When making an (animated) video, you can also choose to have it subtitled. But why would you do that? That is a good question. In this article we give you 4 reasons why you should.
Deaf and hearing-impaired
The most obvious reason is to reach the deaf and hearing-impaired. Did you know that there are approximately 1.5 million deaf and hearing-impaired people in the Netherlands? source Although the majority of these people are 65+, there is also a larger group of young people who are hearing impaired or deaf.
Engagement
Even people with good hearing appreciate subtitles. Some people simply don’t speak the language. But many people understand and remember things better when they read them. 80% of viewers watch a video with subtitles for a longer amount of time than a video without subtitles. 8% of viewers remember the video better if it has subtitles. And the call-to-action is 26% more effective in the case of a video with subtitles. source
SEO
If you have a website, you are undoubtedly familiar with SEO, or search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation is in fact everything that you do to be shown as high as possible in the search results of search engines. A search engine, such as Google, constantly reads your website and subsequently places it in a certain ranking in search results. With video, this is slightly more difficult. Search engines are not (yet) very good at reading videos. But you can help them with that. How? By - you guessed it - providing your video with subtitles. Search engines like Google can read subtitled files. That way your video will be easier to find.
No sound
Videos are often played without sound. You see it a lot on social media. Videos start playing, but the sound is muted until the viewer switches it on. But in practice, viewers do not always do this. That is why it is handy to have subtitles. This reduces the chance that people scroll on without knowing what your video is about.
Subtitles can also be useful for offline use. It can happen, for example, that the speakers don't work during an important presentation. In that case it is handy to be able to fall back on subtitles.
Increase your opportunities
Bottom line: we recommend that you always have a version of your video made with subtitles. It's a small effort and it can save you more than you think!