Scripting services and Scripts: StoryTELLING VS StorySELLING(™)
Can I tell you a secret?
There’s a reason billion dollar mega movies stir your soul, make you scream or cry or laugh until it hurts and it’s something that happens BEFORE all the cgi special effects razzle dazzle that companies like Austin Visuals create.
There’s a reason why advertising taglines like “You’re In Good Hands” and “Fly The Friendly Skies” and “What’s In Your Wallet” live beyond the commercials they’re in and it happens before the celebrity spokespersons hit the screen.
The reason? Words. Scripts. Scripts to extend branding, shape the action, describe the characters, set up drama or romance or the dastardly deeds of evil geniuses.
Having great scripting services and getting the right message with the right script can make the difference between an average video and a GREAT Video.
Yes, of course, your product or service is the foundation. We’ll want to know about your product in detail.
But to sell that product we need a script that does the best StorySELLING.
Scripting And Creative Development Services by Austin Visuals
This is a time for brainstorming and input!
In all honesty, we start getting ideas and “mind pictures” from the first time we talk to you. We’ve done scriptwriting and creative development for years, and it’s an almost automatic reaction when we get excited about the story we want to sell for you. More formally, the script and the planning that goes into writing your video before we begin production is part of what we call creative development. We made an infographic that maps it all out – consider that your own personal navigation device.
When we’re working with larger companies or advertising agencies or certain clients, we often are provided with scripts, storyboards, and plan for what they want to see and how the visuals unfold on the page. Many have the resources to begin scripting and creative development services on their own.
Of course, within our scripting services, we’re going to add our suggestions based on what we’ve learned producing thousands of videos over more than a decade. Sometimes that means a fresh new way of looking at something – sometimes it means we can show how to maximize the budget. Sometimes it means we can introduce some new technical innovation in 3D, 2D, Motion Graphics, or AR/VR.
Just as often, we work with people in smaller companies or inventors, engineers, scientists, medical personnel, trainers, lawyers, and others who may be a little intimidated about or unfamiliar with script writing. No worries, you’ve made the product, that’s the really hard part. Through our creative development services, with the right words and the right images we get to the heart and soul of the reason why people will buy what you’re selling.
Telling “your story” can misdirect you into focus on you instead of the customer. Starting the creative development process by focusing on your great idea and how you came up with it, the dreams of you as a founder, or the path you took to development isn’t a recipe for success. Yes, authority and credibility is important, but that’s not where you begin.
We can start with notes on a napkin, a customer’s testimonial, ideas from something you’ve seen on YouTube, or by researching your product or service and discovering why it meets your customer’s needs better than the competition. The creative development process is actually a lot of fun.
Your thirty second to eight minute video or VR experience is as important to you and us at Austin Visuals as Infinity Wars was to Marvel or Star Wars is to Disney. Whether your budget is $1,500 or $5,000, or $50,000 or some numbers with 9 zeros, you have to start at the same place: George Lucas or James Cameron start: a great script.
When it comes to online or 3D or 2D animated videos made at Austin Visuals, those scripts and the words in them guide and define the images we create to make your customers decide to buy your products.
That’s why we treat scripting and creative development as the first and most important service we offer you.
Now, you may have looked around and visited other web pages for 3D or 2D or VR/AR production (it’s ok, we understand you’re doing due diligence and we aren’t jealous). You probably have seen nearly all of those other folks talking about “storytelling.”
You need more than storytelling. You need StorySELLING. Scripting And Creative Development Services that SELL.
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who only talks about himself or his accomplishments and never asks you a single thing about YOU? How did that make you feel?
I’m betting right now that you felt unimportant and ignored and BORED.
No one likes to listen those people, yet when a committee or even one person excited about their product sits down to create a script for a how-to-video or corporate image video, what often lands in the script is about them – not the customer.
If you want to connect with your customer and sell something, or lots of somethings, you must focus on what they want to buy, not what you want to sell. You must think about their story – their lives, habits, preferences – even before you think about your product.
That’s the critical scripting and creative development difference between storytelling and StorySELLING(™)
StorySELLING is a word I made up to get at the critical difference between just listing attributes or backgrounds or “things” about your product or service.
Telling”your story” can misdirect you into focus on you instead of the customer. Starting the creative development process by focusing on your great idea and how you came up with it, the dreams of you a a founder, or the path you took to development isn’t a recipe for success. Yes, authority and credibility is important, but that’s not where you begin.
Using a story to sell or what I call StorySELLING prioritizes your CUSTOMER – and talks about what they want to buy or use, what they need, not just what you want to sell.
Scripting Services: Storytelling vs StorySELLING
As a persuasive communications expert my job is to convince your customer that whatever product or service I’ve been hired to sell using words and pictures is better than what they’re using now to meet a need.
I’m the person who is going to help you to dive past all your mission statements and “who we are”s and company jingo lingo to find out what your customers want to BUY, not what you want to sell. We’ll do this together because our goal is the same – to give you the greatest value for your investment.
For marketing in any form – email, video, cartoon animation, VR/AR, blogs, or social media – to WORK it has to have five elements:
TRUTH – not boastful or dishonest cause Honey, we’re all getting allergic to that nonsense
RELEVANCE to the reader/listener – you don’t sell Aunt Clara the same things Boomer wants
EMOTION – laugh, cry, smile, dream, agree, real fear, consumer fear (FOMO), imagine,
A HOOK – unforgettable 2D, 3D, video, AR/VR images or still photos and illustrations
ACTION – you have to tell people what you want them to do, when and how to do it
You want an explainer video? Great. Ask for our scripting services and let Austin Visuals, the best explainer video company, write a script to tell people why they should use what you have instead of something else, not just how to use it.
Want to show something that doesn’t exist yet? Sure, AV can do that, but let’s write a script to focus on why what you have is better for that customer than all the things that already exist.
You want a corporate image video? Let’s drill down until we know WHAT will make your customers, employees, investors or other targeted demographics change what they know, think, or believe to improve their inclination to work with you.
We can script training videos, employee education videos, investor presentations, cartoon animation series, or blogs, vlogs, and – well, we’d even help you write your holiday thank you notes if you asked nicely!
Whatever kind of video you want, we’ll be here to guide you through a process starting with the best script during creative development.
What is Austin Visuals scripting and creative development process?
Thanks for asking! Until you have time to call us (talking to our customers is our favorite thing to do) or sign up to get more information about StorySELLING.
You can look over and download the infographic we’ve prepared right here on this page.
Thank you for reading this! I’m Austin Visuals’ Creative Director, Nancy Schirm. I’ve been writing persuasive communications for decades – including documentaries, tv commercials, website copy, videos, and business strategies – you get the idea. I wrote this to share with you what I’ve learned from great success and some pretty miserable mistakes while working with clients all over the world.
You can count on me to be passionate and focused on what you need to sell or promote your product and services. I decided to call it StorySELLING instead of storytelling because well, I’m not Mother Goose and the only “happily ever after” I care about Is delivering you a 2D, 3D, VR/AR, Video production that sells or promotes your product.
You can email me directly at [email protected] or use this contact form below to get in touch.
Scripting and Creative Development
