How to Write a 30 Second Commercial Video Script

- Eight tips on how to write a 30 second video script, coming up. (gentle upbeat music) So in my last video I talked about the power of digital TV advertising and how that can really propel your brand and grow your business. Well in this video, I'm gonna talk about how to write the perfect script for your 30 second digital TV commercial, let's jump in.

Tip number one is to keep your script under 500 characters. That's about 80 words on average. You don't wanna exceed 500 characters or the script is going to push beyond 30 seconds long.

So stay below 500 characters, if you can be below 400 characters, that's even better. If you're not sure how to count your characters. If you're writing your document in Google Docs, go to tools and then word count, and you can see your character count there.

You can also Google search character counter and there's a number of free tools that you can paste your script into, and it'll tell you how many characters your script is. Tip number two is 500 characters is very short. So keep your script short and sweet, trim out all of the fat.

Make sure it's super meaty and punchy so that you can get your message across without any fluff inside of 30 seconds. Tip number three is to tell your story. People love stories.

We've been enjoying stories since back when we were cavemen sitting around the fire at night. We just love a good story. So tell your story with your 30 second script.

Write a beautiful story inside 30 seconds, make it engaging, maybe it's funny. Maybe it's entertaining. Maybe it's inspiring.

Maybe it's educating. Tell your story in terms of who you are, why you do what you do, how you benefit the world, how you make the world a better place, and really maybe your history. Just make it an interesting story inside 30 seconds, that's the key.

Tip number four hinges off of tip number three, but it's to put yourself in the mindset of you're not writing a 30 second script you're writing a 30 second story. And so therefore come up with your starting line. That opening line is so powerful.

Let's take a look at a couple of examples. What if you started your script with the opening line such as, "When my dad founded our company in 1976. .

. " Or how about, "Against all odds, "two hard working entrepreneurs. .

. " Do you see how both of those opening lines really lead into a story and it's interesting? Much better than starting with something like, "ABC plumbing is Denver's leading plumbing contractor with.

. . " That's just boring.

It's so overdone. It's not an interesting story. So really nail down your starting line.

Tip number five is after you've written your script read it and time it, use the timer on your phone, read it at a reasonable pace and see if it's actually completed inside of 30 seconds. If it's not, then trim it up further make sure that it's done inside of 30 seconds, this is really important. Also, make sure that there's enough time at the end to show your logo long enough to be remembered.

You don't want your script to run right to the end of 30 seconds and then not have enough time to show your final call to action, or message or logo, so leave some time for that. Tip number six after you've read your script, you make sure that it's inside of 30 seconds and it's ready to go, submit it to get voice over talents to read it so you can see the types of talents you can choose from and really find that perfect voice for your commercial. One place I use a lot is Voice123.

So check out Voice123. com. You can submit your script and your notes about the type of read you want it to be, the type of enthusiasm, authenticity, whatever you're looking for there, you can pick male, female, young, old, you can do all that stuff when you submit it.

And then what's gonna happen is you're gonna get like 10 to 20, or 30 auditions back, and you can listen to them all, and then you only pay for the one that you like. So that's really valuable. Also, if you're using Marketing 360 we have voiceover talent as well, so ask us about it.

We can manage that process for you. We can even write the script if you need it, and get the voiceover talent and create the video. Everything that you need.

Tip number seven, once the voiceover is done is to pick your music. You want a good, solid background track of music that supports the message and the style, and the theme that you're going for there. So couple of places that I like to use is artlist.

io. There's lots of great music options there. I also like premiumbeat.

com, there's lots of options there also. The nice thing about PremiumBeat is you can even filter your song by 30 seconds increments. And power tip on this topic, is to listen to your voiceover as you listen to the music options.

What you're gonna find is sometimes the music option sounds really good, but then when you listen to it with the voiceover it kind of doesn't work. So, listen to the voiceover while playing the music options so you can hear them mixed together as you're through those options, and you'll identify the one that you really like in the process, and then just buy that one. Also tip on this, one you've bought it and you actually mix the tracks together, make sure that the music is not too overbearing.

The important thing is the story and the message. So make sure the music doesn't overtake that. I usually recommend between five and 10% volume level compared to the audio of the voice which is gonna be at 100%.

And tip eight, last tip. Once you've written your script, you have the voice over and you have the music, it's time to create your video. We'll save those tips for another day, but if you need help throughout this entire process from script writing to voiceover, to music selection, to video creation, Marketing 360 does all of that and we can do it all for you.

So definitely reach out if you're looking for help, if not, go out there, use these tips to crush it, and hopefully your 30 second commercial makes a difference. Have a great day. Happy marketing.

And we appreciate you watching the video. Subscribe for more content like this down the road. We'll see you.