the next best thing.
But in some cases, it’s a detailed, complicated, or long video message. What’s the best way to handle that?
Here’s a quick tip to help … plus a few related bonus tips!
Read time: 1 minutes, 50 seconds
Video length: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
Takeaway: One key idea that’ll help you get through a detailed or long video more effectively.
Quick Tip for Your Detailed, Complicated, or Long Video
Outline Your Video
The basic structure for any video being used for communication:
- Introduction: Who you are, why they’re seeing it, what they’ll learn
- Main ideas: 2 or 3 key pieces of information
- Call to action: what the viewer should do next
(Note: this follows our Empathy, Value, Call To Action framework)
But what if the main ideas are significant? What if you’ve got 5 or 6 instead of 2 or 3?
Don’t put pressure on yourself to commit this to memory. Instead, outline your video.
If it’s going to be a detailed or long video, just make an outline or a bullet point list of key points.
Show Your Outline
Here’s the tip: show your outline at the top of the video!
Don’t act like you don’t have it. Don’t hide it and steal away quick glances off camera.
Instead, show your outline and talk about it briefly. This gives you permission to look away and refer to it.
Don’t Write a Script
An outline or a bullet point list is all you need for most videos – especially for simple “relationships through video“-style videos.
You don’t need a script.
Scripts take too much time to write. Scripts put too much pressure on you to say the exact “right” words in the exact “right” order. Scripts increase the risk of giving away everything that makes video such a valuable communication medium – the human factor.
Reading words off a paper or screen into the camera breaks eye contact with the viewer and, in that process, makes it a more awkward experience for both you and your viewers.
Don’t Shoot for Perfection
The idea that you’d hide your outline or act like you don’t have one is driven by a common fear – the fear that your video needs to be perfect.
Of course, perfection is impossible. Worse though, the drive for perfection detracts from the human element that makes simple videos so effective.
Video isn’t just about what you say – it’s about how you make people feel.
And a “perfect” video won’t convert more leads. Conversion is about connection, not perfection. A few imperfections make you much more honest and relatable.
And If You Forget a Detail …
Almost anywhere someone’s going to be watching your video (email, text message, Facebook, YouTube, landing page, etc), you can support that video with some text.
If you forget or miss a statistic or detail, include it in the typed-out text adjacent to the video itself.
Want to Send a Long Video Free?
Or a short one?
A simple one or a complicated one?
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You’ll have access to our entire toolset, including the ability to record and send videos from your laptop, desktop, or smartphone. From BombBomb, from Gmail, from Salesforce, or from one of many other platforms. Send by email, in a text message, or to social.
And you’ll know exactly when people open emails, click links, and play videos – so you can follow up more effectively.
