How to Script Videos That Actually Get VIEWS (Copy This!)

0:00 If your videos aren't getting views, it's probably because you're not scripting them or at least not the right way. See, a lot of creators don't script because it feels like a waste of time or because they feel they won't be authentic. But here's the thing, a well-written script helps you clarify your message, which leads to better click-through rate because your title and intro actually align, and stronger watch time because people stick around. In this video, I'm going to show you how to write scripts that sound natural, save you time, and most importantly, make people actually want to watch your videos. Now, this was originally a session I taught inside our membership video ranking academy, but I wanted to share it here so it can help even more creators. This is the kind of training we do all the time inside VR. So, if you're serious about growing on YouTube,

0:46 check out that first link in the description. All right, let's jump in. That was ridiculous. So, let's talk about scripting. Why does scripting matter? I think we almost need to reframe the word scripting because there might be a negative connotation to that. Some people just want to be authentic on camera, right? And they don't want to have something scripted. Let's change that word to planning. Planning your videos. That seems pretty straightforward, but not a lot of people do that. I know a lot of people who have an idea and they go shoot that video immediately, but they didn't think about the title. they didn't think about who was going to watch the video. So, spending a few extra minutes to plan this idea, I think, is going to help. And another thing that's been useful for

1:31 me to think about is think of scripting, the scripting phase, as editing before you record. As simple as that. A lot of people don't have the skill set of editing or doesn't want to spend time editing. As an editor, if I saw a good script, it was shot out, it made my job really easy. And if you're unfamiliar with the perfect video recipe, Sean has definitely talked about this a lot, but I think we all need a reminder of what is the perfect video recipe. It's comprised of four ingredients. Your idea, your hook, content, and transition. Your idea is simply what is your video about? Will people actually watch that? There's a lot of good ideas, but how that translates to people wanting to watch it. Some people may not

2:16 want to watch a video even though you think it's a great idea. And I actually have a case of this that we'll share later. Two, the hook. The hook of your video that can be simply described as the first 30 seconds of your video. You know, what's the first few seconds people actually see once they decided, oh, I like that title. I like that thumbnail. I'm going to click. You don't want to lose them the content, the main body of your video. And we'll talk about how we can actually speed up the writing process in the content phase. So, definitely stay tuned to that. And then transition is a way we can have our viewer take action. That could be watching another video. It could be telling them to subscribe. It could be going further with your business. So those are the four main ingredients. So

3:02 let's start with number one, the idea. For me, I like to start with the title whenever I have an idea. So for example, if we did a video on how to grow tomatoes, right? Pretty good idea. But maybe that is too vague. You know, how do we go further? And how do we give people a reason to click on that video? What would make you click on a video? How to grow tomatoes in a bucket. How to grow tomatoes in Florida. Those are different people you're speaking to when you're talking about a title. Whenever I'm starting to script out a video, you got to have that title in mind. And that also clarifies and helps us frame how we're going to write out our hook. So definitely let's think through this a

3:47 little bit. So for example, we have how to grow tomatoes. And literally some of those examples I made is just typing into the YouTube bar how to grow tomatoes at home from seed in a pot in Florida all the way down here. So if I clicked on that, you can get a sense of the videos that are resonating. 444,000 videos. Everything I wish I knew when I started growing tomatoes. So, the title is not even how to grow tomatoes in Florida. But that's the first recommendation is this title. So, after I might do my own research and see, okay, what's the most creative angle for this video? Everything I wish I knew when started growing tomatoes. Maybe there's a skill set that you have and what did you wish you knew when you

4:33 started sewing, making sourdough bread. So, those are a few creative ways just to think about the title ahead of time. Now that we have an idea and our title, let's get into some of the meat of the script. Starting off with the hook or the first 30 seconds. The goal of the hook is to grab attention within the first 5 to 10 seconds. 5 to 10 seconds, you have to decide whether they want to stick around and watch your video. And there's a few key things I think that really works in great hooks that I've applied to my own videos. And that is speaking to a pain point, a specific pain point. So just how we talked about how to grow tomatoes, that's that's a painoint, but how do you define that more specifically in the bucket, you

5:19 know, in Florida because it's a different climate. So you can speak to a couple different things. It should speak to either a pain point, a desire, or even peak curiosity. And when it comes to educational content, I think this painoint one really resonates with a lot of people. One of my favorite ways to like get an idea of what people's pain points are is I'll go to Chat JBT and ask, "What are the pain points of viewers who want to grow tomatoes at home in Florida? My spelling is terrible." In a matter of few seconds, it's just going to give me all these different pain points that the viewer has subconsciously in their mind. and you can address some of these pain points. These could be video ideas or even just what you want to call out in

6:04 your hook. So, extreme heat, the variety, choosing the wrong type, how to the best type of tomato to grow in Florida, that's a video idea. Having a few of these pain points in mind for whatever you video you want to make, I will type that in like what are the pain points of a viewers of the video and I'll just drop in my title and it will spit these out. Another thing that is super important is avoiding vague intros. We've all seen it when you click on a video, it's like, "Hey guys, welcome back to my channel." And then they just keep rambling and you're never really addressing what this video is about. I think vlogs tend to do this and to their detriment where they just don't have a clear throughine through their vlog. I think a vlog is like a story of your day. And if you don't begin with

6:50 some context to what your vlog is going to be about, there's no reason for anyone to watch it. Bottom line is you want to make the viewers think like, I need to hear this. Why should they even stick around? So, I want to show you a bad example of one of my first videos. I made this around 7 years ago. So, please forgive me. It's quite bad. But just take a look at this first 10 seconds of my hook and see what sticks out to you. Would you actually want to watch this video or is it just not entertaining enough or educational enough? So, let's go ahead and play this. Aperture sent me an Amaran M9 to do a video review for. So, I'm super excited to test it out. So, without further ado, let's take a look. Okay, that's it. First of all, you guys are probably confused as to what

7:35 even this thing is. And that's my detriment. I didn't even set up context. A lot of you are like, "What is Nate even talking about?" So, let's break this down. what my actual hook said. Aperture sent me an Amaran M9 to do a video review. So, I'm super excited to test it out. Without further ado, let's take a look. Can you guys identify like why this hook is so bad? You can go ahead and roast me in this chat. I have no idea what the item is. Not viewer aware. It went by too fast. Not clear, not specific, no pain point. Yeah, I definitely wish I knew this when I was first starting out because that video probably would have done better if I had addressed at least a couple of those after watching this video. It's like it was never about the viewer watching it. I know I was excited because I got this

8:22 free product that I wanted to test out, but why on earth why would anyone else care about it? Think about your own videos. Maybe go back through your catalog and see, is this video just all about me? Is it not about the viewer? Because I think a lot of people who want to create a YouTube channel, we think about it that it's about us when it's not. A few other issues that it didn't capture curiosity and it used too much filler phrases. Like there wasn't actually any substance to the words that I was saying. So, how could we improve this? I wrote a few titles that I think might have done better had I written it down. One benefit driven is this $45 pocket light. Let's pause right there. Number one, we identified of what on earth this thing is. We're not giving the model name, but we're giving like what it is. It's a pocket LED light. And

9:10 the price point, $45. It's actually a pretty budget for a video light. So, that is a benefit. That's a desire of people. Best budget light. We're actually hitting on search terms, and this can be huge for your video. YouTube does look at what is spoken in your video. So, if you're trying to rank for a video for best budget light, you would want to say that rough pretty early on in your video. And then for its context for YouTube videos, here's why. This $45 pocket light might be the best budget light for YouTube videos. Here's why. It's a lot more intriguing to me. Another version is more curiositydriven. This tiny little pocket-size light is something I think every creator should have in their kit. Well, if you're a creator, you want to hear out why should I have this in my kit? You know, it's

9:56 another benefit. So, takeaway of a hook. A good hook should quickly tell the viewer what's in it for them, spark curiosity or promise a result, and definitely cut the fluff. Don't have a super long intro. I think a lot of people tend to still have long intros thinking they need to say who they are, what they're about, but a lot of times we just need to cut it down. And I think if you're not getting to the main point of your video within at least the first minute, then you've already lost the viewer. Let's talk about a good example. This is one of my first videos I made for Think Media. And this is the context of the video is how to edit in Da Vinci Resolve start to finish. So, let's go ahead and play this. After editing over 200 videos for Think Media, I'm excited to share my step-by-step process on how

10:43 to edit a YouTube video inside Da Vinci Resolve. So, even if you've never edited a video before, by the end of this tutorial, you'll have all the skills you need to create engaging and professional YouTube content. Let's dive in. Okay, it was still pretty quick, but definitely a much longer hook. But again, I allow that because it's a longer video. So, let's break down this hook. After editing over 200 videos for Think Media, what does this line do? Can anyone tell me just what this first line does? I'm curious to hear why this why I even included this. Nurse Jimmy's right on it. Gives you credibility. I didn't say, "Hey guys, I've been working at Think Media for a while now and I've definitely learned a lot." See, that's already too long. I had to very quickly just share why you should even pay

11:29 attention to me, okay? I'm not just a random nobody. Like, I've actually put in the work. And so, this is about the shortest I could get to establish that credibility after editing over 200 videos for Think Media. That definitely carries some authority. Let's take a look at the second line. I'm excited to share my step-by-step process of editing YouTube videos inside Da Vinci Resolve. Can anyone tell me what this line does? SEO. Someone says SEO. That's pretty much right. Yeah, it's the heart of the topic. I call this restating the title. If my video was how to edit videos in Da Vinci Resolve, I'm just restating it to show people this is what the video is about and you clicked on the right thing. You know, sometimes people write a title that's misleading. And so, if your content is actually showing them

12:14 like, hey, this is what you're getting in this video. My complete step-by-step process. And then lastly, even if you've never edited a video before, by the end of this tutorial, you have all the skills you need to create engaging and professional YouTube content. I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts, but I'm going to say this first part here, this is a painoint. People who've never edited a video before. The second line here, by the end of tutorial, this is promising the desire. You'll have all the skills to create this to achieve X. By the end of this video, you have all the skills you need to plant and grow your own tomatoes in Florida. This is just a simple framework. This can apply to any sort of educational video in particular. These could be honestly in any order. I've experimented with this

13:01 on my own videos. Sometimes I don't even introduce myself like that authority might come a little bit later in the video, but I think it's important to address that pain point and promise a solution. Let's talk about some pro tips. Understand your viewer. Why are you making this video? Who are you making it for? Like we said earlier, what pain points does your viewer have? I think it's important to know who you're talking to as well. That gives you good clarity and it changes the whole context of how you make the video. Real quick, if you find this video helpful and you want to go deeper, this is just a small piece of what we unpack inside Video Ranking Academy. Inside VRA, we'll walk you through a proven step to get you more views, grow your channel, and finally build momentum with content that actually works. If you want to learn more, you can go to thinkv.com.

13:48 Now, let's get into step number three. So, let's talk about the content. One thing that's going to speed up is not writing your script word for word. Sometimes, some videos do need that, but oftent times you can get by with just a clear outline. So, let me show you an example. Here's a video on how I would learn video editing if I had to start over. And here's one of the first outlines. This is all I wrote for this first bullet point is the title. Start with what you have. A sentence or two, two bullet points of what I want to talk about. Now, when I actually am in front of the camera and recording, I might go a little bit more on a tangent, a little bit more rambly. I'm not reading this word for word. I'll see the first one and be like, "Use your current tools and equipment." Okay. So, knowing where

14:34 people are starting from, they think they have to have an expensive computer. No, you can start with your phone. Like, I can just go off of that, right? And that's all you really need to do. If you're already teaching on something that you're knowledgeable about, then it becomes really, really second nature just to sit down and record if you have a few bullet points. Otherwise, you're just going off on different tangents and then your editing is a nightmare. A couple tool I find I found to be really useful when it comes to content. Let's talk about like research. Notebook LM is a great tool. It's kind of like chat GBT, but you're able like to feed it a Google doc, a YouTube video link, your script. You're able like to feed it its sources and then ask it questions. And then, of course, chat GBT for the actual writing process. If you don't have time

15:19 to actually sit down and write, just literally voice record what you want the video to be about. And it helps you get a pretty decent outline. And then you can ask it further questions like ask it if there's any boring parts of the video or where you can elaborate. These are two tools I use quite a bit. But when you are working with AI, here's a few of my tips and tricks. So one of those is outline this video in a way that builds logically and keeps the viewer engaged. So even if you write down your script, just kind of go back and forth with AI and see where are some areas that you could actually cut out that people might actually click off. helps you keep you on track and avoid rambling, which I feel like I'm rambling in this session. And make it sound like you. After you kind of like let AI kind of give you a draft, you can then like imbue with your

16:06 own voice, add your own stories, add your own jokes or transitions, make it human, right? I think more and more that AI is being used, people tend to lean towards having the more human, having the more personality. That's why we follow YouTube channels anyway. We follow for the personality. There's a lot of channels that have just information and they're great, but I may not vibe with it. A few quick tips. I'm going to kind of speed through this section, but less is more. Be direct. Get to the point. You have to draw the line somewhere with the video cuz I find myself like I can talk about one thing, like a camera lens, and I can just talk about that for 5 minutes straight. But if my video is not just about lens, it's about other things like how to make a video, you have to just be really to the point and succinct. So a question I

16:53 always ask myself is how can I say this with fewer words? Another tip is clarity over cleverness. I think a lot of people they want to sound smart or in their title it's like ooh this is a creative way to do it. Often times the simple conversational language is much more effective. I can geek out about cameras and talk about shallow depth of field and f-stop and all this stuff, but I will like lose a lot of people who don't know those things and they're lost in that video. But if I can make my video a little bit more broad appeal just by using simpler language saying, "Oh, if you want to get a blurry background to your video, like using more of that conversational language is going to be really huge and opens up your video to a larger group of people and that can

17:39 actually lead to getting more views. I'd also recommend adding personal stories to your video. Like we're talking about that personalization, not just relying on AI, but what are some moments that you can connect with someone based off of what you've went through. When we're creating videos, we think we're talking to everybody, but what's way more effective is if you talk to one person because you truly are. If you're watching, someone's watching a video, it's a one-on-one. It's not one to 10,000. It's not to a theater. It's just a one-on-one conversation that you're having with someone. So, just imagine whoever's like behind the camera. Like imagine it's a close friend, someone you know who's kind of going through a similar pain point. Who would you speak to in that video? All right, so let's move on to the transition. One tip I would have is when you get towards the

18:25 end of the video, a lot of people, myself included, um we'll start using like, all right, so to wrap this up lastly, in conclusion, these are like words that kind of key the viewer that the video is about to end. Even if you just watch YouTube videos, you'll see when people do this and you're already scrolling off to another video. Definitely recommend avoid using this ending verbiage. The transition is also the opportunity to take a call to action or a CTA. A few examples of a call to action could be asking a question. This kind of generates engagement in the comments. YouTube likes to see engagement and will promote your video if it has good engagement and good watch time. But you can also ask people like, "Hey, what video would you like to see

19:10 next?" You can also get ideas for future videos. You're seeing what people's pain points are literally as they write them down. The other thing you can do, and we do this a lot at Think Media, is recommend a related video. This is really powerful because once they start watching one video, if they watch a next one, YouTube keeps track of that thought that, oh, they're sticking around to watch more of your videos. And if it's two videos that lead to a third video, suddenly you're getting a lot more watch time. It's like a binge session that a viewer is going through. And YouTube actually pays attention on that and promotes your videos in your channel likewise. But always recommend a related video. So it's not just pointing to a random video on your channel, but think about who the viewer is and what their

19:57 pain points are and how you can kind of help them navigate on that journey. So, if we go back to our example, growing tomatoes in Florida, someone who clicked on that is from Florida. They're growing tomatoes. Maybe they want to see how to grow cucumbers in Florida. They may not necessarily want to watch a video on how to grow tomatoes in Arkansas cuz they're not from Arkansas. So, think about just carefully thinking through who the viewer is when they're watching. Not necessarily what video, but who. The like, subscribe, check the links. that I feel like is the better opportunity to do it after the end of your video when you've actually provided value and incentive. It's not the first thing you mention is be sure to like and subscribe. If you do that and you haven't delivered any value, I think it's just kind of worthless. But every

20:43 now and then and again, if you provide a value and say, "Hey, if you like this video, leave a like." It's a lot more authentic and I think it actually converts more. So, to quickly recap, plan your video, keep it clear, keep it relevant. you can kind of learn this format and these templates over time and that helps you just be way more effective when you make your own videos and also know your audience's problem. If we take anything away is like start making videos for a person rather than just for yourself like I made. There's a template here. Start with a title, hook, painoint. Feel free to screenshot this. I'll leave it up for a few seconds. This is a good concise thing that I basically try to apply to every educational video. If this video gave you a new way to think about content and you're serious

21:30 about growing on YouTube, that's exactly why we built Video Ranking Academy. It's helped thousands of creators go from stuck and overwhelmed to clear and confident. And if that's where you want to be, you can learn more at thinkv.com. Or if you just want to keep learning for free, then check out this next video right here.