Video content marketing is one of today’s most popular content marketing trends. But what happens when you have created your video in a specific language and want to reach other foreign markets with it? Then the answer is video localization. Keep reading this article and find out why and how to localize your video content, to successfully reach your international audience.
So given that multimedia content is a powerful tool to raise your online profile and showcase your brand, when you choose to localize it, you go for an even greater reach, targeting the largest possible audience.
Approximately 80% of the world population is not proficient in English and being able to access information in their native language is sometimes more important that cost when deciding on a purchase. So, localizing your video and adapting it to the local language and culture, better caters for your international customers, increasing accessibility and creating more personalized and immersive experiences.
Start by defining your targeted market and understanding your audience. Analyze their features and particularities. See where there is traction and where do people engage with your services and products. This will help you recognize where the biggest opportunities lie.
Continue by mapping out your content, to decide where to start and how far to go. Will you localize your entire content or focus on what you think will gain more ground? Which languages will you go for and with which languages are you going to start. This process will help you decide on a localization strategy that will help you go global and give you return on investment.
Then, most importantly, pick the right method to localize your video. There are different ways of doing so, so you must understand your options, what purposes they serve and if they match your viewers preferences. Here are the main tools and services offered:
With subtitling you add text to your media to convey the spoken message. Subtitles work well in social media platforms when people often want to view videos muted, for example when being in public places. They are also the quickest and less expensive way of providing content into different languages and can be distinguished into two main types:
For more information on closed captions and subtitles, read our article Closed Captions vs Subtitles: What’s the Difference?
Here are the steps of a typical subtitle localization workflow:
Voice-over or off-camera commentary is the process of translating narrative scripts and then having them recorded by voice actors.
It is used in animation films, video games, documentaries and other types of media and works well for videos not focusing on talking heads and dialogues. Voice-over aims to convey the message or speech to a new audience, focusing on the essence of the audio information, without having it translated word-for-word.
It can be done in different ways. In UN-style voice-over, the original voice is kept at a low volume and the voice actor’s is recorded on top, whereas in narration, the translated recording completely replaces the original voice. In dubbing the translated narration is lip-synced with the on-screen actors, and here the word choice during script translation is critical.
Here are the steps of a typical voice-over localization workflow:
For more information on video dubbing and subtitling, read our article Differences between video dubbing and subtitling.
The video localization method to choose depends on many parameters: your target audience, your type of content, the budget etc. Our friendly team of video localization project managers can navigate you through the whole process and make sure you choose the optimal method for your business. Contact us now!
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