How to Write B2B Video Scripts
Often, the hardest script to write is one for an unknown audience. You frequently have no way to gauge interests, desires, or demographics. So your video will be something of an educated guess at what your audience wants to see. When writing a business to business (B2B) company script, though, your knowledge of your audience will make the process considerably easier.
Let’s examine some of the best ways to write video scripts for B2B companies.
State your Call to Action Early
B2B audiences, like nearly all video audiences, will make a quick decision on whether or not your video merits watching all the way through. That’s why your video’s elevator pitch, or your forecast of your message, should come early in your video. Frequently, this elevator pitch will be a version of your call to action (CTA). This tells your B2B viewer what to do with your information (visit your website, download your app, etc.). Without it, you won’t see the results you need from your B2B script and video.
Writing your CTA early in your script will protect you from possible audience disconnection. The CTA is, after all, the most important thing for your audience to see. That, coincidentally, is the same logic behind leading with this point.
If you remember nothing else, let it be that your CTA is vital, and should appear early in your video.
Tell a Story
So, you’re going to write your CTA early; what else are you going to write? Hopefully, you’re going to tell a story. Visual storytelling can promote both engagement and retention. Stories are a sort of human coding language: they interest us, and they’re a great framework for recalling information. They’re also a great way to write emotionally affective content, which also increases engagement.
Strong visual storytelling will also mark your script (and resultant video) as a thing of value. This is a key part of securing a relationship with another business. While an individual customer might buy from your website once and not worry overmuch about your business beyond your product, a business has deeper concerns before forming associations.
Show that you’re a company that attracts clients through inventive, captivating video, and you’ll leave a much better impression than bare-minimum, traditional advertisements.
Use Effective Imagery in Your Script
Now, let’s look at how you’re going to tell that story—specifically, the ‘visual’ part of visual storytelling. Your B2B script needs strong imagery to support your message. Here, your knowledge of the audience should help you choose appropriate images.
For your B2B audience, your script should avoid any potentially offensive or unprofessional images. Feel free (encouraged, actually) to use emotionally affective visuals. Particularly when they involve humor, these kinds of images can provide a B2B audience with a welcome and positive respite from their day, brought to them by your brand.
Ideally, your visual storytelling is compelling enough to drive engagement throughout the video. And it promotes retention of your brand’s efforts long after your audience finishes watching.
Consider Your Options
Culture Videos
Not sure about the story route? There are other types of B2B scripts you can write that can be just as effective with a different approach. One is a culture video. It is a showcase of your corporate culture and philosophy that greatly humanizes and personalizes your company’s message.
In a corporate culture video, you want to show your team at their happiest and in an engaging setting. Don’t make a filmed version of scrolling through your “About Our Team” page on your website. Instead, take your team and a camera, and go skydiving. Well, maybe not skydiving. But something with some life to it—you want your B2B audience to think, “Wow, everyone’s happy to work there. I bet they put 100% into their work.”
Thought Leadership
Your B2B script could also take the form of a thought leadership video. In this type of video, you’ll be leveraging interviews and/or conversations with experts and innovators. This provides insightful and educational value to your B2B audience, still under the aegis of your brand.
“If your goal is to establish your company’s perspective on industry trends and position top-level individuals at your company as experts in your industry, a thought leadership video is for you,” writes Cassandra Direnzo.
Just watch “Snap and Tesla are Losers,” by L2 Inc.’s Scott Galloway. It has all the hallmarks of a good thought leadership video. It’s funny. It’s accurate. It balances its predictive/analytical tone with some rough-edged dialogue. And it uses great visuals to drive home its most significant points.
You might be ahead of me on this next point, but I’ll make it quickly before moving on to my last points on B2B scriptwriting: both the corporate culture video and the thought leadership video are actually stories, too. A culture video tells the story of “Meet our team, and see why we’re happy doing what we do,” and the thought leadership video tells the story of “This expert has some great facts and ideas to tell you about. When you remember these insights, remember our brand!”
Value Your Audience’s Time
Keep it short. I’ve already talked about putting your CTA early in your script to make sure people see it even if they click away early. One way to push people into clicking away early is to make a video that is sixteen minutes long. Almost nobody will watch the entire thing. So you’re just throwing away money on that last (let’s be realistic) ten minutes, at least.
When people see that a video’s runtime is around two or three minutes maximum, they’re much more likely to go into it planning to watch the entire video. At that point, as long as your script doesn’t deter them, you’ll get in your CTA and the entirety of your content and message.
Include Your Value Proposition
Finally, throw in some hard-hitting justification for your brand over the competition. Depending on the type of script you choose, your B2B video should have a little punch to it that reminds the viewer that it’s not just your kind of product they should get; it’s your product, specifically, to the exclusion of the competition.
In thought leadership, the justification comes with the expert: they could’ve given their information under anyone’s banner, but they chose to speak with your brand. Clearly, if someone with so much expertise chose your brand, then your audience would do well to follow their example.
Corporate culture scripts are all about justification.
Your brand is superior because your people are superior. They laugh more, dance more, paint more—whatever the activity you focus on, the message remains that yours is a company where employees do great work because they love coming in.
Key Takeaways
With B2B scriptwriting, you know your audience, and that’ll help you speak in a professional yet engaging tone, use strong imagery, and tell an engaging story. Whether you choose your own visual narrative or make a ‘genre’ video like a culture or thought leadership video, keep it short. Remember to include some justification to really keep their interest on your brand, and above all, get your CTA in early.
With these tips, you’ve got a strong chance at creating a B2B script that’ll drive interest, and soon revenue, to your brand.