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Smart Tips to Improve your Multilingual OTT Services

You’ve come to the right place if you are considering adding or improving your OTT services. We’ll share some smart tips to help you get started.

Before we dive in, it’s essential to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for multilingual OTT services.

Every broadcaster is different, and each has its unique audience, requirements, and challenges.

That said, there are some general best practices that all broadcasters should keep in mind when adding or improving multilingual support for their services.

Here are three of them:

How to Improve Your Multilingual OTT Services

Make sure your metadata is translated correctly

Your metadata is one of the most critical factors in determining whether or not potential viewers will find your content.

That’s why it’s essential to ensure that all of your metadata—including your titles, descriptions, and keywords—is translated correctly when you add multilingual support to your services.

Use subtitles and dubbing judiciously

Subtitles and dubbing are the most commonly used methods for adding multilingual support to video content.

While both have advantages, they also have some drawbacks you should be aware of before deciding which one to use.

Remember the audio description.

An audio description is a critical tool for making your content accessible to a broader range of viewers, including those who are visually impaired.

When done well, audio descriptions can enhance the viewer experience for everyone.

However, it’s important to note that audio description is not a substitute for subtitles or dubbing—it should be used in addition to these other methods.

Provide Closed Captioning and Subtitles in Multiple Languages

If you want your OTT services to be truly accessible to a global audience, you need to offer closed captioning and subtitles in multiple languages.

Only some people speak English, so you’ll reach a broader range of viewers by providing content in other languages.

Closed captioning and subtitles make your content more accessible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. It’s a win-win!

Stream in HD

Another way to ensure your OTT services are up to par for a global market is to stream in HD.

In today’s world, HD is the standard, so if you’re not streaming in HD, you’re behind the curve.

Not only that, but HD streaming also requires less bandwidth, which is essential for users in areas with spotty internet service.

No one wants their favorite show to buffer every five seconds!

Offer Multiple Payment Options

If you want people from all over the world to be able to subscribe to your OTT services, you need to offer multiple payment options.

Credit cards are not universally accepted, so providing other options—such as PayPal or bank transfer—will make it easier for people from all around the globe to sign up.

Use CDNs

One final tip for optimizing your OTT services for a global audience is to use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).

CDNs help deliver content faster by replicating it across multiple servers worldwide.

This way, no matter where someone tries to access your content, they’ll be able to do so quickly and easily.

We all know no one likes waiting for their favorite show to load!

Choose The Right Languages

The first step is researching which languages will be most beneficial for your platform.

Consider which countries you want to target and what language(s) are most commonly spoken there.

It would help to consider the popularity of specific languages in the global market.

For example, while Mandarin is the most spoken language globally, English is the most popular language for online content.

So if you want to explore your reach to a global audience, English is an excellent place to start.

Hire Professional Translators

When you decide which languages to offer, it’s time to start translating your content.

And just like with any other important task, it’s always best to leave it to the professionals.

Hiring a team of professional translators ensures that your content will be accurately translated and culturally appropriate for your target audience.

Invest In Translation Technology

In addition to hiring human translators, investing in translation technology is also a smart move.

Translation technology can help speed up the translation process and ensure consistency across your translated content.

Some popular translation technology tools include Google Translate.

Remember subtitles and captions!

Remember subtitles and captions to offer your content in multiple languages!

Both the subtitles and captions are essential to ensure that your multilingual content is accessible to everyone.

They also help improve engagement by allowing viewers to follow along even if unfamiliar with the language on-screen.

Ensure that your website is ready for international traffic!

Last but not least, once you’ve started offering your content in multiple languages, ensuring that your website can handle international traffic is essential.

This means providing that your site can be translated into different languages and ensuring it can handle diforeignurrencies and payment options.

Make sure you’re using professional translators. It looks like a no-brainer, but it’s important to use translators who are native speakers of the language(s) you’re translating into.

Non-native speakers may need help to accurately convey the nuances of the language, which could lead to mistranslations.

Professional translators will keenly understand localization best practices, which can help ensure your translations are culturally relevant.

Use machine translation as a starting point, but rely on something other than it. Machine translation has come a long way in recent years and can be helpful when translating OTT content.

However, it’s important to remember that machine translation could be better.

Be sure to have your translations reviewed by a human editor before publishing to catch any errors the machine translation process may have introduced.

Remember the audio/visual aspects of your content.

You must consider your presentation’s audio and visual aspects if you provide dubbed or subtitled versions of your content.

For example, if you’re dubbing dialogue into another language, ensure the lip-syncing is consistent with the new audio track.

Otherwise, viewers will be distracted from the content and may not continue watching.

Make sure your metadata is translated accurately.

Metadata is often overlooked when translating OTT content, but it’s as important as the content itself.

After all, metadata helps viewers find your content in the first place! Ensure all keywords and descriptions are accurately translated so viewers can easily find and enjoy your content regardless of language barriers.

Keep an eye on emerging markets.

While most OTT providers focus on major markets like North America and Europe, there’s a lot of untapped potential in emerging markets like Asia and Latin America.

As broadband access and internet speeds continue to improve in these regions, more and more people will be streaming OTT content—so don’t forget about them when planning your multilingual offerings!

Focus on the user experience.

Your OTT content may be top-notch, but viewers will look elsewhere if the user experience needs to improve.

Ensure your multilingual OTT services are easy to navigate and understand, no matter what language your viewers use.

Pay attention to small details like font size and layout; these can significantly affect the overall user experience.

Make sure to pay attention to quality.

Your content is in multiple languages doesn’t mean you can skimp on quality.

To attract and retain viewers, your OTT content needs to be high-quality, no matter what language it’s in.

This means investing in professional translators and editors who can ensure accuracy and consistency across your multilingual content.

Promote your OTT services.

If you want people to watch your multilingual OTT content, you must tell them it exists!

Make sure to promote your services on your social media channels and website, and remember traditional marketing tactics named print ads and word-of-mouth recommendations.

The more people know about your OTT services, the more likely they will use them.

Make sure your content is high-quality and relevant to your audience.

It may look like a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s essential.

The content you add must be engaging and relevant to your audience if you want them to keep returning for more.

That means creating catchy headlines, using solid visuals, and writing copy that is interesting and easy to understand.

It also means creating content tailored to your target audience’s specific interests. So take time to get to know your viewers and what they want to see from you.

Use social media to promote your content.

Social media is an effective tool to help you reach a wider audience and effectively promote your content.

Please ensure you’re active on the platforms where your target audience hangs out and that you’re sharing relevant and engaging content with them. Also, remember to add hashtags!

Hashtags are trending tactics to reach new viewers and connect with users who are already interested in your content.

Invest in quality tech and talent.

As mentioned, delivering a great OTT experience requires a mix of technology, talent, and processes.

You need all three working together to succeed. That’s why investing in quality tech and talent is so important.

Ensure you have the right tools and platform to deliver an excellent experience for your viewers.

And just as importantly, ensure you have the right team to make it happen.

The right mix of tech, talent, and processes will help you deliver a fantastic OTT experience for your viewers.

Choose suitable languages. When selecting which languages to offer your content, it’s essential to consider both the demographics of your target audience and the SEO implications.

For example, if you’re targeting Spanish speakers in the United States, you’ll want to offer your content in Spanish and English.

This will allow you to reach a larger audience and help you get a higher ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Translate your content accurately. It’s essential to use accurate translations of your content so that viewers can understand what they’re watching.

This means working with professional translators familiar with the nuances of the language(s) you translate into.

Accurate translations are essential for complex concepts or technical terms.

Optimize your metadata. Metadata is the information that appears alongside your content, such as title, description, and keywords.

Make sure to include metadata in all languages you’re offering your range.

This will help improve your content’s discoverability and ensure viewers can find what they want.

Use subtitles and Closed Captioning (CC). Offer subtitles or CC in the languages you’re translating.

This will be easy for viewers to follow along and understand what’s happening, even if they need to speak the language fluently.

Subtitles and CC are also excellent for SEO, as they provide additional opportunities to include keywords and other relevant information about your content.

Promote your multilingual content.

Once you’ve created multilingual versions of your content, promote them accordingly.

This means creating separate landing pages or campaigns for each language you target. It will help you run ads in different languages to reach a wider audience.

Conclusion

These are essential to remember as you add or improve multilingual support for your OTT services.

With these tips and strategies, you can ensure that your content will be accessible to a broader range of viewers and that your metadata will be translated appropriately so potential viewers can find your content more easily.

The era of global content is here. Thanks to the internet, you can target audiences worldwide with your OTT services.

But how do you ensure your multilingual OTT services are up to par?

You can improve your chances of providing an excellent experience for international audiences – and driving more sales.

From choosing the right platform to investing in quality translations, there’s much to consider when expanding your reach.

But it’s worth it to tap into new markets and grow your business.

Are you ready to take your OTT Services global? Contact us today for OTT Platform Consulting, and we’ll help get you started.

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