The world of podcasts has grown over the years to a pretty significant number. About 400,000 podcasts exist, with subjects ranging from faith to business to music to movies to very niche interests. Many of these shows feature guests who have stories to tell and services to sell. So if you’re a writer, a speaker, a coach or some other type of thought leader… what exactly is the key to getting interviewed on podcasts?
Getting interviewed on podcasts: Do the work
One major key to booking podcast interviews is relationship. Developing relationships with podcast hosts is where it all starts. If you’re a well known author, that relationship began when the host heard of you or ready your book. However if you’re new to the world of podcast interviews, you’ll have to discover and develop those relationships.
As you begin to test the waters and try podcast interview marketing, you may want to keep a few things in mind. Whether you’re just starting and looking for that breakthrough, or you want to keep up your ongoing interviews, it’s important to focus on doing the right thing. Let’s look at 7 tips to getting interviewed on podcasts.
1) Do your research: Define your ideal listener
In marketing, we focus on our ideal buyer through demographics, buyer behavior, psychographics and more. We develop a buyer persona. This is the place you start. Figure out who exactly you want to reach and why. Once you know who your buyer persona is and what they like, you’ll start to understand what they do in their free time and what kind of podcasts interest them. Are they an entrepreneur? A parent? A dentist looking to grow their practice? There are podcasts for each of those avatars.
2) Do more research: Identify the shows your ideal customers listen to
As you get to know your ideal listener, develop a deeper understanding of them and what they do. Where do they get their information and what kind of shows would they listen to? You can make educated guesses, or you can be direct. Ask them with surveys, social media post or the direct question. Search through iTunes with the eye’s of your ideal customer. New and noteworthy is a great place to identify up and coming shows.
3) Narrow it down: Pick a few podcasts to target first
The goal of getting interviewed on podcasts is not the biggest show, but one you can use to improve and point to as an example for future larger shows. You’ll find more fish (listeners) in the ocean (big shows) than in a barrel (smaller shows). But isn’t it easier to fish from a barrel? A niche podcast may have a smaller audience, but the listeners are engaged and you can be more laser-focused on the right audience. Pick up to 5 shows you want to shoot for, and start working.
4) Discover and develop relationships
4) Discover and develop relationshipsThe number one way to reach a podcast host is through a personal introduction. At Interview Valet, we surveyed over 500 top podcasters to find out how they like to be approached, and more importantly pitched. A warm introduction was the top answer. So as you research the shows, go to LinkedIn and Facebook to see if you have mutual connections – you may be surprised. Follow them on Twitter and interact with them.
PRO TIP: Don’t just tweet at the host “Hey I’d love to be on your show.” Instead, take some time to retweet them, answer questions or ask questions of them and generally interact. If they respond, you can begin to develop that relationship.
5) Prepare: Get to know the host, the show and the audience
Jamie Masters (The Eventual Millionaire) gives this advice to podcast guests in The State of Podcast Interviews: “Be confident and CLEAR and want to help my audience get what they want no matter what.” You’ll want to make sure you listen to some of the shows to get to know the host and what they offer their audience. You don’t want to sound like an infomercial… you want to have an authentic conversation with the host that highlights you and your service/product/story.
6) Behave well
The podcast world is a tight knit community. It’s always important to treat other how you’d like to be treated. That’s even more true when it’s a small world. Behave well with respect – play well in the sandbox – and podcast hosts will spread your message naturally to their peers. Here’s a story to highlight the point (inspired by true events – names have been changed).
Jeff is an author. He knows his book is the next big thing in sales strategy. He’s excited to get on Sally’s show “Sales Enablement Experts.” Sally has dozens of pitches each week and is booked out 3 months for recording. She has a popular show. It’s a good fit for everyone. Once Jeff’s show is scheduled to record, Sally emails him to ask for a reschedule. It seems life happened and Sally is unavailable the week they agreed on. Jeff is annoyed and wants to get the show recorded sooner rather than later, as he’s really hoping his book sales jump and a major publisher picks him up. rather than flexibility, Jeff tries to flew his clout and push Sally into recording this week. He won’t take no for an answer. Sally begrudgingly agrees, and the interview is dry and sounds forced. Sally has a choice now: she can leave the interview on the cutting room floor, as it’s not a good fit for her listeners, and she can let other hosts know that Jeff is a bit difficult. Or she can air the show, disappoint her listeners and move on. Which do you think a host might lean towards?
Treat others with respect. You never know who knows whom…
7) Promote the show
Paul Kirch from Boss Academy says, “Promote the show that has you on. Everyone wins. So few guests promote.” If you want to develop new relationships with podcast hosts while deepening current connections, promote others. Not only is it good for the show you’re on, it’s good for relationship in general that you’re promoting the host’s show. Using social media tools like HubSpot, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar or TweetDeck can help you schedule promotions of the show months out.
If you want to get this all kicked off with that first interview, we want to help. We put together a little something to help get you that first podcast interview. Once you book that first one, it gets a little easier. Download our 9 Secrets to Getting Booked on Your First Podcast Interview below.
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