Bottom line…videos rule the world. The proof? YouTube is the world’s #2 search engine.

Too bad so many YouTube marketing videos suck.

 
 
Video Storytelling LobotomyThe Problem: Like any storytelling medium that becomes obsessively popular, everyone jumps on board slinging an ever increasingly array of lobotomized drooling storytelling videos at your target market. The result…distraction from you, your product and ultimately spending any kind of money with you.

It’s always amazing to me how the ways in which we can tell our stories are erupting, and with each new medium we become soooo lobotomized by the hype and frenzy to get on board that we forget the simple, unchanging rules of storytelling.

So, using the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest as my muse, I will be your Nurse Ratched. And I say to you as she stated to McMurphy (I will take the creative liberty to become Nurse Ratched and you will be the fabulous McMurphy played by Jack Nicholson):

Nurse: “If Mr. McMurphy doesn’t want to take his storytelling advice orally, I’m sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way. But I don’t think that he would like it.”

[McMurphy turns around to see Harding smiling at him]

McMurphy: “Heh, YOU’D like it, wouldn’t you?”

[to Harding, regarding the pills]

McMurphy: “Here, give it to me.”

So, here is the point. If you don’t remember the basics of storytelling and the power therein, you will become just another member of the drones of lobotomized storytelling drools on YouTube.

So…take your medicine.

Ready!

This won’t hurt a bit 🙂

 2 Pills for Effective Video Storytelling

Pill #1: Lobotomized Videos Have No Emotion.

So GET EMOTIONAL!

Most important point of this little rule: PEOPLE, WHO ARE EMOTIONAL, TAKE ACTION!!!!

Your video will be remarkable (thank you Seth Godin) when you connect with your target viewer on an emotional level. Then, and only then, will they comment, share and take action. (Kind of an important point.)

Continually, I see marketers and small businesses fail because they don’t understand their target audience. When that happens, you want to talk about how many nuts and bolts were used to build the machine and not how the machine will change the life of the viewer. This absolute silliness happens because they don’t know who their audience really is, what keeps them up at night and what will make them wait in line during a November rain storm, wearing nothing but their BVDs and holding a cup of warm coffee at 5 am.

Neil Patel understands this about successful blogging and SEO!

People who aren’t emotional about product or service won’t wait in line in the rain, let alone in their BVDs.

Pill # 2: Lobotomized Marketing Videos Have NO Clarity.

Clarity Rules!

Every story has an end, and in the world of video marketing storytelling, that end must end with a clear and simple call to action.

yellow brick roadEvery word in your video script must be leading your viewer down a very simple road. No forks, no speed bumps. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy didn’t have a choice to follow the red brick road or the yellow brick road. The only option she had was the yellow brick road…and that road led directly to the Wizard! The Wizard was the answer to Dorothy’s highly emotional need to get back home. So, Dorothy endured flying monkeys and overcame the Wicked Witch of the West to reach the Wizard and finally reach her emotional need to get back to Kansas.

Does your story lead towards a single call to action down a very clear path? Do you know where your Dorothy wants to go?

Here are three ways to ensure your video has a clear path and call to action:

1. Pick one path. Dorothy followed a “yellow” brick road. When script revisions and edits pass through the never ending opinions of multiple stakeholders, you are on the road to a drooling video where multiple messages are trying to be communicated. This can’t happen. A confused viewer is an inactive viewer who ultimately asks, “Why am I standing in the rain in my BVDs? I’m out of here!” As fast as Toto disappeared into the turbulent sky with the flying monkeys…”Click” and they are gone.

2. Be the Wizard. Make sure you are seen as the such by the end of the video.

3. Know your Dorothy’s Kansas.

So, my friends. There are your two pills. Take them with a spoonful of sugar if needed.

But, don’t ignore them.

Because as Nurse Ratched stated, “I’m sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way. But I don’t think that he would like it.”

“It,” quite frankly, in our story is lost money and even the very real possibility of going out of business.

Even at that point, your lobotomized mind will be incapable of understanding how you got to this point…staring…drooling…without a story to tell.

 

What’s your opinion? Why do so many marketers and small business leaders have such a hard time telling a compelling story about their products and services?

 

P.S. If you want to make sure you have a video that hits all the marks, give us a call! Whiteboard videos get a 10X result in views and social shares over their competitors! There is no more powerful storytelling medium than a whiteboard video. Results speak for themselves.