Video Creators: Here is what You Need to Know About Transcribing Audio to Text

You’ve probably noticed that online video content is incredibly popular. Nearly 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube alone by more than 30 million users every day.

These statistics might tempt video creators and marketing professionals to neglect text-based content. Don’t be too hasty, though: A strong video SEO strategy can really extend the reach of your viewing audience and make you competitive. What do we mean by video SEO? It combines the power of visual content and on-page text through the use of audio to text transcription.

By incorporating text transcripts to support your video SEO, you can maximize the discoverability of your content. In fact, if you aren’t already transcribing your video’s audio to text, you could be at a disadvantage.

Before you dive right in, there’s some key information you should know about transcribing audio to text and how it can help you.

What is a Video Transcript?

A video transcript or transcription is a text version of a video’s audio track. Video transcripts can be used to make creative captions or subtitles that appear on a video for the benefit of deaf, hard-of-hearing, or non-native-language speakers.

While similar in nature to regular SEO, video SEO tactics differ mainly due to the fact that videos have very little written content. The first (and best) strategy is to transcribe audio to text which will allow your video to stand out in more ways than one.

Benefits of Turning Audio Into Text

Why should you turn audio into text? By adding video captions, you’re investing in a proven digital strategy that will increase your SEO, video views, and viewer engagement.

Here are some additional benefits of video transcription:

Increases accessibility, particularly for people who use audio transcriptions to better understand and enjoy recorded content
Improves discoverability by making the audio searchable for keywords
Makes it easier to repurpose content into other forms, such as infographics or Twitter posts
Encourages viewers to share with friends or colleagues
Improves user experience by creating multiple ways to consume recorded content

In fact, did you know that the only way to increase video views and grow your audience is to add text to your videos? Video subtitles can increase the amount of time a viewer watches a YouTube video by 40 percent — that’s massive!

And the more people you reach, the more likely it is that they will engage with your brand which can help to increase sales and drive business growth.

8 Key Points to Know About Transcribing Audio to Text

Thinking that you should transcribe audio to text as part of your video creation or marketing strategy? Here are some key points to keep in mind.

1. Audio to Text Transcriptions Boost Your SEO

Want your videos to help improve your SEO? Videos without a transcript make it very difficult for search engines to know what the video is about. This means that your video won’t show up in relevant searches which means you’ll be losing out on video views.

Creating a transcript to add to your video will allow all search engines to crawl the content and index your video properly. This means more people will discover it. Just make sure that when you optimize your video transcript, you add in specific keywords related to your video so you can fully take advantage of the power of search.

If your recorded video content isn’t transcribed online, it won’t help you rank in Google results. Be sure to transcribe audio to text to help users find your recorded content.

2. Content is Easier to Share With Audio to Text Transcriptions

Maybe you’re fine with your SEO, and don’t think you need to transcribe audio to text. What about your shares? An audio to text transcription of your recorded content makes it easier for anyone who wants to consume and share it.

For example, someone might want to share just a quote, not the whole video. If you have an audio to text transcript of the video, the user can just copy the text they want to share.

Without that audio to text transcript, the viewer would have to go back to part of the video and transcribe it themselves. Who has the time for that?

Without a transcription, many users may not be willing to share your video or audio recording. An audio to text transcript not only helps them share your quotes but makes sure they quote you accurately.

3. Transcribing Audio to Text is a Low-Cost Strategy

Creating an audio to text transcript may sound like a chore, but it’s a relatively low-cost task with a potentially huge payoff. Transcribing audio to text is actually one of the most cost-effective digital strategies. You can throw away anywhere from $20 to hundreds of dollars running ads or boosting social media posts to increase video views.

But on average, it will cost significantly less for an online company to transcribe and add creative captions to a video. Investing in audio to text transcription means your video will be privy to all of the great benefits we’re outlining in this post, and some of those benefits can only be accomplished through captioning.

4. An Audio to Text Transcript Helps You Reach New Audiences

If you improve the user experience and transcribe audio to text, the transcription or audio captions will help you expand your reach. This isn’t just because of the boost to SEO and shares, either!

Creative captions also help increase your video watch time. Because many platforms auto-play videos silently, creative captions grab and hold your audience’s attention faster.

When people scroll past your video and notice the creative captions, or turn captions on after starting the video, they are more likely to watch the whole video. This means more time to consume your content and take in your message. This helps create more brand recognition and even brand loyalty among people who might not have known about your organization otherwise.

Putting your video’s audio to text also means that it’s easier and more likely to credit you for the video content and ideas. A transcription of your video helps viewers cite you as an original source, which could refer more people to your video content.

5. Audio to Text Transcription of your Video Can Improve Accessibility

When you transcribe audio to text, you make your video content more inclusive and accessible for large groups of people.

One obvious benefit of turning a video’s audio to text is accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Hearing loss affects more than 5 percent of the world population, and 15 percent of the U.S. population. That includes millions of people you don’t want to miss!

Putting your video’s audio to text also helps people with numerous other disorders and special needs. For example, people on the autism spectrum may find it difficult to watch videos with sound. Muting the video and using captions, or simply reading the audio to text transcription, allow them to enjoy your video content.

6. Transcribe Audio to Text to Keep Your Message Clear

We’ve already mentioned that creative captions help grab and keep viewer attention on your video. This does more than just give them time to interact with your message and your brand. It also means that they have more time to pay attention and absorb your information. They will be able to recall your message accurately.

If your audience has access to an audio to text transcription of your video, it’s even easier. You don’t have to worry about someone being unable to recall your message perfectly. If they can’t remember the video exactly, they can refer to the audio to text transcript.

7. Transcribe Audio to Text so You Can Translate to Different Languages

Did you know that one in five U.S. residents speaks a language different from English at home? Offering an audio to text transcription or video subtitles can help non-native speakers better understand and enjoy your video content. Plus, having the text version helps them improve their English vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, and syntax.

Non-native speakers may struggle to keep up with an English-language video, so an audio to text transcription lets them consume your content at their own pace. They can also use an online translation service to translate individual words, or the entire transcript, into their preferred language.

International students especially can benefit when you transcribe audio to text. The United States hosted nearly 1 million international students in 2017. If your video content includes lessons, lectures, webinars, and other learning materials, an audio to text transcript helps them retain it.

8. Computer-Generated Transcripts Are Usually Low Quality

Using computer software to transcribe audio to text may sound like a no-brainer. Isn’t it the most convenient and inexpensive option? The truth is, however, you could end up losing more time, money, and other opportunities if you use software to transcribe audio to text online.

• Loud or excessive background noise can “confuse” the software and interfere with creating an accurate audio to text transcript.
• Technical issues and software glitches can prevent you from getting an accurate or timely audio to text transcription.
• Transcription software often has limited vocabulary and cannot identify many proper nouns, specialized words, or slang terms.
• Speakers who talk too quickly can confuse audio to text transcription software.

Using automatic transcription software puts you at risk of any one (or more) of these problems. An inaccurate audio to text transcription is essentially useless when you spend too much time trying to correct it.

How Can You Create Effective Captions?

However you choose to incorporate creative captions into your videos, you’ll definitely want to make sure you include the following in your strategy:

• Add your slogan or company’s mission/vision.
• Display your value proposition of your product or service.
• Use real customer testimonials.
• Share your businesses’ history
• Share behind-the-scenes content such as a product demonstration

In addition, you’ll also want to include key information and relevant keyword in your audio to text transcription. This will maximize the power of your video content. Of course, this keyword optimization can be a bit time consuming when done right which is why you can let the professionals take care of it for you.

Take Advantage of Rev’s Transcription Services

In order to make sure that your audio to text transcriptions are as accurate and effective as possible, you can utilize REV. Why?

• Humans, not software or robots, will transcribe your audio. Nothing will get overlooked.
• 99% accuracy or better on all transcripts. We do encourage you to upload glossary terms or proper name spellings so we get it right the first time.
• We charge $1 per minute to convert video or audio to text – the best price around.
• Our turnaround time can’t be beat! We deliver files under 30 minutes in length within 12 hours or less.
• Our team knows all about audio to text transcription so you can focus on other essentials.

What To Keep in Mind When Looking For an Audio to Text Transcription Service

Whatever transcription services company you choose to go with, we encourage you to conduct online research with several different companies and note the following for each:

Accuracy

We mentioned this above but if you’ve ever tried using speech-to-text software or apps, you’ve probably noticed the lack of accuracy. The quality of your transcription can get worse with background noise, multiple speakers, and accents. To get the most accurate transcripts, find a transcription company that uses people, rather than software. This will help to save you time, money, and ward off any frustration that could arise.

Turnaround Time

The turnaround times for an audio to text transcription can vary greatly between companies. Sometimes you can receive your file within a couple of hours and other times it could take multiple weeks. If you are in a rush and need a transcription within 24 hours, most companies can accommodate that; however, you will be charged a rush fee which can range from $1.50 – $3.00 per minute of audio.

Price

Make sure you know the difference between the advertised price and actual price of an audio to text transcription. Some companies will advertise $0.79/minute, but with that low of a rate, you will probably end up paying more with the added fees.

Typically, a transcription company can charge price per audio minute, verbatim (includes filler words), and nonverbal communication. Some will even charge more for multiple speakers, accents, technical content, and rushed delivery, which can quickly add up to 300-400% more than the actual price – that could put you over budget for just one video!

Video Captions in Summary

At the end of the day, it’s important to really understand everything it takes to transcribe audio to text. With the help of a professional service, you will definitely see a boost in SEO, new audience reach, and a leg up on the competition. So as a video creator, it’s really a no-brainer to add in an audio transcription. Take advantage now and let REV help you with your audio to text transcription needs.