MARKETING
How To Write Video and Audio Scripts
I read advice on a LinkedIn post last week that worried me.
He counseled that you should never write word for word in a script or on a teleprompter what you or your subject will say in a video, audio, or any other business presentation.
Great content performers, he suggested, just outline things and let the language come naturally. Scripts make people sound stiff. He argued they read the words rather than talking about the ideas. He said, “Reading scripts from a teleprompter or from a document are the sign of an amateur.”
That just isn’t true.
Now, I don’t mean to say people never sound stiff when they read a script during a video or a presentation. But just because something is true if done poorly doesn’t mean it’s still true if done well.
It all depends on the script and how it’s used as a performance tool.
Scriptwriting is a format
My first job in Los Angeles was writing and editing market research reports for local car dealerships. While I did that, I also immersed myself in writing plays and screenplays. I read as many books as I could on the craft. I took classes. I read hundreds of scripts. I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote.
Spoiler alert: It didn’t work out. I got into marketing instead.
But all that work taught me how to recognize the unique patterns, structure, and language of dialogue. Scripts are unique in the writing world because they generally are not the final art form (though, for many, I’d certainly beg to differ).
Scripts are created to be interpreted through other mediums like audio, stage, film, television, etc. In many ways, scripts serve as instructions for how to tell the story, capturing the movement, speech, and even technical directions.
The critical part is understanding that integral need for interpretation. Your script is a blueprint to help ensure that you – or those performing it – don’t lose important bits of the story and stay true to the structure, emphasis, tone, timing, and overall point of view.
As podcasting, video, and live events become an enormously important part of content strategy, scripts are a core content type. When I ask people why they don’t script their presentations, videos, etc., I often get a response similar to what I read in that LinkedIn post. They are uncomfortable with the format. They are afraid if they write out their speech, it will sound stale and unnatural.
But that doesn’t have to be true. Plenty of amazing entertainers, teachers, thought leaders, and others use scripts. They print them or use teleprompters. They use the script as a key tool in their storytelling.
Let’s look at three secrets I’ve found helpful in thinking about scripting a performance.
Secret 1: Great grammar doesn’t get extra points
Only you (or the presenter) need to see your script. Writing for speaking versus writing for reading is different. Because of my background as a screenwriter, I am more comfortable with the former. Ask any of the amazing editors at Content Marketing Institute who have had the misfortune of having to edit my prose. They will tell you that my sentence structure and my punctuation are, well, “creative.” But, if you read my raw writing out loud, it tends to sound OK.
But that differentiation is why people have challenges performing their scripts. They believe writing down the words for their speaking locks them into a style that sounds overly formal and stilted (and it certainly can).
A critical difference exists between how you speak dialogue naturally and create text that people will read. As speakers, you repeat yourself. You speak in run-on and fragmented sentences. You use pause and filler words that have no place in good writing but add emotional context – and all of these can make a great script funny or dramatic or emphasize a point.
Pay attention to the two examples below from former President Barack Obama. In both, he uses a script. In one, he uses the paper on the podium. In the other, he uses a teleprompter. However, the scenarios are not the same. While both are written for him to speak, differences exist based on the context.
The first video is from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner – known for its humorous speeches – where President Obama uses notes.
In the second video, he uses a teleprompter to deliver the final speech of his presidential tenure.
Pay attention in the second video to his use of the phrase, “If I’d told you …” He uses it to set up a list of nine accomplishments in his administration. But he also uses it to set up the end of the speech.
If this text was written for publication, it might be read like this: “If I had informed you that,” followed by nine bullets listing the accomplishments.
But the script uses the casual phrase, “If I’d told you.” It repeats it four times to set up the punch line: “If I had told you all that, you might have said our sights were set a little too high. But we did it.”
Great scripts help the speaker – the interpreter of the story – use words, emphasis, and pauses to amplify important elements in the performance.
Does that mean you should write out the verbal pauses or “ums” in your script? Maybe. It all depends on who you’re writing it for. If it helps the speaker amplify an element you created as part of the experience, then absolutely include them.
Does this mean you have two versions of whatever you’re working on? Yes.
Consider the opening lines of the CMI news video from last week. Here’s my script:
Soooo … last week McKinsey – you know – the global consultancy firm – released the results of a new survey of about 100 people in C level growth roles – from CMO’s to Chief Growth Officers, Chief Customer Officers etcetera, and also a whole 21 CEOs from B2b and B2c companies of all sizes and across industries.
Now … uh … if that sounds like too small a sample size to really make quantitative decisions about – well … anything … Yeah, you’d be right …
That is decidedly different than the article that accompanies the video – which you can check out here.
Does your CEO understand marketing?
They probably think they do, but they probably don’t, according to your CMO.
Who’s right?
New McKinsey research finds despite their agreement that strong marketing equals business growth, their understanding of marketing stands as divided as ever.
And that brings me to my second secret.
Secret 2: Find the stories within the story
Dramatic script writing involves two monologue types: active and narrative.
In an active monologue, the performer speaks with the intention to achieve a goal. It might be to change someone’s mind, convince them of something, or communicate a point of view.
This technique works best to reveal the character in the story – to drive the story forward in some way. Think about the Obama “accomplishments” speech in the earlier video. He reveals his thoughts directly and seeks to drive home a point.
In a narrative monologue, the performer tells a story within the story, often referring to something that happened. These monologues often make an analogy or bring relevant context to a point.
In the movie Jaws, shark hunter Sam Quint tells the story of his experience on the USS Indianapolis and the resulting shark attack. While it does nothing to drive the plot forward, it beautifully places an element of the story, demonstrating Quint’s experience and elevating the danger the three heroes face.
In your scripts, you will no doubt use both active and narrative monologues. But remember to make sure to balance where and how long you pull the focus.
At Content Marketing World 2019, my pal Joe Pulizzi had a 20-minute time slot. He needed to hit that mark because timing at an event like that is precise. So, Joe scripted his keynote presentation.
His keynote came in at 18 minutes and two seconds. He hit his mark perfectly. But, more importantly, note how Joe shifts gears after just 20 seconds with a narrative monologue. It’s four minutes. That’s right, 20% of his talk is a story that doesn’t drive his point.
Did he bury the lead?
He did not.
Two things are important. First, the “story within the story” is relevant on its own; it’s entertaining and puts the audience on equal footing with Joe – they’ve all “been there.” Second, the narrative monologue feeds a contextual purpose to the larger story. It gives the audience a better understanding of the remaining 80% of the talk. The monologue elevates the importance of his laws and reinforces their practicality. It’s a brilliant use of the narrative monologue.
That brings me to my third – and probably most important – secret of great scripts.
Secret 3: Tell your story; don’t read your story
After all that talk about writing as you speak and focusing on structure, you might think the advice for performing a great script is to simply read it as it’s written.
Nope.
Once you write a script, work with it and practice it. Over time, especially if it’s a presentation, pitch, or other stump speech, you will get to the point of knowing – not memorizing – so it feels like you know it word for word.
Now, often, you (or the performer) may not have enough time or reason for memorizing the script. It might be a guest introduction, a one-time presentation, or weekly videos. You might not get the time or the availability to convert something written into a script. You might have to perform it just the way it is.
Whatever the case, wanting or needing a script is NOT a bad thing, despite what anybody on social media says.
The key to success lies in knowing the script as best as you can so you can tell the story rather than read the words. That is why – when you can – write like you speak. You’ll know it faster and recognize the pattern more easily. Over time and practice, you’ll develop a skill reading cold read scripts or teleprompters as well as any newscaster or award show host would.
How much time will it take you to get there? Well, as much as you have or need.
When I write my weekly newscast, I spend about 30 minutes working through the script. (I script about every word of every episode.) I read it a few times, then I load it into a teleprompter app next to my camera, and away I go.
For presentations, I almost always script everything word for word and then build my slides. I read the script aloud many, many times while editing and tweaking. Then, I do it without the script in my hand but handy so I can refer to it. Finally, I know it well enough that I can do it without the script nearby. But, if I’m giving it virtually, where a teleprompter is allowed, you can bet I avail myself of it.
So you might ask, “Why script it if you ultimately don’t read from it?” At times, you want to be precise (like in my virtual presentations), and you want to be exacting in the story. If you write a script, you not only know the words but the way to deliver those words. When I have a script, I can spend more time on being poetic in my delivery.
Going back to the Obama video at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. Watch it again. I can almost guarantee you a word-for-word script sits on the lectern. You can see him glance at it almost instinctively after every joke.
However, it’s clear he’s rehearsed it, and he knows the material. He’s comfortable ad-libbing a few things. And he knows exactly where the punch lines are.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
I promise the more you write scripts and perform scripts, the better you will get. Watch this video. You can see the woman in red struggle with the teleprompter. It’s not a disaster, but she clearly is seeing the information for the first time or does not know the material. At the three-minute mark, she goes off of the teleprompter and responds to a question for which she knows the material. She relaxes, her smile is much more genuine, and she tells the story more effectively.
In the end, great scripts capture the way you want to communicate your ideas. The best script tells the story clearly but allows for a great performance to elevate it. As the classic Hollywood film director Howard Hawks said, “You can’t fix a bad script after you start shooting. The problems on the page only get bigger as they move to the big screen.”
Take the time and use scripts for the great tool that they are, and don’t listen to anyone who tells you that they are a crutch for those who struggle to tell stories.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
MARKETING
How To Develop a Great Creative Brief and Get On-Target Content
Every editor knows what it feels like to sit exasperated in front of the computer, screaming internally, “It would have been easier if I’d done it myself.”
If your role involves commissioning and approving content, you know that sinking feeling: Ten seconds into reviewing a piece, it’s obvious the creator hasn’t understood (or never bothered to listen to) a damn thing you told them. As you go deeper, your fingertips switch gears from polite tapping to a digital Riverdance as your annoyance spews onto the keyboard. We’ve all been there. It’s why we drink. Or do yoga. Or practice voodoo.
In truth, even your best writer, designer, or audiovisual content creator can turn in a bad job. Maybe they had an off day. Perhaps they rushed to meet a deadline. Or maybe they just didn’t understand the brief.
The first two excuses go to the content creator’s professionalism. You’re allowed to get grumpy about that. But if your content creator didn’t understand the brief, then you, as the editor, are at least partly to blame.
Taking the time to create a thorough but concise brief is the single greatest investment you can make in your work efficiency and sanity. The contrast in emotions when a perfectly constructed piece of content lands in your inbox could not be starker. It’s like the sun has burst through the clouds, someone has released a dozen white doves, and that orchestra that follows you around has started playing the lovely bit from Madame Butterfly — all at once.
Here’s what a good brief does:
- It clearly and concisely sets out your expectations (so be specific).
- It focuses the content creator’s mind on the areas of most importance.
- It encourages the content creator to do a thorough job rather than an “it’ll-do” job.
- It results in more accurate and more effective content (content that hits the mark).
- It saves hours of unnecessary labor and stress in the editing process.
- It can make all the difference between profit and loss.
Arming content creators with a thorough brief gives them the best possible chance of at least creating something fit for purpose — even if it’s not quite how you would have done it. Give them too little information, and there’s almost no hope they’ll deliver what you need.
On the flip side, overloading your content creators with more information than they need can be counterproductive. I know a writer who was given a 65-page sales deck to read as background for a 500-word blog post. Do that, and you risk several things happening:
- It’s not worth the content creator’s time reading it, so they don’t.
- Even if they do read it, you risk them missing out on the key points.
- They’ll charge you a fortune because they’re losing money doing that amount of preparation.
- They’re never going to work with you again.
There’s a balance to strike.
There’s a balance to be struck.
Knowing how to give useful and concise briefs is something I’ve learned the hard way over 20 years as a journalist and editor. What follows is some of what I’ve found works well. Some of this might read like I’m teaching grandma to suck eggs, but I’m surprised how many of these points often get forgotten.
Who is the client?
Provide your content creator with a half- or one-page summary of the business:
- Who it is
- What it does
- Whom it services
- What its story is
- Details about any relevant products and services
Include the elevator pitch and other key messaging so your content creator understands how the company positions itself and what kind of language to weave into the piece.
Who is the audience?
Include a paragraph or two about the intended audience. If a company has more than one audience (for example, a recruitment company might have job candidates and recruiters), then be specific. Even a sentence will do, but don’t leave your content creator guessing. They need to know who the content is for.
What needs to be known?
This is the bit where you tell your content creator what you want them to create. Be sure to include three things:
- The purpose of the piece
- The angle to lead with
- The message the audience should leave with
I find it helps to provide links to relevant background information if you have it available, particularly if the information inspired or contributed to the content idea, rather than rely on content creators to find their own. It can be frustrating when their research doesn’t match or is inferior to your own.
How does the brand communicate?
Include any information the content creators need to ensure that they’re communicating in an authentic voice of the brand.
- Tone of voice: The easiest way to provide guidance on tone of voice is to provide one or two examples that demonstrate it well. It’s much easier for your content creators to mimic a specific example they’ve seen, read, or heard than it is to interpret vague terms like “formal,” “casual,” or “informative but friendly.”
- Style guide: Giving your content creator a style guide can save you a lot of tinkering. This is essential for visuals but also important for written content if you don’t want to spend a lot of time changing “%” to “percent” or uncapitalizing job titles. Summarize the key points or most common errors.
- Examples: Examples aren’t just good for tone of voice; they’re also handy for layout and design to demonstrate how you expect a piece of content to be submitted. This is especially handy if your template includes social media posts, meta descriptions, and so on.
All the elements in a documented brief
Here are nine basic things every single brief requires:
- Title: What are we calling this thing? (A working title is fine so that everyone knows how to refer to this project.)
- Client: Who is it for, and what do they do?
- Deadline: When is the final content due?
- The brief itself: What is the angle, the message, and the editorial purpose of the content? Include here who the audience is.
- Specifications: What is the word count, format, aspect ratio, or run time?
- Submission: How and where should the content be filed? To whom?
- Contact information: Who is the commissioning editor, the client (if appropriate), and the talent?
- Resources: What blogging template, style guide, key messaging, access to image libraries, and other elements are required to create and deliver the content?
- Fee: What is the agreed price/rate? Not everyone includes this in the brief, but it should be included if appropriate.
Depending on your business or the kind of content involved, you might have other important information to include here, too. Put it all in a template and make it the front page of your brief.
Prepare your briefs early
It’s entirely possible you’re reading this, screaming internally, “By the time I’ve done all that, I could have written the damn thing myself.”
But much of this information doesn’t change. Well in advance, you can document the background about a company, its audience, and how it speaks doesn’t change. You can pull all those resources into a one- or two-page document, add some high-quality previous examples, throw in the templates they’ll need, and bam! You’ve created a short, useful briefing package you can provide to any new content creator whenever it is needed. You can do this well ahead of time.
I expect these tips will save you a lot of internal screaming in the future. Not to mention drink, yoga, and voodoo.
This is an update of a January 2019 CCO article.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
MARKETING
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MARKETING
Microsoft unveils a new small language model
Phi-3-Mini is the first in a family of small language models Microsoft plans to release over the coming weeks. Phi-3-Small and Phi-3-Medium are in the works. In contrast to large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, small language models are trained on much smaller datasets and are said to be much more affordable for users.
We are excited to introduce Phi-3, a family of open AI models developed by Microsoft. Phi-3 models are the most capable and cost-effective small language models (SLMs) available, outperforming models of the same size and next size up across a variety of language, reasoning, coding and math benchmarks.
What are they for? For one thing, the reduced size of this language model may make it suitable to run locally, for example as an app on a smartphone. Something the size of ChatGPT lives in the cloud and requires an internet connection for access.
While ChatGPT is said to have over a trillion parameters, Phi-3-Mini has only 3.8 billion. Sanjeev Bora, who works with genAI in the healthcare space, writes: “The number of parameters in a model usually dictates its size and complexity. Larger models with more parameters are generally more capable but come at the cost of increased computational requirements. The choice of size often depends on the specific problem being addressed.”
Phi-3-Mini was trained on a relatively small dataset of 3.3 trillion tokens — instances of human language expressed numerically. But that’s still a lot of tokens.
Why we care. While it is generally reported, and confirmed by Microsoft, that these SLMs will be much more affordable than the big LLMs, it’s hard to find exact details on the pricing. Nevertheless, taking the promise at face-value, one can imagine a democratization of genAI, making it available to very small businesses and sole proprietors.
We need to see what these models can do in practice, but it’s plausible that use cases like writing a marketing newsletter, coming up with email subject lines or drafting social media posts just don’t require the gigantic power of a LLM.
Dig deeper: How a non-profit farmers market is leveraging AI
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