Are you:

• spending time and money on making spiffy videos for your business
• posting the videos on Facebook, YouTube and other social media
• checking your statistics every few days
• discovering that your organic reach is low
• noticing that the average time people actually watch your videos is just miserably low.

You know your content is good and it’s useful but you’re baffled and disappointed by the low reach. As a content creator myself, I know that feeling.

Whatever platform you use to publish videos online, statistics show that videos with captions perform better than non-captioned video content.

There are 3 key reasons you must add captions on video content

1. Reaching people with hearing loss

According to the World Health Organisation, about 5% of the world’s population has a disabling hearing loss. Closed captioning and transcripts have been available on a commercial level for a long time now, however for smaller content creators, those facilities were out of reach for many reasons.

Big content publishing platforms recognised that lack and have created facilities where the average person can now create captions on video content. You can also hire someone to add captions to video content for you, or you can use the inbuilt caption features on YouTube and Facebook.

It’s now easier than ever to reach a wider audience with captioned videos.

2. Engaging people in locations not suited for video noise

Next time you use public transport, have a look around and take note of all the people who are watching videos on their portable devices. Having captions on video content will allow all those people to be able to watch your videos whenever and wherever.

Let’s face it, people frequently turn to their portable devices for entertainment on their trips to and from the office nowadays.

Putting captions on video content will mean that more people are able to watch your content even in:

• a noisy environment such as a train full of people,
• the public library where silence is a must, or
• their work station where they should not disturb their colleagues.

3. Assisting with comprehension

This is especially important if you create education and informational content. It has been shown that having captions on video content increases comprehension of the topic being discussed.

Learning styles differ from person to person. Some learn well just from hearing but some learn even better when they can listen and read; which is where video captions come in.

Just by adding captions to video content, think of the new audience you will be able to reach.

Your message could now get in front of people whom English is not their first language. Video captions don’t carry the accent, just the language, making it even easier to share your message through video content.

Anything that makes content more accessible to your audience will be well received. Spending time or money on getting captions on video content is well worth it. The ROI will be delivered in extending your reach and brand visibility.

Transcribing your videos is also a great way to reach a wider audience. Transcribing videos is beneficial in many more ways than the captioning I write about above. That’s all for another article though…

If you would like to learn more about how creating more accessible video content can grow your audience reach and brand visibility, book a virtual coffee (or tea) with me right here. I can also help with creating captions on video content. Ask me about the service here.

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