Why You Should Convert Your Podcasts into Text

Have you considered converting your podcasts into text? In this post, we highlight the reasons why getting a transcript for your podcast is a great way to get discovered and increase engagement.

With the availability of smartphones in everyone's hands, it's no surprise that podcasts have started to rise in popularity. People are downloading and streaming podcasts while doing chores, commuting to work, and many other activities.

However, there's one problem for listeners. It's hard to discover great podcasts to listen to. As podcasters, you're probably trying to get heard by as many people as possible that want to listen. Your audience is definitely out there, but sometimes it's hard to find you.

This leads me to my first point as to why you should transcribe your podcasts:

By transcribing your podcast into text, you're making it much easier for potential listeners to discover the content and conversations that are typically trapped in an audio file.

Think of it this way. When searching on the Internet, the easiest way to find anything is through text. If you have a transcription of your podcast available online in a blog or on your website right next to your audio file, people are bound to take a listen if it's relevant to their interests.

So! That covers discoverability. Next, I'd like to talk about engagement.

Having both a readable and listenable (is that a word?) version of your podcast can do wonders for engagement. For example, I listen to the Indie Hackers podcast. When listening to their podcast, there is an available transcription along with a timestamp for that block of text. This allows me to ctrl+f and search for what was said that I might have missed in the conversation and skip-back to listen again.

Having the audio and the transcription of a podcast episode side-by-side really lets me engage with their content.

It gives me the chance to read along and listen, allowing me to absorb what is being said further. Of course, that's how I learn, but others out there could be the same.

Which brings me to my next point of accessibility.

Having a transcript opens up the possiblity of getting in front of an audience who can't listen to what you have to say because to hearing impairment. They might be interested after reading your podcast's synopsis and the topics you talk about, but can't consume your content.

If you had a transcription of your podcast, you're giving the hearing impaired the ability to "read" your podcast and engage with your content.

This only means a wider audience!

Finally, my last reason for why you should transcribe your podcast and make it available online is so you can increase your content's shareability.

A listener might really resonate with something you've said and want to share a quote from your podcast on social media.

Having the text readily available for them to share can help you gain awareness for your podcast!

What are some benefits of transcribing podcasts that you have know of? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let me know on Twitter: @tomzaragoza.

Cheers!