Considering the sheer amount of shiny video material in every nook and cranny of the internet, however, the question has never been more obvious: Will you stand out from the ocean of static visuals or sink in this sea of mediocrity?
The dynamic approach of video marketing affects the decision-making process of your target audience because it attracts viewers visually, captivates their attention for much longer and enables you to educate them about your product/service more effectively.
That’s one of the main reasons why video provides a better and more intense customer experience for your content – and shifts the balance of power considerably in your favour.
Subtitling is a great way to make your content globally accessible
Adding subtitles is a move towards accessibility and a smart business move to boot. Subtitles help attract a wider community, increase watch time and the amount of shares your content gets as well as boost your rankings.
With proper subtitling, the metrics regarding your audience and customers can become globally scalable.
The best part is definitely the time-saving facet – you neither have to hire people to communicate the content into some foreign language nor waste precious time filming countless videos.
Instead, you can just find yourself a good LSP (language service provider) to help you with your subtitles. Afterwards, you’re all set for launching your business on a new foreign market.
How to make your content ‘come alive’
There are several methods of breathing new life into your content you can pick from. Webinars, podcasts, online courses, tutorials, product reviews and video testimonials to name a few.
Say you made a brilliant video with top-notch content. Well done, you deserve a pat on the back. But once it airs, you realise that half of your target audience can’t even speak the language you shot your material in. That is less than ideal, no?
This is where subtitles can offer you a lifeline. This relatively simple solution can greatly increase your outreach and skyrocket your numbers, as your content is now suddenly perfectly understandable and impeccably localized for every market you are trying to reach.
Why are subtitles important for your content in addition to narration or dubbing?
Subtitles are a more user-friendly option than dubbing. Have you ever wanted to check out a really amazing educational video, but you accidentally played it out loud on a dead silent bus? Or you wanted to watch an educational or motivational video during your lunch break in the office – but you didn’t have your earphones with you?
Take experiences like that into account when considering adding subtitles to your videos.
Did you know that more than 50% of video views come from mobile devices?
All the more reason to start integrating subtitles in your video content. Our mobile devices accompany us wherever we go and oftentimes we find ourselves in situations where blasting a video out loud is a no-go.
You could therefore argue that it can be seen as a nice gesture to integrate subtitles into your video content to prevent awkward moments like the ones we just mentioned.
“But I only have this video footage and nothing else…”
Have no fear. Any LSP worth its salt should be able to create subtitles from scratch, resorting to a tried and tested method of voice transcription followed by an addition of time stamps and ultimately translation. One could argue that this process is a tad more time-consuming but it still delivers great results.
Hold on a second, that’s not what I signed up for! I already have the subtitles! I just need them translated into another language. What am I to do?
Once again you are in luck. Your LSP will be more than happy to translate your already-made and time-stamped subtitles into your target language of choice. This way, the process will be even quicker as the combined powers of MT, TM and a watchful eye of professional translators will make short work out of your translation project.
Here you can see how we handle translating subtitles at Taia Translations.
Translating subtitles is a more pocket-friendly option than dubbing
When opting for dubbing, you have to carefully consider and decide what you want your voice actor to sound like. In order to strategically decide who is best-suited for your company’s videos, you need to do some additional market research to really put a finger on what your audience wants.
It completely depends on how closely you want to approach your audience, but keep in mind that additional research and voice actors will put a dent in your pocket. When opting for subtitles, on the other hand, the script only needs to be localized as per target audience.
What is fascinating is that when you read a text on your own, you read it subjectively and in accordance with your preferences. We bet that right now you’re fighting your way through this article at your own pace and tone of narration.
This adorable trait of ours has even been researched many times; here you can find the results published by Plos One.
Anyway, all that is left is to properly sync the text with your video content – and you’re done translating subtitles!
What is even better is that you can quickly alternate between the texts anytime you want – and translate them as well. See here how to determine which languages are best-suited for your company should you choose to go with translating subtitles.
translations quicker than ever before!
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