With its explosion into mainstream entertainment, podcasts, have become one of the most consumed forms of content. According to Statista, as of 2019 over 50% of Americans have listened to a podcast. This is a sizeable increase from the 2018 total of 44%. While listenership is at an all-time high, what if I were to tell you it is not the only way that people enjoy consuming podcasts?

If you have forgotten your headphones, or love reading, you may opt to read a transcription of your favourite podcast.  Podcast creators should be aware of their audience's desires and offer transcriptions of each episode. However, the benefits of transcribing your podcasts are not only to the consumer, but there are also many benefits that the producer can be reaping too. Whether you are the Joe Rogan Experience, Radiolab, or just record your ramblings from your iPhone mic — here are 6 reasons why you need to transcribe your podcasts!

1. Grow Your Podcasts With Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As excellent as your podcast is, you can not only rely on word-of-mouth and social media to promote it. It is important to increase your podcasts search traffic and grow your audience organically. The problem is that your content is in an audio format, which is not ideal for search engine optimization. The good part is this is something that is easily fixed by transcribing your podcasts, which turns one of your weaknesses into your biggest strengths.

Over the course of an hour-long podcast, people can easily say over 10,000 words. If you transcribe these words and upload them to your site, you can instantly use these 10,000 words for search engine optimization. This increased SEO, will help your search rankings, and increase traffic to your site. The best part is, this increased site traffic costs you nothing. All it takes is a quick transcription of your podcast!

For more information on SEO check out Speak’s Full Guide To Search Engine Optimization.

2. User Experience

You take pride in every episode of your podcast and want to create quality content that your listeners can enjoy. While the majority of your subscribers choose to consume your podcasts through audio, some may prefer readable content. Providing a transcription of your podcasts allows your audience to choose the form they consume it in. However, this is not the only way a transcribed podcast can help improve your user's experience.  With time-stamps attached to your podcast transcription, users can sift through the text of episodes and listen to segments that grab their interest. You know what they say, a well-transcribed podcast is a happy podcast!

3. Accessibility

Unfortunately, many people are not able to consume podcasts via audio. People who suffer from hearing loss, deafness, anacusis, or any other hearing impairment, should still be able to consume the content you enjoy. Importantly, people should not have to pay out of their own pocket to get a transcription of their favourite podcast. Transcribing allows your podcast to be consumed in a multitude of ways, and opens up the doors to groups of people who would not have been able to without it, for free!

4. Get Multiples Uses From Your Podcasts

A huge advantage of podcasting is that simply by turning on a mic, you can create hours of engaging content for your audience. However, many podcast creators only upload their audio to their various hosting platforms. Because of this,  they are no longer getting any more use from their content. This is a missed opportunity, as you are sitting on a goldmine of valuable content that can be used on your website, Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform. You can upload your podcast transcriptions as stand-alone content, or take exerts from the episode and turns them into blog posts. You already have created the content, so why not get as much use out of it as you can?

5. Social Media Sharing

As discussed earlier, creating content for SEO and promoting organic growth is vital for attracting new listeners — in a cost-effective way. When you transcribe your podcasts, your listeners have the ability to take their favourite quotes and segments from the episode to share to their personal social media platforms. This organic marketing is extremely valuable for podcasts, as it helps promote your content to potential listeners with the endorsement of one of their friends.

For example, what podcast are you more likely to check out:

• One a random person on the bus tells you to listen to?
• Or one your close personal friend tells you to listen to?

For most, the latter is the obvious choice. By transcribing your podcasts you have given your listeners various ways to share your podcast via social media.

6. It's Easy to Transcribe Your Podcasts!

If you were to sit down and manually transcribe your podcasts, you would likely be sitting in front of a computer screen for hours. Thankfully, getting a fully transcribed podcast within minutes is just a few clicks away. Get your podcast transcribed today and begin reaping all of the benefits by requesting a demo with Speak!