Remember back to high school English class, when you learned about the elements of a story; there’s an introduction, dispute, climax, and resolution. If you exclude any one of these crucial parts, you’re left with a collection of sentences that have been smashed together for no apparent purpose.

Not only should you tell a coherent story (and this will necessitate some pre-planning, creating, and editing), but you should make certain it goes somewhere. A pleasant, tidy ending is great, but building suspense is better. Are you going to produce another video to carry on the story? If so, why should your viewers be motivated to see it?

How you can do it

You thought this would be all visuals? You’re going to need to write. If you don’t organize your story, it won’t unfold out of the ether. Create a strategy for your video subject matter, and see beyond video number one.

Instead of one explainer video, is your offering suited to a series of tutorial videos? Can you help people create something with your product? Break that “something” into components, and create a series of quick videos. You can even record the whole series in one go, and use a simple editing tool to split the footage out into realistic sections. Keeping your audience awaiting more (as long as it’s great content) is an effective way to stay top-of-mind.

If you’re more of a storyteller, you can keep a video series looking cohesive (and cut down on your workload) by recycling clips. Help remind your customers of the product advantages you explored last time, and improve the story you’ve already told. Just be sure to save your edited video somewhere secure– the cloud is your best bet– so you don’t have to repeat all your effort every time you produce a new video.

Even if your chronicle doesn’t end at the end of the video, that chapter does. There ought to be a call-to-action at the end of every video, even if you set an expectation that an additional video will follow.