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7 Undeniable Reasons You Need to Transcribe Your Podcasts

By April 25, 2018November 23rd, 2021No Comments

podcast transcription

For those of you podcast creators looking for reasons to branch out and improve your podcasts for whatever reasons, there are absolutely no disadvantages to this extra. It will only benefit you, and the direction you are taking. The simplicity is already a winner, but there are also many underlying reasons to use speech-to-text transcriptions you probably didn’t think about.

Previously, we spoke about the importance of video transcription, now we’re here to focus on the powerful impact transcriptions can make on your podcasts. Here are 7 reasons that may change the way you present your future podcasts.

1. User Experience

Your user is the subject of reason as to why you are considering using transcriptions, will appreciate the option to consume your content this in written form. Everyone has their own preference, and options are always noteworthy.

“Text is the secret. Converting podcast recordings into a transcript makes it possible for podcast producers to give listeners a better experience.”

Observer

People will always be willing to pay for valuable topics that help problem-solving and improve their lives, at the cost of ease. By converting these transcripts to articles for use in premium membership sites can be financially rewarding.

2. Create a Better UX

Podcasts are ideal for working, exercising, driving, cleaning and all the other on-the-go tasks. But for the user wanting to sit and watch something visual along with their favorite subject, the presenter now has to keep the listener engaged, which is a difficult task.

Of course, there are many innovative ways that haven’t been used before, or if they have, can be used in a personalized form. By making the transcript interactive, listeners can click on a section and jump to that point in the audio, scrolling through to a different section of the episode, or even search for a particular word that’s spoken.

3. Reading vs. Listening

Studies found that most people prefer to skim through the transcripts of videos first, before deciding whether to listen or watch the whole thing. With a generation of information overload, the reader would prefer the option to have an ‘at-a-glance’ look which is easy to make a decision from there. The transcript offers a rough idea of what the podcast is all about. Subsequently, listening is often prone to all manner of distractions compared to reading.

4. Get More Out of Each Episode

Not only is the transcription option already drawing more out of your podcast, you can turn your episodes into blog posts by publishing the audio transcripts. Picture this: you do a podcast once a month to vary your content, but also write, say 1 or 2 articles to contribute each week on top of that. You are making easy content by using your transcripts. That’s a tick off the weekly task list.

It also keeps a record of what you have previously spoken about and can act as a reference, when necessary, to ensure you don’t accidentally use the same topic twice. This works both ways for your listeners as well, you may have just slipped into someone’s thesis!

5. Increase Web Accessibility

There are people to consider who can’t actually hear the podcasts, but want to know! Consider the people:

  1. Deaf or hard-of-hearing
  2. Whose don’t speak that language
  3. With Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder
  4. With ADD who struggle to focus on audio stimulus

But also consider those who have restricted situational accessibility to audio. For example, if someone is on the bus without headphones or that person who’s just not that into the graduation ceremony. Subtly reading on your smartphone during a droning speech never hurt anyone. The simple solution is to transcript the audio.

6. Social Media Sharing

Getting your podcast shared around social media is the ultimate achievement, for a broader acknowledgment and wider audience. You can make it way easier for people to share it across Twitter, Facebook or those alike. Listeners can copy and paste quotes or highlight a particular section and share it with their own networks.

If someone hears something amazing and they just want to share that section, they would have to transcribe it themselves. And that’s way too much hassle for them.

7.  Boost SEO

Search engines have a far better chance of picking up your transcripted text over audio. This American Life found that:

  • New inbound traffic increased by 4.36%, directly attributable to the new audio transcript pages
  • New inbound traffic via search increased by 6.68%, again, attributable to the new audio transcript pages

All that extra search traffic, along with your social media shares will help new listeners discover you. You can also cater to multi-language listeners or foreign to the language used. Transcription is translation.

Audio content is the medium of choice today. Content can be extracted from audio transcripts and converted into masterpieces with key learning themes of the podcast. After you have released a few, you will be able to build additional content pieces like courses or training modules.

Find out how easy it is to get these results, or contact us for a quote and save yourself the hassle!