What should go in my podcast show notes?
Welcome to the softer cast, a podcast for small business owners and creatives who want tender podcast advice without any tech bro bullshit. I'm Amelia Hruby and I'm the founder of softer Sounds, a feminist podcast studio for women and non binary entrepreneurs. On this show, I answer your questions about podcasting. Things like, should I put my show on YouTube? Can I just record it on Zoom?
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Amelia Hruby:Then head to the show notes to check out our free resources. No matter where you're at in your podcasting journey, we're here to support you. Join us on the softer side of podcasting. Hello and welcome or welcome back to the softer cast, a podcast where the technical sides of podcasting meet all of our favorite tender things about our shows. I'm your host, Amelia Ruby.
Amelia Hruby:I am the founder of softer sounds podcast studio. And here on this show, I provide all of our podcast support and advice without any of the side doses of tech bro bullshit that we may have to encounter when we're trying to learn how to start, grow, or improve a podcast on the Internet? The softer cast is meant to be a softer place to land and learn the art of podcasting, and I'm so happy you found us and that you're tuned in today. In this episode, I have a question from the wonderful, amazing Rachel of the Money Healing Club podcast, and she's asked a question all about show notes. So let's go ahead and hear what she is interested in learning.
Rachel:Hi, Amelia. I would love to know your thoughts on how to think of show notes. I've sort of come up with a template, and I do, you know, a summary of the episode. And then below, I have, you know, a link to my freebie and, you know, any other references I I did in the episode itself. And that seems to make sense to me.
Rachel:But as this podcast is really well, it serves two focuses. It retains my clients. It seems to be an ongoing resource to keep my relationship with my clients and my community, And it also seems to be pretty effective in terms of converting. I don't wanna overwhelm the show notes, but I've noticed some episodes, like, other people's episodes where there's, like, a lot of links and stuff in the in the show notes. Just love to know your overall thoughts about what should be in show notes, what shouldn't be, any pitfalls you see people having, like, how can we utilize the show notes the best?
Rachel:Thank you so much.
Amelia Hruby:Thank you too, Rachel, for this amazing question about show notes. I also just want to applaud you slash Rachel for understanding, like, the role that your show is playing in your business, nurturing clients and converting them. I think it's so important that we understand what part of the marketing process our podcast is serving, and that's how we can create some metrics for success for our show. But back to the question of show notes, let me give you my like tight 10 on what I think makes for good show notes. So the first thing I want to differentiate between is the show notes that we upload with our podcast episode.
Amelia Hruby:So this is what people are seeing in apple podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere that they're listening. Those show notes are going to include the title of the episode, as well as a brief description of the episode, and then ideally a link where people can go to learn more. Now some podcast hosts, particularly Spotify for podcasters, don't really give you a place to upload this link. They are just going to send people back to Spotify over and over again. So I prefer to work with other podcast hosts that allow you to upload a link for more information So that when you do pull up your show in, let's say, Apple Podcasts, you're seeing this thing at the very bottom of your show notes that is a button that says something like episode website, and you can click through there.
Amelia Hruby:That's the link that I mean. Now, when we're talking about the show notes you upload with your episode, we're really talking about what goes in that description box. I like to think of this as a place to get people excited and interested in what your episode is about. So in that space, I typically include a two to four sentence description of the episode, and I always start it with a hook. So I very rarely will start with the pretty basic, like, today on the podcast, we have so and so.
Amelia Hruby:Right? That sort of, like, boiler plate introduce the guest today on the podcast kind of language. I may use that, but before that, I like to put something like a juicy question. So for my show off the grid, it may be a question like, it's 2025 and everybody hates social media, so what are we doing now? Right?
Amelia Hruby:Like, a big question that's gonna get people interested in the episode. Or it may be, like, a declarative statement that's more of a hook. Like, this is the year that everybody gets to leave social media, just to stick with my same theme. So I think that the best show, and I would start with a hook, and then they have maybe a two sentence description of the episode, definitely mentioning the guest if you have a guest and if it's an interview show. And then I think there should be a bullet point list of the highlights of topics on the episode.
Amelia Hruby:And I think that that list should also feel like a list full of hooks, and typically, that's where I include my who, what, where, when, why, how words. So if you look at the show notes I create for my own shows or for my clients, you'll see that that bullet point list, most of them start with how or why or when, and have these sort of, again, like catchy, hooky tone for the bullet points. I see that list as a way to grab a listener's attention and get them excited to tune in. I think that it's great if those bullet points also have timestamps, where people can go directly to those parts of the episode. But I think what's more important is it just feels like something that's exciting.
Amelia Hruby:Sometimes I see a bullet point list that is just kind of a snooze fest. Like, it just feels like, okay, this is what you talk about, but nobody tried to make me excited about this. And I think it's more important that that bullet point list has that level of enticement or intrigue that kind of brings people in and gets them to press play. And to me, the time stamps are a bonus, not a must have. I have noticed that since more and more people have been writing show notes with generative AI, which is fine, I suppose, like, generative AI always puts the time stamps in, and I've noticed that that's now bled into everybody else's podcast episodes, which is fine, but I don't want that to be a thing that like takes you a ton of time, especially if your episodes aren't that long.
Amelia Hruby:Like if you have twenty minute episodes, it's okay for people to just listen to the whole thing. Maybe that's a hot take, but that is my hot take. After the bullet point list, I think it's great to yet again have another sentence that's like, if you love x y z, this episode is absolutely for you. Or maybe there's a sort of call out to like, thanks so much to this guest for telling us about a, b, and c. This episode is great for this type of person.
Amelia Hruby:And then I include a small link list, typically of three to five resources or things that I want people to take away from the podcast. So on my show, again, to use off the grid as an example, I have a link to our free lead magnet, the leading social media toolkit, as well as our two paid offerings, the interweb and the clubhouse. And then I will typically have one other link, and that's normally the link to whatever ad has been embedded in the episode. So I think that having a, like, short, succinct list of resources is great, and that's all I include in my show notes. When I have guests, I also link their name, like at the top where it's in the description, so that if people are interested in learning more about the guest, they're going directly there the first time the guest is mentioned, so I should add that as well.
Amelia Hruby:That is everything that I put in my show notes that I upload with the episode. I really try to keep that relatively brief because I find that, like, nobody's reading long paragraphs on their phone. Right? If I am interested in a podcast episode, I'm probably gonna click it open. I'm gonna, like, scroll the show notes.
Amelia Hruby:I'm gonna pause on the bullet list and see if I'm actually interested in those things, and then I'm gonna press play. Like that's really what I'm scanning for. So I think show notes should always be super scannable and a quick read. The whole purpose of which is to get people excited about the episode. Now, the second type of show notes is a post on your website that is the link that is linked through through that, like, episode website that I emphasized earlier.
Amelia Hruby:That post on your website should be, or ideally would be, a blog post where you have uploaded a player of your episode and the episode lives on your own website. And the reason that this can be important is because it helps build SEO or search engine optimization for the show so that if people are searching for your podcast, it's taking them to your website, not just to Apple or Spotify or the other players. So the reason that some show notes get super long is because people are SEO optimizing them. And SEO does benefit from more writing. It's really designed to invite you to use headings so the information is well organized and to have additional information.
Amelia Hruby:So I tend to think of the show notes that I upload with my episodes as sort of like my copywriting, which means it's really designed to kinda sell the episode to a potential listener. And then I think of the show notes that I put on my website as the content writing. That's where I may provide additional context, I may explain things more, and I may add more information like my guest bio. The whole thing can go there, even though I'm not gonna put their whole, like, eight sentence bio in my show notes that I upload with the episode. So I think that part of what has happened is there's some conflation of these two things, like the show notes that go into podcast players with your episode and the show notes that go onto your website.
Amelia Hruby:And I'll be honest, sometimes I just put my show notes from the episode onto my website, and I add a couple links, and I just let that be. I'm not trying to say that you have to do twice the work for your show notes, but I think what's important is that you're actually doing, like, the copywriting selling of the episode and not just slipping back into, like, a lot of heavy content writing and, like, paragraphs on paragraphs, assuming that more is more for your episodes. So Rachel, I hope that that helps answer your question and answer the questions of everyone else tuned in curious about podcast show notes. And if you have show notes questions of your own, you could head to these show notes for this episode and send me a message through our voice message platform, SpeakPipe, so that I can answer your follow ups live here on the pod. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the softer cast.
Amelia Hruby:Until next time, I will see you on the softer side of podcasting. Thanks so much for listening to the softer cast. Softercast. If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to your podcast bestie. And after you do that, go ahead and drop us five stars on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Amelia Hruby:If you'd like to submit a question, head to speakpipe.com/softercast to record a message or email us at hi@softersounds.studio. And last but not least, we made some awesome free things for you. Head to the show notes to download our free podcast launch toolkit or our three step podcast audit. No matter where you're at in your podcasting journey, we're here to support you. Thanks again for tuning in and joining us on the softer side of podcasting.