Successfully Localize Your Video by Following These Essential Steps
As the number of people watching videos have been continuing to surge worldwide, businesses should seize the opportunity to localize their video content. Through video localization, companies can attract new customers, generate more sales, and become recognized internationally.
Here are the five most important steps to follow to successfully localize your video for global markets.
Step 1: Define Your Goals and Strategy
The first step in video localization is to clearly outline your objectives and strategy. While this might seem obvious, it is a step that is frequently overlooked. Often, businesses might begin the localization process without having full clarity on the specific goals they are striving to achieve.
As you are developing your video localization plans, follow these guidelines:
- Define your target audience: Look at areas where you think you will get the best return on your investment. These options can include markets into which your competition has not ventured, as well as regions where some customers are starting to buy your products or notice your company.
- Research the audience’s viewing habits: Once you decide on your new market, research the viewing preferences of people in the region; that information will affect some of your decisions as you localize. For instance, do they generally click off a video after a certain number of minutes?
- Decide who you need on your localization team: Your team should include a project manager, translators, and audio-visual specialists. Seek a video localization agency that has a proven record in successful video localization projects.
- Think about the purpose of the video localization: The video’s messaging could vary depending on whether your goal is to promote your brand or sell a specific product or service.
- Study how viewers in the region typically watch videos. When conducting the localization process, it will be useful to know whether viewers are more likely to watch the video on their phones, tablets, computers, or televisions.
- Make certain that the video translation fits into your overall localization strategy: It is essential that all components of your localization plans are aligned. Along with the videos, this includes websites, marketing, software, and apps.
- Detail everything in the video that will need to be localized. Taking an inventory of every aspect of the video that will be affected by localization will ensure that nothing is overlooked.
Remember, this is the stage when decisions can easily be reversed, so make certain that enough time is spent on planning. It is better to revise your strategy now, before too much money is invested in the project.
Step 2 Translate and Localize Content
The next step of the process is to translate and localize the content in the video. This stage includes:
- Translate the written text, including all spoken dialog in the video, as well as any words that appear on the screen. To ensure that the content is correctly translated, work with a video localization company that hires native speakers of the target language.
- Localize every numerical element, including date formats, measurement units; address formats, and temperature units, since these elements are different from one language to another.
- Localize images, graphics, colors, and animations to suit the region. To make image localization more convenient, avoiding embedding text into the pictures.
- Pay attention to cultural Modify any element that has the potential to be offensive, based on the cultural expectations of the market. This includes cultural references, political aspects, and word choices.
Step 3: Address Subtitles and Captions
During video localization, there are two cost effective ways to ensure that viewers can understand the video, regardless of the target language. These options are:
- Subtitles: These are lines of translated dialog that appear on the screen while the video plays. This is one of the most efficient ways to localize videos because the subtitles can be added to the video right after the translation. In addition, they are cost effective because they are easy to edit and do not require too many additional steps, such as editing a voice track or re-recording content. Overall, viewers like having subtitles as part of the videos; as such, subtitles have grown in popularity during the past few years.
- Captions: These were initially created for people who have hearing difficulties, so they could understand the dialog, as well as the other elements of sound in the videos. However, captions have become a means for any viewer to watch videos with the volume turned off, as well as to gain some additional context about the videos.
Because both options involve written text, the translation process is straightforward and can be efficiently accomplished by automatic voice recognition, machine translation, and human translators.
Step 4: Work with Dubbing and Voiceovers
Dubbing and voiceovers are techniques for relaying information in the video to the audience. While dubbing tends to be more precise by following the tone and emotion of the original voice track, voiceovers are narrations that complement the video.
Here is a brief look at each option:
- Dubbing: This process involves a complex technique of recording new audio content, then replacing it with the original audio material. To be effective, dubbing requires precise syncing. The process of dubbing is more expensive than subtitling because of the additional work involved. However, it is a good option for viewers who are distracted by reading subtitles.
- Voiceovers: Creating voiceovers is the process of adding a voice audio track that is separate from the dialog. It is well suited for aspects of the video that do not have much conversation and instead feature imagery. If the video already has voiceover content in the source language, then it will not be too difficult to exchange one language track for another.
Step 5: Focus on Editing and Testing
Once all the adapted content has been produced and added to the video, then the editing process will need to begin. By working with a video translation agency, you can ensure that all components have been addressed correctly.
This final step includes the following components:
- Reviewing the video for any translation or synchronization errors: This requires a thorough viewing to look for any last-minute mistakes or issues that need to be addressed. A video editor should assess the technical aspects, and a translator should review the content.
- Checking for cultural errors/meaning changes: Because cultural errors will have a huge impact on your video, this is a critical step. Make sure that a professional localization company takes a thorough look at each aspect of the material to ensure that everything is culturally acceptable for the region.
- Testing the video: If the video includes any interactive elements, they need to be tested to make sure they work correctly.
- Finalizing search engine optimization (SEO): Ensure that your video can be easily discovered by making certain you have strategically placed keywords in subtitles, transcripts, and descriptions.
Localizing your video for new markets means reaching a wider audience with your content and products, making it an essential part of your global strategy. To ensure that the video meets all your requirements and effectively resonates with viewers, partner with a video localization agency.
Summary
With videos continuing to attract tremendous numbers of viewers, video localization provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to reach international customers. Read our guide to discover the five vital steps to follow to successfully localize your videos for your new market.
