September 22, 2020
Over the past several decades as video has taken the marketing industry by storm, we’ve seen trends of all magnitudes start to take hold on how video is produced, where it’s displayed, and all the different ways companies can utilize it. One of the fastest growing trends we’ve seen in recent years is the undeniable need for quality closed captions for any video you plan to make available to consumers.
The major media powerhouses like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube have been heavily suggesting closed captioning for decades but have now made it an absolute requirement for any video submitted to their platforms. Not just any closed captions, either. We’re talking high-quality, accurate, on-point captions. Bad captions, or a lack of them, is your guaranteed ticket to a denial.
But outside of the major video platforms, the need for strong captions has found its way into all aspects of the video industry. Social media, websites, commercials, advertisements, you name it. It’s no longer just a best practice, it’s a must.
It goes without saying, but providing closed captioning for your video just makes it more accessible to everyone. It allows the deaf community to still be entertained and engaged by your content. It can help individuals who struggle to maintain attention stay focused on your video for longer periods of time. And, quite frankly, it can just help viewers more easily follow the message and dialogue. A study conducted by Ofcom determined that 80% of individuals polled who use closed captioning were not members of the deaf community, which means that an overwhelming number of consumers are finding captions useful.
In a world where we carry around one of the most powerful forms of technology in our pocket, it’s no surprise that consumers are going to come across your video in a myriad of environments. So when they’re sitting in a quiet waiting room and come across your content, captions give you a way to still grab their attention, hold it, and engage them without ever having to turn up the sound.
Ah, yes, SEO. The marketing standard. The white whale. Search engines that are combing through your website can’t look for keywords in the audio track of your video- but they can find it in your captions. Which means that instead of only having SEO keywords baked into your website’s text content, you can incorporate all the SEO terms you need into your company’s video stylishly and seamlessly. The text can be easily located by all search engines and can help catapult your site to the top of your target audience’s searches.
Now, it’s also completely understandable that most companies don’t have the time or resources to go about creating their own closed captions for every video they create. They aren’t alone. While there are some great software programs that allow the everyday, relatively tech-savvy individual to create their own captions, there are some top-notch companies that specialize in quick, accurate, and, most importantly, user-friendly captions. Our favorite? Rev.com.
If you’re working with a professional production company to develop your video, make sure you mention wanting a flawless set of captions to accompany it. You’ll be glad you did!
