Ask Alex

I see more clinics using videos than ever. Some are posted in isolation, and some have fancy captions — but have you ever stopped to wonder why they go to all that effort?

Captions, also known as subtitles, help the user understand the content of the video without needing to switch their audio on. Some are embedded in the video as part of the file directly and others can be switched on or off by the user (think Netflix subtitles).

For social media videos, there are four main reasons why captions are essential:

1. You will make your videos more accessible for people who are hard of hearing and those who have English as a second language. Subtitles also improve video comprehension and make it easier for your viewers to understand the message you’re putting across.

2. People watch videos without sound on or on low volume. Captions add to the story of your video in this way.

3. They make your videos more eye-catching when there isn’t much action in the video itself. Perhaps you are just talking to the camera in-clinic — the movement of the captions themselves creates enough visual stimulation to keep people watching your video.

4. It’s easier than ever to insert them using apps and video editing software.

For these reasons, social marketers know that videos with open captions have a longer average watch time. This increased watch time can lead to increased engagement, which is fed back to the social platform, increasing reach.

If you’ve ever wondered how to add captions to your video, using Instagram or Tiktok in-built auto-captions is the easiest way. To have a bit more design freedom (including colour, location of the text, and highlighting words), you’ll need to use an app such as:

* Capcut (desktop or mobile app to edit videos, which has AI transcription that can be edited)

* Canva

* InShot

* Adobe Premiere Rush

There are loads of free, easy-to-follow tutorials about using these apps on YouTube. Alternatively, you can get a professional to do this for you.

Of course, for accuracy, always proofread your captions and edit where required (or don’t, and get sneaky extra engagement by people laughing at the ‘typos’ in your video).

For longer videos on your website, consider open or closed captions. The benefit of closed captions is that the Google algorithm can read the words (but not the video), and understand the message behind it. This can be helpful for search engine optimisation (SEO). Using a proper subtitle file is the best way to achieve this, so speak to your web developer and a video editor. It’s best to get website videos professionally shot.

There are also reasons for not using captions on videos; too much visual stimulation can be a turnoff. For this reason, try to keep your captions visible in the middle of your video, but not too big, or at too low a contrast.

Got a burning question or topic for the next Ask Alex? Email anna.d@thepbgroup. com and Alex will get back to you in a future mag. 

ALEX BUGG

Alex Bugg works for Web Marketing Clinic, a familyrun digital agency, which specialises in medical aesthetics. The business builds websites and delivers marketing campaigns for doctors, nurses, dentists, distributors and brands. Contact her: alex@webmarketingclinic.co.uk or follow her on Instagram: @webmarketingclinic