7 Reasons You Should Get Your Videos Transcribed and Captioned

The modern age has brought tremendous changes to the entertainment industry and businesses in all niches. Today, you can shoot a video in a small, remote town and have your content reach thousands of people worldwide in a matter of minutes! But did you know that you can gain even more traction by adding text to your audio and videos?

This article highlights seven practical reasons to get your videos transcribed and captioned. 

Understanding Transcription and Captioning

“Should I transcribe my videos?” Many creators have asked themselves this question after realizing that modern competitor brands are reaping the benefits of transcribing and captioning their content.

Today, transcripts and captions go hand-in-hand. Transcribing refers to converting speech or audio into text, otherwise called transcripts, and presenting the information verbatim or edited. Captioning entails splitting the transcripts into time-coded chunks called caption frames and synchronizing the words with the audio.

Why You Should Get Your Videos Transcribed and Captioned

Many consumers can attest to the perks of watching a video or listening to audio content with transcripts and captions. The section below will help you understand how your business can also benefit.

Improve Accessibility

Providing a written record of your content gives everyone a chance to engage with your brand. Captions allow an audience that is deaf or hard-of-hearing to easily follow your videos, while podcast transcripts, for instance, will attract more people to your course.

Did you know there are approximately 460 million people and more worldwide with hearing impairment? That’s a considerable number of viewers and potential clients that your business may lose if you don’t integrate transcription and captioning.

Another reason to embrace transcription and captioning is to comply with the FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) strict regulations. The mentioned body requires any content (live or recorded) broadcasted on television to contain closed captions to cater to people with hearing impairment. While these restrictions may not presently apply to your business, the benefits of adopting these tools will prove worthwhile in the end.

Better Comprehension

The surprising thing about captions is they are used by people with hearing disabilities and also those without any impairment. And since videos with captions typically have a long viewing time, it’s best to captivate your audience from the onset. Doing this increases the chance of people watching the entire video and helps you spread your message clearly.

Research reveals that students are also heavy consumers of transcribed content and captions. Why? Because these interactive tools are beneficial to their overall performance in several areas, including comprehension, long-term memory, and application of acquired information outside the classroom.

Boost SEO and More Traffic to Your Website

Did you know videos with captions can have much more views than untranscribed ones? Thanks to your transcripts, people can quickly find your videos on search engines (Google, YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, Yahoo).

Typically, professional transcriptionists provide transcripts at the end of each captioning process. You can either use these files as they are or quickly convert the captions into independent transcripts and include them when uploading your content.

Although search engines can’t index videos, they can do so with transcripts. This means that providing captions and transcripts will allow your brand to rank higher, resulting in more views and exposure. You can optimize the text further by using keywords to reach a wider audience.

Additionally, the transcripts allow you to repurpose your content into other forms like email marketing, social media posts, and blogging.

Flexible Viewing in Sound-Sensitive Environments

There are several places where turning on the sound on your smartphone or tablet may be considered distractive or offensive to others, e.g., public transit, religious institutions, and libraries.

Consider a situation where you’re catching up on the latest episode of your favorite sitcom in a noisy bus but don’t have earphones. Or maybe you’re at the school library working on an assignment that requires you to watch videos. What do you do?

It might be better to mute the video and read the captions in such situations. By enabling captions, you can follow the content with minimum trouble. And if the content is engaging, the background noise won’t seem to exist anymore.

Enhanced Video Search and User Experience

A vast population of Facebook users watches videos without sound. This can be attributed to numerous reasons, including the viewer’s location, time, and preference. 

Transcribing and captioning will make videos appear on the search engine more often and help users search for specific information in your videos on your own website. By using archive search, people can scan for a particular word or keywords through the video library and find what they need instantaneously.

Consider someone who’s on a tight schedule and in need of vital information for their task. This person will likely skim through the video to get what they want. Thanks to captions, the user can fast-track the video without the risk of missing vital information. The same applies to viewers who prefer to watch videos slowly to absorb the content at their pace. 

Easier Creation of Derivative Content

Wondering why you’re not getting as many leads as you thought you would despite creating great content? It’s probably because you haven’t diversified your opportunity channels.

Consider a person who posts their uncaptioned videos only on YouTube. After a while, they may find it challenging to produce more engaging content. However, by captioning and transcribing these videos, they can repurpose the content and use it in various ways.

An excellent way to do this is to divide the transcripts into comprehensible, topical chunks. Once done, they can create shorter or heavily-detailed videos on specific subjects. They can also use the transcripts to produce content for other digital avenues like blog posts, social media posts, email marketing, e-books, and infographics.

Additionally, the captions can be quoted in the works of various writers, researchers, and bloggers, thus allowing you to reach a global audience.

Convenient Translation into Foreign Languages

There’s no better way to spread your message worldwide than translating it into numerous languages. This then explains why young digital business owners who have incorporated captions and transcripts to their content can reach wider audiences than some companies which have been around for ages.

Many people who aren’t, for example, native English speakers, will enable captions to understand the content better. Research reveals that by doing this, viewers can learn to speak and write the target language more easily.

Moreover, even native speakers can prefer watching captioned videos as it helps them stay focused on the order of events. For example, many students today learn better while watching lecture videos with captions on them because visual learning enhances the memorization of the subject.