Make a guide video

Most videos sell something. A guide teaches instead: it says what the viewer will learn, takes one scene per step, and ends on a recap, with no offer or price unless the brief has one. Say what it teaches and the script works out the steps, or give the steps yourself and it keeps to them, in your order.

#Write its brief

1. 1

   Choose Guide under What kind of video?

   The first step of a new video. Campaign packs are always videos that promote.

2. 2

   Say what it teaches and who it's for

   "How to pay for your order with M-Pesa", "customers ordering for the first time".

3. 3

   Optional: write the steps in order, one a line

   Leave them empty and the script works out the steps from what it teaches. To set them yourself, write each as an instruction, such as "Choose Lipa na M-Pesa"; each becomes a scene. The form says how many fit the length you picked.

   Short steps read best on screen. A step's scene shows at most 40 characters, so a longer step is shortened there.
4. 4

   Optional: what they need first, and where to get help

   What they need first is said once, before the steps. Where to get help, such as a phone or WhatsApp number, is said at the end.

5. 5

   Optional: a direction for the script

   How you want it written, in your own words, such as "phrase each step as a prompt people can use directly". It changes the wording, never the facts, the length or how much fits on a scene.

   Anything the script may say as true, such as a price or a number, belongs in the facts, not the direction.
6. 6

   Add a picture for any step that has one

   A screenshot of the screen the step is about helps most. It's shown whole, never cropped, so the button it's about stays in view.

   About images

#Check the steps

When the script works out the steps, read each one in the studio before you generate: a wrong instruction is worse than a missing one. It never makes up a detail only the business knows, such as a Pay Bill number, a web address or a price; it writes the step without it ("Enter the business number"), so add the detail to the brief's facts or edit the step.

#How it looks

Each step is numbered from its place in the script, so moving a step in the studio renumbers them all. A rail across the top shows every step and ticks each one off as it's done, and the pointer does each step as the narrator says it.

Guides are drawn in the Launch look for now, and more looks will follow. If the brand kit uses another look, the guide starts in Launch, in the kit's colours, and the form says so.