Writing Podcast Show Notes – PCI 334

0:00 You've invested this huge amount of time recording this beautiful piece of art that you're gonna publish, that you're very proud of. It's your baby maybe taking a lot of time to edit it, and you've gotten it out there and it just sits out there and you don't get a lot of traction. The show notes is a vehicle, one of the vehicles that is gonna help you be recognized over time, that there's great original content coming from your site in your brand. You are listening to Podcast Insider, hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcasting.

0:47 With all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting, welcome. Let's dive in. This is Todd Cochrane, CEO and co-founder of Blueberry Podcasting. And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist at Blueberry. Today, we're covering writing your show notes and why it's important. I think this is a really good topic for the two of us because you've been doing show notes for a very, very long time, and when I joined Blueberry seven or so years ago, you introduced me to show notes and gave me some best practices, and now I've just been doing them basically weekly basis ever since. You know, show notes are one thing that many podcasters truly hate doing.

1:31 It's pretty evident as you look through, you know, literally thousands of episodes and you see a title, then very little information that supports the title of the episode. And, and I'm not perfect by any means because I know that my tech show that I do twice a week have better show notes than the the media show I do with, um, someone else once a week. And the really shows on the, for me at least, I'm the response I get to by Google what episodes are found and which ones are not. Because I've, I've said this for many, many years, you know, we record this content for our audiences because many times our audiences are already subscribed and they're just looking at their, you know, their, their phone and they see the new episode pop up and they watch.

2:24 So they don't necessarily ever go back to the website unless you give 'em a reason to. But the show notes I've always said are, you're writing for Google and basically trying to, to win the Google search result game. I think today what you see is that you can find any title of any podcast. Almost universally, it's, it's not, most shows are able to be found by their title if they're unique enough. If they cross over two or three different names of two or three other shows, it might be in a small list, but it usually, you can find that specific show title. But when it comes to episodes, there's really a bit of an art to it.

3:09 And sometimes the rewards don't come until later. So oftentimes people get discouraged and not do show notes correctly because they're not seeing the results they wanna see very, very quickly. But, you know, I think really show notes. Start off with a great title and today's episode, I'm probably, you're gonna put something in the title about show notes and why it's important. I'm assuming that's what the title this episode's gonna be. Yeah. I'll figure something out. Yeah. . So, you know, so if someone's googling show notes are show notes important, you know, hopefully they'll find this particular podcast episode. You may be the listener to the shows contest this and find out.

3:52 But really, when you write the title, in my opinion, and again, they, everyone has an opinion on this. The title has to really be the context of what you're trying to convey from the, from the episode content, or the most important thing. When I do my tech show and I talk about 23, 3 d, 23 different topics, , I have to pick one of those topics as the one that I think is gonna get the best bang as part of my, uh, description of the episode. But what happens is, in my opinion, is you write that good title, then you write a good, uh, supporting paragraph. And the supporting paragraph should really support the title.

4:32 So that you're trying re you're really trying to do is you're trying to train Google to say, oh, here's the title of this post, which podcasts are technically post, but they're just with media attached. And here's what the author has said is the context of this post. And if you do it right, you might end up the top search results on the first page of Google. Now it's one continuous page, but in the first, in the first two or three or four results, you don't always win this battle with Google. Sometimes you don't even come up in the top 20 because maybe the topic is so popular at that very time that a hundred other people have written blog posts or podcast episodes that are relative to the exact topic and you're just kinda lost in the dust.

5:20 Yeah, you should really be googling your own, like what you wanna use, that's the title. , you should be googling that to make sure that that exact thing does not already exist or that it's, you know, showing up with results that are similar to what you wanna show up with essentially because you have that opportunity to put yourself out there and otherwise it, it's really a lost opportunity. And, and sometimes you're going to Google something and you're gonna see Wall Street Journal, New York Times. Mm-hmm. , you're gonna see four or five links and you are gonna go, no, no, no, no, not today. I'm not gonna use that title because be honest with you, average podcaster will never ever beat those mammoth publishing houses in the search ranking.

6:11 So you still want to be as precise as possible, but change that wording up a little bit so that at least you have an opportunity for people that are searching for that specific topic to find you to find your episode. And what really will happen is over time, that will be a lead magnet for you, is people land on your webpages and say, oh, this is the topic I'm looking for. Oh, by the way, there's a podcast and wow, there's a subscribe button to Spotify or Apple or wherever they like to listen to their podcast, bam, they're in and you have a new listener. So I've always used the show notes as, as almost a lead magnet. It's not perfect, it's just one of the multiple tenants of things you have to do in podcasting to grow your show. And, um, Sonos can be a, a savior, an SEO savior, but a lot of podcasters don't take the time and write a couple of paragraphs about that episode.

7:13 They're highly underutilized. Oh. It's like. So much, personally, I look at them for most every episode that I listen to of the show of, you know, whatever show that I'm listening to, just because I know that they should be there in the first place. But I am a person that a lot of the time will wanna go back to the original source material that they are referencing, that they're talking about, you know, whatever they brought up. I probably do want to go look at that. That's one of the reasons why we include every single link that we are discussing in our show notes every week, because we don't wanna, you know, just put something out there into the world that we are saying that we're speaking about based on this article.

7:57 And then not actually link to said article. Also, those links that you're including help with SEO as well. So people are literally leaving, you know, numerous ways to help themselves like off the table just because they are overwhelmed with writing a lot of the time. And if you, if you have written a good title, and again, a three to four sentences in a paragraph that backs up the title, then maybe a few notes, maybe bought a guest or a little more detail about what you talked about. You know, just kind of just give them the synopsis, you know, just something quick human write it because it's important to do that personal touch. And, you know, is an something that will add to this is you, you've written good show notes.

8:43 Maybe you've talked about your guests linked to their bio, maybe they're on Wikipedia or you've linked to their book or whatever you have done, or whatever those links that you are reference in your show that support maybe the content that you've created. Now, maybe you just as all original content, maybe there's no outbound links, but if there is, then maybe you can get that guest to say when you post your episode, say, here's my episode, can you link back to it? And if you've done a good job with the title and with the episode description and you know, concluded the bio and something nice about the guest that makes them more inclined to link back to you either from LinkedIn or Twitter or social or maybe from their own website, that's the best.

9:28 And they get that bonus of that reciprocal link back. If you have poor show notes with almost nothing in them, whoever you may have talked to or talked about or interviewed in the show, that gives them no incentive to link back to you, they're gonna look at that. It doesn't look good. Right? They're building reputation, they're giving you reputation by linking back to you. There's short term and achievements and using show notes. Short term is probably more along the lines of, I did really good for this one specific episode, or this, you know, one episode that we did with such and such guest really got us some good s e o because their name was in there.

10:10 Or just the topic was super relevant and we did like, we did a really awesome job for this one episode. But if you do it consistently over time and you build up all of those links and you build up this reputation and start to use some of the same keywords regularly, you're gonna have a better shot of, you know, getting people to your website in general on building up that s e o overall. Now we, we often look at word count. What is, what is our goal word count that we, we shoot for. So for show notes we try to do around like 400 to 600 just because like a usual blog post should be like 600 and more. So for this, you know, we don't want to completely say the exact same thing that we said within the episode.

11:00 We don't wanna have a cleaned up transcript just in a different way than what we said. So we try to aim for that. But some of the stuff that you put in your show notes, like some of what we have is the exact same that it was the week before. We're building up that, you know, here, here's what you do, here's how you contact us here so that you're not looking for it each time it is just there. The relevant information is easily found. Another thing to consider is once you're a number of episodes in, if there's something you've talked about in this episode that references a previous episode, you can always link back to that other episode and what it's really doing.

11:45 Iteo loves that. Google, you're telling Google within your own content, what I talked about, this references content within my own website and over time that really germinates a good, uh, a good score by Google. And again, i, I wanna emphasize something I said in the beginning, 90% of the people that subscribe to your show that are listening on a regular basis are probably never gonna come to your website unless you give them a reason to. And that reason maybe come unsign up for the newsletter, maybe I got some new merch. They will probably not need to come back to your website because they're gonna look at what's in your, in the Apple podcast. They're gonna look at your notes.

12:29 They may look in there for a link. They probably aren't gonna come back to the website. But again, what you're building is this, this value of this brand on your.com. Now, I went the extra level because when I started my podcast so many years ago, and I'm dating myself here by saying this, but 18 years ago there was no Facebook, there's no Twitter, there was no social media. So the only way that I was able to get traffic to my website was really from continuing to add content to the website. So I always think it's good if you have extra and no one has extra time, but if you have extra time and you can write an additional post about something that you're talking about along your topic area of your show and just add that content with not a podcast associate, just a regular blog post, you can accelerate this value you get for your website.

13:27 I know that's hard, I know that can take a lot of time, but again, it can, it can add a good value to the, to the brand, to your website, to, to get Google into the model of here's fresh original content. I know everyone right now is on the talking about chat, G B T and all these other things that are out there. I caution you YouTube use extreme caution when auto generating content for your website or for your podcast post. You make sure you do some plagiarism checking on those articles that if you ever use one of those services to create content for your website.

14:08 Because so many of these now are finding that just rep repurposing other people's content, changing a few words, the stuff that's found on the internet. So be real careful out there. I'm a true believer in original human written content is gonna win the day. Cuz at some point Google may say they're just trying to scam the mm-hmm the search engines. Mm-hmm. They're not doing it yet. And, and this is still developing it's early days for all this. I think human written content is always gonna win the day no matter what. But again, we template stuff, I template on my shows too because it makes it easier. But yet we fill that a lot of that template with original content that's.

14:49 That is the template and the format that we use every single week saves me so much time. So much thought. It's just so much easier to do with that, that I don't have to use, you know, something to assist me for the actual written copy because I can easily fill it out. I mean, even to the point of having that template, like you guys years and years ago designed a show notes notepad that you write down on so long ago that we still have to this day that people use because it just helps you during the process. And it's also great to be able to use, like while you're recording to write down any notes of something that you definitely wanna m mention in the show notes, but you, you know, you don't wanna forget it, that type of stuff. It's really, really easy to do this every time.

15:46 If you have a template, if you don't, you're gonna get overwhelmed and you're just not gonna do it. Now one tool that I absolutely love is a tool called Grammarly. Now, Mackenzie will attest if I just write something raw and don't take time to edit, it can be pretty bad. So I will take anything that I write today and put it through Grammarly and let it clean it up. Basically get my punctuation correct, tell me when I'm talking a passive voice. All those things that, you know, an English teacher would get you on if you turn in a paper and I'll let Grammarly make some edits for me and I take its suggestions and then make sure it's the way I want it.

16:28 It really allows me to sound better in the written word than what I would have if I would've originally written it myself. And I'm, I'm a nerd, I'm a geek, I think abstractly. I'm not a writer by profession. Grammarly has helped me a lot. But you may be uncomfortable with writing and this is something that someone can help you with. This could be a fan of the show, could help you with show notes and that's, you know, something you could consider. Mm-hmm , there's a lot of other options out there. Virtual assistants. A co-host, you know, co-host, yeah. Different, like different people on the show.

17:08 Like I handle a lot of the writing on this just because that's, you know, I excel at that in our group of people and it makes it a lot easier to stick with what you're trying, you know, the point that you're trying to get across. And you may want to even think about pro production. And we have a great pro production team here@blueberryblueberrypro.com. They can help you with these things as well. I think the key here is, is you've invested this huge amount of time recording this beautiful piece of art that you're gonna publish that you're very proud of. It's your baby maybe taking a lot of time to edit it and you've gotten it out there and it just sits out there and you don't get a lot, lot of traction. The show notes is a vehicle, one of the vehicles that is gonna help you be recognized over time that there's great original content coming from your site in your brand.

18:04 Sure, we're gonna be doing the social pieces, we're gonna be Facebook, we're gonna be doing, you know, we're gonna be talking family and friends and all that stuff. But at the same time, your show notes is a piece that Google and others can chew on. Now Bing just made some big announcements. I haven't used Bing in years, but maybe Bing will start surfacing some of this content in some of their new search engine and opportunities that they're working on. Main thing is discovery and we're using our website and our show notes for discovery of content and giving someone in the minute or so they spend on your page after they have found you via search results to say, Hmm, cool, I wanna hear more, don't wanna read more, I wanna hear more.

18:46 And as long as you make it easier for them to subscribe to you from that same origin point, then you may just gain a listener. And then when you gain a listener, that listener will tell their people because that is how the number one way of throwing your show is, is word of mouth. But if you get someone that comes in that says, wow, this is a great piece of a content, they're gonna know two or three people, they're gonna share that. And then, you know, it's just this, it's this spread. So you manually gain one, but you may gain 10 listeners just from the simple fact that one person landed on your page and decided to take a chance to listen to your content. And that's why also we'll have future episodes where we're gonna talk about the, the really the art of getting them into your episode and listening to your content and not wasting their time.

19:34 But today we're definitely focusing on the show. Notes. You know, one, one reason to also do your show notes each week that we've kind of forgotten about is sometimes you are required to based on whatever advertisement or sponsorship you have signed on for. That's. True. It's requirement for many campaigns that you do. They give you, you know, you sign up with the local restaurant and your town that you wanna give a discount for and they say, okay, you have to link us on your podcast. You have to say, you know, visit such and such website or use this promo code or whatever it is. And you have to give people access to that. And this is one of the ways that they will track that too a lot of the time.

20:16 Yeah, it'll be like maybe a sponsored by Semicolon and then some words in a hyperlink, whatever it may be. And the good thing about this sponsor, so you can actually go back and remove that if you want to. Mm-hmm . But the key here is, is it really gives something that is, can be seen and indexed and, and really you can grow from this, again, a lot of con so you're gonna hear other people say, oh you don't need a website. Okay, you may not need a website, but then you're just gonna have to work that much harder to be heard, discovered and found. Because if you don't really have an existing brand that you're building, you have to rely. So comp no unless you're famous, you know, then maybe you don't need a website. But if you look at all the top, top, top shows, find me one that doesn't have a, uh, their own website and please, please send me an email and let me know about it cuz I wanna see it because all the top shows have corresponding websites in great show notes to go along with their podcast.

21:19 There might be another thing that we haven't really discussed the differences between. And that is show notes that you see on your website of the full fully fledged, you know, 500 words show notes post. But there's also a summary that you see in many podcast apps that can be different than the entire show notes post on your website. And I think a lot of people might be more open to having those different versions just so they don't bombard people with the full show notes within the podcast app of their, you know, listener choice. Like you can have something show up different in Apple podcast app as opposed to what is gonna show on your website. Sure.

22:06 And I think that might be a good introduction to getting started or saying, you know, use this, use the shorter version for what you put in the summary and then go back and change the show notes and improve those, or, you know, get more comfortable with those as you go. But something that you could probably get more used to very quickly is just the, the more concise version that the podcast app seen. Yeah. So there's a selection in both the blueberry dashboard and also in Power press where you can set, uh, copy in alternate show notes for Apples specifically doesn't carry over to all apps, but it definitely carries over to Apple and, and a lot of the apps that's supported. So that's an one of the Apple features, uh, often seen under, I believe the advanced tab both on Blueberry dashboard and in Power Press.

23:02 And the next thing we got coming is the pro tip from the Blueberry Pro production team. Take it away. When the Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell released Doggy Dog in 1985, many of her hardcore fans freaked out. She was known for playing gentle acoustic guitar and singing on the new album. She didn't play guitar at all, someone else did. And it was a completely different electric synth based sound. So I guess it was understandable that fans were up in arms, but the album still sold copies and exposed her to a new audience. Later on in her career, she turned back to the more acoustic sound, but also moved deeper into jazz and orchestral music, gaining new audiences along the way.

23:52 If you dare change your podcast show format, know this. Not everyone is going to like it. Some people might even invest time in telling you why, and that's okay because not everyone is for you. So if you are feeling creatively stuck, maybe a podcast style or format change is a great next step. Here are seven points you might want to consider before you make the move. Number one, who is your podcast for, by the way, doing a podcast for you is a legitimate answer. Number two, what are you trying to do with your show? Is there a specific result you have in mind? Number three, if it's for business, think about the customer you want and how you can meet them where they are today. Number four, if you're looking to create a podcast that grows an income for you, what content do you need to make to attract the people and sponsors you want along with you? Number five, ask the specific people you actually like being around and enjoy serving what they think you're best at. Number six, podcasters can be fickle.

25:06 Commit to and refine your new direction for at least three months so you can measure it and decide if you want to revert back or change again. And number seven, good news, it's a spoiler alert. Podcasting is agile in a way that vinyl cassettes and CDs are not. So if elements of your show don't sit well, you can reedit re rebuild and republish. It's not a final pressing of a record. In 1985, I've been Toby Goodman from the pro team here at Blueberry and if you need help with relaunching repositioning or simply taking the weight off Time Hungry podcast post-production, come and say hi to us over@blueberrypro.com.

25:54 So unless we've got anything more on show notes, I think this is gonna wrap us up for this topic. And the best place to get more information on show notes is within our show notes where we'll have links where we've talked about this before. Very cool. Thank you for listening in on our topic today. Thanks. Thanks for joining us. Come back next week and in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. To check out our latest suite of services and learn how blueberry can help you leverage your podcast. Visit blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the ease. We couldn't afford the ease.