YouTube is one of the most popular websites in the world. 

Over 2.6 billion people use the site every month. As of 2021, YouTube’s global advertising revenues were estimated to be worth $29 billion.

That’s a whole lot of money and a whole lot of eyes for your content to be seen by.

While platforms like Tiktok and Twitch are growing in popularity every day, they don’t come close to the power and reach of YouTube. Video is the number one way internet users want to engage with content and YouTube is the best place for creating it.

Despite numerous changes over the years and various video hosting platforms, YouTube is still the number one place to create and share video content. To succeed on a platform with such immense potential takes not only talent and creativity but requires doing everything you can do to stand out from the pack. 

That means maximizing your video’s accessibility, versatility, comprehension, reach, and SEO capabilities. That may sound like a series of complicated, distinct steps, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Video transcription is the metaphorical silver bullet for growing your channel’s audience. If you want to quickly and effectively grow your subscriber and viewer base, video transcription is going to be your number one ally. 

Why your channel needs video transcription to grow your audience

Simply put, video transcription is the process of converting a video’s audio to text. Today, this is done using a combination of AI speech recognition technology and human transcriptionists. 

Often, it uses both to ensure truly accurate transcription. 

It may not sound like it, but video transcription is one of the most effective ways to grow your YouTube audience. It does this in a couple of ways.

Transcription increases viewer engagement

One of the most useful things about video transcription is that it allows you to add accurate captions or subtitles to your videos. This is incredibly useful because one of YouTube’s favorite metrics for its algorithm is watch time.

While YouTube has its built-in captioning service, it’s not all that accurate. That can be frustrating, and confusing for your audience and cause them to lose interest. That can be catastrophic for your channel.

The idea of manual transcription tends to be the biggest obstacle in terms of why content creators are reluctant to use it. This is a shame because the reality is, it is extremely easy to use. Tools like Happy Scribe’s transcription software for YouTube videos save you time, and effort and guarantee accurate transcriptions.

The longer you can keep a viewer watching your content, the more useful YouTube determines that content to be. It then sees your content as being more relevant for similar searches.

Captions and subtitles are integral to this. 

Videos with captions get as much as 40% more views than uncaptioned videos. Your audience is also 80% more likely to finish your video if closed captions are available. The same thing goes for subtitles.

Remember, the longer your videos are watched, the higher YouTube ranks its quality and relevance and the better that is for your channel. 

Ultimately, transcription software is the first step towards improving your engagement and watch time stats.

Broadening your reach

Not only do 60 million Americans speak English as a second language, but 38% of Americans also suffer from various hearing impairments. 

In addition to those groups, there are a massive amount of people who watch videos without sound. Usually, these people are in environments like the workplace or while using public transport.

To reach this market, you need to provide content they can understand and engage with, no matter their circumstance. When it comes to this, video transcription is a major asset.

Utilizing an accurate video transcript allows you to create clear and accurate srt subtitles and captions. This, in turn, counteracts regional dialects, accents, or indistinguishable speech patterns you may not even notice as a native speaker.

This ensures your audience keeps their focus where it should be. Your content.

Enhances video SEO

SEO is probably the number one reason you need to involve video transcription when you go about growing your YouTube channel audience.

SEO has massive value for every part of your brand, both for your video as well as your blogs, websites, and eCommerce platforms.

Adding an accurate transcript gives you a massive SEO boost because it provides YouTube and Google’s algorithm and bots with an easy way to find and crawl your content. 

On their own, these bots have no way of determining what’s actually happening in your video, or what it contains. It requires context to determine how relevant your video is to each individual’s search. 

A transcription file provides this (in addition to meta descriptions, accurate page titles, etc.). Whether you use your transcription file for open or closed captions and subtitles, they all act as SEO markers for both YouTube and Google’s algorithm.

It’s also a great tool to help you develop and spin additional content. 

The keywords you use can be analyzed and used to create highly targeted, user-orientated content and direct the structure of future iterations of your content.  

Creates versatile content

YouTube has become one of the most popular places for people to learn and increase their knowledge. 

Online this concept is called e-learning and is a great example of how versatile video transcription can be.

While there are a variety of other great platforms dedicated to E-learning, E-learning is one still of the most popular genres on YouTube.

If you have an e-learning-based channel, you want to make your content as effective as possible for your learner’s growth and learning. 

Transcription is incredibly useful when it comes to this. Especially since transcriptions can be a valuable addition to your e-learning channel in a variety of ways.

  • Transcripts can help overcome language barriers if you’re teaching viewers to speak and understand new languages. If learners have access to video transcription, they can use them to download the file for a reference point. It’s also incredibly valuable for subtitles and captions which is a major asset when it comes to learning a new language.
  • They allow students to keep up with your lessons who otherwise are either too busy or don’t have access to data. Video transcriptions provide students with access to your videos, regardless of connectivity or time issues.
  • Transcription files can be easily converted to ebooks, presentations, and digital notes for learners.

Quality content is YouTube’s main ranking factor. If you’re able to provide your users with versatile, useful content, YouTube and your audience will reward your channel with views and growth.

Transcription enables better audience comprehension

When it comes to YouTube videos, one of the most important benefits of transcription is its ability to create accurate subtitles and captions. This is partly because of how naturally they hold the audience’s attention.

As much as 65% of online users are visual learners. 

This is what makes video such a powerful tool for retaining information and learning. Combining this with the attention-grabbing effect of captions and subtitles is a recipe for engagement and comprehension success.

Reading takes a type of active concentration that simply watching a video on its own just doesn’t. The fact that captions hold viewers’ attention so well also gives you increased time to get your message across, accurately. No regional accent, odd pronunciation, or muffled sound can interrupt your audience’s viewing experience.

This gives you increased time to delight, amuse and engage your viewers with your meticulously crafted content.

Accurate subtitles, captions, and transcription files are key when it comes to achieving that.

Long story short

Many content creators, if they give a thought to transcription, subtitles, and captions at all, tend to opt for YouTube’s built-in, auto transcribe feature. 

This is a major faux pas when it comes to growing your YouTube channel audience. Not only is it much more inaccurate than dedicated transcription services that combine AI and the human touch, but it may also require additional work to get right. 

That’s the last thing you want when you’re trying to get content out to your audience.

The entire point of being able to offer transcription files, subtitles, and captions is to ensure your content is received the way you want it to be.

Thinking of video transcription as an option is extremely counterproductive if you’re trying to grow your YouTube channel’s audience. Not only are you neglecting a significant portion of viewers (non-native speakers and the hearing impaired) but you’re actively hindering the chance of your content being seen at all. 

Given how quick and easy it is to create useful, quality video transcriptions, not only is not including transcription a disservice to your audience, but to your content as well.