How To Write A Script For YouTube Videos - The Right Way

In this video, I'm going to show you how I write a script for every single one of my YouTube videos and how this process saves me a massive amount of time. So much time that it has now allowed me to publish two videos a week here on my YouTube channel and even create better videos that are getting more views and longer watch time. Fail to plan, Plan to fail. I love this quote for so many different parts of life, but this quote is so, so true when it comes to creating YouTube videos. When you aren't taking the time to sit down and plan your YouTube videos, not only are you going to waste a massive amount of time when you sit down here to record your videos, but you are going to spend so much more time editing your videos too. Because the more you record, the more raw footage that you have, the more you have to edit and the longer it's going to take you. This is why I'm going to show you how creating a script for your YouTube videos is going to save you hours. Actually, let me know down in the comments right now how you are handling your YouTube videos. Comment Planning if you are currently planning all your videos before you shoot them or not planning if you're kind of winging them, I want to really see what all of you are doing and see if this video will help. What it all comes down to for me when writing a YouTube script is three main parts. The hook, the content, and the call to action. And I want to jump into each one of these pieces of your YouTube video because they have best things you should be doing. And I've seen a lot of these pieces go terribly wrong in videos. And I also want to show you the script template that I use for my video. It's a Google Doc and I'm going to share that with you here. Once I walk through these three main pieces so you can see what it looks like when it's all done, I'm going to throw in an added bonus for you. If you stay to the end, I am going to let you see what it looks like when I am recording these videos. So how am I memorizing my script? Am I using a teleprompter? You're going to see all of that, so keep watching. I think it's really important to make a note here when you One thing that you need to have done before you should even script or plan any of your video content is knowing the title of your video. Look, the content in your video could be the best thing ever. Like it could be amazing. But if you don't get people to click on that video. It doesn't matter how great that content is and your title is what's getting people to click on it. Now, the reason why you need to have your title determined is because that hook of your video, that first three to five seconds should really deliver on that title. Because this is where you're going to see the biggest drop off in your audience retention is your hook. And if that hook isn't reiterating or double downing on why they clicked on this video, the title and the thumbnail is going to be much harder to get people to keep watching your videos and to be able to craft a good hook without knowing the title first. Now, what else should be included in this hook and how long should this hook be? So your hook should be generally about 10 to 15 seconds long. And like I said, the hook really needs to tie into the title and the thumbnail of your video because that's why they're clicking on it and they need to be reassured. This is what they are going to learn about or this is what you're going to deliver on. So basically, you need to give them a reason why they should keep watching your video within three to five seconds. Really, it's thinking about what can you tell them that's in it for them if they watch your video. Your viewer, this may be the first time they're watching your video, but they need to know what's in it for them. They're selfish. They really don't care about you at this point in time. So you've got to hit them right up front with, with why they gotta keep watching it. Let me give you a few examples here in one minute. But I want to tell you what you shouldn't be doing in the hook of your video and that's opening your video with, hey guys, welcome to my channel and chatting. This is a great way to lose audience retention. And we don't want to put all this time and effort into creating YouTube videos that people don't watch. And since we do see the most amount of people drop in your hook. Again, you don't want to get too chatty or get too far off the topic that you promise in the title. So try to open those videos with a captivating way or a reason why they need to keep watching. Okay, let's talk about some hook examples. One example is something that you could use like I did in this particular video. I just said, in this video you're going to learn xyz, right? They're going to hear Right up front, exactly what they are going to learn. And you're reiterating the title usually of the video so they feel like assured that this is the video for them. You could also open your video with a hook that piques curiosity or makes people want to hear the ending. So maybe I could open this video. Have you ever sat down to record a YouTube video and not known how to get started or not known what to say? Right. If you felt connected to that, you're going to want to keep watching, right? Or you could open it with do you feel right? So again, I could open this particular video with, do you feel like every time you create a YouTube video, nobody watches it, it seems like people leave your video in the first 10 seconds. I'm making that connection with you. You feel like I see you. If you're having that pain point, you're like, yeah, absolutely, tell me more. Right? Or you could say, is this you? You sit down to record a video, 45 minutes later, you finally have a video and then you go to edit this video. You have 45 minutes to edit and it takes you four hours to even get a video edited. That may be relating to you as well. And you can be like, heck yes. These people have their hands up because you related to them. You made them that you know the pain that they are having. And you're about to tell them what they can do to get rid of that pain point. Go ahead and hit that thumbs up button. If you're going to craft a better hook in your next YouTube video, I want to see that you're doing this. Okay, let's talk about the second point. And this is your content. Your hook is generally 10 to 15 seconds. And then you really got to get to the meat of that content. The good stuff. The way I like to look at my content again is the title of the video, right? If I know what the title of the video is, I know what they are coming from. What is a win? I want to give you what is something quick you can accomplish at the end of this video and then how can I break that down into the content? So specifically in this video, I'm telling you how to script a YouTube video. So here in the content part, I'm breaking it down into three chunks. Think about how you can explain what you promised in your title. So by the end of the content piece, your viewer has a quick win that's going to make them want to come back for more of your content. That's going to want to make them go over to Learn more about you and your business, get in your funnel, possibly buy your offer, possibly work with you, but this is really how you want to break down your content so that by the end of this content piece they are able to achieve something or they get a quick win. Now, what you don't need to be doing in this content part is like a 30 minute deep dive tutorial. This is what usually your online courses for or your digital products are for. And it's usually a much bigger project, so to speak, so not something quick. For example, some quick wins could be creating a YouTube thumbnail. How to create a YouTube thumbnail. Another one would be how to find and purchase a domain for your business, right? Or how to create a Pinterest pin template in Canva. Right? These are quick wins, but these aren't a in depth, detailed strategy tutorial, training type video. You're giving them a quick win to build, build that trust so that they can then go through your funnel to see those online courses that you have. And so this is how you're going to balance the content in your YouTube videos versus the content in your online courses. Now, before I share this third piece of your YouTube script and how to best use it, don't forget right after this, I'm going to be showing you the template that I use for every single one of my videos that our clients that are YouTube production agency uses. And I'm going to be bringing you behind the scenes so you can see exactly how I shoot my YouTube videos, whether that's with the teleprompter or not. Now this third part is your call to action. And this is critical because whether you are creating YouTube content to build a YouTube channel or you're creating YouTube content to get leads to your business, you've got to have a call to action to get people to take that next step. Typically, this is what most people get wrong in their YouTube video. So what they do is they go through all of their content, right? The really good stuff, and then they send signals that the video is over. They say in conclusion, in summary, or that's it. And that sends signals to the viewer that it's time to go look for another video. And they haven't actually heard your call to action, so they've left the video before you've heard your call to action. How can you avoid this? So instead of saying in summary or in conclusion, you want to go right into your call to action. It may seem abrupt, but if they were really into the content and it was great and they wanted to Keep learning from you that call to action is going to be perfect to get them to take that next step. Now, what should that call to action be? You need to make YouTube happy. The YouTube algorithm wants people to stay on the platform, video after video. But as a business owner, you also want to get people in your funnel, on your email list, filling out your discovery page form or your work with me form, right? So I talk more about this strategy called the firework approach to your YouTube content inside my program Video Strategy Academy. And briefly, how that works is you should have a call to action in your core video to send people off of the platform. So your core video is a very strategic video that is going to then have a call to action to send people to either your webinar registration page, your email list registration page, your freebie, opt in wherever you want to send them off of YouTube. And then you have about four or five videos after that core video. And the call to action from those videos are going to watch the core video. So these are what we call your spark videos videos. Your spark videos are making YouTube happy because they are getting people to watch the spark videos, watch the end and hear the call to action to watch another video. And then your core videos do the action of getting people over to where you need them to go. So if I'm talking about YouTube thumbnails, right? And I give you a breakdown of how to create a YouTube thumbnail before I say, in summary, I'm going to say, now, thumbnails are just a piece of the YouTube strategy. I highly encourage you to watch this particular video where I walk through how to get your YouTube channel started. Even if you're getting started from scratch, it's going to give you all the strategies that you need. Go watch that video next. So that's one way to get people to that next video. As far as getting people to my email list for that same video, I could say something like, I'm going to make your YouTube creation process so much easier. I have three free Canva templates for your YouTube thumbnails that you can grab right now. All you need to do is go to the link down in the description box, put your email in, and I will send you those three free templates immediately. You can start to see how these two calls to action are very strategic and you can start to see how they can fit into your YouTube video script. But you should always just focus on one primary call to action so you're not confusing the viewer on which one they should do. You don't Want to have a decision fatigue here. You want to tell them exactly what you want them to do. Now that's not the end of my video script. Once I have this all mapped out, kind of bullet pointed, let me talk briefly about bullet points versus writing. So I like to write exactly what my hook is because hooks are very important. If you can't get people to keep watching through the hook, what's the point? Right? So I do like to write my script word for word. Then I'm going to show you an example for this particular video how I really scripted it out. I kind of have lines or bullet points or just ideas to follow. So I know exactly how to stay on task. I know exactly the pieces, the parts that I want to cover. And so I'm not going on a tangent and I'm staying very clear on the path that I wanted to take for this particular video so that you can achieve something. You know exactly how to write your YouTube script at the end of this video. I have also done it where I've written my scripts word for word. And I personally found that I get too stressed out, I get too tensed, I become too robotic almost. And I just like the freedom of knowing kind of briefly what I want to say and kind of free flowing from there so I can be more myself and show more of my personality than freaking out over what I have written in my script. So this is what it looks like when I am recording my YouTube videos. You can see that I am pausing, I'm taking a look at the screen to check my script or what I like to call my video game plan. I'm looking at my camera. Then I'm continuing a few lines and I look at my script again and I continue a few lines. My camera is running the entire time. I'm going to clip out those pauses in editing, which are super easy to do. But I don't read from a teleprompter. I hate to say it, but most of the time we can tell when you're reading from a teleprompter and it just doesn't feel inviting. You want people who are watching you here on YouTube to feel like you are speaking to them. And so by creating this template, using this particular process of creating a YouTube video script allows you to not have to use a teleprompter and makes that connection with your viewer through the camera by showing your personality. Now let me show you what this particular video script look like because there are things that I add once I have the general outline of this video I go through my video script and I add engagement pieces. Whether that is hit the like button, leave a comment. I add these into my video after I have the plan, so I see that it flows and it fits. And when I have more stuff, specific calls to action in my videos, that's when I get more engagement from you. So let me show you that. Okay, so this is a completed YouTube video script for this particular video that you're watching. Generally I will just make a copy of this template and obviously all this text won't be here, but I will have the title of the video as the doc name. So I always know what is the purpose of this video, what is the goal of this video. And the goal is for you all to know how to write a script for YouTube videos. And then I know what I'm leading this video up to. The primary call to action, which you'll see at the end of this video, is to watch this particular video about how I would start and grow a YouTube channel in 2022. So then that helps me really start to break down what I'm going to say. So since this is about how to write a script for a YouTube video, you can see I use this hook in this video. I'm going to show you how I write scripts for all my YouTube videos. Alright, so again you'll see this is all broken down right here. I want to walk through what are these highlighted pieces. So, so once I kind of write this all out, you can see I have a sentence here, I have an idea here. I just have, you know, first part hook, right? Just thoughts. So I know exactly the process that I want to talk through and what I want to include. So once I have this written, like I said, I will then find places to add engagement pieces. So I thought this would be a great place, as you heard early in the video, for you to comment below. Are you planning your videos or you not Planning your videos? YouTube loves when people engage with your video because if people are engaging with your video, then it must be good. So this is a great place that I thought made sense to just kind of see, you know, where you all are at instead of just saying comment below and not giving you a clear reason or purpose to comment. The other place that I use engagement is right here. You know, after we talked about a hook, I wanted to see if that resonated with you. So I said, you know, hit that thumbs up button or that like button if you're going to work at creating better hooks in your next video, right? And then the one last piece that I want to share is because that is obviously the call to action, the engagement piece. To watch that next video, I have B roll clips. Like this particular clip right now is going to be inserted right here. And then you saw earlier in the video that clip of me talking to the camera, right? So this is just extra B roll to remind me of what I want to add. Now sometimes I will get more elaborate here and add more B roll. When this is vlog style video, I will add additional video pieces in here that I want to include. But for basic YouTube video scripts, this is the template that I have. Okay, so you know exactly how to script your next YouTube video, but I want to make sure your YouTube channel is actually growing. So watch this video that's on your screen right now because it's going to walk you through all these extra parts of your YouTube strategy and setting up your YouTube channel you may not have realized yet. So I highly encourage you to click that video that's on your screen right now because it's going to walk you through exactly what I would do if I was starting my YouTube channel from scratch today. Seriously, click that video. Watch it now.