Podcast Show Notes: What Matters Most

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Discover why brevity is your friend when it comes to show notes—you want to hook potential listeners without giving away your entire episode. In this episode, we explore the delicate balance of providing value through relevant resources while maintaining intrigue that drives your listeners to press play.

Check out our blog post for 5 free show note templates you can use for your podcast! 

If you have questions about preparing for your podcast, email us at [e-mail]. 

Have a topic or question we should address on a future episode? Text us or email the Buzzsprout Podcaster Success Team at [e-mail]

Keep podcasting!

Episode Transcript

Cara Pacetti (00:00):
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A brought to you by
the people at Buzzsprout.
I'm your host, Cara Passetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
I'm excited for today becauseMegan, who is a part of our
marketing team here atBuzzsprout, is here with me.

(00:21):
What some of you may not knowabout Megan is she spent the
first part of her time here as apodcaster success specialist,
serving our podcasters insupport and since she has both
experience in marketing and inthe support world, I'm so
grateful we get to tackletoday's question together.
Thank you for being here today,Megan.

Megan Nelson (00:40):
Oh my gosh, what an intro.
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.

Cara Pacetti (00:44):
Yes, I am too.
This is exciting.
We're in the podcasting spacenow, not in support, so this is
fun.

Megan Nelson (00:50):
I know this is new for you and me.
I like it.

Cara Pacetti (00:52):
Yeah, well, today's question that we're
going to tackle is whichelements make up good podcast
show notes.
So there's a delicate balancefor creating perfect show notes
for your podcast and yourlisteners.
While you don't want to leaveanything important out, you also
don't want your listeners tohave to wade through repetitive

(01:13):
or maybe even unnecessarycontent in order to grab a link
or a resource that you werediscussing.
So today we're going to coversome elements that we feel
should definitely be a part ofyour show notes and why they're
so important.

Megan Nelson (01:28):
All right, let's get into it.
I'm excited.
I feel like show notes is likeeveryone does them, so it's
important to know what you'relooking for.

Cara Pacetti (01:32):
Absolutely so.
Megan, I'm sure you've comeacross some pretty lengthy show
notes, and so have I.
Can you give us your take onreally how long should show
notes be and some guidance onwhat to include?

Megan Nelson (01:45):
Yeah.
So I know it's really temptingright To write like these super
long show notes or really longdescriptions, because you want
to include every ounce ofinformation possible.
You don't want to leaveanything out for your listeners,
but it's actually better tokeep your show notes relatively
short.
You don't want to give away thewhole episode because you want
people to actually go and listento the episode.
So I feel like show notesshould be just long enough to

(02:08):
give the information that getsthem hooked.
It's also a great place toprovide resources for your
listeners, but that doesn't meanyou have to promote everything
that you have or every singlething that you do.
It should really just be theresources that are relevant to
the episode, like a link toanother podcast that you maybe
talked about or your guest'ssocial media information.
And if you're not sure whatthat looks like, we actually

(02:28):
have a blog post on theBuzzsprout blog that shares
different templates orframeworks that you can use to
get started.
I can share that with Kara soshe can link to it in the show
notes and see that's a relevantthing to put in your show notes.

Cara Pacetti (02:40):
I was going to say that is such a great example of
something that we will link inthe show notes.
Absolutely, I will add that andit is a really great resource,
so appreciative of that.
So there's a lot of talk aboutSEO out there.
First of all, can you help usunderstand what does SEO stand
for and what role does it playin podcasting?

Megan Nelson (03:01):
Yeah, so SEO stands for search engine
optimization and this is alittle bit different for
podcasting.
Show notes are mostly used forpodcast directory SEO.
So specifically on Spotify andYouTube, they're going to look
at your show notes as a piece ofthe puzzle to determine when
you appear in search results.
They're not the only factor,but having keywords in your
description can help you appearin search results.

(03:24):
For podcasters who are lookingfor new shows to listen to,
those keywords are typicallyanswers to questions of what
someone would be searching forin the search bar to find your
episode.
You can do this keywordresearch on your own or you can
use free keyword finder tools,but I have found what works best
for me is trying to focus onanswering questions about your
episode and then answering thosequestions in your show notes.

Cara Pacetti (03:47):
That's a great point and you know, as a
podcaster, you know yourlisteners best, so you know what
questions you're answeringthrough this episode.
You know what is communicating.
So, as much as you can use thefinders, which are super helpful
, you, as the podcaster, canreally identify those keywords
and add them to your show notes.
One thing I'd like to clarifyabout keywords in podcasting is

(04:10):
that it's not like social media,so they're not like hashtags,
where you run them all togetherand put the hashtag symbol in
front of them.
They're actually just the wordsthat you're adding in your
title, so we don't need to worryabout grouping them all
together with no spaces.
It's just a part of your titleand you're just being really
intentional about the words thatyou're using.

(04:32):
Is that?

Megan Nelson (04:32):
right, megan.
Yeah, and you can include themin your title and also
throughout your show notes aswell.
Both will be great places toinclude those keywords.

Cara Pacetti (04:41):
Perfect.
So the main goal for your shownotes is to summarize what your
episode is about and makereaders want to listen, make it
clear on how the episode canbenefit them or help them solve
a problem, and be sure tosprinkle in a couple terms for
SEO along the way.
I want to move on to the nextelement that we recommend for
creating great podcast shownotes.

(05:03):
So the next element that werecommend is to include a call
to action.
This can be many things.
One call to action that'sreally popular is asking your
listeners for reviews.
The purpose behind reviews issimple Humans like to know
someone else has tried somethingfirst and that they'll vouch
for it.
Megan, can you explain what apodcast review is and how

(05:24):
podcasters can ask for them fromtheir listeners?

Megan Nelson (05:28):
Yeah, so a podcast review is a comment from a
listener sharing what they thinkabout your show.
These reviews are public soother people can see them.
A lot of the times they helpother listeners determine what
your show is about and if it'ssomething they would want to
listen to.
You can kind of think of it asa word of mouth recommendation
from other podcast listeners.
There are a lot of podcasts outthere, so these can help

(05:50):
persuade a listener to listen toyour show instead of another
one.
A great way to ask for podcastreviews is at the end of your
episode or at the beginning ofyour episode, just sharing with
your audience how importantthese are to you and saying it
takes 30 seconds, If you don'tmind writing a review for my
podcast.
It really helps to grow my showor it really helps me to know
how I can improve.
Anything like that is great asa way to get your listeners to

(06:13):
participate.

Cara Pacetti (06:14):
Absolutely, and including that in your show
notes written out will just bethat visual reminder that that's
what we're asking for from ourlisteners to leave a review.
So while asking for reviews area great call to action, another
call to action is to invite yourlisteners to explore some of
the resources that you areproviding.
Say, there's a newsletter or acourse that's associated with

(06:35):
your podcast.
A call to action in yourepisode would be to go check
those out, go register for thatcourse, go sign up for that
newsletter so they're notmissing anything.
Of course you'll want tohighlight that during your
episode and talk about it, butthe show notes is a great way to
navigate from your episode tothat resource that you are
highlighting during your episode.

(06:56):
The same principle applies forlinking merchandise.
So if you're selling podcastmerchandise or maybe even a
product that you recommendedduring your episode, the show
notes are a great place to linkthat purchasing site.
Again, we're just trying tomake it really easy for your
listener to navigate from thatepisode where you mentioned that
resource over to that site.

(07:16):
That allows them to do thatnext actionable step.

Megan Nelson (07:20):
Yeah, that's awesome.
It's also a great place toinclude any resources about your
guest.
So sometimes, if you have aguest on your podcast, it can be
helpful to share their socialmedia or their website anything
that they're trying to promote.
It's like a show of good faiththat you want to promote your
guests as well.
It will help them want to comeback on your show and also help
your audience get connected withthem.

Cara Pacetti (07:40):
And, of course, you'll always want to get
permission from your guests onwhich resources they want shared
and if they're okay with that.
But that's a really great point.
The last element I recommendincluding in your show notes are
any affiliate links orimportant resources as it
relates to your episode.
Oftentimes when you're workingwith an advertiser, they will
ask you to mention their productduring your episode.

(08:03):
We see this a lot withcompanies like Skillshare or
Audible or even Amazon.
When you mention the companyduring your episode, you want to
provide a resource for yourlisteners again to access that
external site.
So your show notes is a greatplace to add an affiliate link
that maybe an advertiser hasprovided for you.

Megan Nelson (08:22):
If you don't have any affiliates, you don't need
to freak out.
If you're a Buzzsproutpodcaster, you can promote
Buzzsprout as your affiliate.
We have a Refer a Friendprogram that is really awesome
in your account and it allowsyou to share a Buzzsprout link
with friends and if they sign up, you both get rewarded for that
.
So it's a great way to startwith affiliates if you don't

(08:42):
have any.

Cara Pacetti (08:43):
So some of the information that you do share in
your show notes become a littlebit repetitive, whether it's
social media channels or maybe awebsite, or even if you're a
medical podcast and you have adisclaimer or there's just
something that you are alwaysgoing to be copying and pasting
in your show notes.
I want to point out our episodefooter.
So the episode footer is agreat spot to add that

(09:05):
information that you know you'rejust going to copy and paste
with every episode, and so whenyou make an edit in your episode
footer on any of your episodes,it will automatically apply to
all of the episodes in your backcatalog.
So that's a great place forthat information that, just
without a doubt, has to beincluded on all of your episodes
.

Megan Nelson (09:24):
Yeah, the episode footer saves so much time
because you're not having to putit in every single time.

Cara Pacetti (09:29):
Absolutely yeah, it reduces the risk of mistakes,
right?
Yes, Super helpful.

Megan Nelson (09:35):
If it feels like we're saying resources a lot, we
definitely are.
I think that's a good thing topoint out is that your show
notes are a great place for youraudience to go after your
episode or to continue learningabout your episode.
It shouldn't give away everysingle piece of your episode, so
resources is really a great wayto guide your show notes, like
a short description of yourepisode and then just get into
what your audience needs tocontinue engaging with your

(09:58):
content.
All right, Well.

Cara Pacetti (10:01):
I hope that this episode has been helpful for you
today.
There's a lot of things thatyou can add inside of your show
notes, but I think the maintakeaways are, like we said just
keep it brief.
Make sure that you areincluding resources and external
links in your show notes, andbe sure to ask for that call to
action.
Your listeners want to feelinvolved in your podcast.

(10:23):
They want to communicate andconnect with you, so don't feel
like it's rude to ask for areview.
Remember they're supporting you, so I think that they'll be
happy and eager to do it.
You just have to ask.
So if you have any questionsabout your show notes, our
podcast for success team isalways eager to help you with
any questions you have, so youcan reach out to us at any time

(10:43):
by emailing us at support atbuzzsproutcom.
If you have a question that youwant us to answer on a future
podcasting Q&A episode, makesure you click the send us a
text link in the show notes andwe can hopefully get that
question answered on a futureepisode.
This has been so fun.
Thank you for joining me today,megan.
I really appreciate it.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.

(11:05):
Thanks for listening and, asalways, keep podcasting.