With the growing popularity of apps like YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok, video media has become an important way to connect with your audience. Whether you’re marketing your new product, building your brand, educating your audience, or just providing entertainment, videos offer an unrivaled way to make your brand stand out. But, according to a 2020 Statista report, only around a quarter of all internet users speak English. That means you could be significantly limiting the reach of your online video content if it’s monolingual!
Fortunately, Babel Translation’s team of engineers and experts provide YouTube video translation as one of our multimedia services. Read on to see what’s involved in online video translation and how this service can boost the performance of your web content.
Common Video Localization Services
There are many different ways to localize your video into other languages. Which method you choose depends on the content and your goals. Here are the most common services and their use cases.
• Foreign language subtitling: Subtitling puts a translation of the spoken text at the bottom of the screen — you simply transcribe the original audio (or use your existing English subtitles) and translate it into the target language. YouTube video subtitling is commonly used for interviews, films, or documentaries.
• Foreign language voiceover: Voiceover lets you change the language of the audio. If the speaker appears on screen, you might use dubbing (where the translation is lip-synced) or UN voiceover (where the original language can still be heard beneath the translated voiceover). In videos where a narrator speaks off-screen, you can simply translate the script and have a new voice actor read the part in sync with the video.
• On-screen content translation: This involves the replacement of text that appears in the video, such as slides in a slideshow, labels on a diagram, or boxes that identify the name of a speaker. This method may be used in combination with subtitling or voiceover.
The Benefits of Video Localization
Speaking the language of your target market helps you reach new customers. Here are some of the benefits of providing YouTube video translation and other kinds of localization.
• You can reach non-native English speakers. Going the extra mile to connect with your viewers makes your content more relevant and accessible.
• Providing translated content will help your search rankings. Use in-language keywords and descriptions to benefit SEO.
• You can open up new markets where English is a less common language. This is useful if you want to expand your reach into new countries or regions.
• Offering a single video in multiple languages, using YouTube voiceover or translation, makes it more shareable and easier for international viewers to engage with. It also shows them that you care about reaching them!
Translated videos are also scalable and can offer a great ROI. For example, creating a product demonstration video in both English and Chinese won’t cost twice as much as creating it in English only — but it could double your video’s reach. You can often use the same video footage and simply translate the script and record new voiceover (or add subtitles) for additional languages.
How the Video Localization Process Works
If you put a lot of time and effort — not to mention money — into making your videos, you want to end up with a polished final product. That’s why it’s important to work with video translation professionals when it comes time to create multilingual versions.
Babel Translation works with a network of professional video translation linguists in over 100 languages, allowing you to build your YouTube following in Bolivia, Belgium, Brazil, or Bangladesh — wherever you want!
Here’s how it works:
• You send us the native video files (for example, from iMovie or Adobe Premiere) and tell us which service you need.
• We prepare the voiceover script, on-screen text, or subtitle track for translation and send it to one of our professional linguists.
• For foreign language voiceover, we send the script to a voice actor to record the audio.
• We insert the translations or new audio into your video files to create a localized version.
• You can use the translated version just like your original version — upload it to YouTube, feature it on your website, or share it with your clients.
Ready to get started? Contact our team for a quote and we’ll be happy to answer any of your questions!