Around 30 million Americans over 12 are thought to suffer hearing loss in either one or both ears. Additionally, 12 million more people have vision impairments. These groups would have previously been excluded from podcasts and online video content. However, significant attempts to increase digital accessibility have been made recently.

A leading proponent of internet accessibility, the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative (W3 WAI) introduced the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in 1999. (WCAG). Although these recommendations were initially focused on website design, they are now a priceless tool for content producers considering the accessibility of internet videos and podcasts.

How to improve the accessibility of a podcast?

It can be challenging to consider how to make a podcast more accessible to the hearing impaired because, even though an increasing number of podcasts now include video, they are traditionally an audio-only format. However, it’s surprisingly simple to modify podcast production to improve accessibility. These accessibility improvements may also have a variety of other advantages.

• Make sure the artwork for your podcast is readable.

Promotional materials should be considered when deciding how to make a podcast more accessible. Accessibility for podcasts extends beyond the audio files themselves. To make everything accessible to every user, artwork, and marketing material must all be customized.

WCAG offers some helpful guidelines for producing accessible podcast artwork. Use a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1 as a general rule for large text. The ideal contrast ratio to utilize when adding text to a picture or colored background is 4.5:1. When making decorative artwork elements, contrast ratios are insignificant. However, it’s a good idea to incorporate these recommended practices into image design for optimum accessibility.

Content producers can use free picture color and contrast checker programs like WebAIM and UserWay to make their lives easier. You can ensure that the most significant audience always has access to podcast visuals by using the resources at your disposal.

• Transcripts improve the accessibility of podcasts (and SEO)

For everyone thinking about accessibility and podcast creation, transcripts should be a top priority. You are closing off a significant audience, including those who are hard of hearing, by refusing to transcribe podcasts.

A complete transcript immediately increases Google and other search engine’s ability to find your information.

The ideal situation is to devote time and money to hand transcription. This guarantees that nothing is left to chance and that the entire context is available. A different option is Google Bard AI software, albeit the automatically produced transcripts will need to be edited for correctness. The best option is to get a qualified expert to handle your transcription needs. This guarantees accuracy and consistency while enhancing the user experience across the board.

• Make a website accessible.

It’s great to know how to make a podcast accessible, but don’t discount the significance of an accessible website. The expertise of seasoned developers is crucial if you want to create a website that is as accessible to consumers as feasible.

An average user with little knowledge, however, can perform various accessibility checks to get things started.

Aiming to analyze features like headings and page titles, alt text, captions, contrast ratio, and more is a good strategy for content authors. For individuals wishing to make rapid changes to websites’ accessibility, the W3 WAI offers some helpful advice.

• Availability on social media and podcast promotion

Without a doubt, the most crucial instrument for promoting podcasts is social media. However, accessibility standards must be followed when disseminating updates and publicizing fresh podcast releases.

Apply the same accessibility guidelines for podcasts as you would for web content to maintain consistency. Alt text can be used to enhance accessibility for users with vision impairments. Most social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, permit the addition of alt text to photographs.

Additionally, pay attention to transcripts. Users can publish transcript files to websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. By doing this, it is feasible to enhance and make as many users as possible available to even the shortest audio or video snippet. Instead of using this functionality, just incorporate transcripts into your video uploads when publishing material to a platform that doesn’t allow it.

• Utilize the proper podcast hosting software to increase accessibility

It’s critical to select hosting software and video players with a wide range of accessibility capabilities if you want to improve accessibility in podcast production. Sadly, accessibility differs significantly between pieces of software. Looking around for anything that checks all the boxes is worthwhile if you still need to choose a service provider.

It’s worthwhile contacting suppliers directly if content producers have been using the same software for some time and haven’t noticed any accessibility enhancements. Features to increase accessibility may be in the works. In addition, content producers can share their software experiences and offer suggestions for improving it to be more podcast-friendly.

• Multilingual content will broaden your audience.

With over 117 million Americans listening to podcasts each month, the United States dominates the world regarding podcast listenership. Although podcasts are popular worldwide, the largest audiences are typically found in nations with a large population of English speakers. You must provide services for non-English speakers to broaden your audience and target as many people as possible.

The good news is that you can prepare from scratch when creating multilingual podcasts. You may easily reach worldwide audiences by using post-production audio and localization services.

Conclusion

The best podcasts and videos all begin with a brilliant idea. But even a good idea needs to meet high production value standards. Additionally, it’s becoming more and more crucial to make podcast content as accessible as possible.

Want to upgrade the quality of your video and podcast content? Wavel’s professional in-house production studio, audio engineers, and multimedia specialists support our transcription, voice-over, and subtitling services, ai dubbing which is offered in more than 120 languages. Furthermore, some of the top voice-over talents in the industry are available through our broad network. Are you prepared to increase your audience and embrace digital accessibility?

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The post How AI Dubbing Is Helping Create SEO-friendly Multilingual Podcasts? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

In the hustle and bustle of this age, having to squeeze everything to accomplish your daily agenda is necessary. From cooking food, washing the dishes, going to work, or doing the laundry—being able to multitask is simply a luxury that not everyone can afford. Because of this, it’s already becoming increasingly difficult to cram in hobbies in such a tight schedule.

This is why ‘convenient’ versions of typical recreations have gained fame in the past years. There are audiobooks for the bookworms, idle games for the gamers, even automated cooking gadgets for single parents who have to do multiple gigs for a living, and the list goes on.

The same thing could be said true for the marketing ecosystem. Since consumers have to spend most of their time trying to strike a balance between work and life, outbound marketing strategies are now nearly outdated. Directly interacting with customers and selling services right at their faces is obsolete, if not invasive.

Because of this, marketers need to find a new avenue to kickstart effective marketing strategies. Some make use of social media to get more brand exposure while others leverage the fast-paced world and mix advertisement and entertainment as one thru content creation for videos and podcasts.

Podcasts: Answering The What And The Why

The word ‘podcast’ is a portmanteau of Apple Inc.’s iPod and the term ‘broadcast.’ It’s considered the digital successor of radio shows back in the day. Essentially, podcasts work in a similar fashion as radio shows, except users can locally save a copy of each episode and listen to them anytime since radios didn’t have yet that capacity before.

In its earlier stages, podcasts were primarily used to cover a variety of topics such as different lifestyles, discussions, and some even deliver the news. It was just when different technologies like video cameras and USB microphones had become affordable that the public had been more involved in podcast creation.

Ever since the necessary hardware for creating podcasts became more accessible, a relatively increasing number of users decided to enter the podcasting industry. This created traction which largely attracted listeners; therefore, the demand for podcasts had reached a new all-time high.

Aside from the hardware, many podcast recording software and streaming software popped up in the market, making them more available for everyone. Some are free of use while others offer more advanced options for a certain amount of fee.

In the context of marketing, business owners and marketers alike can leverage podcasting for wider brand exposure and bigger reach. To further elaborate, here are some tips on how to use podcasting as a marketing tactic:

1. Don’t Scrimp On Planning

Just like with all kinds of endeavors, careful planning makes or breaks a project. Carelessly venturing into podcasting without prior preparation can do more harm than good—something that may even cost you your business. That’s why laying out the groundwork is the first step to make.

A few things that you need to consider in the earliest stages of your planning are your goal, your audience, and your format. Do you want your soon-to-be listeners to get aware of your brand or do you want the podcast to act as a supplementary service for your already existing goods?

Regardless, the goal of your podcast should be clear from the get-go. Lacking a clear and simple goal at first will make the podcast less attractive and its content would be all over the place. You can check out the S.M.A.R.T acronym to aid you in setting your goals.

2. Set Your Target Audience

While it’s tempting to make podcasts and have your listeners enjoy your content, you must first know your prospective listeners. Since the podcast will primarily be used for your brand, integrating your customer profile and their buyer’s persona is necessary.

For instance, if your goal is to create a five-episode podcast, the next thing to do is to tailor-fit its contents to the preferences of your customers. If you work in retail and your client base is mostly comprised of young adult females, then the tone, language, and even the host of the podcast must match the trend among young adult females.

This is to ensure that the podcast doesn’t derail from its main topic and to make sure that the listeners become more interested in your podcast. In addition, extracting data from your customer profile is readily available in most cases since it’s an integral part of any effective business model.

3. Don’t Forget Your Brand (But Don’t Overdo It)

Incorporating your brand within the podcast can be done in a number of ways. You can make it seem like you sponsor the entire podcast, you can explicitly mention your brand in set intervals during the episode, or you can even interview customers who have prior (positive) experience with your business. Regardless, the goal of your podcast is to enhance your brand image, but remember to do it sparingly.

Over-advertising during the episode will most likely make listeners annoyed and apprehensive about following your podcast. For one, podcasts are meant to be informative about the topic, and another is that no one proactively listens to podcasts just to be bombarded with ads.

That’s why smoothly and seamlessly mentioning your brand goes a mile more than repeatedly glorifying it. While it’s easier said than done, this is one of the vital aspects of marketing podcasts where you should listen to feedback and improve from thereon.

4. Decide On The Format

Deciding on the format of the podcast is as important as other steps. This is because you’d want your podcast to have consistency and standard since those are two things that listeners often expect from any podcast.

If you want to set it up as an interview podcast, for instance, drafting the interview questions as well as recruiting the guest are some of the preparations you must make. If you want to tell a story or create a narrative podcast, then deciding on the whole story to cover is the first step to do when it comes to writing its content.

Deciding on the format won’t only provide standard, consistency, and quality to your work; it’ll also help you prepare the necessary equipment and software as needed by the chosen format. Co-host podcasts and interview podcasts, for example, will require more than one microphone.

5. Expand Your Reach

One of the glaring advantages of podcasting is there’s a multitude of hosting sites out in the market where you can upload your podcast. Creating your podcast smartly is one thing, but wisely uploading it is a different story.

This is another reason why choosing your target audience is in the earlier stages of the planning stage. Different demographics of consumers use the internet for various purposes—some use it mainly for social media while others for reading on forums. Identifying how your target audience uses the internet can give you a gist on how to position your podcast on the internet.

For instance, if your target audience is comprised of teenagers, chances are their students have schoolwork to do. Uploading the episodes on YouTube or Spotify won’t only expand your reach, but it’ll also make it more accessible to your target audience. Check out this post to read more about different hosting sites.

6. Incentivize Your Podcast

When it comes to tackling your consumers, nothing beats promotions, gifts, and other forms of reward. Luckily, you can apply this same concept in your marketing podcast.

You can hold per-episode quizzes or Q&As whose questions are based on the previous episodes or the services your business offers. This is to make sure there’s a call-to-action in your podcast, as well as something to look forward to in each of your episodes.

There’s also the option of providing subscription giveaways like a premium subscription to Spotify, Apple Music, or other famous podcast hosting sites.

7. Don’t Be Afraid To Collaborate

Given the interdependent network in the digital ecosystem, as a business owner or a marketing officer, you’re not limited to just showcasing your brand in your podcast. You can take on sponsorship from other brands and vice versa. This usually helps in reaching a bigger audience, and in some cases, collaborations offer financial support.

In addition, doing collaborations or partnerships in your podcast will help your company’s supply chain. You can have the partnership extend in your business proceedings such as resources procurement and sourcing, among others.

Conversely, you can make podcasting an additional service you can offer to other businesses. What this means for your company is additional clients in a completely different business unit, and for them, it’s a means to advertise their brand.

Conclusion

Podcasting is a novel and advantageous way of expanding your brand exposure. Having to create a podcast that reflects your goals and your brand image isn’t easy, but it doesn’t mean impossible. With the right resources and careful planning, you can start uploading your first episode in a breeze! Consider the ideas mentioned here as you prepare and strategize.

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The post The Ultimate Guide To Using Podcasting As A Marketing Tactic appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Apple Airpods are simpatico to more devices other than only Apple. When Apple launched the iPhone 7 series, they removed the headphone jack from devices, and they make it up with Airpods. These are wireless headphones. Many of the critics criticized this move by Apple, saying it was typical. Replacing a comprehensive technology that it doesn’t control with one that is exclusive to its products. We will learn about Airpods only work on the iPhone or not in this article.

But those critics were in no way absolutely right. The Airpods may purvey exceptional keystone when attached to the iPhone 7 devices or up, that doesn’t mean that the Airpods only work on the iPhone.

Maneuvering Bluetooth For The AirPods To Work Only On iPhone

The Company doesn’t go out of its way to underline this about the Airpods. Additionally, it is essential to acknowledge: Utilising Bluetooth the Airpods are able to couple with other devices. No tenure Apple technology chunk other devices to establish a connection with Airpods.

Any device that uses a Bluetooth headphone system can be connected to the Airpods as it makes use of a standard Bluetooth connection. Devices like Android phones, Mac books, and contrivances, etc. can be fetter to the Airpods.

What About The W1 Chip?

Devices such as iPhone 7 and upper models consist of a special W1 chip. This chip is only valid for iPhones. The W1 chip doesn’t communicate the way Airpods communicate with the iPhone.Therefore, it makes them work efficiently as compared to normal devices.

Establishing a connection with a Bluetooth device using your iPhone naturally with cellular earpieces in pairing mode. You have to put a passcode sometimes to connect with the Bluetooth device. All you need to do is, open the box containing the Airpods and connect it with a compatible iPhone in the range, and they will connect to it instinctively. It is all because of the W1 chip as it removes all the irritating and unessential factors of Bluetooth pairing.

According to Apple, the W1 chip is also helpful in the battery resistance of the AirPods, enabling them to run for five hours after complete charging.

Do AirPods Work For Everyone Accordingly To Prove AirPods Work Only On iPhone?

They are compatible with all the devices supporting Bluetooth functionality. Nevertheless, it doesn’t work on all the devices the same way. There is clear-cut superiority of Air Pods to utilize them with Apple’s products. Additional advantages include:

• Access To Siri: This is a feature that is not available on other devices except Apple products. By double-clicking the AirPods you can enable Access To Siri.
• Super-Simple Partnering: Super-Simple Partnering or Pairing supports only iPhone 7 and above models. Conversely, it is compatible to pair with any device capable of Bluetooth pairing, but sometimes the users have to face complications like Buggy Pairing Process.
• iCloud Matching and Other Smart Attributes: It is the coolest of all the other characteristics. All you have to do is to pair the AirPods with your Apple device for once. The next time you connect you don’t have to do the same thing as it will automatically connect exactly the same Apple Id by way of iCloud. As we all know iCloud does not support Android devices. They support smart features like smart touches. It automatically senses when it is in your ears and when you remove them they drop down the background music. It is also possible to listen to music when one of them is in your ear and the other one is in the case. This is a feature available with Apple devices only.

Wrap Up

Wrapping up the article, I hope it is helpful and informative to you giving you an idea of how AirPods support not only Apple devices but also the devices compatible with Bluetooth support systems. Naturally, the use of Airpods with Apple devices gives them an advantage by enabling smart features available only on the Apple devices. Subsequently, if you face any problem in pairing the AirPods with your devices feel free to share your valuable feedback in the comments section below and we will try to help you out with the same.

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The post Apple’s AirPods Only Work On The iPhone- Is It Truth Or Not? appeared first on Tricky Enough.