If you’ve heard me talk about podcasting for more than 5 minutes, you’ve heard me talk about podcast show notes. And when I talk about podcast show notes, I point out that good show notes are detailed show notes.
What do I mean by detailed?
Well, your podcast show notes can look like anything. The winner of the ultimate show notes format has yet to be decided. Some podcast show notes are just the socials links of the podcast. Some are a summary paragraph. And some are the entire transcription of the episode.
If I had to pick one of these, I wouldn’t go for the transcript option (unless you know that many of your following are hard of hearing). But a good hook, episode summary and timestamps are a solid format for your podcast show notes. Yes, it takes more effort to write up your show notes in this level of detail, but show notes like this will benefit your audience—and your podcast.
Here’s why:
If your podcast episodes are on the longer side, you’ll have more opportunities to include SEO keywords. Upload these optimised show notes to your website and voilà! People can find you through organic search. Then, entice your site visitors into your podcast. Begin your podcast show notes with a good hook to open up a curiosity gap so they'll listen to the episode to close it.
Your podcast show notes are an extension of your podcast experience, so write them like that. Make them funny, interesting, heart-warming, thrilling. They’ll sell your podcast by themselves.
If you need to change the time on your car dashboard, are you going to read the entire car instruction manual? Or are you going to skip to the page that answers your question, read it, change the time and move on with your life? Probably the latter. So, let listeners do the same with your podcast.
There is a school of thought that says that you should try to get listeners to listen to as much of your podcast episode as possible. Sure, I agree. However, it depends how you do it. If your listeners don’t know at what point in the episode you’re going to answer their burning question, you risk frustrating them. They might even give up before you tell them what they want to know.
Instead, use show notes and timestamps to tell listeners when key moments in the episode occur. Then pack engaging content around that moment to keep them reeled in. This way, you’re delivering value and promoting your podcast. They’re likely to see you as a subject matter expert and to keep listening.
Repurposing your podcast content is much easier when you’re starting out from a solid foundation. That foundation is podcast show notes that explain who your episode guest is, what topics you cover, surprising revelations from the episode and so on. When your podcast show notes list all this and more, you can easily break episodes down into bite-size pieces for your social media and email list. Or, look across your back catalogue and do something more ambitious with your podcast episodes like turning them into a guide or lead magnet.
If you’d like to have a consultation about your podcast content and what it could become, book a call with me.