Episode 23: 3 Tips to Improve Your Show Notes
Your show notes are meant to hook your listeners in to press play on your episodes, but what actually makes them press play. In today's episode, I'll take you through 3 tips for improving your show notes.
You'll learn about:
How to get your audience to listen to the episode
Providing your audience with a value proposition
SEO upgrades to your podcast
Tips for keeping your process simple
Listen to Remi's episode here - www.goodchatmedia.co/podcast/episode-12/
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Good Chat Media acknowledges the traditional owners of the land where we work, live and record the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and we pay our respects to elder's past and present always was always will be Aboriginal land Hey, I'm Cass, the founder podcast production agency, Good Chat Media and welcome to Good chats. Good chat is a podcast with a holistic approach to business and marketing. And with the help of some super special people, I'll be spilling all the secrets about boosting your brand building credibility and connecting with community through podcasting. Let's get into the episode.
Hi friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Good Chats podcast. It's your girl Cass back again for another episode. This time we're talking about show notes and specifically how to make your show notes. It's so that people actually want to listen to your episode. So often, I read show notes and I'm like, this is not pulling me in whatsoever.
They're either too long and way too much information that I'm like, uh, why do I need to listen to this now? You've already told me everything. Or, they're the complete opposite and they don't tell me anything that I need to know about the episode and then I don't want to listen to it at all. So I'm going to share three really important tips for your show notes.
What I will say though, is if you read your own show notes and you wouldn't want to listen to your episode, I would start there. You want to be able to hook the listener in without it being, you know, clickbait or anything like that, but you want to be able to say, Hey, come and listen to this because this is what it's about and actually draw them in to listen So they're not just sitting there going Not for me.
So the idea with show notes is you want to give enough away that People want to stick around and listen to the episode, but it doesn't give enough away that you're thinking Why do I need to listen to this now? I know all there is to know about the subject So here are my three tips On how to improve your show notes.
So number one, which is something that I speak of all the time, so I'm sure you're not surprised. It is focusing on adding value to your audience. Instead of thinking, what can I tell people about this episode? Think about, what can they receive from coming to this episode? What will they receive if they stick around and listen to it?
Why are they coming to you for that? What could you give your audience that they're not going to get from anyone else or in the way that you're doing it? Because we're not reinventing the wheel here with anything we're talking about, but it's the way in which we say it that actually helps people to transform something in their life.
If that means it's their show notes. You're welcome. This is, this is my transformation for you. So have a think about what are they coming to you for what opinions or information can you provide that they will really benefit from if they listen to that episode, because that's what the show notes are there to do.
It's to convince them to listen to the episode. And then when you put it into the show notes, add a bit of personality. Tell them why they should listen to it and what they're going to get out of it. A tip that I use, which is a tip that I got from Mel Robbins, not personally, it was an episode that I listened to.
And I use this tip all the time with my clients, especially if they're new clients coming to me. I say, let's flip this around instead of saying, you know, this is what we talked about and we discussed this, this and this. It's like, cool, good for you. But if you reframe that and her tip is to say, you'll learn, what will your audience learn from this?
So what I usually like to do with, uh, my podcast and my clients podcasts, we do a small description. So something that's really going to stand out so that it's like, you know. Maybe a sentence or two or three that will say like what the actual topic is about and then underneath that say you'll learn or you'll learn about and then three to five dot points of the key topics that are going to really Convince them that they'll want to listen to this episode because they're going to gain understanding into the topic with those three to five dot points So really think about what value you're providing to your audience with that episode and why they should listen to it because they're going to want to get something out of that episode, whether it's inspiration, entertainment, or education, no matter what it is, they want to know what they're going to get from it.
The second very important tip is about SEO keywords. So, I am no SEO expert, but I do have a friend, the beautiful Remi from Sunday Best Digital, and she has come on the podcast before to talk about SEO, so if you missed that episode, I will link it in the description. SEO is really good for your website and it is good for getting your name onto Google.
So your episode titles are really important for you to be able to hook the listener in, but also you really want to focus on the keywords you're using to make your searchability easier as well. So things like that you can use for hooks is three tips too. Like we're using today. You can do five reasons to avoid X.
How to X. Because people want to know what they're gonna learn out of it or what they're gonna get out of it. And if they have a specific title that says that, then they're gonna be like, okay, when I want to improve my show notes, or make sure I'm on the mark for my show notes, I'm gonna go to this episode about show notes because that makes sense.
And then the episode titles are also really relevant if you have a special guest, because if people search their name into Spotify or Apple or Google, their name will come up on your podcast, especially if they don't have a podcast and it's not leading them to their podcast directly. If you type in their name, it's going to come up with any podcast that they've been on.
So you want to make sure yours is getting the clicks. And then you want to think of those actual keywords that you want to be known for. And you may have some of these noted for your business website. And there'll be similar, you know, crossover words depending on what your podcast is about. If you don't have those keywords and you need to get those started, I do have a whole episode with Rami about this.
And again, I will link that in the show notes so that you have full access to it and have a look. But basically when you think about it from a point of view of Google, If someone searches that phrase, those keywords, or the name of a guest you had, your episode link is likely to come up in those top searches.
So think about what people would be searching for when they think of the topic that you're speaking on. So, for me, I always use the guest name in the title, I also put all of the guest information in the show notes because they're going to create backlinks for the guest. I'm also going to have a page on my website with all of that information to create again more backlinks for the guest, but then it also puts their name on my website.
And when someone's searching, you know, a specific topic, to do with that person. My webpage and a link to Spotify or Apple for the podcast is going to come up. So have a think about what people are going to be searching and then start creating things from there. So for me, because a lot of the things that I speak about are about podcasting or marketing, I'm making sure that all of those terms that are coming up.
are in those episode titles. You feel? And my third tip is to keep it simple. Like with anything I do, we want to make it as easy and simple as possible so that it is easily replicatable. Is that a word? Let's pretend it is. For someone in your team to create, so make a template for your show notes, make a template for your website blog post for the episode and then just keep it simple when it comes to actually creating the show notes.
I had a client that wanted basically a full blog post for their show notes and as much as this could work fantastically on your website, there is no need for that to be in the episode description on Spotify or Apple because no one is going to read it. And I remember we had a few back and forths about it and of course I'm going to do what my clients are wanting, but it was one of those ones where it was never good enough because I didn't speak the lingo of that certain field, let's say, and we didn't speak each other's language when it came to this because they didn't want to take my advice and I wasn't able to write a blog post for them for their show description and I had no interest in doing so either.
You know how that worked out. But basically just keep it simple. Have a few lines. You don't need to make it more complicated than it is. Have a few lines. create the episode and say, you'll learn, or we covered or anything like that to show them what they're going to get if they listened to the episode and then put it into dot points of three to five dot points that are going to say what was covered in the episode, what they're going to learn from it, and where can they can find more information about the guest, the host, the program that they're speaking of.
Make sure your episodes always have all of the links that you spoke about. So that's like me right now, noting down Cass, make sure to put Remy's episode into this so that people can look back and reflect on it. I hope that this was really helpful for you. And if it was, please share it with a friend and let me know how.
It is going to help you improve your show notes. I'd love to see everyone with fantastic show notes and, you know, really making the most out of their episodes, making more people want them. The thing is doing this is a step to grow your podcast because you're improving, you're improving your processes for one.
For two, you're making more people want to actually listen to your podcast instead of it going, mm, doesn't sound like it's for me, next. And for three, I didn't have a third one, but you're welcome. I will talk to you next week in a really exciting episode with a gorgeous friend of mine and it's a really powerful one.
, I'm all about the power moves at the moment, and it's very, very cool to have this guest on the podcast. So keep an eye out for it next week, and I will chat to you later. Bye.
We want to say thanks so much for joining us for another good chat. We would love if you would help us with our 2023 goals to get to 100 ratings and reviews and then send this podcast on to someone who you think will love it just as much. Connect with us on LinkedIn Instagram, my good chap media. I will chat with you next week. Bye. This podcast was produced by good chat media.
