Video content has become a necessity for businesses. It’s how they reach new customers and engage with current ones. But producing this kind of content can be challenging. You can’t just shoot a video and upload it to YouTube. It has to be edited and captioned, and it has to be in line with your brand.
Unfortunately, the concept of closed captioning is often overlooked in today’s go-go atmosphere. This is a shame because it’s a great way to get your message across effectively.
What is Closed Captioning?
Closed captioning is a text transcription of the dialogue in a video. It’s meant to help viewers who can’t hear or understand the content—which could be for various reasons.
Closed captioning is especially important for people with disabilities and those learning a new language. It can also help multitasking viewers, such as those who cook while watching a recipe video.
Types of Captioning
Now, it’s important to note that there are two types of captioning that are often used in video production:
- Open Captioning: These captions are also known as subtitles and are permanently attached to the video as part of the file formatting. That means that the viewer cannot turn off these captions.
- Closed Captioning: These captions are not embedded into the video file. Instead, these captions are added to the video afterwards (usually in a separate file), and the viewer can turn them on and off.
Is Closed Captioning a Necessary Part of Video Production?
Yes – closed captioning is a necessity when creating and sharing video content. While there are many benefits to closed captioning, one of the most important is that it helps improve the overall user experience, especially for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as people who are learning a new language.
More importantly, thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which states that all web content must be made accessible to all users, closed captioning allows you to ensure that your video content is accessible to everyone.
5 Benefits of Closed Captioning in Video Production
The language barrier, the increasing number of people with hearing disabilities, and the need for content consistency are all reasons closed captioning is an essential part of video production. Here’s why you should consider adding this feature to your videos.
1. Improved Accessibility
Making your videos more accessible is one of the essential benefits of closed captioning. It allows you to reach a much wider audience, especially those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Being able to read captions on your videos makes it easier for them to understand the content and allows them to enjoy your videos to their fullest.
Closed captioning can also improve the user experience for people who aren’t disabled. For example, if someone is making their daily commute via train, they can still watch your video with the sound off. With closed captioning, they can, instead, read the captions and follow along with the video.
By making your videos more accessible, you are showing your audience that you care about them and want to make your content available to everyone. This helps foster a sense of community and trust, which can translate into more engagement.
2. Closed Captions Improve a Video’s Average Watch Time
Another reason to consider adding closed captions to your video content is that it can help increase your content’s average watch time.
In today’s fast-paced world, people are constantly on the move and have a lot of things to do. That means they have less time to sit down and read long-form content. Video content helps solve this problem because it is easier to digest than text content and more entertaining. However, it can be hard to focus on what you’re watching when on the go. By adding captions to your videos, you can make it easier for your audience to watch your video content while on the go and make it easier for them to follow along.
In one study by Facebook, adding closed captioning to video ads boosted the average watch time by nearly 12%. That means that users spent almost 12% more time watching the video when captions were added, increasing the chances that they would click on the ad.
3. Improve Overall User Experience
Content consumers demand that the content they access be of the best quality and be presented to them in a way that enhances their overall experience on your website or social media page.
Adding closed captions to your video content can improve the overall user experience by giving your viewers a better understanding of what is happening in your video. Not only does this make content more accessible, but it also increases the chances that your audience will engage with it and share it with others.
4. Can Help Improve Your Video’s SEO
When it comes to search engine optimization and getting your content indexed on major search engines such as Google and Bing, video content gets the short end of the stick. This is because search engine crawlers can only index text, making things such as meta information absolutely vital to getting your video content indexed.
However, adding closed captions to your video content can help improve your SEO by giving your video content a way to convey information to the search engine crawlers. This is because captions can help the crawlers better understand your video content, making it easier for them to index your video content in a way that helps your video get found by the right audience.
5. Can Help ESL Learners Better Understand Your Content
Finally, closed captioning can make your video content more accessible to viewers by helping those learning English better understand your content.
English as a second language (ESL) learners often have trouble understanding spoken language, and closed captions can help make your video content more accessible to those learning the language. This is because closed captions are written in a way that can help ESL learners better understand your spoken content, making it easier for them to follow along.
Closed Captioning Done Right With NG Production Films
When it comes to video content and closed captioning, the benefits of adding closed captions to your video content are numerous.
However, adding close captioning can seem a bit daunting if you’ve never done it before. By working with a video production company, you can ensure that your video content is captioned correctly.
Our Orlando video production company, NG Production Films, can communicate effectively and efficiently to produce high-quality video production. We have over a decade of experience in producing the next video production project for your organization. Call NG Production Films today for a free no-obligation consultation at 407-233-3236 or fill out our contact form for a prompt reply.
