Episode titles and descriptions

What episode titles and descriptions are

An episode title is the line a person sees in a podcast app, and the description is the short paragraph beneath it. Together they are usually the only thing anyone reads before deciding whether to give you an hour. They are written per episode, from the recording, after it exists.

They are not show notes, which are the longer page on your own website with timestamps, links and main points. The app description is short, has no formatting worth relying on, and is often cut off after a line or two on a phone. This service writes the text that has to work inside those constraints.

When you need this

You need it when episodes are being published with titles like "Episode 42" or the guest's name and nothing else. A name means something to you and nothing to a stranger scrolling a list. The same applies to in-joke titles: a phrase from the recording that the two people in the room found funny will not make a stranger press play, and it will make the episode impossible to find again.

It is also worth buying when a show has a back catalogue nobody opens. Retitling forty old episodes is often the cheapest thing you can do to a podcast, because the recordings are already made and paid for and the titles are the reason nothing is played.

You do not need this as a separate purchase if you are already having show notes written per episode; the title and app description are included there. And if the recordings are video going to YouTube as well, the sibling service is video titles and descriptions. The rules are close, but the field limits differ: a podcast app shows fewer characters of the title than a video platform does, and the video description carries links and chapters that an app description cannot. Written separately, from the same understanding of the episode.

What I write

• The title. Short enough not to be cut off in a list on a phone, and specific enough that someone who has never heard of your business knows what they would learn. Usually six to ten words.
• A second title. One alternative with a different angle, because the first idea is often the obvious one and you should see them side by side.
• The first line of the description. Written to survive being the only line shown. It says what the episode is about, not that it is an exciting conversation.
• The description. One hundred to two hundred words: the question the episode answers, who is on it and why they were asked, and a sentence that names the listener it is for. "For anyone who manages a building with a flat roof" tells the right person to stop scrolling.
• The guest's name and trade. Spelt as they spell it, with the company and the role, so the episode is findable by anyone looking for that person.

What is avoided is as important. No titles built on a pun, no titles that only work if you already listen, no "Part 2" without a subject beside it, and no description that opens with the words "In this episode".

What you get

Two titles per episode. The recommended one and an alternative, with a line saying which listener each is aimed at, so you can choose rather than guess.

The app description. One hundred to two hundred words, as plain text, ready to paste into Apple Podcasts, Spotify or whatever your host feeds them from.

A one-line version. The episode in a single sentence, for use in a newsletter, a chat message or a list of episodes on your site.

A naming rule. After the first batch, half a page saying how titles on this show are built, so every future episode looks like it belongs to the same series.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A Victoria bookkeeping practice has published thirty-one episodes for small trades businesses. The titles run "Episode 19 — Dave Lindqvist" and "Coffee and Cashflow #12". The host knows episode nineteen is the one about holdback on construction contracts. Nobody else does, and it is the episode clients keep asking for.

All thirty-one are retitled from the transcripts. Episode nineteen becomes a title naming holdback and who has to care about it, with a description that opens on the problem and says in its third sentence that it is for subcontractors who invoice general contractors. A one-line version goes into the practice's monthly email. Three episodes turn out to be about the same subject and are given titles that make the sequence obvious. The practice sends the holdback episode to prospects by name instead of sending the whole feed and hoping.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. The show, who it is for, how many episodes exist and which ones matter most. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Per episode, with a lower rate per episode for a back catalogue done in one batch.
3. What you send. The episodes or their transcripts, the field limits your podcast host imposes, and the spellings of guest names and products.
4. The work. One working day per episode for new ones. A back catalogue is delivered in batches of ten, starting with the episodes you most want found.
5. Delivery. A single sheet per episode with both titles, the description, the one-line version, and the naming rule after the first batch.

What it costs

Titles and descriptions are quoted as a fixed price in CAD per episode after the half-hour call. The price depends on whether checked transcripts already exist, how many episodes are in the batch, and whether this is a one-off catalogue job or a standing arrangement for every new release. The figure is agreed in writing before anything starts. The pricing page explains how fixed pricing works.

What happens next

A good title gets the episode opened; it does not get it in front of anyone new. That is podcast promotion copy, the posts and emails around each release. Your own site still needs a page per episode, with timestamps and links, and that is where a retitled catalogue starts earning. If the same subjects keep coming up, the episode is usually worth rewriting as a readable article. This piece of work is complete on its own and nothing further is assumed.