There are times when you have to take the charge and upgrade your video marketing strategy ASAP. And the first thing you’ll have to do then is to make a killer medical video script fast. Every great healthcare marketing video starts with a great script. Before you add your trademark animation and your fancy voice-overs you have to have your story written down.
I know that staring at a blank paper (or a blank Google sheet for that matter) can be scary. That’s why I’ve written down the most important steps you have to follow to tell your story in an engaging and compelling way.
Here’s where to start.
Make a brief
I know you want to get to writing right away, but before you make that opening line, take some time to create a brief. Trust me, it will pay off big time in the filming process. First, set up goals for your medical video. And key takeaways. Remember, 80 % of physician will watch the first 30 seconds of your video, but many of them will stop watching as the story goes on. So if you want to convey your message to HCPs you better place it in the first 30 seconds of your content. Otherwise, they might click away from it, before you even get the chance to tell them what it’s all about.
You should take the time to determine your audience a well. Are you aiming to reach new physicians with this video? Or strengthen the bond with your current clients? Which HCP specialties can you encompass with your video? Is it meant for the local, national or international crowd?
Make sure to establish a clear plan of who’s doing what in your brief as well. Will you be producing the video yourself or outsource the job to professionals? If you are making it yourself, determine who’s gonna be in charge of filming, animating, production and post-production. By determining all these things from the start you should be able to see what you can and cannot do. This should keep your imagination from running wild. And keep you within your budget limits.
Make a template
Every medical video script is a story for itself. Right? Wrong! In reality, many medical videos are following the same structure. Most videos have an introductory part, an explanation part, and a conclusion. If you create a template that follows this structure, it will save you both time and resources. Making a reusable template will prevent you from looking at an empty page over and over again. A reusable template is something that you can keep laying around at all times. That way you will always have something to start with.
Write a word-to-word medical video script
Now, that you’ve made a brief and a template, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and finally get into script writing. That’s what you wanted to do all along, isn’t it? When writing your medical video script make sure to start with the problem your product aims to solve. Then work your way up to the solution. To make your script persuasive, pack it with info obtained during clinical studies. Finally, let physicians know why your solution beats the golden standard by a mile.
Remember, script writing is not all about words and voice-overs. If you want to make a script that’s truly idiot-proof make sure to script every word. You have to explain what’s happening on the screen during which voice-over segment. Also if you have several speakers, make sure to determine who’s reading what, and at what time, to avoid any confusion later on.
Arrange several rounds of table read
Before your turn your script into a pharma marketing video, organize at least a few table reads. That way you’ll make sure that everything sounds as good as it looks on paper. Remember, some things may look good written down but don’t transfer as well from pencil to mouth. Some sentences can sound impersonal, or even confusing when read.
That’s why before you invest your time and resources in filming or animating you should hire someone to do a table read. After all, it’s better to be safe and sorry. Also, several rounds of table reads will give you a glimpse into how will your medical video script look like when it’s finally filmed.
The ultimate thing you have to remember is that practice makes it perfect. So if your first medical video scripts hadn’t turned out that great, don’t worry! You’ll get a hang of it after few tries. If you’d like to read more content like this, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter.
