Today, businesses are increasingly using podcasts to improve their prospects. Podcast transcription service providers can transcribe and convert your recordings into text formats writing a podcast script is important for creating a successful podcast. A podcast script structures the ideas of any given podcast episode and ensures that a clear, concise narrative is conveyed to the audience. In fact, a well-written, well-presented script helps organize your ideas better, convey your content in an engaging way and cut down on production time.
The following are a few tips that will help write an effective podcast script.
- Map out the structure of your podcast – the first thing to consider when writing a podcast script is to map out the structure of your podcast. You need to tell them who is talking and what is coming up. You need to end with a call to action and/or resource information. However, you should keep in mind that call to actions should be limited to the beginning and end of your podcast.
Here are a few examples which show how to structure your podcast.
- Message: ‘Welcome To’
- Building rapport : ‘Thanks for listening, hope you’re well’
- Episode Introduction: ‘This week we’ll be discussing’
- Sponsor Message: ‘Here’s a message from our sponsor’
- Introduction: ‘Our guest this week is’
- Close :‘Thanks for listening’
- Call to action close: ‘Please leave an iTunes review’
If you are podcasting with guests, then you need to prepare questions and points and give that list of questions to the guest. If you are podcasting with a co-host, then you need to prepare points and coordinate with your co-host to avoid interruption, confusion, etc. while recording.
- Read it out loud – Next thing to consider is to write the script the way you speak in everyday life in order to keep the scripts natural-sounding. To find out whether the scripts sound natural, you need to read it out loud before sending the script off for review. You need to write your script in your voice and with the flow of your mind. Make sure to incorporate your personality into your script. Your introduction must immediately deliver your podcast’s personality and style. It should be crafted in such a way as to convince your audience that you are worth listening to. You should write your podcast with a friendly style and avoid using complicated terminology which could cause listeners to lose interest.
Make sure to use contractions such as
- Use I’ve instead of I have
- Use I’ll instead of I will
- Use Don’t instead of Do not
- Use isn’t instead of is not
- Use there’s instead of there is
In fact, contractions make reading your script 10 times more natural. You may not be the only person who is going to read the script, there may be others. So you need to keep in mind that another person may be reading your script and so make it as accessible as possible by writing clearly and concisely. In order to keep it concise, include words and sentences that you absolutely need on your script. In addition, you need to ensure that your scripts are directly to the point without unnecessary words or sentences. Writing clearly and concisely literally means that you need to use a clear font, line spacing and keep the paragraphs and sentences sensibly short and write pauses in. In addition, you need to write the words phonetically if they are difficult to pronounce. You need to do everything to make the recording process as smooth as possible.
- Use Simple English – Use plain English instead of Latin-based language while writing podcast script.
- Cut the Jargon – You need to cut the jargon from your script. You should spend the time to script a simpler version of anything that you feel is too technical. In fact, simple explanations that clarify are much more impressive than confusing complicated words.
- Use only Short Sentences – You need to keep sentences short. These help listeners to easily follow the thread of your words. Keep in mind that a sentence should not take more than one breath to say. Hence, you should restrict a sentence to one point or idea. If you have more than one comma or one dash in a sentence, then consider breaking it into a new sentence.
- Set the Scene – It is essential to set the scene for your listeners as they do not have a visual aid. However, you should not detail every little thing that you talk about. Keep in mind that your listeners may need extra description every so often to assist them in picturing the topics, stories, news, etc.
- Include stories, news pieces and topics – If you want to use certain words, then include them on your script. Similarly, include stories, news pieces, topics, etc. on your script as well. In addition, give yourself different options for vocabulary, stories, news, topics, etc. and the space to explore the thoughts that you have while podcasting. This can make your podcast more interesting.
Other tips to consider:
- Try to avoid the passive voice
- Always put punctuation to work
- Never use brackets or quotes
- Write out URLs in the way they should be read
Nowadays, many organizations use podcasts to produce and deliver content conveniently and effectively, and to improve traffic to their websites. If you include a transcript with the file, then it will show up on search engines, as keywords can be picked up in the text of the website. Partnering with a professional digital transcription agencies helps convert your podcasts into easy-to-read, keyword-rich and search engine-friendly text formats.
