060: Stop Underutilizing This Essential Podcast Tool: Show Notes
If you aren’t creating show notes to coincide with your podcast episodes, you could be missing out big time. Not only are the show notes great for telling people about your episode, but they also can improve your SEO, bring leads to your website, and so much more.
In today’s episode, I broke down why show notes are an important resource for your podcast. You’ll hear my explanation of what your show notes can do for you and how they can support not just your podcast but your business as a whole.
What’s in this episode:
How every facet of your podcast has a job
Why show notes are important for your podcast
How show notes improve accessibility for all people
Mistakes people make with show notes
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The Transcript:
060: Stop Underutilizing This Essential Podcast Tool: Show Notes
The main thing that I really think is important about show notes is that they tell people what to do next. So a lot of times when we are talking, we are mentioning links, we are mentioning things, we're talking about our services and sometimes somebody will say something and I'll just go into my browser and type it in. But it's really great when it's right there in the episode description on my app. And so that's kind of that main like piece when we talk about turning an episode into leads or bringing listeners over into your realm. We want to make sure that we're telling them what to do next. And that's where showdowns are very, very key.
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting, life and all the wild in between. Joining me, Caroline, every week I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it.
Hello and welcome to the Wild Home Podcast episode 60. Very exciting. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who is listening and to all the new listeners. I've seen my download numbers increase over the past few weeks, which is really exciting, and I'm just so excited to have some new listeners here. And of course, so thankful for those of you who come back week after week for some podcasting tips. And so listen to me ramble a little bit. So welcome and thank you so much. I apologize for not having an episode last week, and I want to share with you why I didn't and share with you my thought process behind it, because I think it's important to kind of see that you have options and you don't necessarily need to panic when things go awry.
I have been on a really good recording schedule lately and had every intention last week of matching some episodes and then my family and I caught. It can only be described as like the stomach plague. I don't even know it was horrible, like the stomach flu kind of went through the ranks, started with the older children and then took the toddler. And then me and my husband went down and it was pretty much over a week of illness in our home and not just like normal illness, but like really disgusting illness. And so I had planned on Batch record, but I literally ran a fever for probably three days, couldn't get my head off the couch and had to make a decision. Am I going to, you know, am I going to try and record an episode when I don't feel great? And am I going to re-air an older episode? And I had every intention of rearing an older episode, but then realized that I just really didn't have it in me to do all the things that I needed to do to get that ready. And so I went ahead and skipped.
But what I did do was do a couple of posts on social media referring back to some older episodes, and then I also sent an email newsletter when I was feeling better, referencing the past week's episode. And so even though I did not release an episode, I still was interacting with my listeners. And so if something happens and you are not able to, you know, make an episode happen, I think my biggest piece of advice is to give yourself some grace and it's OK because stuff happens and then be figure out how you can still say stay connected with your listeners, because I think that really helps. I didn't see like any huge losses last week or anything like that. And it was nice to kind of actually still have some downloads going last week, even though I didn't have a new episode released.
And so, yeah, there's just a little a little nugget, a little tidbit for you before we start the episode. I wanted to take some time today to chat about show notes and how to know or what to do if you're under utilizing your show notes. One of the things that my team and I have really been exploring as a show notes and their importance. I think that as we kind of journey into this world of using our podcast to help grow our business, it's important to remember that every piece has a job, right? And every, you know, I say this all the time that your podcast should be like part of your marketing team. It should be like the marketing director, you know, the sales coordinator or whatever, like your podcast is pulling its weight. And while the audio is amazing and audio in itself, I think there's just so many advantages to that. There's also often a missed opportunity in the show notes.
When I say show notes, I am talking about the blog post or episode description that we write from the episode, and we kind of have our own approach to how we do this. One is we don't necessarily want to put a blog post in the episode description, so we always write a different version for the feed and then we do for what our customers or clients are putting on their blog, right? And so I want to kind of start off this conversation by talking about why show notes are important.
The main thing that I really think is important about show notes is that they tell people what to do next. So a lot of times when we are talking, we are mentioning links, we are mentioning things, we're talking about our services and sometimes somebody will say something and I'll just go into my browser and type it in. But it's really great when it's right there in the episode description on my app. And so that's kind of that main like piece when we talk about turning an episode into leads or bringing listeners over into your realm. We want to make sure that we're telling them what to do next, and that's where showdowns are very, very key.
A lot of times. I'll see people who will just do kind of like a summary paragraph of the episode, but with no call to action, no links, they're not giving people that next thing to do. Right? And in episode description is great because it does let people know what you're talking about, but that doesn't give them like the next steps. And believe me, we can have a whole conversation about how often they may have to look at those next steps before they actually click on it and do the thing. And once they click on it and go over there, you know, that's a whole different story that's up to you, right? But the important thing here is that they need to know what to do next. And the only way they're going to know that is from hearing you say that and then being able to go in the show notes and click the link.
A couple of other things that are really key with show notes is SEO, which we're going to talk about in a second. And then accessibility. So making sure that everybody can access our podcast and a lot of times show notes can be a way to provide that. I do prefer that we have a transcription involved. I want somebody to be able to read through the episode if that's what they feel more comfortable doing. And the only way to do that is to have a place to direct them, to have show notes, that kind of thing.
And so one of the things and this this ties into SEO that I think is probably the most under-utilization of show notes for podcasts, especially if you are a business owner, especially if you are using this as a piece of marketing for your business. Is not having your podcast episode do double duty as a blog post on your website. Now, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own, my own eyes. I have a blog post from three years ago that ties to a podcast episode that still brings in traffic and leads for me.
Granted, there are some other things involved here, like I shared it on Pinterest and that kind of thing. But the fact of the matter is it's on my website, right? And it also comes up in search terms, and there are some others that do this for me as well. And this is why, like if we're going to spend all this time and energy on a podcast episode of having a really great show notes that you can use and multiple places is really, really important. And I don't think I ever really put a lot of stock into the SEO piece until we really started working with clients on this and making sure that their blog posts were optimized and that the show notes were doing what they needed to do. You know, there's a lot thing that goes into it, but it's amazing what a difference it can make to have them on your blog.
And I think a lot of people don't do it because they just assume that the podcast episode by itself is enough. But I think where it kind of becomes like part of a strategy is we want to always be bringing people back to our website and back to what we do and who we are. And that's a really great way to do it as well. And so being able to link to that blog post and and have more information there for them, you know, having links, having a transcript. So that way they're getting more content, more information if they click through and go to your website, I think is really, really key.
We kind of like to do a thing where we that's, you know, that's where we direct people. And so we'll say like, you need to go here to get the rest of the information. So that's probably the biggest thing that I see is like just not putting it on your blog at all. The second thing I see is, OK, so we've put it on our blog, but it's just, you know, it's a short there's not much to it. There's not much going on. Is that really working for me in the best way?
And this is where the accessibility piece comes in, you know, adding a transcript. So that way, if people want to go and read through it, they can. Taking that short description that we wrote for the episode description and expanding it just a little bit. The other thing that's so great about this and this is kind of one of those other underutilization things, is if you do have some really good shownotes, you can then use that to create other pieces of content, such as social media posts such as an email newsletter.
And so when I get my episodes ready to go live every week, you know, I take with the show notes writer has given me and I'm able to plug it in so many different places. And it makes the process so much easier because if I'm having to write in different places, I'm not going to do a very good job. And honestly, like last week when I missed an episode and had to do some posts and things like that, I actually did pull up old show notes to copy from. And so it was really great because I had this again. You hear me talk about the library all the time of knowledge, but I also have this library of show notes for myself that I can use in many ways for my business.
So, when you start to think about, OK, how can I incorporate this? What is the first step? I'm overwhelmed by the idea of having to write a blog post for each podcast episode, having to get a transcript. These are a lot more steps than I am. I'm ready to commit to and I totally get that because it is a lot and it does add a lot upfront, but it does make things easier down the road, right?
And so one of the things I would say to you to do is to make sure that no matter what you're doing, you have a really solid call to action. So if you're just going to do an episode summary and some bullet points making sure that you are telling people what you want them to do next. If you don't do anything else, this is the most important piece, giving them a call to action and even incorporating that into your sign off on your episode. So that way they hear it, and then they go and click and see it.
And then if you are not ready to do a blog post, I would highly suggest on your website having a page for your podcast that has a player that has where people can listen and directing people to that page. So you can link episodes to your website and you can link like your podcast to your website. And so making sure that you've done that. That way, when people click the link, they're not going on into the interwebs. They're going right to your website and getting the information they need from you.
And then as you go, you can add to it, you know, writing a blog post, getting transcripts and having that on your website. Those things, you can add down the road and take them each step at a time. But it's really important to start somewhere.
And this is one of the things that I think outsourcing is, is probably this is one of my favorite pieces to outsource because it can be time consuming, especially once you start developing them and getting them as long or short as you want, right? And so I actually outsource this myself, and a really good show notes writer is going to be able to take your episode, put it into a written form, grab the main bullet points, the main highlights from the episode, maybe even pull quote for you that you can use in your social media. But the main thing that you want them to be doing is making sure that they are using the keywords that are important for that SEO. So that way, if you take it and you put it on your website, it's going to do what it needs to do, right?
Granted, there's a whole bunch of stuff about websites and optimizing, but whatever we can start here with the Google Doc, and that's a really great first step. Again, I'm not an SEO expert, but we have kind of seen what works and what doesn't. And that's kind of what I would look for and the things that I would ask of my show notes writer.
So if you are ready to add show notes to your podcast and you think of as something you might want to outsource, I would love for you to check out the services that we offer at Wild Home Podcasting. And you can just head to WildHomePodcasting.com/services and you can see the different ways that we help podcasters. Our monthly podcast management is where you would get the help with editing and show notes and things like that, and you can kind of see how that works on the website. But of course, let me know if you have any questions. And of course, we are heading into the end of February and the beginning of March, and I love this spring. It's such a great time for launching and getting a podcast ready to go live. And so if you need help with that as well, we actually have some spots available for podcast launches. So same website WildHomePodcasting.com/services. Go check it out and I will be with you next week with a new episode.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
