You already know that we live in times where both video and podcast play an important role in every advanced content marketing strategy.
Especially now, when generating viral content has become more important than ever and you somehow have to stand out from the ocean of static visuals.
A dynamic approach of using video affects the decision-making process because it attracts viewers visually, captivates their attention for much longer and enables you to educate your target audience 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 thus more favorable decision-making towards your offer.
How can you make your content ‘come alive’
To name just a few methods: you can choose between making webinars, podcasts, online courses, tutorials, product reviews, video testimonials and many others.
Let’s say you manage to communicate the entirety of information needed by talking or integrating a voice-over. But did you know you might be making a mistake if you don’t consider including subtitles in your video?
Why are subtitles important for your content in addition to narration or a voice-over?
Subtitles can vary from literal transcription of the spoken content to additional information, communicated through extra captions – like benefits and product features you want to highlight.
But let’s focus on subtitles here.
Subtitles can be a more user-friendly option than voice-over. 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 and captions to your videos.
Did you know that more than 50% of video views come from mobile devices?
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.
What about transcription - how can it be beneficial for your content marketing?
Did you know that one hour of webinar makes for approximately 8 pages of transcript? The same goes for podcasts.
Imagine you’ve done an amazing webinar or a video course that is rich in high-quality content. Although you have it all perfectly filmed and fine-tuned through post-production, you can think of at least two different ways of taking your video material to the next level – either by:
- subtitling or
- transcription of the content which you then publish on your blog or bite-sized on social media
This simple adaptation of your blog posts will enable your audience and community to follow your brilliant lessons at their own pace, whereas subtitles will make your content more audible and more comprehensible.
Both level-ups are definitely a huge advantage which will help you build trust and a loyal audience that appreciates your effort of adapting to them.
And we all know that a loyal community means higher revenue in the long-run.
Translation of subtitles and transcription is a great way to make your content globally accessible
There’s another massive advantage of making a transcription – if you translate it, 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 to any other foreign language nor spend extra time filming countless videos.
Instead, you can just find yourself a good LSP (language service provider) who would help you with transcription and subtitles. Afterwards, you’re all set for launching your business on a new foreign market.
What a cost-effective and exciting twist subtitles can bring to the global growth of your enterprise.
Subtitles are a more pocket-friendly option than voice-over
When choosing a voice-over you have to carefully consider and decide what you want your voice-over 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: find what nuances, tone, and accents your audience likes.
It completely depends on how closely you want to approach your audience, but keep in mind that both additional research and requirements for a voice-over actor cause you extra cost.
In the case of using subtitles, 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 getting through this article in your own tone of ‘narration’.
This adorable trait of ours has even been researched many times; here you can find the results published by Research Digest and Plos One.
Anyway, all that is left is to properly sync the text with your video content – and you’re done!
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.
How do we manage your subtitling & transcription needs?
Transcription is basically a process of transforming your video/audio content into text and providing you with the option of creating subtitles.
The extracted text is then translated and saved into a .srt file in case you need subtitles for further use. We can, however, also just translate the transcript and equip you with the material for growing your global audience.
When it comes to subtitles, the process of translating depends specifically on our customer’s requirements and needs.
The fastest and cheapest way for you is to forward us a .srt file (a file with subtitles and time marks) – which our app then processes while keeping the time marks in place.
A translator will then carefully translate the content you forwarded us and maintain the length of each subtitle. That’s why it is always advisable to send us a reference video for a better execution of translation service.
Otherwise, unneeded translation errors can appear in the final version of subtitles.
After the final proofread and check-up of the translated .srt file, your project is finished and subtitles are ready to rock in your video.
Why is it advisable to send us a reference video?
For example, we were recently working on a translation project where we only received a .srt file in English. But the target language for translation was Slovenian.
The problem was in the differences in fundamental language characteristics: when conjugating verbs, English does not take grammatical gender into account, whereas Slovene does.
Translators can then try to detect the gender from the context, but this isn’t always possible and is extremely time-consuming. So the final result can look like a Frankenstein monstrosity of a translation patched up with a combination of context-driven conclusions and intelligent guesses of the translator.
Thankfully, there is no need to go through this with proper planning. So to avoid unneeded problems, just send us the video and any extra comments to specify your exact needs.
Frequently asked questions
What is transcription and subtitling?
Transcription is the process of converting audio and/or video content into written form. Subtitling is a process of adding (translated) captions inside video formats.
Why do we need subtitles?
Seeing that more than 50% of video views come from mobile devices, adding subtitles to your video content is a must nowadays. Adding subtitles is a great way to allow users to watch your video without voice in cases when they forget their headphones and don’t want to bother others in the room, but still want to watch the video.
What is an advantage of transcription?
Imagine having a successful webinar, but you know you can present it to an even wider audience. By transcribing your webinar, your audience will be able to follow up on your content at their own pace.
If you have a video you want to have subtitled in various languages or transcribed in order to kick-start your awesome blog, don’t hesitate to contact us!
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