Grow Your Podcast Following with Transcription

Podcasting has blown up over the past decade, with over 120 million listeners of the format in 2021. Excellent show content matters. It also takes hard work and some marketing ingenuity to get your show at the top of the list. With so much competition, how do you move the needle? Transcribe audio to text! Here are some of the ways you can use the audio files from your podcast to create buzz-worthy text assets people will love to read and share.

Podcast transcription – is it necessary?

People no longer consume media in the same way. Ask any two people how they learn about a news event, product, or trend, and you’ll get different answers. Some learn from videos on the news or YouTube. Others enjoy reading articles online. More than ever before, individuals and businesses choose audio as their primary way to consume content.

Thankfully, audio-to-text tools work in all three of these instances. Transcription can boost your popularity, grow your following and capture new audience segments that audio alone can’t deliver.

When you transcribe audio files to text online, it’s easier to amplify podcast content.

Consider the ways top podcasters use transcription today to make their podcast more accessible:

• Show notes directly on the podcast home site
• Blog posts and articles
• Learning worksheets for courses or bonus material
• Snippets for social media posts
• Captions under the video format of your YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo video

You may be asking, “how do I monetize my podcast?” 

You can use text to promote your show anywhere you might use transcription. Transcription cuts down on time for creating promotional assets. It makes your show accessible to hearing-impaired audiences or those who prefer to read show notes over listening.

There’s another big bonus: You can optimize podcast ranking through SEO content.

Since Google picks up podcast transcription (text) in its search, you can rank for keywords in your niche. This happens just by putting show notes on your website, YouTube channel, or podcast platforms, like Spotify.

Rev makes it easier than ever. Here’s how to get started with podcast transcription! 

Step One: Capture Clear Audio

Your transcription quality depends mainly on the quality of your audio. Since you’re a podcast creator, you’ll be prioritizing the audio quality of everything else, anyway.

This is a significant advantage to other media genres, where audio may not be as highly valued. Some podcasters ask that guests call in on Zoom or Microsoft Teams accounts. Others request podcast-specific software to be used. These include services such as Alitu, which also help edit and publish your podcast.

Rev’s app to transcribe audio to text is recommended if you use cell phone calls.

Step Two: Edit Every Episode

Editing takes most of the time spent by podcasters. Depending on your setup, you could decide to edit out all the “umms” and “ems” or not. However you edit, your transcription file will come out clean.

Step Three: Transcribe Audio to Text

This is the easy part. Upload your audio or video file to Rev.

Choose between AI transcription (up to 80% accuracy) or human transcription (up to 99% accuracy.) Files are turned around within hours to just minutes, any time of day or night. When selecting your file, choose to skip the “umms” and “ahs” for even simpler text editing.

Love captions? You can request this through the same site as transcribing your podcasts. Your captions are far more accurate than the auto-generated ones that come on YouTube or Facebook.

Better captions make you look more professional.

Grow a Fast Podcast Following  

There are thousands of articles online promising to help you boost your podcast download numbers. Some include fancy marketing hacks and expensive tools.

Did you invest in a quality mic, editing software, and a professional website? This is the minimum.

Most tools can’t make up for your content, so focus on that.

One way to reach new audiences is to make your show notes concise and sharable. How can someone hearing your podcast let their friends know about it? By having notes they can tweet, email, or even print out, you can get your show into one more home this year. What if someone doesn’t have the time to listen to the whole show?

Your podcast transcription makes great teasers that highlight your unique brand and content value.

Rev’s Podcast Transcripts (Your Secret Sauce to Growth in 2022!)

Growing your podcast will take time. With over 100 million listeners expected by 2024, you need a small fraction of that new listenership for a big boost. Also, with 14% of listeners consuming podcasts every day, there’s an eager audience for new content. Having effective notes and marketing assets to match may be the thing to break into the big time. A podcast transcript is truly the tool to get you there and make it easier to monetize your podcast, too.