Podcast Guest Tips
Whether you have your own podcast, I would advise to be a guest on other shows. You will gain more exposure by being a guest on other shows than even having your own. If you think podcasting sounds like something valuable you’d be interested in, but you don’t want to deal with the scheduling, editing, production, repurposing, etc., then you may not want to start with having your own podcast unless you have the budget to outsource all of those things to a company like mine, PodSeam.com.
But even if you decide having your own podcast isn’t your thing, you need to guest on other podcasts. Why? Well, it’s a free way (99 percent of the time) to get quick and potentially massive exposure. Say you have a book coming out, or you offer some product or service. If all you had to do was spend an hour per podcast, say you did five podcast guests a month, and each podcast had an audience of just 1,000. That’s five hours spent for access to 5,000 super-targeted listeners. Let’s say you make sales or get email subscribers from just 10 percent of that. That’s 500 paying customers or subscribers (a.k.a. potential future customers). Worth it? Yep.
Let’s say you already have your own podcast, so you feel you don’t need to also be a podcast guest. The thing is that podcast listeners listen to podcasts. Pretty obvious, eh? So if you are a guest on a podcast, what are the chances those listeners may check out YOUR podcast? Pretty high. You are going to them in their medium of choice. It just makes sense. It’s how you grow and scale. And all it costs is your time. So, make a plan to set aside a couple of hours a week to be a podcast guest on other relevant shows. And only go after the shows that are within your niche. Just like it makes little sense to have a guest on who doesn’t match your audience, it also makes little sense to be a guest on a show where those listeners aren’t your target customer.
It’s natural to want to reach for the stars and be on the biggest shows, but you can’t start that way. Start out with small shows and build up your guest portfolio before contacting any big podcasts.
With smaller podcasts, it works to just contact them via their website, social media, or email and explain why you think you’d make a delightful guest for their show.
When you approach the big podcasts, you will need to be much more creative, as they potentially receive hundreds of requests weekly. You will need to stand out from the crowd to get past their gatekeepers. One of the best ways to do this is to send a video instead of just a text email. You can do this with a service like Bonjoro (affiliate link) or Loom.
Keep the video under a minute. Address them by name, explain who you are, your experience, and why you’d be a pleasant guest for their show. Show how having you on their show is beneficial to them, not you. Something I like to do is if they’ve written a book I’ve read and enjoyed, I will hold that up and talk about what a brilliant book it is. This proves to them you are a fan or follower of theirs and not just casting your net.
Be sure to listen to at least two episodes before being interviewed so you can get a feel for the flow of the show and what type of questions are asked.
Once you are on the show, be sure to listen to the questions and answer. Whatever you do, don’t answer with one-word or one-sentence answers. Hosts like it when you elaborate, share stories and experiences, etc. If you think you are talking too much, you most likely are not. However, it’s likely you may not be talking enough. If there are questions you have for the host, don’t be afraid to ask, but I wouldn’t recommend asking more than one or two questions. Make sure they apply to the conversation and topic.
After the interview is over, ask them if they know when the episode may go live and tell them you’d love to help them promote it. And then when it goes live, be sure to promote it. A pet peeve of most hosts is when their guests don’t even promote the episode they were on, especially if one reason they have guests on the show is to leverage the guest’s audience.
I recommend sending a follow-up email later that same day or the next day thanking them for allowing you the opportunity to be a guest on their show. Let them know that you can’t wait to hear the episode and share it with your following. I have guest email templates inside Podcast Profit Pro.
When you interview for the show, if you have something coming out that you are promoting on the show such as a book, course, product, etc., see if the host can schedule your episode to release the same week of your launch. If not, it’s okay, but it doesn’t hurt to at least inquire. One way someone can advance sales is to do a “podcast guesting launch tour.” Authors do this when they have a new book coming out. They hit the podcast circuit and do a bunch of interviews leading up to and during their launch. It’s a genius way to increase sales.