You’ve devoted all this time, blood, sweat and tears into creating an amazing show. But you can’t just stop there. Now you have to roll up your sleeves, put on your marketing hat and do some promotion! After all, you’ve created this amazing content. Now it’s time to help people find it.
Show notes can be one of the best resources to get your listeners to your website. If someone asked you to sum up what are the best parts of this episode, what would you tell them?
Show notes help your podcast in a number of ways:
- They provide a recap of the episode, summarizing the key points in an easily digestible way for a user to determine if this is something they actually want to listen to.
- They provide a resource hub for all the important links mentioned in the episode as well as action steps you want the listener to take.
- They help boost SEO so people can find your content and your website.
That’s why it’s important not to neglect your show notes or think of them as an afterthought. It requires some intentionality because after all, you want to make the best podcast ever, so that means covering it from every angle.
But creating quality show notes doesn’t have to be hard. Yes, the thought of having to go back through your audio may make you want to roll your eyes, but it can be a lot easier if you start thinking ahead.
Here’s some best practices to remember when writing up your show notes:
Start with Your Summary
Some people will turn their show notes into a giant blog, but a visitor coming to see what you’re all about is more than likely not going to be expecting to read that much content. Let your transcript be the place for long content. (More on this later).
This is your introduction. Use this as the place to provide some exposition on your guest and set-up the narrative you’re about to tell. Remember that quality is the key. Keep it around 3-4 small paragraphs, no more than 300 words.
An example of a good format for this would be:
1st paragraph – Lead with a guest quote. Who is this person, why should they trust them and what kind of background do they have?
2nd paragraph – Tie it into the reason for doing the episode and how it relates to why this person is on the show.
3rd paragraph – Tease what is going to happen in the episode.
Think about SEO
There is nothing more frustrating than having a podcast that nobody is listening to, so make sure that SEO is top of mind when creating your headline and show notes. Find the right keywords applicable to your subject matter and sprinkle them into your content wherever it makes the most sense. Your transcript is also a fantastic resource for helping boost your SEO.
Use Bullet Points
Bullet points should follow your summary and serve as an excellent way to organize the key takeaways from the episode.
- Remember to include the timestamps for each callout.
- Keep it short, punchy and limit it to one sentence.
- Communicate the value and tell them exactly what they’re going to get from this episode. For example, “in this episode, you’ll learn about…”
Pro Tip: Scripting out your episode is going to make creating bullet points a breeze. As you’re editing your podcast and listening to the audio, make note of the natural breaks and sequence of the episode and write down the timestamps. That way when you’re ready to do your show notes, you’ve done most of the heavy lifting already.
Provide Resource Links
More than likely your audience isn’t going to be taking notes while listening to your podcast, so including a resource section is a must, especially if you want them to take action. Here’s where you list all the important links you’ve referenced in the episode. Whether you want to add copy or just links is up to you, but your goal in this section is to make this as easy and accessible as possible to prompt that click.
Make it Shareable
You could always use a few more pieces of flare, right? Adding some visual representation of key points could be very beneficial. Plus, it can leverage your listeners to help you spread the word. When recording your episode be sure to take note of any important antecodes you or your guest say and turn them into something shareable that your audience can take it and post on their social media.
Offer Bonus Content
This is your opportunity to turn a casual listener into an advocate for your brand. Offer a checklist or a quick start guide, but give them something in exchange for their email address. You can even tag them so you can track what episode they converted on and serve up content that’s relevant for them.
Remember to Subscribe
Don’t forget to add some copy at the end of your show notes prompting your listeners to subscribe to your podcast. Remember it’s all about building your audience!
Use the Same Format
Having a good template moving forward is going to help you create consistency as well as minimizing the amount of time you’re spending having to create additional content or each episode.
That’s one of the reasons we created Fusebox. To help you take the guesswork out of maintaining your podcast and make it incredibly easy to set-up your content in a way that encourages your audience to browse and engage more with your site.
An incredibly powerful feature in Fusebox that will really help you is the transcript plugin. This will give your show notes a potential SEO boost, while allowing your fans to quickly scan the episode and also helps those with accessibility needs. Best of all, the plugin is free! If you haven’t checked out Fusebox yet, now is the time to try it out.
Remember, all of this plays a part in shaping your overall presentation of your podcast. The more intentionally you put into all the details, the more professional your product is going to be and that is a “show” note, worth taking.
