Videos make for great marketing content, especially on social media. Social media users tend to interact more with posts containing videos than other types of content. However, your videos also need to be as engaging and captivating as possible for your campaigns to work, and one of the ways to do that is to add subtitles to them.
Adding subtitles to your marketing videos will not only help you reach more audiences but will also add value to your content.
Below are five of the most important reasons why you should subtitle your videos. But first, what exactly is a subtitle, and is it different from closed captions (CC)?
Difference Between Subtitles and Closed Captions
To put it simply, closed captions are intended for people who are hard of hearing, and subtitles are intended for those who may have trouble understanding the language being spoken in the video. They can be direct translations or they can be subtitles of the same language. Captions include more than just the dialogues—they can include descriptions of other sounds like background noises.
English subtitles, for example, can help those who do not speak the language very well. But these subtitles don’t need to include descriptions of other sounds because the viewers can still hear them.
5 Reasons Why You Should Add Subtitles to Your Marketing Videos
So, apart from making the dialogues more understandable for your audience, what are other important reasons why you should add subtitles to your marketing videos?
1. Some People Retain Text Better Than Audio
Some people prefer to read along with videos because they retain the information better than when just listening to what’s being said. Even native English speakers tend to do turn on subtitles when watching movies or video clips. Imagine the impact that your marketing videos will make if more people understood what you’re trying to convey.
2. Majority of Videos on Social Media Are Watched on Mute
A lot of people don’t like it when videos auto-play sounds on social media. In fact, you may have turned off the “auto-play audio” feature on Facebook yourself. Feedback from users suggests that this causes anxiety and sometimes, it’s just not pleasant to hear sudden sounds when you open apps. So much so that Instagram has now made it the default to not play audio automatically.
Adding subtitles to your videos on social media will ensure that your audience still gets your video’s message.
3. They Allow People to Still Watch Your Videos When They Can’t Play Sounds
There can be many instances when people can’t or choose not to play audio. One, they may be in a public place and may not have a headset handy. Two, their device’s audio may be malfunctioning. And a lot more possibilities—from being around people who are sleeping or resting to being in a noisy location. Having the option to read subtitles will encourage your audience to still play your video even with the sound off.
4. Subtitles Make Your Videos More Accessible
We’ve already mentioned above that subtitles help those who may not speak the language being spoken in the video very well. And even though they work differently than closed captions, subtitles will still be of huge help to those with hearing problems.
5. They Will Improve Your Videos’ SEO
Finally, it will greatly help your marketing campaigns if your videos are optimized for search engines. Subtitles improve your search rankings. If you have marketing videos on your website, people will be able to find them easier if they are subtitled. Google considers subtitles when indexing video content.
How to Add Subtitles to Your Videos
So, what’s an easy way to add subtitles to your marketing videos? What if you can’t hire a professional to do it? Fortunately, there is a free and incredibly easy-to-use app that lets you do this. VEED is an online video editing software that allows you to add texts, subtitles, and do so much more with your videos.
Here’s how you can do it in a few simple steps.
1. Upload your video to VEED
From VEED’s Subtitle Tool, click on ‘Choose File’ and either drag and drop your video on the next page or select your file from your folders.
2. Choose from three options:
- Autogenerate subtitles
Simply click on ‘Auto Transcribe’ after uploading your video. On the next page, select the language you want the subtitles to be written in and hit the ‘Add Subtitles’ button. Wait a few seconds or minutes, depending on the length of your video, and watch the app automatically generate the subtitles for you!
- Manually type your subtitles
Click on ‘Manual Subtitles’ and once again, select the language that you want, then click ‘Add Subtitles’. You will be able to type on the text box provided. To place the subtitles on the appropriate timestamp, you can either enter the time under the text field or drag and drop the subtitle layer on the editing pane.
- Upload a subtitle file
If you have a subtitle file for your video, you can simply add it by clicking on ‘Upload Subtitle File’. VEED supports the following file types: SRT, VTT, ASS, SSA, and TXT. Click on ‘Import Subtitles’ and select the file from your folders.
- Export your video
You’re done! Click on ‘Export’ and your new subtitled video will be downloaded to your device.
There’s no easier way to add subtitles to your marketing videos. Try it today and make your videos stand out!
