Show notes typically describe the content of an episode on your podcast in a few words. You may wonder why it is necessary to compose Show notes, considering the effort already spent on getting the podcast ready.

You’re right it might not be the best use of your time but it certainly is a great way to sustain the connection created with your audience after listening to the show.

A listener might be so interested in an episode that they become curious for more details, resources, or extra info that you didn’t get the chance to communicate during the podcast, and Podcast Notes provide the portal for them to get that.

Now, this is just one use case of show notes to let you know why you should be creating them for your podcast, let’s go and see in details the advantages and what show notes can do for your show.

Advantages of Show Notes

Makes Your Show More Discoverable

Podcast Show notes, and SEO keywords optimization increases the chance of your show appearing on google search results. There’s a possibility that a user browsing the internet on a particular subject could stumble upon your podcast and therefore become a listener.

A post must exceed 300 words to get indexed by Google and you can easily make this quota by following the formula provided in this article.

Note:
We already know that Google is investing in audio content with the creation of the new google podcasts platform and it won’t take long for it to catch up with this huge and growing industry.
And knowing that google has the top 2 search engines in the world, as it is dominating search for writen word and video content, I won’t be surprised if the way it’s going to disrupt the podcast industry is by improving the searchability of the spoken word “audio content” which is to this day a big issue.

Great for Call to Action:

There’s only so much that you can instruct your listeners to do at the end of a podcast, not before boring them anyway. Instead, point them to your podcast episode show notes where you can generously urge your audience to perform various actions.

Podcast notes are a great place to make your listeners aware of an online program they can enroll on, populating your email list with leads, recommending or promoting products and services.

Show Notes Are great for Referencing

Show notes are convenient means to reference content mentioned on your episode to your audience, you’re likely to use some quotes from a book, or extract facts and draw inspiration from outside sources. 

Due to time constraints, you can’t possibly list out all your references during the show. Attaching a reference list to your show note gives your listeners the privilege of digging deeper into the subject of the episode.

Aside from helping your listeners with further information, it is ethical to give due recognition to owners of externally sourced content. 

Take them from listener to loyal subscriber:

Encourage casual listeners to try your latest episodes, build a connection with them by weaponizing your show notes to highlight the main takeaways and enticing content they wouldn’t like to miss.

Many people need a little nudge, and show notes provide the chance of giving them exactly that.

Do it right and you can seamlessly transform a casual listener into a loyal subscriber.

What To Include In Your Show Notes

While podcast notes have variable lengths, a study from Pacific Content reveals that the average mean podcast note is 429 characters. Most hosting services have a maximum limit of 4,000 characters.

Having understood the importance of show notes, let’s get into the things that comprise a standard podcast note:

1. Guest’s Names and Bios: Give your audience a brief introduction of your guests, describing qualifications that are relevant to the podcast.

2. Show Notes Must Contain the Main Ideas of Each Episode: Go over the entire podcast and withdraw the main themes from the discussion. Outline them with bullet points so you can read them easily.

3. A list of resources: A good podcast show note iterates all the references for any material mentioned during the episode. Provide external links for resources like books, products, movies, or websites to listeners for further research.

4. A Collection of Memorable Episode Quotes: During a podcast episode recording, you can’t help but notice a few quotes from the interview. Preserve the most striking quotations from both you and the interviewee that’ll resonate in the mind of your audience.

5. Disclaimers: If necessary, your show notes should contain disclosures and other required legalese to put your content in the clear.

Show Notes Format (With Template)

Knowing what to include is one thing while putting it together is a whole different story. This is where a show notes template comes in, giving your notes content a well-organized structure.

Download a well-crafted template to guide your show notes composition here.

Examples

Example :

The show notes below are from Collective questions: a wedding show. This podcast is fully produced by WithAim and here is one of the episodes with show notes below:

Get Customized Show Notes for your podcast:

This form is for you if you want our team to handle the production of your Show Notes for an affordable price.