Translating a video into different languages is key to using it for international marketing.
The 2021 LOC-30 report produced by Aston University revealed that, “SMEs making use of language capabilities are 30% more successful in exporting than those who do not.”
But doing so is fraught with danger, especially for complex engineering or technical messaging.
YouTube’s automated translations is notorious for errors and is often unable to cope with technical terminology, and it can not translate embedded text or callouts.
More importantly, you may not be using your video on YouTube!
With most videos using both narration and motion graphics, poor translations combined with non-native graphics, can leave overseas viewers more confused than convinced.
Embedded translations produced in conjunction with native language speakers on your team, are the best way to ensure that your videos have as much value overseas as they do in the UK.
Picking which languages to translate into can be tricky, especially if your budget is constrained.
Whilst English is the go-to international language, with over 1.4 billions users, adding French, Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi and Standard Arabic to your videos adds 3 billion more people to your audience.
If a budget is constrained, it makes sense to look at which are popular second languages in a market, instead of doing a translation for a very local language.
For instance, German is thought of as a core language, but it’s not in the top five most popular, versus 70% of all Germans will have English or French as a second language.
So producing a German version may be poor value if you’re limited in the number of translations you can do.
At Page One we make translations easy, regularly providing translations into multiple languages.
Sometimes this is a simple translation of the subtitles, sometimes a more complex motion graphics treatment.
We use a practiced methodology that starts with English transcripts, then documentation and instructions to allow a native language speaker to produce accurate and grammatically correct translations that can be easily deployed.
And this process works independently of the nature of the language, be it a Roman or Logographic script.
With emerging and overseas markets becoming central to UK exports, the ability to reach out to those markets in their own language is crucial.
Check out more of our insights into corporate video production, or if you need some video translated, get in touch!
