Why are Show Notes Important?
Episode Show Notes
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Did you know that show notes allow your podcast to be discovered and grow? They are a key piece in the podcasting puzzle, so it is crucial for podcasters to invest time and effort on their show notes. Today, Julian and TJ sit down to chat about everything around show notes, why they matter, how they make it easier for your podcast to be discovered and how they create value for your audience. Don’t miss this incredible episode, and don’t forget to read these show notes!
Jump straight into:
(00:54) - Why does your podcast even need show notes? - “Writing a quick sentence when submitting your podcast is bad, but probably the worst thing you can do is not having them in the first place.”
(03:06) - A simple yet effective guide to structure your show notes - “We have three basic buckets that we like to structure our show notes into: description, timestamps and references.”
(05:38) - The evergreen nature of podcasting and why you need to know your platform - “Somebody might be searching for that particular topic five years from now, and if you have great keywords that highlight what's in your episode, there's a great opportunity for your podcast to be discovered even then.”
(08:59) - How to step up your show notes game even if you’re not confident in your writing skills - “It's actually very, very easy to do. You just have to put in the time and the effort.”
Resources
AdsWizz Podcast Trends Report 2020
PodOn is hosted by TJ Bonaventura and Julian Lewis, founders of the full-service podcast company based in San Francisco, StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at info@studiopodsf.com or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodmedia.
Episode Transcript (via Rev.com)
TJ Bonaventura:
In a recent study conducted by AdsWizz and Symbol Cast, they found that 36% of creators who are launching more episodes are going to continue to launch more episodes and or new shows in 2021. Forty percent of those creators are keeping their podcast production about the same, and 16% of creators are scaling back with fewer episodes and pause shows. What that means? We're `going to see a lot more podcasts in 2021.
Julian Lewis:
This is The Pod On Podcast.
TJ Bonaventura:
We're your host, TJ Bonaventura that's me and Julian Lewis.
Julian Lewis:
That's me.
TJ Bonaventura:
As founders of a podcast media company. We had to start a podcast. So join us each episode as we in our guests drop knowledge on podcasting for you, the curious and scrappy podcaster. We are back again. He's Julian, I'm TJ. Together we're Studio Pod. The dynamic duo. Since Scotty, since Jordan, I'll let you decide who's who, but today we're talking about show notes.
Julian Lewis:
Honestly, I would be okay with being like Jordan and Rodman. Honestly. I don't know if you watched The Last Dance, actually. I know you watched The Last Dance cause we've talked about it, but Rodman was the man. He wasn't there as long, but he was the man.
TJ Bonaventura:
Okay. So one of us has got to be the bad boy. For those who know us, you can decide for those of you who want to just assume we can best by our voices. So today we're talking show notes, the importance of show notes, why you need to do them and how to do them. Julian, I want you to lead this all off and talk about the why.
Julian Lewis:
Well, well you just need them TJ. Do you want to submit your podcast?
TJ Bonaventura:
Yes, that is true. If you want to submit your podcast, you need show notes. Absolutely. It's a required.
Julian Lewis:
Exactly. And I think honestly, people they go to submit, they upload their audio, they name their show. They put whatever episode number it is and they go to hit submit and they get that little warning that says you need show notes. And they're like, ah, shit okay, let me just write a quick sentence. And then that's it. And that is probably the worst thing you can do besides not having them in the first place, which I guess not having them is the worst thing, because then you can't submit, but there are so many benefits to show notes. And the biggest thing is discoverability.
Julian Lewis:
By far, one of the hardest things in podcasting is getting your podcast discovered beyond your mom and your friends and whoever you have in terms of followers on social media. SEO is search engine optimization and allows for somebody who's searching for a particular keyword, whether it be on Google, in a broader search or within a podcasting platform. If they're looking for a particular topic, you want to make sure that you show up. So that is the key reason why beyond the fact that you just have to have them.
TJ Bonaventura:
In addition, I want to talk a little bit about how you do it, right? It is quite daunting. It seems very simple. When you look at someone else's show, it's like, oh, this isn't that bad. This is maybe like a half a page worth of content. But we have seen time and time again, the stress that show notes cause people they're like, why do I need to do this? Why can't like, why can't I just submit it. As Julian talked about there's importance of ability, but there's also the importance of just letting your audience know what parts of the podcasts are going to be interesting to them, with tricks like timestamps. So we're going to talk about our structure and how we like to set up our show notes. And one of those is timestamps. So we have three basic buckets that we like to structure our show notes into.
TJ Bonaventura:
We have a description. So just a quick description about who Julian and I are, what the Pod on Podcast is about. Why you should listen, that can be static and maybe a little snippet of what we're talking about on this episode. The second part is going to be timestamps. So which particular parts of the show are going to be interesting to the listener? So if they wanted to, let's say jump to a specific spot within the show, they can do so with certain platforms. And we're going to talk about that in just a second. What I mean by certain platforms. And the third part is going to be references. So anytime Julian and I, or anytime that you're going to be referencing a book, another podcast, another company, anything that your guest is talking about or what your guests are talking about, you want to give them a call out and you want to provide a direct link to that. So then the audience knows exactly where to find that book, that article, that other podcast.
Julian Lewis:
Exactly. And it's a great place to also put your social links of where people can find you ,your website to. So it's very accessible and they don't have to be sitting there when they're most likely multitasking, listening to your podcast and making a note, right? They know that it's in your show notes and if it's not, it could be a very frustrating experience.
TJ Bonaventura:
Call this information out, Julian. I know you have specific examples that you can share.
Julian Lewis:
Yeah, definitely. And I think also like any larger reading materials that allow for them to dive deeper in the topic. One of the biggest things that we say to our corporate clients is, "do not read a email over audio and send it to people." Give a summary in an engaging way. And then if people want to learn a more about that particular topic link to that material in the show notes. So that is a, a great point for that. And then in terms of organizations and what they're doing, just put the signup form there and get people to just say like, Hey, check out the show notes and sign up for our volunteer event that's happening virtually or whatever it might be.
TJ Bonaventura:
Yeah use the audio to call it the show notes too.
Julian Lewis:
Exactly.
TJ Bonaventura:
I want to say something that may not be fully aware to everyone, but because podcasting is done through an RSS feed, that means you need to host each episode as if it's it own blog. So it needs to live on a webpage somewhere. It's not just living on our mobile devices. I don't think a lot of people understand that. So that's why when Julian talked about SEO benefits, that you're putting these show notes directly on the web so that people, they Google podcasts about the curious and scrappy podcast or podcast about show notes. People will hopefully discover the show and then you can link them to subscribe. You get them to be subscribe. You get them to download you. That's the golden ticket.
Julian Lewis:
Yeah. And just to reiterate on that, coming from the advertising world, one of the benefits of a podcast is the fact that unless it's current events, there's an evergreen nature to it. And so somebody might be searching for that particular topic five years from now. And if you have great keywords that highlight what's in your episode, there's a great opportunity for your podcast to be discovered, not just when you launch it, but then to be discovered way down the road, when somebody's looking for that particular topic.
TJ Bonaventura:
There's an old term that I used to use in basketball, but other sports, some people may notice is KYP: know your personnel, but I'm switching it here, it's going to be know your platform. Okay. We talked about platforms and why you need to know the different platforms and their capabilities, because that's going to really dictate how you write your show notes. So for one, Apple has an additional summary that you can add onto. So you probably want to create something that's going to be a little bit not long winded. And some think that's going to be a little bit more specific to what your show's going to be about. Maybe give me a little bit more color so that you can add it on their additional summary that you can see on their webpage. Spotify for the longest time, didn't support HTML. So when you would submit your show notes, it would just be one long paragraph. They have since switched that.
TJ Bonaventura:
So now there is fully HTML capabilities. So you want to make sure that you are formatting your show notes appropriately with that. In addition, Spotify also has, and I talked about this during the timestamp section in our show here, is that what you can do is if you provide timestamps, Spotify will allow you to link those timestamps. So if a, at the seven minute mark, this episode, we're talking about timestamps, someone can click that link and take them directly to the part of the show of where we're talking about that particular subject.
TJ Bonaventura:
And you can do that 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times. You don't want to be overkill with it, but it is really cool. And we're seeing a lot of people do that at the end of each podcast. There's a show that I like the Ryen Russillo podcast. He does something called life advice. I go to his show and I want to know exactly when they talk about the life advice section. It's about 15 minutes long. I click it. It takes me directly to there and I can listen to it. It's really, really cool. It's really, really an engaging way to connect with your audience.
Julian Lewis:
Yeah. I absolutely love that feature. And again, it's, it's, it's on Spotify only on mobile right now, but I see that evolving into other platforms as well, because exactly to TJ's point, if there's a particular segment that resonates with you the most, you don't want to have to filter through the content to find it again. If it's that critical to that episode, link it and allow that to just be an easy way for people to engage with your content.
TJ Bonaventura:
Yeah. And if you're lost on how to create show notes, look at your favorite shows out there, glean some insights from what they're doing. Look at ours, see, take a quick glance, do some, do some research. It shouldn't be something that you need to slave away on it. Doesn't have to do it.
Julian Lewis:
One thing that you might be asking yourself, but I'm not a writer, right. I literally chose an audio medium, so I wouldn't have to write. So how do you actually get written content? Use a tool like Descript, transcribe it, and then look for, and you can search in Decript, look for a key point that you want to make that summarizes your podcast, literally copy and paste that in. And you're good to go.
Julian Lewis:
It's actually very, very easy to do. You just have to put in the time and the effort. And then, just as a bonus, I would say leverage that transcription to convert your show notes, which is like a summary maybe into a larger blog post. Because again, yes, this is an audio medium, but in terms of discoverability, you want to make sure that your content is transcribed in a way that people can then search for something and then find it down the road. And so on a future episode, we'll talk about why you should have a podcasting website. And this is one of the key reasons why. That might be the whole episode.
TJ Bonaventura:
Awesome. So just to reiterate here, the reason why you want to do this, the why: SEO benefits, discoverability. You got to do it. You have to, it's a requirement. The how: template it out. We use a description, timestamps references, easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Julian Lewis:
This podcast is getting weird, in its second iteration.
TJ Bonaventura:
We told you we're back. We're full of energy. It's 2021.
Julian Lewis:
Lots of energy. I don't know if we said this, but we probably should. We're doing this full time. Like this is literally what we're doing now for work. And so if it's not fun, then we're not doing the right thing.
TJ Bonaventura:
Exactly. And if you guys don't know who Julian and I are, you guys are going to get a good taste cause we're two goofballs. So we love doing this stuff. We love joking around. So I hope you guys get our personality in this. And again, as we say at the end of each show, if you want to learn more, if you want us to help out in any sort of capacity, we have office hours every week, just reach out to us and we can schedule some time. And if you want to communicate through us in any sort of way, we have our Instagram at StudioPod SF that's the same on Twitter, same on Facebook. And our website is studio pod sf.com.
Julian Lewis:
Thanks for tuning in. Pod on.
TJ Bonaventura:
Pod on.
TJ Bonaventura:
Every episode of the Pod On podcast is produced and edited by StudioPod media. For more information about our work and our clients go to studio pod sf.com.
Julian Lewis:
Shout out to Gary Oakland for the fire track.
TJ Bonaventura:
Gary O!
In a recent study conducted by AdsWizz and Symbol Cast, they found that 36% of creators who are launching more episodes are going to continue to launch more episodes and or new shows in 2021. Forty percent of those creators are keeping their podcast production about the same, and 16% of creators are scaling back with fewer episodes and pause shows. What that means? We're `going to see a lot more podcasts in 2021.
Julian Lewis:
This is The Pod On Podcast.
TJ Bonaventura:
We're your host, TJ Bonaventura that's me and Julian Lewis.
Julian Lewis:
That's me.
TJ Bonaventura:
As founders of a podcast media company. We had to start a podcast. So join us each episode as we in our guests drop knowledge on podcasting for you, the curious and scrappy podcaster. We are back again. He's Julian, I'm TJ. Together we're Studio Pod. The dynamic duo. Since Scotty, since Jordan, I'll let you decide who's who, but today we're talking about show notes.
Julian Lewis:
Honestly, I would be okay with being like Jordan and Rodman. Honestly. I don't know if you watched The Last Dance, actually. I know you watched The Last Dance cause we've talked about it, but Rodman was the man. He wasn't there as long, but he was the man.
TJ Bonaventura:
Okay. So one of us has got to be the bad boy. For those who know us, you can decide for those of you who want to just assume we can best by our voices. So today we're talking show notes, the importance of show notes, why you need to do them and how to do them. Julian, I want you to lead this all off and talk about the why.
Julian Lewis:
Well, well you just need them TJ. Do you want to submit your podcast?
TJ Bonaventura:
Yes, that is true. If you want to submit your podcast, you need show notes. Absolutely. It's a required.
Julian Lewis:
Exactly. And I think honestly, people they go to submit, they upload their audio, they name their show. They put whatever episode number it is and they go to hit submit and they get that little warning that says you need show notes. And they're like, ah, shit okay, let me just write a quick sentence. And then that's it. And that is probably the worst thing you can do besides not having them in the first place, which I guess not having them is the worst thing, because then you can't submit, but there are so many benefits to show notes. And the biggest thing is discoverability.
Julian Lewis:
By far, one of the hardest things in podcasting is getting your podcast discovered beyond your mom and your friends and whoever you have in terms of followers on social media. SEO is search engine optimization and allows for somebody who's searching for a particular keyword, whether it be on Google, in a broader search or within a podcasting platform. If they're looking for a particular topic, you want to make sure that you show up. So that is the key reason why beyond the fact that you just have to have them.
TJ Bonaventura:
In addition, I want to talk a little bit about how you do it, right? It is quite daunting. It seems very simple. When you look at someone else's show, it's like, oh, this isn't that bad. This is maybe like a half a page worth of content. But we have seen time and time again, the stress that show notes cause people they're like, why do I need to do this? Why can't like, why can't I just submit it. As Julian talked about there's importance of ability, but there's also the importance of just letting your audience know what parts of the podcasts are going to be interesting to them, with tricks like timestamps. So we're going to talk about our structure and how we like to set up our show notes. And one of those is timestamps. So we have three basic buckets that we like to structure our show notes into.
TJ Bonaventura:
We have a description. So just a quick description about who Julian and I are, what the Pod on Podcast is about. Why you should listen, that can be static and maybe a little snippet of what we're talking about on this episode. The second part is going to be timestamps. So which particular parts of the show are going to be interesting to the listener? So if they wanted to, let's say jump to a specific spot within the show, they can do so with certain platforms. And we're going to talk about that in just a second. What I mean by certain platforms. And the third part is going to be references. So anytime Julian and I, or anytime that you're going to be referencing a book, another podcast, another company, anything that your guest is talking about or what your guests are talking about, you want to give them a call out and you want to provide a direct link to that. So then the audience knows exactly where to find that book, that article, that other podcast.
Julian Lewis:
Exactly. And it's a great place to also put your social links of where people can find you ,your website to. So it's very accessible and they don't have to be sitting there when they're most likely multitasking, listening to your podcast and making a note, right? They know that it's in your show notes and if it's not, it could be a very frustrating experience.
TJ Bonaventura:
Call this information out, Julian. I know you have specific examples that you can share.
Julian Lewis:
Yeah, definitely. And I think also like any larger reading materials that allow for them to dive deeper in the topic. One of the biggest things that we say to our corporate clients is, "do not read a email over audio and send it to people." Give a summary in an engaging way. And then if people want to learn a more about that particular topic link to that material in the show notes. So that is a, a great point for that. And then in terms of organizations and what they're doing, just put the signup form there and get people to just say like, Hey, check out the show notes and sign up for our volunteer event that's happening virtually or whatever it might be.
TJ Bonaventura:
Yeah use the audio to call it the show notes too.
Julian Lewis:
Exactly.
TJ Bonaventura:
I want to say something that may not be fully aware to everyone, but because podcasting is done through an RSS feed, that means you need to host each episode as if it's it own blog. So it needs to live on a webpage somewhere. It's not just living on our mobile devices. I don't think a lot of people understand that. So that's why when Julian talked about SEO benefits, that you're putting these show notes directly on the web so that people, they Google podcasts about the curious and scrappy podcast or podcast about show notes. People will hopefully discover the show and then you can link them to subscribe. You get them to be subscribe. You get them to download you. That's the golden ticket.
Julian Lewis:
Yeah. And just to reiterate on that, coming from the advertising world, one of the benefits of a podcast is the fact that unless it's current events, there's an evergreen nature to it. And so somebody might be searching for that particular topic five years from now. And if you have great keywords that highlight what's in your episode, there's a great opportunity for your podcast to be discovered, not just when you launch it, but then to be discovered way down the road, when somebody's looking for that particular topic.
TJ Bonaventura:
There's an old term that I used to use in basketball, but other sports, some people may notice is KYP: know your personnel, but I'm switching it here, it's going to be know your platform. Okay. We talked about platforms and why you need to know the different platforms and their capabilities, because that's going to really dictate how you write your show notes. So for one, Apple has an additional summary that you can add onto. So you probably want to create something that's going to be a little bit not long winded. And some think that's going to be a little bit more specific to what your show's going to be about. Maybe give me a little bit more color so that you can add it on their additional summary that you can see on their webpage. Spotify for the longest time, didn't support HTML. So when you would submit your show notes, it would just be one long paragraph. They have since switched that.
TJ Bonaventura:
So now there is fully HTML capabilities. So you want to make sure that you are formatting your show notes appropriately with that. In addition, Spotify also has, and I talked about this during the timestamp section in our show here, is that what you can do is if you provide timestamps, Spotify will allow you to link those timestamps. So if a, at the seven minute mark, this episode, we're talking about timestamps, someone can click that link and take them directly to the part of the show of where we're talking about that particular subject.
TJ Bonaventura:
And you can do that 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times. You don't want to be overkill with it, but it is really cool. And we're seeing a lot of people do that at the end of each podcast. There's a show that I like the Ryen Russillo podcast. He does something called life advice. I go to his show and I want to know exactly when they talk about the life advice section. It's about 15 minutes long. I click it. It takes me directly to there and I can listen to it. It's really, really cool. It's really, really an engaging way to connect with your audience.
Julian Lewis:
Yeah. I absolutely love that feature. And again, it's, it's, it's on Spotify only on mobile right now, but I see that evolving into other platforms as well, because exactly to TJ's point, if there's a particular segment that resonates with you the most, you don't want to have to filter through the content to find it again. If it's that critical to that episode, link it and allow that to just be an easy way for people to engage with your content.
TJ Bonaventura:
Yeah. And if you're lost on how to create show notes, look at your favorite shows out there, glean some insights from what they're doing. Look at ours, see, take a quick glance, do some, do some research. It shouldn't be something that you need to slave away on it. Doesn't have to do it.
Julian Lewis:
One thing that you might be asking yourself, but I'm not a writer, right. I literally chose an audio medium, so I wouldn't have to write. So how do you actually get written content? Use a tool like Descript, transcribe it, and then look for, and you can search in Decript, look for a key point that you want to make that summarizes your podcast, literally copy and paste that in. And you're good to go.
Julian Lewis:
It's actually very, very easy to do. You just have to put in the time and the effort. And then, just as a bonus, I would say leverage that transcription to convert your show notes, which is like a summary maybe into a larger blog post. Because again, yes, this is an audio medium, but in terms of discoverability, you want to make sure that your content is transcribed in a way that people can then search for something and then find it down the road. And so on a future episode, we'll talk about why you should have a podcasting website. And this is one of the key reasons why. That might be the whole episode.
TJ Bonaventura:
Awesome. So just to reiterate here, the reason why you want to do this, the why: SEO benefits, discoverability. You got to do it. You have to, it's a requirement. The how: template it out. We use a description, timestamps references, easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Julian Lewis:
This podcast is getting weird, in its second iteration.
TJ Bonaventura:
We told you we're back. We're full of energy. It's 2021.
Julian Lewis:
Lots of energy. I don't know if we said this, but we probably should. We're doing this full time. Like this is literally what we're doing now for work. And so if it's not fun, then we're not doing the right thing.
TJ Bonaventura:
Exactly. And if you guys don't know who Julian and I are, you guys are going to get a good taste cause we're two goofballs. So we love doing this stuff. We love joking around. So I hope you guys get our personality in this. And again, as we say at the end of each show, if you want to learn more, if you want us to help out in any sort of capacity, we have office hours every week, just reach out to us and we can schedule some time. And if you want to communicate through us in any sort of way, we have our Instagram at StudioPod SF that's the same on Twitter, same on Facebook. And our website is studio pod sf.com.
Julian Lewis:
Thanks for tuning in. Pod on.
TJ Bonaventura:
Pod on.
TJ Bonaventura:
Every episode of the Pod On podcast is produced and edited by StudioPod media. For more information about our work and our clients go to studio pod sf.com.
Julian Lewis:
Shout out to Gary Oakland for the fire track.
TJ Bonaventura:
Gary O!