Marketing videos have the power to convey messages, evoke emotions, and connect with audiences on a deeper level. Besides the excitement of creating eye-catching marketing videos, it’s also essential to make these videos accessible to a diverse audience. Accessibility refers to making content available and comprehensive to a larger group of people – making it easier to watch and enjoy. This includes catering to people with certain challenges, such as hearing and visual impairments. Ensuring that your marketing videos are truly inclusive and accessible for everyone, you send a strong message about your brand’s commitment to reach and engage every viewer. In this article, we will give you some valuable tips on how to make marketing videos more accessible.

Adding Subtitles: The Foundation of Accessibility 

Subtitles, also known as captions, are one of the most basic yet effective ways to make marketing videos more accessible. By providing text-based transcriptions of the audio content, you ensure that more individuals understand the dialogue and follow the narrative. This further allows people with hearing impairments to better follow, as well as aid comprehension of muted videos, and videos played in environments where audio can’t be heard properly, such as a noisy cafe, or where audio is required turned off such as in a silent office environment.  

When seeking a more international audience it can also be beneficial to add translated subtitles to videos aimed for language-specific audiences. 

You can seamlessly incorporate subtitles into your marketing videos choosing between a wide range of video editing tools and platforms. Many video editing software provide built-in tools for adding subtitles. Some auto generate subtitles with the help of AI, while others only allow for manual subtitling or uploading of already existing subtitle files. Some subtitle generators also allow you to translate the created subtitles into many different languages. Using AI to automatically generate subtitles for marketing videos is a straightforward process, and it significantly improves the accessibility of your videos, guaranteeing that a wider audience can enjoy and engage with your content.

When adding subtitles to videos it’s important to consider accuracy, readability, and synchronization:

• Accuracy: Make sure that the captions accurately reflect the spoken content and consider including important non-verbal sounds and cues. 
• Readability: Choose a legible font, an appropriate font size, and contrast to make the text readable against the background.
• Synchronization: Ensure that captions are properly synchronized with the audio to avoid confusion. 

Choosing the right Background Music: to set the Feeling

Integrating music into your marketing videos can have a powerful impact on your audience. It sets the tone, evokes emotions, and enhances the overall viewing experience. Well-chosen music can create a memorable and engaging atmosphere, making your message more compelling and resonant. Background sounds equally so. However, it’s crucial to ensure that the music and sounds don’t overpower any important dialogue or visuals, maintaining a balanced and harmonious audio-visual blend. This careful integration of music and sounds can elevate the effectiveness of your marketing video, leaving a lasting impression on your viewers.

Voiceovers: When there’s more to be said

Voiceovers in marketing videos are a dynamic tool for enhancing accessibility and engagement. They provide an opportunity to convey information in a clear and engaging manner, catering to diverse audiences. Voiceovers can tell facts along the storyline, express an inner voice, or just be a commentary on the side. AI-generated voiceovers through text-to-speech technology offer a cost-effective and efficient option, ensuring consistent delivery across various content pieces. On the other hand, human-recorded voiceovers bring a personal touch, infusing authenticity, and emotion into the message. Striking the right balance between voiceover and other elements in your marketing video can significantly amplify its impact, making it more accessible and memorable to a wider audience.

A separate audio file can also be added to videos (audio descriptions) to cater to those with visual impairments. It should provide a verbal depiction of the visual elements, actions, and scenes taking place in the video. Think of blending the audio descriptions smoothly into the natural breaks in the audio, to ensure they don’t mix with other important audio parts. 

Furthermore, pay close attention to the audio quality of your marketing videos. Clear and well-balanced audio ensures that all viewers, including those with hearing impairments, can follow the content without difficulty. Avoid irrelevant background noise or distracting audio elements.

Consider Color Usage 

Colors play a significant role in marketing videos, contributing to branding, aesthetics, and emotional impact. However, it’s important to be mindful of color choices to ensure that the content remains accessible to individuals with color blindness or low vision. A principle of universal design is to make content distinguishable regardless of color perception. 

Here are a few points to ensure the effectiveness of your color usage: 

• Color Contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background colors to make the text readable for everyone. 
• Color Coding: Avoid relying solely on color coding to convey information; use text labels or symbols as well. 
• Color Blindness Consideration: Test your videos with color-blind simulators to identify any issues and make necessary adjustments. 

Clear Visual Elements to Enhance Key Points

Visual elements, such as text overlays and graphics, are often used in marketing videos to emphasize key points or provide additional information. However, these elements can sometimes be challenging for individuals with visual impairments to interpret. Making these visual elements more accessible can enhance the overall user experience. 

These three points are important to go through to ensure the effectiveness of your visual elements: 

• Readable Fonts: Choose clear, legible fonts for text overlays, and avoid using overly stylized fonts that may be difficult to read. 
• Adequate Size: Ensure that text and graphics are of sufficient size, even on smaller screens, to prevent strain on the eyes. 
• Sufficient Time: Allow visual elements, especially text overlays, to remain on screen for an adequate amount of time, giving viewers ample time to read and understand the content. 

Conclusion: A More Inclusive Video Experience 

Marketing videos serve a multitude of purposes – from showcasing products and services to building brand identity and connecting with audiences. To fully harness their potential, it’s crucial to ensure these videos are accessible to all, including those with hearing and vision impairment. By incorporating accurate subtitles, carefully selected background music and sound, AI-generated or human-recorded voiceovers and audio descriptions, thoughtful color usage, and clear visual elements, you can create marketing videos that are truly inclusive. So, as you embark on your next marketing video campaign or project, remember the importance of accessibility and take the necessary steps to make your content accessible to everybody.