5 Benefits of Captions and Transcriptions in Video Marketing

Video marketing is a powerful way to communicate your message and connect with potential customers. The problem is, not everyone watches videos–only 55% of the population are visual learners. This means that for different reasons 45% of people may not watch your videos if you don’t offer the content in text. Sometimes because they can’t understand what you’re saying without captions or transcriptions, sometimes because they can’t hear it, and sometimes because they prefer to read. 

Captions allow deaf, hard-of-hearing, or non-native English speakers to watch your video content as if it were in their native language. Transcriptions also provide context for those who don’t want to watch the entire video by providing an overview of the most important points covered. Captions and transcripts let more people enjoy your content–even when they skim over it quickly on social media.

Related reading: 8 Way To Make Your Video Marketing More Engaging and Human

In this article, we’ll have a look at the 5 most important benefits of using captions and transcriptions in your video marketing. But first, let’s have a look at what the different terms actually mean. 

What are Captions in Video Marketing?

Video captions are the text that appears at the bottom of your video. Video captions can be displayed in multiple languages, which means you could have different translations for your customers who speak other languages. There are different types od captions; burned-in captions, open captions, and closed captions. 

What are Transcriptions in Video Marketing? 

Video Transcriptions are the text representation of any spoken word or sound within a video. If you look at videos on Youtube, for example, often you will see the content of the video in written format under the video. That’s a video transcription. A computer usually generates video transcriptions, but they can also be created by hand when preferred.

What’s the Difference Between Burned-In Captions, Open Captions, and Closed Captions?

​​What are burned-in captions?

Burned-in captions refer to captions that are rendered into the picture of the original video asset. The term burned-in captions refer to closed captioning data being burned directly into the video track of a videotape or disk. This was initially done because it wasn’t possible to include closed captioning information on all tapes or disks right after they were released.   

​​What are open captions?

Open Captions are regular subtitles that have been colorized, so they stand out against their background. Open captions are very helpful for those who are deaf or hard of hearing as they are automatically included. The flip side of the coin is that they can’t be turned off, even if you’d want to. 

Closed captions

Closed captions need to be turned on and are not automatically visible. This is both a benefit and disadvantage. If the viewer doesn’t understand how to turn them on, they will miss out on the content. But the advantage is that the viewer can choose. 

Captions vs. Subtitles – What’s The Difference?

While subtitles only translate the dialogue into writing, captions take it further to provide a fuller experience. Captions are not only a supplement for dialogue but also describe other relevant parts of the soundtrack. This can include describing background noises, phones ringing, and other audio cues that need describing if you canät hear them.

5 Benefits of Using Captions and Transcriptions in Video Marketing

Transcriptions Are Great For SEO

Transcribing your videos and turning them into written content can make miracles for your SEO work. The reason for this is that audio and video content is not something that search engines can crawl, which means a lot of valuable content is “hidden” in your video – from a search engine’s perspective. By transcribing your video marketing content, you make it available for the search engines to rank it and so potential buyers can find it. 

Related reading: Best Practices for Video SEO

Captions Increase Viewer Retention

If you’re looking to improve the views on your videos, captions are very helpful. Adding captions can increase how long viewers watch your video by 12%. That’s a significant number considering that an average YouTube video is 4 minutes. However, adding captions isn’t enough. They must be accurate and well-timed for them to work correctly. 

Captions and Transcriptions Increase Accessibility 

A video that has video transcriptions on YouTube will have this symbol next to it. This means that the video has its content transcribed for those who cannot hear or do not want to listen to the video’s audio track.  

Transcriptions and Captions Make Sure People Get Your Message

Most videos include some form of audio content such as music or dialog between characters, which may be challenging to comprehend if you cannot hear it well. For example, someone with a hearing impairment might miss what actors say without captions. Someone who has English as a second language might also benefit from captioning, as will all the people who prefer to watch videos with no sound on. 

You Can Repurpose Your Videos with Transcriptions to Maximize ROI

Repurposing is a great way to maximize your video marketing content. Video transcriptions can help you repurpose your video marketing content for blog posts and other channels to get more mileage out of the work you’ve already done when creating the initial video.

Key Takeaways

Captions and transcripts are a great way to reach your audience in different ways. They can be translated for people who speak other languages. They provide an opportunity for users to search the content by keywords and attract viewers who prefer not to watch videos. Captions and transcripts also allow you to put your video on social media channels that don’t support video playback. The best part about captions is that it’s as easy as clicking a button if someone wants them turned off.

Covalent is a creative video marketing agency specializing in unique, authentic videos that helpB2C and B2B brands stand out and get noticed. Get in touch to explore how we can help your brand come alive with video marketing!