Podcast masterclass part 2: Repurposing content

Podcast ()

In part one of our podcast masterclass we looked at how to create a professional environment, in order to produce high-quality audio.

Once you’ve spent all that time and money creating a great podcast you want to maximise your return. 

This is why, in part two, we turn our attention to repurposing your audio content, to help you squeeze every last drop of value out of each episode.

Your guide is Charlotte Ricca of Free Hand Podcasts who edits the FIPP Insider podcast.

Podcast statistics are at an all time high – 51 per cent of the US population have listened to a podcast, while around six million British adults tune in each week. While these figures are impressive, there is still a huge, untapped market. 

Repurposing your podcast will help you reach a wider audience, who might not be podcast fans. It will also breathe new life into your audio content, and increase its longevity. Most podcasts see a drop in downloads after a week. By recycling each episode and creating different types of content, more people will listen to your podcast, over a longer period of time. 

As a media company, chances are you are already adept at finding new ways to publish your content, from long-form blogs to short and sweet videos. In a similar way, a podcast can be reworked and republished, across a range of platforms, to help you get the most value from your investment.

Here’s how:

Create a transcript

It might seem counterintuitive to creating audio content (not to mention time consuming), but transcribing your podcast will increase its reach.

Not everyone can listen to podcasts, the World Health Organization estimates over 500,000,000 people suffer from hearing loss, so subtitles are a must for them. They can also help different nationalities, who may struggle to understand the fast pace of spoken English.

Transcribing your podcasts will also help with SEO. Google can crawl text more easily than it can audio, so creating written content will boost your searchability. 

There are a number of services that can help you speed up the process, such as Google Voice Typing (which is free) and Sonix, where you upload your podcast and pay them to transcribe it for you. Many podcast platforms also offer transcribing as a service, such as Anchor who will also create a video using your cover art’s colour for a more custom feel. None of them are 100% accurate, so make sure you check the transcripts carefully.

Show Notes

Once you’ve got a transcript of your show, you can pick out key points and use them to write show notes. Like a great pull quote or headline, these bullet points are an effective way to flag up each episode’s highlights and draw listeners in. It’s a good idea to put timelines for each note, so people can fast-forward to the bits that interest them most. Show notes also provide great content for social media – more on this below.

Social media posts

You can turn highlights from your podcasts into posts on social media. Quotes, interesting facts, and teasers will create interest and attract new listeners. It’s also a great way to remind loyal fans to listen again.

Write a blog

One simple way to generate more shareable content is to write a blog about each episode. Pick out a few highlights, include some juicy quotes and you’ve got a great blog, that will drive people to download and listen to the original source. 

Email marketing

Once you’ve created a blog post or show notes, it’s worth sending out an email informing your subscribers.

Video trailers

Video remains the most popular content on social media and it’s predicted to make up more than 82 per cent of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. Take a decent pull-quote from your podcast, pair it with an image and turn it into a short video teaser to share across your social media channels. 

Podcast videos 

According to a study from Futuri Media/University of Florida, 43 per cent of monthly podcast listeners went to YouTube for podcasts in the past year, ahead of both Apple (34 per cent) and Spotify (23 per cent). What’s more, YouTube provides an additional revenue opportunity for your podcast, as it automatically delivers ads for podcasters and pays them according to total views. So it literally pays to post a video of your podcast on YouTube. 

The key to repurposing your podcast is to experiment with different types of content, to see which has the biggest impact on the number of listeners. There are so many options to try out, from infographics and eBooks, to video and viral memes. A podcast provides quality, engaging and informative content that is wasted as just an audio file. So start recycling.

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