How to avoid the biggest pitfall that will ruin your video

One of the most valuable skills that I’ve acquired over the almost 30 years of being in the ‘video business’ is that of scriptwriter. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of great skills to be gained in this industry such as cameraman, animator or editor but without a good script or creative idea the whole thing is a non-starter.

Now, while I’m not likely to be composing any prose that will be studied for eternity by school children or writing the next Hollywood block buster, clients appreciate the friendly, direct and conversational tone that I try to achieve. When writing for video one of the biggest challenges that I always face when putting together a script is avoiding the use of jargon.

Jargon

Headache inducing words

Jargon is defined as “special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand” and this is the whole problem – most people want to be able to understand what you are saying in the easiest and most simple terms – especially when it comes to video.

In a recent survey by the BBC the biggest thing that puts people off buying technology is high tech babble and jargon. Unfortunately this cuts across most industries with almost all having their own special words for things.

Here’s a very funny spoof video that I love that’s overloaded with jargon:

The upshot of all this that people simply don’t buy stuff if they don’t understand it. I’ve seen lots of videos for things that I’m genuinely interested in but don’t understand the benefits because the person who wrote the script focused on jargon packed features instead of telling me what it could do for me.

Let’s look at a (real) BAD example:

[XYZ Product] analyses disparate data streams into market equipped opportunities by amalgamating data from numerous feeds. By then purging, supplementing and evaluating it the [XYZ Product] will deliver business intelligence, insight and a set of key performance indicators to allow you to expose mission critical opportunities for growth and development”.

Huh

Amazingly, this is a genuine line from an online product video (that shall remain nameless) that almost gives you a headache hearing it! This is the sort of utter nonsense that’s like have a full time ‘sales prevention officer’!

Instead, this is what it should have said:

“[XYZ Product] works with your data, wherever you have it to help you make better decisions, offer better products and sell more of them.”

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and just ask “what can you do for me?” – it’s a simple idea but trust me it works. If this is central to your thoughts and you steer clear of jargon then you’ll be heading in the right direction.

Unfortunately some phrases I’ve heard all too often in videos offer nothing but a barrier to understanding. Typically, they sound quite impressive but don’t mean anything. Here are a couple of the worst culprits:

Customer Focused – This is a meaningless phrase as by definition all companies are ultimately customer focused because that’s where the money is. What’s usually meant by this is to provide a good service. While you can’t just say this you can use testimonials to provide the social proof you need to prove it.

Full-Service – this is another phrase to avoid. Firstly, no company is ‘full-service’ and secondly it often confuses people as to what you actually mean. Phrases that are obviously not true don’t endear you to an audience.

We Give 110% – We know that this means that you’ll go above and beyond the level required but again it’s just meaningless jargon. It’s so overused that it can have the reverse affect and give a negative and untrustworthy signal to a buyer – so don’t do it.

Jargon Gone

If only it was this simple…

Also think benefits – people don’t (mostly) care if your product has an ‘overhead grimble thruster’ of if you are the ‘market leader’ – they just want to know how they will benefit. So don’t be afraid to ditch the Jargon and be a simple script-writer… your audience (and your bank manager) will thank you for it.

Written By Ian Stainton. Ian is the CEO and Founder of Stormnet Media Ltd, an award winning video production and digital media agency based near Birmingham in the UK. He is trusted by global brands, SMEs and start-ups to help them engage and interact with their customers  - ultimately selling more stuff. You can check him out on Google+