Today’s content creators know it’s all about providing a personalized experience for your audience. Letting listeners (or readers) choose how they consume your content is a great way to build an audience and engage the most people possible.
We’ve talked a lot about transcriptions over the last couple of months — we even recently launched version 2.0 of our platform that includes automatic transcriptions — but show notes are a bit different.
Let’s examine why podcast show notes matter and how you can create them to help you gain more traction in your niche.
What are Podcast Show Notes?
Before we dive into how to create show notes, we first want to definej what they are. Show notes are written summaries of a podcast episode or blog post, which include the most important highlights and valuable information discussed during the episode.
Whereas transcriptions are a word for word transcription of the audio content, show notes are a summary of the topics discussed in the podcast, along with any relevant links or other media.
Show notes can be shorter than transcriptions (or longer, depending on how detailed you want to get), but they should still provide enough information that someone who didn’t hear the podcast will know what it was about.
To create good show notes, you’ll want to decide what topics, guests, questions, and ideas your podcast covers each episode — then make sure the content of the show note accurately reflects that. If any stories or anecdotes are shared during the episode, it’s a good idea to include them as well (although avoid including too much detail).
Why Are Podcast Show Notes Important?
Now that we know what show notes are… let’s look at why they’re important to creating a successful podcast.
First and foremost, show notes can help your audience easily learn if your show will provide the information they seek. If listeners can glance at the show notes and get an idea of what will be discussed in the episode, they’ll be more likely to commit to listening.
Additionally, show notes are great for SEO purposes. Creating a blog post or website page with podcast show notes gives search engines like Google another entry point into your content. This means that when someone searches for a topic related to your podcast, the show notes page could come up in the results — giving you the opportunity to engage with potential listeners.
Finally, show notes are a great way to drive traffic to other content and products (such as affiliate links or sponsored posts). You can include relevant links within the show notes, so your audience can find out more information on the topics discussed during the episode.
How to Create Podcast Show Notes
Creating podcast show notes is a simple process that won’t take up too much of your time if you have a system in place. Here are our top tips for creating effective show notes:
1. Listen to the episode
Before you jump into writing, make sure you’ve listened to or watched the entire podcast episode. This will help you get an accurate sense of what was discussed and better understand the topics covered in the show.
2. Highlight key points
As you’re listening, jot down any key points, quotes, and stories mentioned during the episode. These will be the “meat” of your show notes, so capturing them accurately is important.
Include relevant links
If there are any relevant links you want to include in the show notes (such as a website or blog post), note this down as well. If you’re a podcast centered around technology, consider linking to a related product page or Amazon listing.
3. Write in an organized fashion
Once you have identified your key points and links, start writing the show notes in a structured way. This could mean starting with the episode’s main topic, then working through each point discussed sequentially.
While you don’t want to recreate your show in text form(that’s what transcriptions are for), you do want to give enough information to hook the reader. Be sure to provide just enough to create intrigue and turn those readers into listeners
4. Include a summary
At the end of each show note, briefly summarizing what was discussed in the episode is helpful. This helps readers quickly understand the content without reading through the entire post. You only have seconds to capture your would-be fan’s attention, so providing a TL;DR at the bottom or top of your show notes is a smart tactic.
Another Way to Increase Your Authority
We know adding another task to your already insurmountable list of podcasting to-dos seems crazy. But, the truth is that podcast show notes are necessary for driving visibility and engagement with your content — and their relatively low effort cost makes them more than worth the investment.
Don’t overthink the process – just create a simple template and be consistent with how you use it for each episode. Doing this will help leverage the power of podcast show notes to increase your listenership, get more eyes on your website, and create an authoritative presence in your industry.