Creating video content means being on the constant lookout for new YouTube video ideas. Sure, you can always keep on creating brand-new content, but that can prove to be difficult to maintain in the long run.
Instead, using a video translator can be a cost-effective way to remove language barriers and attract an entirely new audience.
How Do You Translate Your Videos?
The simplest way to localize your videos is to use the tools offered by YouTube. Log into YouTube Studio, and select Subtitles from the left menu. You will then pick the video you want to translate, language you want to translate to, and confirm your selection. Next, enter the translated title and description, then publish.
Even though this process is fairly easy, the quality of subtitle translations can vary and numerous inaccuracies can be a turn off for viewers. Ultimately, this could prove to be counter-productive.
You can hire professionals to dub your videos, but it is typically a costly and time consuming process that may not be cost-effective to all video content teams.
A more affordable option would be to get a video translator app that can subtitle your videos in a more professional and accurate manner than the tools offered by YouTube.
How Do You Use Subly as Your Video Translator?
There are many video translator options available but few are as reliable, quick and user-friendly as Subly, which offers translation to astounding 73 languages (and counting) in mere minutes.
The great thing about using Subly as your video translator is that Subly makes it extremely simple to make your content accessible to a global audience by speaking their language.
The process of translating your videos with Subly consists of 4 steps:
- Drag and drop or upload your video from your device, or simply paste a YouTube link
- Clicking on the video will take you to the editor where you can add automatic subtitles, or alternatively upload an SRT file with already existing subtitles, or type them in manually; you might need to make some changes and corrections to automatic subtitles but you can easily do that in seconds
- On the left hand side of the screen, pick translation option, then select language(s) and create translation; you can translate your subtitles to multiple languages at once and save hours of time
- Once the translation is done, click the blue button on the top right and choose to download your translated subtitles as an SRT, VTT, or TXT file to your device; you can also download your video with or without subtitles in an aspect ratio of your choosing
That’s it. Now that your video is translated to as many languages as you choose, you can reach out to more potential viewers than ever before.
Why Use a Video Translator?
Though it may seem like the whole world speaks English, there are actually more Mandarin Chinese and Spanish speakers in the world.
Only around 5% of the world’s population speaks English as their first language. In comparison, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by approximately 12% of the world’s population and Spanish by 6%.
Furthermore, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese are cumulatively spoken by close to an additional 19% of the world’s population.
It is estimated that 15% of the world’s total population speaks English (10% of which speak it as a second language). That means that approximately 85% of the entire world population, that's roughly 6.5 billion people, doesn’t speak English at all!
In other words, if your web content is accessible only to those speaking English, it’s not fully accessible to most people in the world.
Common Sense Advisory research shows that more than 72% of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language.
According to a 2020 survey by CSA Research of 8,709 global consumers in 29 countries, an astounding 76% of online shoppers prefer to buy products with information in their native language. What’s more, 65% prefer content in their language, even if it’s of poor quality.
This is particularly important when it comes to YouTube, a truly global platform with more than 2 billion users worldwide, 74.8 billion monthly visits, and 720,000 hours of new videos uploaded every day.
Interestingly, most of these videos are not in English. In their analysis of all popular channels on YouTube, Pew Research Center found that the vast majority of their individual videos were in a language other than English.
Who Translates Their Videos?
What all these stats mean for web content creators in practical terms is that translating your videos can bring in a considerably wider audience from previously untapped markets, which dramatically increases the ad revenues you can earn from your platforms.
Not to mention potential merchandise sales alone can easily return the investment required to translate your videos.
Mr. Beast, one of the most popular and richest YouTubers in the world (boasting 145 million subscribers as of April 2023), who built his brand on stunts, pranks, and cash giveaways, also has a Spanish, Portuguese, French and Hindi language channels where his translated videos racked up over an additional 90 million views.
And he’s not the only one. Other popular YouTubers have also followed suit, including children's entertainment channels such as Like Nastya (105 million subscribers), Ryan’s World (35 million subscribers), as well as comedy duo Dude Perfect (60 million subscribers).
But it’s not just high-profile YouTubers who can benefit from localization. Translation of product videos, reviews, tutorials, interviews, demos, and presentations also presents opportunities to boost your reach.
The importance of using a video translator to boost your reach can’t be overstated. The truth is that most internet users prefer content in their own language, and the most popular video content creators are already using that knowledge to increase their views and ad revenues without having to create brand-new content.
Hiring professional translators to subtitle or dub your videos may not be cost-effective for every video content creator but using an affordable video translator such as Subly is a small investment that could help you attract a wider audience and monetize your channel more effectively in the long run. That is what puts Subly hight on the must-have social media tools for any content team.
