Optimizing Your Podcast for Text with Jaclyn Schiff

In episode 6 I chat with Jaclyn Schiff about a critical piece of your podcast marketing efforts. The repurposing of your podcast through articles, blog posts, show notes and transcripts.

In episode 7 of our podcast, I talk with Jaclyn Schiff from PodReacher. Jaclyn works with clients to help them repurpose their podcasts through effective content and is an avid podcast listener as well.

We start out chatting about if podcasters she works with understand the power and effectiveness of repurposing their podcast into content. 

Jaclyn also touches on the value of show notes and transcriptions. With show notes we dive into some of the  mistakes people make and what the elements of good show notes. We also visit transcripts, machine generated vs. human transcribed, and what role transcripts play in the marketing efforts of your podcast.

She then takes us deeper into how they create blog posts and articles from the podcast clients they have. In addition, just how far you can take the concept of repurposing and regenerating content for both your own site and for guest posting. And of course, we talk about the SEO implications of both show notes and transcripts.

Jaclyn gives us her final tip which is simple, but so important: letting people know what your show is about and who you are.

Insights from Jaclyn on Repurposing Your Podcast

When to repurpose

What people are thinking about is how to grow their podcast. And repurposing goes hand in hand with that. The first thing you should do to grow your podcasts? Increase your downloads? I’ll talk to clients and I’ll say you should be guesting on other shows. There are other things you should be doing to market your podcast. But once you’re doing those things, repurposing is a great longterm strategy because it goes hand in hand with SEO.

Your podcast and your website

People are questioning whether they should have a devoted website for their podcast or not. I’m always amazed when I see that question. Because I think the answer is, absolutely. It’s a missed opportunity to not have a website. If you’re serious about podcasting and you’re wanting it to grow, it needs a home on the web.

Show notes

People recognize they’ve got to have show notes. But I think we sometimes get a little lazy about what show notes can be. The number one thing I see is that people haven’t thought about it very much. They know they have to have them, but they haven’t thought about why, what’s the purpose of this?

I see a lot of people treating it as a resource for current listeners, which is good. You do want to have a resource for current listeners, but there’s a missed chance if you don’t think of your show notes as a marketing opportunity, as a way to bring people into the podcast.

So they listen to an episode, they go back and they want to know in what part of the conversation did this happen? I like it when people pull out the key resources or key takeaways. 

Transcripts

The most accessible way for them to get access to your content is to have a full transcripts of the conversation. The thing with transcripts is they’re not very engaging. But I think they have an SEO benefit. It’s like there’s definitely opportunities to level up with it.

I think whatever you do with your transcripts, it’s not going to turbocharge your growth in any way. Again, I think the first question I would think about is who are you targeting to listen to the podcast? What do they need from it? What makes the most sense?

Repurposing your podcast into written content

More and more I see people gravitate towards articles and blog posts. The reason is because that’s ultimately what you see the most results from. It’s not an overnight thing. It’s taking a content marketing approach to building your podcast audience and your general audience.

We’ll focus in on the substance of the conversation a lot of times and that means organizing some pieces of the conversation. Or organizing it into a list or into subheadings where you’ve have what they will learn first, second and third.

I think sometimes people will find an article, see that it’s based on a podcast episode and if they’re interested enough they will click through to the podcast and see there’s all these interviews about it. I’m going to subscribe and check others out. But other people just aren’t podcast listeners. And this is a way for you to capture them, leveraging your time and resources that you’ve already used. So this could live on your podcast website and that’s a good strategy.

About your podcast

A lot of podcasts you’ll have in your podcast player and explanation of what the podcast is. Some people do a really good job of this and some people do a poor job of it. What is this podcast? Who is it for? Why should they listen? You want to include that on your podcast website. I see a lot of podcasts that don’t have that. If you’re thinking about people wanting to link to you, it’s really helpful to have that. It’s like having a website without an about page. You want to have an about page for your podcast.

Where to find Jaclyn

PodReacher

Jaclyn on Twitter @J_Schiff

Podcast Marketing Group on Facebook

Resources and Mentions

16 Ways To Promote Your Podcast (in 2019)

Side Hustle School Show (example of show notes)