Every day, the Content 10x team spends hours repurposing all kinds of content. But one of our favorites is when we get to repurpose a podcast episode into a blog post.
Podcast episodes and blog posts are both extremely valuable pieces of content for businesses. And repurposing your content into both audio and text format helps you connect with your audience in ways that suit them.
The Content 10x Podcast is just one of the many podcast-episode-to-blog-post repurposing projects we do every week. So, we thought it was about time we pulled back the curtain, and shared how we do it.
Keep reading or listen to the podcast episode below to find out how to repurpose a podcast episode into a blog post. Learn our tried-and-tested method, how to streamline your repurposing process, tips for writing a great blog post (even if you’re not a writer), and discover how to unleash the repurposing potential of a podcast!
Press play to hear the podcast episode…
Or read on for the repurposed blog post (see what I did there!)
Quick note: if you’re looking for help repurposing your blog post into a podcast episode you can find our guide to that in this post, How to Repurpose a Blog Post into a Podcast Episode.
Why Repurpose a Podcast Episode into a Blog Post
If you have a podcast or are thinking of starting one, there are many reasons why repurposing your episodes into written content is a good idea. Here are two of the main ones:
- Audiences prefer to consume content in different ways – they may not want or have time to listen to a ten-minute or even hour long podcast episode, and prefer to scan a blog post.
- Blog posts help your content get found by search engines – text is still the main type of content that search engines use to determine if your content is relevant to an audience.
Look at it this way, if you want to provide a better experience and capture a wider audience, then repurposing is a good way to go.
By repurposing your podcast episode into a blog post, your content will be more easily found on Google/other search engines, reaching a wider audience, and giving them information they need in the format they prefer.
Can I Repurpose My Podcast Episode into a Blog Post?
If you’re unsure about whether your podcast episode is the right style for repurposing into a blog post, I have one answer for you: yes!
Whichever style of podcast you have, it shouldn’t affect the ability to make a good blog post, because it’s all about the content.
Whether you’re creating:
- Solo or co-hosted episodes sharing thought-leadership style content or how-to advice
- Interview-style episodes with presenters and guests
- Or panel/round-table conversations
The valuable insight that comes from these discussions is worth sharing in a new format. Here’s how to do it…
How to Repurpose a Podcast Episode into a Blog Post
This is the five-step process we use at Content 10x to transform our clients’ podcast episodes into blog posts.
1. Listen to the podcast episode to find key points or a strong narrative thread
Listening to a podcast episode will give you a good sense of the most stand-out points and interesting narrative. Note these down as these will form the basis of your blog.
The key here is to be selective. Choose the most valuable moments and consider your blog post as a showcase of the conversation’s highlights rather than a play-by-play.
In a podcast episode you’ll get lots of chit chat etc, that doesn’t need to be included in your repurposing, so be ruthless about what you remove. At the end of the day, a short and highly valuable blog post is far more useful than a rambling one.
2. Get a transcript of your podcast episode
For longer podcast episodes in particular, a transcript can really speed up your repurposing process.
Firstly, it’s like having all your notes done for you. Secondly, the ctrl + F search function will save you so much time compared to scrubbing back through an audio file.
You can use this to help give your blog post structure, find quotes and just generally help with the end-to-end writing process.
If you’re just using these transcripts for writing assistance, you can use a site like Otter.ai or Descript to convert your podcast episodes into text. If you want to publish your podcast episode’s transcript to your website, then I recommend getting a high-quality, human-written transcript from Rev.
A word of caution about transcripts: they are not to be used in place of blog posts.
They are undoubtedly very useful and perform a specific function, I’ve even written a post titled How Transcriptions Can Play A Key Role in Content Repurposing, so if you want to learn more about how you can use them, check that out.
But transcripts and blog posts are two different beasts. A transcript, for example, is much harder for an audience and a search engine bot to read. The resulting quality is never the same.
Keep in mind why you’re repurposing your podcast episode into a blog post. Remember that a blog post will help you achieve things that a transcript just can’t – such as a better chance at appearing higher in the SERPs.
3. Do keyword research
This is where podcast episodes and blog posts really differ, as podcast episodes might be led by a theme or topic, but you don’t necessarily need to worry about searchability in your recording.
To ensure your blog post has the best possible chance of getting found by search engines, you’ll need to use some SEO best practices. For blog posts, this means incorporating keywords that your audience is searching for.
SEO is a big topic, but for blog posts the need-to-knows are:
- Research keywords that your audience are using
- Find ones that are relative to your blog post
- Put these keywords in the title, headings, body text, URL and meta description
It’s also a good idea to check out SEO tools for your CMS. If you’re using WordPress, we recommend Yoast.
There’s a big wide world of SEO practices that can help you improve your search rankings – and the rules are changing almost all of the time. So if you want to brush up on your knowledge, there are plenty of resources out there to help. We recommend checking out Google’s guidance, Moz’s learning centre, and the Learning SEO roadmap.
4. Add extra information
Missed out something important in your podcast episode? Include it in your blog post!
Effective repurposing is all about adding value in new ways, so feel free to elaborate on key points, explain topics in-depth or even add new/alternative analogies.
As I mentioned before, your blog post doesn’t have to include every piece of information in your podcast episode – and it can talk about other things too. You’re free to be creative with your repurposing.
You could even write your blog post as a companion piece to your podcast episode. For more on how to do that, see this post: Repurposing Your Core Content Into Companion Content.
5. Write with confidence
Here’s some good news: you don’t have to be a professionally trained writer to repurpose a podcast episode into a blog post.
The great thing about repurposing a podcast episode into a blog post is that you already have all your awesome content. It’s just about chopping and changing it with a few writing techniques.
Here are some pointers to keep your writing on the right track:
For blog posts, you’ll want to ensure an easy-to-read style. Use short sentences, lots of white space, and write how you speak.
Before you publish, give your blog post a final once over with a tool like Grammarly, to ensure no spelling or grammar errors have slipped through the net. Or go one step further and refine your writing with Hemingway.
If you want more guidance on how to improve your writing, I recommend starting by checking out the interview I did with Copyhackers founder, Joanna Wiebe. How to Write Better Content with Joanna Wiebe is packed with useful writing tips and tricks!
Bonus tip! Make Your Blog a Multimedia Experience
My final top tip is to bring all your repurposing together to create a holistic multimedia experience for your reader. This helps readers stay engaged for longer.
You could embed your podcast episode, add a link to your transcript and any supporting internal or external articles (great for SEO!), and add any graphics or videos. Think of it as a way to pull all your repurposed material for that episode together.
You could use this post (or any of the Content 10x blog posts) as a template or example!
That’s the process we use to repurpose a podcast episode into a blog post. Feel free to switch it up and find a method that works for you. Repurposing podcast episodes each week can be a laborious project, but it’s worth it for the benefits your audience and business will reap long-term.
If you need help repurposing your podcast episodes, you don’t have to go it alone. We work with a wide range of businesses to transform their awesome audio content into winning written content every week. Discover our industry leading podcast repurposing service here.
Or if you prefer a DIY approach and want a little more help, then do check out my book, Content 10x: More Content, Less Time, Maximum Results, which is the ultimate guide to repurposing all kinds of content – in all kinds of ways!
I hope you’ve found this post useful. Happy repurposing!
Very interesting article. Thank you !