How To Write Web Video Scripts?

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SCRIPT WRITING
Master the art of storytelling.
Ben: I’m going to make a pretty bold
claim right now. I don’t think you’ve
ever seen a film or a TV show that you
loved that didn’t have a good script.
Everything starts with a great script.
Even if it’s improvised, there is still a
structure, a blueprint, a guiding factor
that goes into it. So I’m going to be really adamant it, I’m going to be evangelical about
how important a script is. When I say a great script, it could be a bunch of questions that
you ask someone.
We do a lot of testimonials. I do a lot of corporate videos where it is talking heads. I’m
interviewing people and it is to help promote their company and it’s all about the
questions you ask, still that’s a script and there’s an outcome that we want from that. So
we’re going to go into some details of the different types of videos and the different types
of scripts that you want to write to achieve those videos.
Video Objective
As we were just talking about before,
know your avatar, know your audience.
Are you talking to a thirty-five year old
female marketing executive who’s time
poor who just wants to know this is
going to be a good branding tool that
they can spread out to social media
and so on? Are you talking to a CEO who says, yes, I get it in two seconds, I don’t need to
know the details, give me the concept, bang. Or are you educating someone on something
that they’ve never seen before or they don’t know how to do? I’ve just put together a
presentation for a show that’s on at the Fringe Festival at the moment with a woman, she’s
a mother of two, she’s a great actor, she can‘t use PowerPoint. So I’ve had to guide her
through how to use those things. I made a little video to show her how to add a slide. So
know your avatar, know your audience. That’s the number one thing.

David: To add onto that as well, we were working with a client as well, that guy that I was
saying who purchased all of that equipment, and he was asking us, when I’m presenting,
and you might have this under the presenting tips, but he was saying, when I’m presenting,
how should I dress? Should I put on a shirt and tie? Ben’s response to that was, how do you
present to the client? When the client comes through the door, what are they going to see?
If they’re going to see you in a shirt and tie, dress like that. If they’re going to see you in a t-
shirt, that’s why when you look at all my Melbourne SEO material, I’m in a t-shirt, I’m not in
a shirt and tie and some of my material can be very casual. You pick the audience that
you’re going for.
The only time you’ll see me wearing as shirt is at these presentations. The reason for that is
the DVDs get made and they’ll be marketed to small businesses. We don’t market them to
the internet marketing community, we market it to small businesses. That’s why I’m
wearing a shirt, when usually I’m a t-shirt kind of guy. So know who it is that you’re
marketing to and then make sure you meet them where they are and what it is they’re
expecting to see.
Ben: Exactly, and it’s not a hard thing to do. It just takes a little bit of empathy, just putting
yourself out there and thinking who you want to attract. I’ve been to courses where they
talk about if you’re trying to achieve a goal, it’s not how you’re going to achieve it, it’s who,
who you need to achieve that goal. So again, how you present yourself will help you
achieve that goal.
The outcome will dictate the content. Know your avatar and know what you want them to
do. Do you want them to opt in, do you want them to buy something, do you want them
to pass the video on? That’s going to dictate exactly what you write and how you create it.
What action do you want them to take and how long should it be. I’m sure all of you are
wondering, do I make a half hour DVD, do I make a five minute, three minute, ten minute?
Generally, these days, three minutes is the limit. Again, you guys are the experts in this.
How often are you sent a link or you go on to YouTube and you say, five minutes? No.
Three minutes, yes, I’ll do it. You end up spending four hours on YouTube anyway but it’s
four hours broken into three minute lots. So you can get a lot of information across in three
minutes or less.

I just finished a big job for the Victorian Government, the Office for the community Sector,
where I was making videos for the nominees for an awards event that they had. They
initially wanted five minute profiles on these people. So I jumped onto YouTube, I found a
link to Australian Idol and I sent them that. I said, here’s a profile from someone from
Australian Idol and all the information has come across in ninety seconds. So we made
ninety second profiles for them and they worked out really well. You don’t necessarily need
more if you script it well and structure it well, then you can get the information across
concisely. Ultimately everyone is time poor and that’s what they want to see.
Scripting Fundamentals
Ok, we’re going to get a bit zen now.
Some fundamentals and these are really
important. Keep the message simple. The
thing is when you start out, you might be
tempted to say, I’ve just got so much
information I want to tell everyone, I’m
going to tell them right now. It’s like when
people build websites, they just shove everything they’ve ever thought of on to the
website. You get confused and you get annoyed and you disassociate from it. It’s the same
thing with video. Just get a clear message and then it will be a hundred times more
effective. Again, less is more and you don’t need to go on and on like I am now. I’m going
to stop right now.
Has everyone heard of the three act structure? It’s basically what every film, almost every
single film and TV show and play has been built on. since the dawn of time, since the
Greeks started standing up in front of each other in their togas (that’s the Romans) and
presenting stories to each other. What it’s about, it’s very simple. It’s about having a
beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning is about setting up whatever it is you’re
going to be talking about. It’s about introducing characters and, in a traditional sense, you
have a protagonist and an antagonist. You have the person that you’re rooting for and the
person that you hate who’s bringing all the conflict to the protagonist that they have to
overcome.

It’s the most classic thing. We’re so indoctrinated with it, we see it every single day. As
humans, we’re really drawn to it. Why do you go and watch shows and movies, where, I
know how this is going to end? They’re going to get together or the dog is going to die,
whatever it is, but you’re still hooked in because there’s something about us that loves
having someone to hate, having someone to love and follow. It’s the same thing with your
videos.
David: And in the sense of a product or service, the two characters you were talking about,
the protagonist and the antagonist: problem, solution. So what is the problem the client is
having, what is the solution? Your product, or you.
Ben: It could be you as well. So you are the protagonist, your product is the protagonist.
You’re there to create the will for people to want to buy it or to follow you.
So is everyone clear about the first act? It’s pretty clear, just setting it up. The second act,
traditionally, is about all the problems that people face. The second act in movies,
especially in a romantic comedy, the guy messes it up with the girl and she doesn’t want to
see him. Then he loses his job and then his car gets towed and then whatever. He sets
himself on fire, all these things happen, all these bad things and you say, come on man,
you can do it. He reaches his lowest point where he’s just about to give up and then a
shining hope comes through.
In that second act for yourselves, it’s about anticipating the issues that people might have
if you’re talking about a product. You’ve got problems with down time or that people don’t
listen or you can’t get this thing fast enough or they’re out of stock. There is a whole bunch
of things and I’m sure all of you are sitting there, and I encourage you to do this, think
about how it will apply to you.
If you’ve got a service that you provide, think about all the problems that people might
have with that service from other people, not from you of course, and the same with
products as well. This is where you anticipate those things and say, you know, we know
that it’s really hard to get this thing, but we’ve got heaps. Or we know that a lot of people
have to bring this product back because there are so many problems with it. Well, we’ve
fixed that problem, that kind of thing. So it’s about anticipating those things.

Then finally, the third act, as we all know, is about the resolution. For making a video about
promoting yourself or a product or a service, it’s about saying, we’ve solved the problem
and here’s your call to action, here’s what you need to do because we’ve got the answer
for you. So check out our website, pick up the phone, come in and see us, pass this on to
someone else, anything like that.
So does that all make sense? It’s the classic thing and you can never go wrong with. People
play around with it but for us in this room, it’s the best thing you could use. Just follow it
every time. It’s like we talked about, Dave and Pete talk a lot about systems, about
following a system. Following a three act structure, a beginning, a middle and an end,
setting it up, anticipating the problems and offering a solution will put you streets ahead.
You know again, you’ve been on YouTube, people just ramble on about things with no
ending. You say, thanks for wasting three minutes, that’s three minutes I could be doing
something or creating my own video.
Scripting Fundamentals – Part 2
I’m going to start with the bottom one
first. When you’re making these things,
even though you might be in front of
the camera, or even filming someone
else, it’s not about you, it’s about the
people, it’s about your audience. That’s a
massive thing to think about. You also
might be a bit intimidated or worried about, if you’re going to be doing a lot of what Dave
does, standing in front of the camera and talking about things, it can be a little bit
intimidating. It can be, well, I don’t feel like I’m that charismatic and I can’t present
something as well. You can forget all that because it’s about you adding value to your
client and sharing with them your information so they can benefit from it.
Again, it’s a story. A story is everything and everyone has a story to tell. That’s why my
company is called Storylab. That is what I think our whole civilization is built on, from the
time people were drawing on cave walls and grunting at each other. It was hey, I found
some food, you should go find it over here. Or hey, there’s a saber tooth tiger down there,
don’t go down there, or the story of how I survived it or something like that. It’s just
evolved to the point now where it’s, I’ve got an iPhone4 and I want you to know the
technical details of that. It’s still the same thing.

Now this is an important thing as well, it’s about showing and not telling. Again, I’ll use
websites as an example. People just get on there and tell you everything they’ve ever done.
It’s not about that. If you’ve got a product, show them how it works. If you want to make a
tutorial about it, show them. It’s better to show everything. When I was at acting school, it
was what they told us. Don’t go up there and tell me how good you are at something,
show them how good you are at something.
Now we’re going to go into details about the actual types of scripts that you will go
through and what to write and what to prepare. So Dave is going to talk about sales
because he’s a bit of a gun.
Video Sales Letters
David: Ok, so we’ll start of with video
sales letters. For those of you who don’t
know, that’s John Carlton who is a really
well known copywriter. People talk about
what is copywriting? When you think
about the copy on your website, they call
it salesmanship in print. So when I think
about what video is, what is video? Video is salesmanship in video. It gives you the
opportunity to bring the salesman back and have it in a very automated fashion. The good
thing about writing sales letters, people used to use direct mail and still do, you mail things
out to clients to try and sell them on something and it’s salesmanship in print.
The reason you did that is you could get your message out really quickly, rather than
having to pick up the phone and call each client. That’s why that was effective, but now,
with the introduction of video, it’s even better because now you can go back to having the
salesmanship in video which is where we sell. That’s where you can incorporate stories. As
Ben said, I think stories are key. A lot of what I do, I like to start with a story, whenever we
have a presentation and I’ll finish with a story as well. So at the end of the day, that will be
another story that you’ll look forward to.
I like to tell stories because stories are how people learn and it’s how they get hooked in
and engaged. So if you can create an engaging story, then people start to listen and then
you start to embed in what you’re trying to tell them as far as selling them. You use the
story to hook them and draw them in, then you drop the nuggets of what it is that they
need to know. It’s just like traditional copy.

Scripting is so important. I’ll script all of my videos out. I know Ed Dale, who Rob does a lot
of work with, he’s a little bit different, he does a lot more work on the fly but he still has a
process of things that he will cover.
I’m a little bit different. Some people need to script out the entire script as to what they’re
going to say word for word and they need to rehearse it until it feels natural. Some people,
once they really know the material inside and out, can use bullet points. So in my office,
and we’ll show you some photos of my little video recording studio, we have a white board
that is behind the camera and I think about what I’m going to talk about, then I bullet
point down what it is that I’m going to cover. I have that written behind and as I sit there,
I’ll read a bullet point, do a little bit.
Ben taught me a technique where, after I’ve covered a little bit, I just stop there for a
second, catch my breath, do whatever I need to do and then I’ll continue. It makes editing
really easy. Ben will go into that sort of thing for you.
When you watch my video, it feels like, wow, Dave is a one take wonder. He goes all the
way through and it happens perfectly every time. But that video, that first one, that pod
cast interviews video, and I said it as a little bit of a joke, I think one of the sections, I had to
punch that out about fifty times or something like that before I got it. You don’t see that
and it flows.
Sometimes you look at an Apple video, an Apple video looks so clean and simple. We had
someone comment on this in one of our other workshops, they said, I just want something
simple like the Apple video. What you don’t know is the whole system that goes on behind
that video is incredibly intricate. They’ve got such a good system that it makes it look
simple. Good sales are about making things look simple, even though a lot of thought has
gone into it.
A lot of thought goes into what it is that I do and I practise a great deal to make it look as
simple as possible. A lot of times people don’t like to be sold. That’s the other thing when
we talk about video sales letters. I think Australians, more so than anyone else in the world,
we can smell exaggeration a mile away. When you get those big cheesy American internet
marketers or sales people when they come here, sometimes they try and sell a room in
some of these high pressure type selling things, it can feel awkward for Australian people.
You sit there and you think, cut the rubbish, tell me what you’ve got to offer, tell me how
much it is, tell me if you’ve got a guarantee, the real core elements.

I’m going to talk about core elements. I feel like that’s the way things are going. The
internet is making things so much more transparent. If you do one bad thing and word
gets out, it spreads like wildfire, it’s documented on the internet and all someone needs to
do before they make a purchase is type in your name. If you’ve tarnished that name, then
your reputation has gone. You need to make sure that you always act with integrity and
always do the right thing. That’s what salesmanship is all about.
Video sales letters convert higher, people buy from people they like. If you like someone,
you’re more inclined to buy their product. Someone you might not like, you might not buy
a product from them. You also need to know your avatar as well, that’s really key. I like to
think about who my avatar is, who it is I’m trying to sell to. I’ll float out of my mind, I’ll float
down into their mind. I’ll imagine what it is that they are thinking, what’s frustrating, what’s
stopping them from watching my video, I know time is limited, everyone’s email box is
getting pounded with different offers and attention grabbing things, so what would attract
me, being that person? Then I speak those words.
I suppose this builds on what Ben was talking about, that three act structure, hook, story
and sell is the way that I’ll do my sales letters. It’s the same thing Ben was talking about
and I’ll go through what the different areas are.
Hook Them
The first one is you’ll hook them, and you
do it in the most brutal fashion you can.
You need to hook them and break their
pattern. As I said, everyone is in their
normal nine to five, so you need to do
something that immediately breaks them
out of their daily pattern.
A lot of people started to do this with video for a little while, where they’d do Car Casts
because people weren’t familiar with that type of recording or they might have different
things. As things get more familiar, you then need to be an innovator and come up with
new ways to break the pattern. People get familiar with that style and you need to find
something else. So you have to start off by finding something that hooks them and gets
them right at the start of your video sales letter.

I don’t open with, hi, I’m David Jenyns, because what does that mean to the avatar? The
avatar doesn’t care who I am. I start with, are you having problems with hair loss? I have a
solution, or whatever the point is. That first statement needs to be just like a headline; it
needs to be bold and out there. I open strong, because that’s how you hook them and you
get them to draw in and listen to what you’ve got to say. Someone’s got that thing in their
mind, that radio station, all the time that you’ve all heard of WIIFM, what’s in it for me?
That’s running through their head, so at any point in time they’re listening to this station.
They’re asking themselves, whatever they’re looking at, what’s in it for me?
You need to make sure you tell them right up front, what’s in it for them for listening. I like
to do this by two ways. I’ll start off by saying, you’re about to discover and then have
whatever the biggest benefit is that I’m going to try and get across in that video. You’re
about to discover the seven steps that I use to get my website to the top of the search
engines overnight.
Or the other thing that I like to do is call out their biggest concern. That might be, are you
worried that your competition is stealing all of your clients because they’ve got position
number 1 and you’ve got position number 2? You might have a better product or service
but they’re going to your competitor because they’re number 1 and people click on
number 1. They are the two ways that I like to hook. There are plenty of different ways to
hook and we’re going to go through some of the different ways to make videos. There are
no right or wrong as long as you adhere to the fundamentals Ben was talking about.
Tell Them a Story
In that first area I hook them, then I like
to tell them a story. So I like to explain
the situation. I help them to understand
that I know their pain and I want them to
know and feel that I understand their
pain as well, if not better, than them. I
can articulate it better. I want them to
listen to it and sit there and say, he understands me. That’s the goal of telling that story
and that’s why I like to have a little story in there and then I can then start to embed things
in there. I’ll think about what are those things that are going on in their mind and then I’ll
try and layer those into the story.

You also use stories to magnify the feelings as well. So as you tell this story, you make it get
more and more full on. Because your website is not ranking number 1, the clients are going
over to your competitors. That means that you’re not getting the sales, that means your
business is making less money, that means you can’t afford to pay for your son’s education,
he’s going turn out a loser living in a gutter and it’s your fault. So buy the product.
What I’m teaching you here as well, you need to come from a place of integrity. You can
use this material to manipulate people, but I know we’ve got a good group of people and
the people who listen to this know that they need to use it in a good way. If you do
something bad, it will get documented, it will be out there forever and you will have
destroyed any credibility that you had. Use all of this material with integrity.
In this part of the story, I like to tell them what it is, why it works and how it can work for
them. This area, for me, I don’t start to layer in the proof as much just yet. It’s almost like
the theory, how it’s going to work for them.
Sell Them
Then I come into the selling, which is the
final part of that act. I’ll start to build that
proof, proof it works. That’s where you show
them examples of, here is me with that
number 1 position. Here are the hundreds of
clients that I’ve worked for and got amazing
testimonials and results for. Here’s the proof.
That’s how I build the trust.
Other trust things, what can you do to build in credibility? You might build in logos. Here’s
me, some of my articles have been featured in Your Trading Edge, the Daryl Guppy
Newsletter, The Herald Sun and I’ll put in those types of logos if you’ve got them.
How much is it going to cost? I’m not someone to beat around the bush. I don’t make
someone read an entire sales letter to find the price buried right down the bottom. Mine is
front and center. If people are looking for it, I want to make things as easy for them as
possible. You’ll go to one of my websites, the BBS Formula, and it’s a $300-$400 product
and the price is right there up the front, next to the video, before they even get into the
sales letter. I just don’t want to hide anything from them. If they want to see it, I’m happy
to show them.

The guarantee as well, you’ve got to have a bold guarantee in there and a call to action. At
the end of the video, this is the most important thing with every video. You need to finish
with, here’s what you do next. The next thing you need to do is pick up the phone and call
me. Go over to this website and book your seat now. Enter your details below into the opt
in form.
That’s why it’s important to know your objective first and then you make sure that the call
to action is in that tail end. It must have zero confusion and it needs to be a single option.
So it needs to be very clear, you don’t want to tell them, go opt in, go make a purchase, go
send this to you friends, go give it the thumbs up. Just be very clear on one outcome.
We’ve got a question over here.
Question: A question on the single option. One of my mentors Sean D’Souza in Auckland,
awesome marketer, always has two options at the end of every sales form. It’s to move
them away from price and make them focus on value. So the yes, yes closing.
David: Yes, this is something Pete might be able to comment on quite well. We were
talking the other day about the Panama Hat Company. I think it can be an effective
strategy and it does work. I’m going to show you the way that I do it, but there are plenty
of different ways to skin this fish. Pete’s got a good example.
Pete: I’ve got a slightly different way. From a sales perspective, in terms of how we run the
telco company, we always teach our sales guys to give people a choice. Rather than say,
here’s the one thing to choose, that way they’re choosing between yes and no. It’s either
yes, I’m going to do this or no, I’m not. If you give them two, they’ve got to choose yes or
yes, exactly as you said.
So I think personally, from a sales perspective, to give people two positive choices, not two
completely different things like, fill out this form or star over here on Facebook, two very
similar things they can choose one or the other. People like to make a choice, that’s human
nature. You want them to make a choice in your favour, so giving them two positive
choices is a better way to go from my perspective.

David: I think it depends as well on where the video is at and what it’s doing. When
someone comes into Planet 13 and they’re buying a pair of trip pants or something like
that, we’re going to give them options and that ‘yes, yes’ can be very powerful. Are you
going to wear these pants with that top or are you going to wear these pants with that top?
That pre assumes that they’re going to get one or the other. So I think there is a place for
that. In the videos, depending on what it is that you’re doing, so maybe it has to do with
the objective and outcome.
If I’m looking for them to opt in and that is my primary objective, I need to be very clear
and I say, this is what you’re doing now. But from a sales point, if I can read them, the
problem with video is that I’m not sitting in front of the client, so I can’t gauge and feel
what it is that they’re saying. I can use that offering other things that I know is going to get
yes, yes. But sometimes if it’s on a video, I don’t necessarily know where they’re at, so that’s
why I try and do very singular focus.
Pete: brentblack.com is a website that I
think everybody should check out. It’s a
guy based in Hawaii who sells Panama
hats, straw Panama hats. They sell up to
$US30,000 for a straw hat. The copy on
this website is worth reading for
entertainment value anyway. One of the
pages, this is the copy: ‘$30,000 for a hat? Are you serious? Yes. So it’s a straw hat? Yes.
Where’s the gold? None. What’s it made out of? Just straw. Like the Hope diamond is made
of carbon and the Mona Lisa is make of paint, this is made of straw.’ It’s just brilliant copy.
This is my assumption what the business model is. They advertise in Rob Report which is
one of the most expensive magazines to advertise in. They advertise month in month out.
They have some awesome advertising and again, available on the site. They get people to
the site. $30,000 for a straw hat! I want one now because, $30,000!
But you get to the site and then they’ve got a range of straw hats. The cheapest one starts
at $475. So if I go to this site thinking I’m going to pay $30,000 for a straw hat and see one
for $475, in context, that’s cheap. I would potentially buy that for $475. I’ve got some
things happening over here that if it comes off, I’m going to buy myself as a little gift a
$475 straw hat. But it’s the context. If they went out and said I’m going to sell a $475 straw
hat and that’s all they said, you’re going to say, get lost, it’s ridiculous. In the context of
$30,000 it actually looks cheap. And it sells.

There’s a great book that talks about this principle called Scientific Advertising by Claude
Hopkins. Claude Hopkins has a couple of books and it’s in one of those that he talks about
that as well. When you’re selling suits, you sell the suit first so the $100 silk tie looks cheap.
So it’s all about selling something expensive first or going from there. Influence, Robert
Cialdini also, it’s a great book, it talks about that sort of thing.
So in terms of selling, if we relate this back to the video side of things, if we’re looking at
selling online and giving two options, you might have the $30,000 DVD course and then
the $500 option as well to give people some choice. In context you might only want to be
selling the cheaper thing. So you might record a video saying, I want to sell this for $500,
this DVD course, this product, this e book, whatever product it might be, but pitch the
$30,000 thing in the video, then give people the down sell option as well, the $500 thing.
In context it’s going to look cheap. Test it because it might very well sell a lot more of the
$500 thing in context.
The BBS Formula
David: An example of that little process I
took you through, if you head over to
that YouTube video and check it out in
your own time, this is the BBS Formula,
it’s a product we’re launching at the
moment with Ryan and Danny. It’s all
about buying, building and selling
websites. The way that I go through the process, I lead off with buying, building and selling
is the biggest opportunity online, so I’m hooking them with, we’ve got a huge opportunity.
Then I lead into telling them a bit of a story about how we purchased five hundred
websites and how we then went through those to filter out the gold. Then how we
stumbled and came across this opportunity online of buying, building and selling websites.
So that’s part of the story.
Then what’s it all about? That’s again part of this story area where I also talk about, well,
what is it that we’re looking to do? Here’s the opportunity, here’s how we discovered the
opportunity, now here’s how we’re bringing the opportunity to you because we’ve
decided to document what it is that we’re doing.

Who we are, that starts to build that proof
and credibility, we build up Ryan, we
build up myself, we build up Danny as
well. We position ourselves as the expert.
We tell them how much it’s going to cost
them. They can find out all the details
below. We include the guarantee, 100%
money back guarantee. I think if you can’t feel confidant to stand behind your product,
then you probably shouldn’t be selling your product, so we stand behind everything we do
and we tell them, book your spot now.
I want to show you the video. I’ll just show you the landing page as well. I think there’s a
lesson in there. We’ve got the video play straight away we tell them what to do, gets them
instant access, tells them how much it is and then below I have some text that fills out
what is covered in the video. I’ll tell you why I put text in there and that’s why I took you to
this example. I want to show you a test that I ran and the results that I got, but obviously
the results may vary for you.
In my trading market, we were launching a product called the Online Trading Mastermind.
I started to see a whole lot of internet marketers bringing out video sales letters that just
had the video and a click here to buy. There was no text underneath. I thought, ok, that
could be a good idea, let’s go ahead, internet marketers being on the cutting edge. We
tried to replicate that in our market. There was our first page on the left hand side. It was
just the video and very much some bullet points. It was a low end product, short video and
then a join now to make it quite clear. That’s what I started with.
Question: I’m probably going to be hyper critical here but there’s no promise in your text.
David: That’s the thing that I came across because I was looking at a lot of internet
marketers and saw them creating these videos with no text and an opt in button. So I just
thought, I’m just going to do that, with buy now. I was replicating what they were doing.
What I found, and I can only surmise what happened in this example, or guesstimate what
happened, I think the internet marketing crowd is now getting educated into that’s how
you act. Also the message in that very was very clear. In hindsight my message in my video
wasn’t very clear and I didn’t have any supporting text, so people weren’t opting in.

So I jumped and redid on the right hand side, this is in the same launch. So the first one
bombed, it’s ok to bomb, even people who are good at it bomb, as long as you take that
and improve on it. We added a headline, added some text, threw out what was in the
video and then we got a seven times better result by making the offer crystal clear. My gut
feeling, until you get really good at script writing, from everything you’re going to learn
from Ben, also incorporate having some of that script that you write as part of the sales
letter on the page as well.
Optin forms success
That’s a little bit about video sales letters
and opt in sales letters are very similar.
I’ve given you an example there: meta-
formula.com/metastocksubscribe. You can
go have a look. There’s a screen shot. I
drive traffic to that website to opt in to
my Metastock website. I’ve got a video
up the top, build the credibility underneath and then have the opt in form as well. I’ll tell
them in the video what they’ll get, I’ll build some trust. I’ll tell them, I’ve been using
Metastock for over ten years, I’ve helped coach clients for five years. Then I’ll tell them what
to do, go ahead and opt in and enter your details below. On the final page I also make an
offer.
As someone has already made a micro commitment when they opt in, it’s like they’ve said
yes, I’m opting in, I believe what you say, it’s a really good time to make them an offer
straight after they’ve opted in. It’s like they’ve given you a micro commitment saying, I
believe you. They want to be congruent, if you make them another offer, they want to
think, yes, I did the right thing by opting in, ok, I trust him enough, I’ll go ahead and make
the purchase, so that page converts really well.
Question: Yes, that’s what I wanted to know. So you have a giant video at the top without
an opt in on the right hand side. They have to scroll below the fold for the opt in?
David: I haven’t done any testing on it, so it may work to have it on the side. I use Site
BuildIt for this website and it’s quite clunky on what it is that you can do. They’ve got a
website builder that makes it a little bit hard. It would be worth testing it on the side. I try
and keep it above the fold. It’s above the fold if you’re on a big screen, but it’s below the
fold if it’s on a small screen.

Question: What about the Melbourne SEO one? That’s both,
I think you’ve got it on the side and underneath.
David: Yes, that’s a good example. This
will be the last example before I throw
back to Ben. Melbourne SEO, it’s a good
place to start. I probably don’t do as
much testing on this as I should. Here’s
on the homepage, I’ve got a video front
and center. It is directly beneath down
the side there but I’ve also got a link on the side for the free report which runs site wide. So
no matter what page they’re on, they click that button then it will reload. I’ve got an
anchor link set and it jumps straight down to the opt in box.
So that’s another way to do it. I need to test and we talked about this at the last seminar.
It’s on my to do list to have the name and the email there and submit, that’s another thing
that we’ll test as well. So I think video sales letters and video opt in sales letters, I’ve given
you a little bit of a script and a process you can follow. You can follow a very similar script
for your opt ins.
What the FAQ?
Ben: Ok, so that’s sales letters. I’m sure a
lot of you will get a lot of benefit from
that. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of products
and things like that to sell.
Now I’m going to go into all the other
things that you can use to generate video
content. The first one is FAQs, frequently asked questions. The great thing about FAQs is
it’s instant content. You can bring any question to life and answer it. Again, it’s what we
talked about in the three act structure, the second act, it’s about anticipating problems,
questions that people have. Again, you guys are the experts, you guys are customers. You
want to know how much something costs, you want to know where you can park, you
want to know how long a process is, when you’re going to get delivery, how many colours
it comes in. Anything like that you can turn into a video.

People prefer when you’re telling them things. What we’re doing here today, you could
read a book about this if you want but there’s something about the human interaction, the
delivery, the emotional connection you get from it that is much more engaging. Utilize that
inbuilt faculty that we have. Keep it short and sharp, frequently asked questions, that’s
what we talked about earlier. You don’t need to go and answer this question and then
there are twenty others that I’m going to tell you about. Make them all separate. Here’s a
question.
Dave’s just done a series of ten answers to questions that people might have about SEO
and things like that. He could have done them as one massive piece, but he didn’t, he
broke them up into separate little videos. Again, short attention spans, single point that
you want to make, it’s the best thing to do.
Also, get your sales message in there too. We talked about making a call to action. You can
put that in. Here’s an answer to your question about how many colours our t-shirts come in.
They come in ten different colours, we can do customized ones and if you want to find out
more, go to the website now, give us a call now. It’s just a natural thing. You’ve given them
something and then you’ve given them the option to act on it.
David: A good example of that, that client I was talking about before, he was creating
videos. He’s doing Q and As at the moment and putting them up on the video. It’s a
fantastic pattern interrupt for his clients because he’s in the print management industry.
No one sees using videos online. Someone emails in a question, he emails back and says,
go watch this video. The client goes, wow, I’ve never seen that before, they love it and then
they get sold and they start working with him.
Ben: Yes, exactly. I might get Dave to talk about this, the Mike Koenig’s technique. He’s the
guy behind Traffic Geyser which we’ll talk about and some of you probably already know
about.

Q&A
David: Yes, head over to davidjenyns.com,
you can see an interview I did with Mike
on there and he talked through this
process, so I don’t have to go into it in
any great detail. He has a 10 x10 x 4, I’m
not even too sure what the x 4 is, I just
remember the 10 x 10, which is what are
the top ten questions that your clients ask you and what are the top ten questions that
your clients should ask you. I think any business that you work with or your own business,
should answer both of those and create video responses to each one of them, upload them
to YouTube.
Here is a series of questions as well. I have a business coach who works with me and I think
having some sort of coach and mentor that you go under, even if you know the material,
people who are experts in their field have mentors. My mentor gave me a series of
questions that I answered as well and you can see all of the responses on
youtube.com/theseomethod. All the videos are there on YouTube but I answered the
questions in relation to SEO and this can apply to any business: does it work, is it worth the
money, how much is it, when can I expect results, how much work will it be for me, I can’t
afford it, my business is unique, can’t I do it myself, who are you, how can I help you, have
you had any failures, how long will it take and is there a guarantee?
Those are a series of questions you can answer, once Ben shows you how to set up your
videos and set it up correctly. Stand in front of a screen, record them and then put them
throughout your website. Have an FAQ site, you just save all the links in a spreadsheet
when a client emails you with a series of questions, if you’ve got a video response you can
send it back, if you don’t, maybe you record a new video and then send them the link back.
Using videos to answer questions like that is just a very good way to do business.
Ben: Have you guys watched the WillItBlend videos? Now there is answering a question.
The question is, let’s throw a garden rake in it and see if it will blend that. Yes. Let’s throw
in a mobile phone, yes, it will blend that too. That’s a beautiful example of, you guys, do
you want to know if this product works, it sure does. So the same thing, use any of the
questions and I’m sure you’ll have specific ones for your company or service as well.

What to Write
So what to write? Now this will go on
every single thing that we go through, I’ll
tell you exactly what you need to write.
The question, what is the question? What
are questions you have been asked, or, as
Dave said, what should your customers
be asking? An explanation of the answer.
So before you record a video, you want a clear explanation of what that answer is. Again,
responses that you can anticipate, barriers that they have. Oh, that’s a bit too much for me,
the cost, or I don’t have time for that. Factor that into the script that you’re writing, such as,
you may be thinking this is going to take a lot of time. Well, you know what? It’s not,
because we take care of all of it for you. It’s really simple.
Call to action again. As you can see, all these videos have a sales undertone to them. Also
ask your customers for their responses. So you put up your FAQs but then you can write at
the bottom, if there are any questions you want answered, we’ll make a video for you.
That’s instant, that’s like doing a survey, you’re getting instant feedback about what your
customers want to know.
Tutorials
Now tutorials, this is where you position
yourself as the expert. Now I have a real
passion about helping people position
themselves as the expert. I just love it.
People have so many talents, it’s what
can I do? This is why I do what I do. What
can I do to help people know about you, your product, your service, your skills and things
like that? Tutorials are a fantastic way to do this and it can be a very simple thing.
Obviously I’m in the video production game, it’s a massive thing to learn about film making
and production and things like that. I’m always learning new things.

You know what? I watch tutorials all the time. I might want to do some film noir lighting, I
type it into YouTube, film noir tutorial, it will be out there. These are things where your
expertise, people will want to know about. It will get you repeat views because people will
come back again and again to look. I might tell someone about a great tutorial I watched
about green screens or how to do this editing technique. It builds trust and you can also
create a product out of it.
There’s this guy called the Final Cut King. I work in Final Cut Pro, which is the editing
software that I use which is an Apple software, I’m sure most of you have heard about it.
It’s a big program and I’m always trying to learn new things. I started going and checking
out this guy and he just gives great tutorials, just screen capture of the things he does. He
talks through it really clearly and now he’s got a whole training product on it. He’s getting
interviews on television and he’s making money from something that started as, I just want
to help people out because this is cool work that I like to do.
What to Write
So what to write? This is really important,
again, the script, a clear step by step plan.
Go through it a few times, whatever it is
that you want to present to someone. So
when you give the tutorial it’s clear and
not, oh, wait a minute. You want it to be
really clear and concise, so take your time
and write that out. Think about how it’s going to help people and this is about that first act,
setting it out, saying, if you know how to do this, then this is going to help you do this or
it’s going to help you achieve what you want to achieve.
Keywords, and this is also good for SEO. So include in your video talking about specific
things to do with that industry or that product or that service. Maybe you can help me here
Dave.
David: Under that section where I talk about video distribution, I’ll go into great detail on
keyword selection and how to make sure you get it in front of the right people.
Ben: Yes, and then ‘where to find out more.’ You’re going to make, five, ten, fifteen of these
tutorials or maybe you can subscribe to my YouTube channel and every time I make a new
one, you’ll be the first to know.

Question: YouTube, I don’t know what you’d call it, but are there folders? What you’re
doing here is creating a whole lot of content around a whole lot of different strategies,
so interviews, tutorials, Q and As, FAQs. With your YouTube channel, can you actually
have sub channels or folders?
Ben: You can have play lists and that’s where you can put them in. Ultimately they’ll all
show up in the main body of it but you can have a play list of all your tutorials or all your
interviews or things like that you have.
Question: Right, and you can label it?
Ben: Yes, and we do it with everything that we create for Melbourne SEO.
Pete: The other option is to create multiple YouTube channels if you want to. That comes
down to your outcome that these guys spoke about earlier. I know some businesses that
have multiple YouTube channels and one is their sales channel, one is their FAQ channel,
one’s there tutorial channel. That way people can go to one bit and get immersed in what
they’re after, and not get confused. So that’s something you might want to consider as well.
It just comes down to your marketplace and what you want to do. So it just comes down to
your particular outcome. I think it works exceptionally in certain circumstances, so you’re
not hitting people who are going for support with sales videos and getting lost and
confused and saying, what’s going on here? Particularly for the sales related video
sequence, you want to have that separate in my opinion sometimes, to not distract that
person so they can keep going in that funnel you’re trying to push them through.
Interviews
Ben: Giving tutorials is about positioning
yourself as an expert. It’s also good to
talk to an expert. These people who have
been working in an industry for twenty
years and just know everything and you
aligning yourself with them gives you
instant credibility. Dave is really good at
it, he sets up interviews with people all the time, whether live, where he’ll just set up the
camera and talk to them, or over the phone or over Skype and then we’ll talk about how to
turn that into a video as well.

Obviously it’s mutually beneficial, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Most successful
people are happy to share. In my experience of life, people who have made it, just have
this natural wanting to share about it. So extract those questions from them, find out what
makes them tick. It’s also future proofing for when you’re famous or when you step up that
level.
I know Dave, when he was moving more into the internet marketing, he set up all these
connections with these big, successful internet marketers. So when he’s at that same level,
he can say, oh, I interviewed Rich Schefren years ago. There’s that thing of going, I’ve
already got access to these people. Or you call them and say, remember when we did that
interview, I’m about to launch a product and I’d like you to be involved.
What to Write
What to write? Ask them what you want
to know, the answers to the questions
you want to know. Don’t ask the
standard, like when you watch Rove or
you watch a thing and it’s like, when did
the movie come out and how’s your dog?
The things that you’re passionate about,
most likely other people will be passionate about as well. It will come across in the
interview, you’ll get excited and they’ll get excited and it will read well.
Some questions you can ask, it’s all about generating that expertise: how did you get
started, because everyone wants to know. No one starts out as an expert. What’s your
philosophy, who were some of your mentors, that’s always interesting, what are some of
the challenges you’ve faced, because that’s what we do, that’s the second act of our lives.
What do you think has made you
successful, so what have you done to
overcome those challenges, what advice
would you give for people looking to get
into this field and what’s next for you,
what’s your vision for the future? Again,
you’ll come up with your own questions
as well.

Testimonials
Testimonials, now this is what others say
about you. Now if you’ve been to any
seminars that we’ve done before, we love
getting testimonials from you. Then there
is that credibility, someone else actually
believes in you. What I think is really
interesting, it tells you what is important
to your clients.
If you’re thinking they’re so stuck on price, it’s all about the price of it, but they’re saying,
you know what, I just want someone who makes it easy for me, or someone who
understands and listens to what I do and that’s what keeps coming back in your
testimonials, then that’s going to tell you a lot about how to make other videos, other sales
things that you do, other products that you want to create.
Set it up at the beginning of the job. Like Dave does or we do today, it’s like we would
really like you to do some testimonials. If you believe in what we’re doing, if you’re getting
benefit from it, then we’d love your help. I do it with my clients as well. At the start of the
job I say, if you’re happy with it, I’d love a testimonial from you and they’re more than
happy to do that.
What to Write
What to write? These are just some
questions and you’ll find this when we
ask you and, again, think about that
outcome that you want. So if you want
people to trust you and things like that,
you need to ask questions surrounding
that. What was the situation before they
came to work with you or before they came to this seminar? Why did they choose you? So
we ask what brought you here today, what was the result, what does that mean to you.

So on a personal level, what has been the
benefit, what’s happening now, so what’s
going on with your business now, what advice
would you give to someone looking to work
with you and finally is there anything else
you’d like to add? I’m just rushing through these, we’ve got a fair bit to go in about five
minutes’ time, so I’m working through. Here’s an example, so read this testimonial. Now
watch this one.
[MelbourneSEOServices.com video].
The Proof
You look on a website and you see a company
but she’s the person behind it who’s trying to
build her company and pay her bills and
provide for her employees and things like that.
So seeing someone saying, I was worried, but
then I solved it, is so powerful. It really does
speak for itself.
Viral Vs. Branded Content
Now we’re just going to talk a little bit about
viral and branded content. Now everyone has
heard of viral videos, some of you may or may
not have heard of branded content. I’m just
going to talk about the differences. Does
everyone remember Chris Crocker? ‘Leave
Britney alone!’ Remember him? That’s viral, that’s exactly what viral is about. It’s for a short
term gain. It’s hey, I want everyone to know that I push my kid down the stairs and it’s
really funny. It gets passed around the world.
In terms of viral, it’s something you can’t control. People say, I want to make a viral video.
Well, in the sense of viral, it’s up to the world whether they want to see it. Generally it’s not
a good long term brand building, here’s my great company, it’s like this is a flash in the pan.
Some of them are. There are some things that are really effective. If you bring out things
that are discrete, separate, then it can be really effective.

Question: I’ve noticed recently on YouTube that since they’ve released an update, that
a lot of big companies are starting to do viral YouTube videos. There was a pizza store
in New Zealand and it was this big story where it started off with this guy and it was
the end of the world and a girl ordered a pizza. He was stuck at the end of the world
and he went on this adventure and you had to choose.
At the end of the video it stopped and it said, will he jump the fence or will he attack the
zombie? It went all the way through this viral video and there were all these funny things.
This one I watched the other day was this guy about to attack a bear and it was, what will
he do to the bear? White out comes and white outs the name of the YouTube video and
you can write a new name of the YouTube video and press enter and the video changes to
what you type. So he kisses the bear, he does what ever you want and the video changes,
so they’re using viral video.
Ben: So do you remember what the brand was or what it was for?
Question: The one was for Hal Pizza in New Zealand
and the other was for one of the white out things.
Ben: How long were the videos?
Question: The videos? They were probably about in fifteen to twenty-second snippets
and then you chose what you wanted to do next. Overall if you watched them all, they
probably went for fifteen to twenty minutes. Each little snippet was nice and short and
you got to choose your way along the way.
Ben: Yes, it is a really effective thing, but again, behind that viral video is a very clear plan
and structure. They know exactly what they want you to do and where they want you to
take it. Viral started out, I saw one where these guys threw a piece of dynamite into the
Seine River in Paris and this guy surfed on the wave that came out. That’s amazing but I
think Quicksilver jumped on that one, but ultimately, this is what we’re leading to, turn it
into a branded thing if you want it to be viral. Try to have a plan for it.
A branded content is more niche and it’s a bit more about telling a story and information
about a product or a service that you have. Again, it will have a long term effect. It will
make them connect to a brand. I’m sure all of you have seen the Old Spice ads now, the I’m
a man, those ones. Those ones are just going off tap and I’d say they’re leading the way in
terms of utilizing that kind of viral message which is highly branded. It breathed new life
into this brand which was a dying old man brand.

Now you might have seen on YouTube that guy who is answering tweets and questions
from people. So they’ve taken something they’ve put this video out there and now it’s very
structured, brand building branded content delivery that they have.
Viral Examples
This example is really quick.
[Video]
Five seconds. Twenty-three million views on the
chipmunk. Now I’ll just show you a little bit of
this other one.
[Video]
That guy I think has fifteen million views. That’s an example of viral video. He has got his
own website and he goes and gives talks about why he’s doing it, etc. We’re almost out of
time, I’m sure we’re over time.
Branded Content Examples
Now I want to show you some branded content.
I won’t show you the whole of this one. This is
an example of a much more structured one.
[Video]
This is a little film, it’s for Reebok and it’s just this
story about a guy who messes everyone up. Now you might have seen our Google versus
Yellow Pages.
From Script to Screen
David: The main difference I can see and this is a
distinction that Ben brought to my business as
viral versus branded content. A lot of times
people are talking and they’ll get the two terms
mixed up. Corporates do it all the time, they’ll
talk about making something go viral.

Really viral content tends to be that content that is that chipmunk with the music, whereas
branded content is all about having a message that you’re trying to get across. As Ben said,
it’s usually more niche because things that spread viral, sometimes don’t go viral if it feels
like it’s got an underlying message, like something is being sold. People don’t like to
spread that as much because they not looking to sell their friends unless it’s really funny
and you get a few home runs like your Reebok and your Old Spice.
Ben: Yes, but again, those are much more structured. Those are much more structured,
there’s a very clear strategy behind those things. That’s just the difference. I’m sure all of
you, people say, I just want to get a million views on it. If you want that to happen in five
seconds, then film a puppy. But if you want something that’s going to build over time,
then have more of a structure to it.
Now I think we’re out of time, so I won’t show you these examples. These are just some
examples of things where I’ve written and directed some short things for other companies.
This was an interview, I just wrote some questions for it, for this guy Anthony Gallo who
makes these amazing speakers. He lives in New York, we organized an interview over there.
This is for a company called Sound Shop, a website that sells sound equipment, aligning
themselves with an expert and getting credibility that way.
The other one is I wrote a tutorial about cables, speaker cables, the driest, most boring
thing you can imagine, if anyone knows anything about speaker cables. I created a
character called Doug, he’s the cable guy, he takes you through all the different types of
cables. Again it gives that sense of, ok, he’s someone I can trust and he’s teaching me
something that I don’t know about.
David: Just to wrap up this session, we
covered a lot of different types of videos
and I’ve even prepared a couple earlier.
We won’t play any of them other than
little start bits so you can see. You saw
that’s a good testimonials example,
here’s an example of a tutorial.
We lead in there and I take them through using a Metastock software program in
Metastock. It’s got my link through to get them to purchase the program. So that’s a good
example of that.

We’ve got the Q and A and the FAQ. This
is explaining who our team is. So the
reason I want to show you this, is so you
see what a live example of each one
looks like. We can give you the links for
these. That’s an example of some of the
types of videos. All the videos that we
talked about are videos that we use and implement in our business. The two YouTube
channels that you want to have a look at are youtube.com/djenyns, that’s my trading one,
as we were talking about having two separate channels. The other one is
youtube.com/theseomethod, and that’s all my internet marketing related material.
Where Do You Start?
So we’ll jump back here and then where
to go from here? If you’ve already got a
website, what you want to do is just
identify what your most trafficked web
pages are. Look at the ones that are
getting the most traffic. There’s no point
in creating a video and adding a video to a website that isn’t getting any traffic, so identify
the pages that are getting the most traffic and create messages for those pages.
Good examples of where you might start, we’ve got the homepage, we’ve got the Products
page, the Services page. That relates more I suppose to local type businesses as opposed
to e commerce type stores. We’re going to go into more detail in one of the later sections,
Pete’s got a really good example of the way that he uses video for his Infiniti website that
you don’t see very often. He’s got an e commerce style site and he’s creating videos for
some of his highest selling products in the e commerce space. That’s how he implements
that. Testimonials, FAQs, tutorials, interviews and branded content, that’s all the material
that Ben has talked about.
So we might finish up with a question.

Question: I just wanted to know, are we going to cover how to host those videos
so that they don’t load up our website?
David: Yes, I’m going to talk under the distribution area, we’ll talk about embedding and
things like that. And a question up the back, or a comment.
Question: It’s more a comment than a question. I think the important thing to remember
is that video is a means not an end. It supports a process, all those different videos
you talked about, all the different parts of the vertical integration of a business,
starting from the front end, the marketing, all the way through
to the service delivery, that’s your product delivery. You’ve got to think, where am I at,
what am I trying to support and how can video add value to each part of that process?
So it’s about understanding that outcome and then using video to support that outcome.

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