You want to write great podcast show notes, but to do this you need to understand what kind of information your podcast audience wants and needs.
When you decided to start your own podcast you will have had vastly different goals, objectives, and success metrics in mind based on whether your podcast is B2B (business- to-business) or B2C( business-to-consumer).
For a B2B podcast, your goals are to support your business. As the podcast host, you want to set yourself up as an industry leader, you want to strengthen your business brand, build deeper connections with prospective partners and produce and convert high-quality leads. This will have a significant influence on what you will include in your podcast show notes.
If your podcast is B2C, your goals are going to be focused on growing your audience and ultimately monetising your podcast.Whether you are looking to entertain or educate your future and existing listeners, your podcast success is measured by metrics such as episode downloads and audience growth.
B2B podcasts are focused on attracting the right kind of audience, rather than growing an audience.
For a B2B podcast, engagement, attention, reach outs, and connections are worth far more to your business than thousands of downloads. A smaller group of dedicated listeners, in the right niche, that lead to conversions will determine the success of your B2B podcast. Your goals for a B2B podcast are generally not to earn revenue from the podcast directly, but to drive people to your business.
Understanding the differences, and being clear on what your own goals are, are crucial when it comes to writing great show notes for your podcast. For this reason, writing podcast show notes will use a different format, style, and will include different information based on whether it is a B2B podcast or a B2C podcast.
As per the summary above, we can see there are naturally some commonalities between the two. You cannot have podcast show notes without an episode summary for example. On the other hand, there are big differences when it comes to Call-to-Actions (CTA) and linking to any resources mentioned.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these:
While you will include these in your show notes regardless of whether you have a B2B or B2C podcast, be mindful of the tone and language you use. Generally, a B2B podcast will use formal, informative language. With a B2C podcast, you have more freedom to align the language you use to the style of your show.
Writing a great episode summery, covering the key points and highlights from the episode is important for your Podcast’s SEO whether it is B2B or B2C podcast show notes. You don’t want this to be a word-for-word replay of your entire episode. It is always best to have this section in bullet points to make it as easy and convenient for your listeners to understand what the episode is about.
You want to align your CTA to the goal of your podcast. Some CTA’s are more appropriate for B2B podcasts than B2C, and vice versa.
To write podcast show notes to align with your overall business goals, your Call–To–Action could be to register for an upcoming webinar or to sign up for your mailing list. Whereas a B2C podcast, perhaps your CTA would be to ask your listeners to subscribe, leave a review, follow you on your social media.
Check out our How to Create Effective Calls-to-Action for more inspiration and tips on how to write Calls-to-Action for your own podcast.
Both B2B and B2C podcasts can have guests on the show. The reason for having guests will be different for both, and so how you write your show notes will differ also.
Use your B2B podcast show notes to inform your listeners of your guests’ achievements and credentials, and what valuable experience they have in the industry. You want your listeners to know they will learn useful insights from listening to the interview.
For a B2C podcast, you do not necessarily need togo into as much detail highlighting their career highlights. While your listeners may still learn useful information from your guests, the main goal is usually for entertainment, so let your audience know why they will enjoy the interview.
For both B2B or B2C podcasts, you will need to let your listeners know how to contact you. This could be in a “Stay in Touch” section of your show notes, which works well for B2C podcasts. You can include links to your social media profiles, your website, a link to your mailing list etc.
For B2B podcasts, you will want to drive your listeners to your company website and company socials such as LinkedIn and Facebook. You can include this information in the “About You and Your Company” section of your show notes.
Including information about you and your company in your podcast show notes is where you will demonstrate your credibility. Give an overview of your background and knowledge in the area, including your credentials and achievements. It also gives you an opportunity to promote the business and demonstrate to leads and existing listeners what value you can bring.
You could certainly include any resources mentioned in your podcast episode in your B2C show notes , if it applies to what you spoke about on your show. However, for B2B podcast show notes, this is very important to include and should never be overlooked.
With a B2B podcast, you want to build credibility, respect and acclaim. Any data, articles, reports, studies, quotes, or other material that you referenced in your episode should always be linked in your podcast show notes.
B2C podcasts are far more likely to work with sponsorships and brands. If you are working with a sponsor be sure to include some information about them in your B2C podcast show notes. What you should include here will likely be agreed upon during the sponsorship deal negotiation so make sure you are adhering to what was agreed.
Whether you have a B2B or a B2C podcast, taking the time to write high-quality show notes will help with the success of your show whatever your podcast goals are. Find out more about how to Write better show notes for your podcast here.
If you need more help with writing your podcast show notes, or have any questions about how to have a success podcast, contact us here at Zorbiant.
