If you want to super charge your marketing, there is no better way today than to talk directly to your ideal customers as a podcast guest. Marketing at it’s heart is starting the conversation with somebody that could be an ideal customer, and being on a podcast, being interviewed as an expert sets you up to talk to thousands or tens of thousands of people that can be ideal customers. The host gives you questions you can hi tout of the park. They present you as an expert. They want to make you look good, so they look good to their audience.
As powerful as interviews can be, you need to do work on your part to make sure that when listeners come to your website, that you build trust instead of destroying it.
You see, it’s not just about being on a podcast, it’s the system to take people from being listeners, to visitors, to leads. Your website is an important factor in this, it will either build trust and move people along in the process, or it will kill the process right there.
We’ve learned many things from e-commerce about conversion rates that apply to being a podcast guest.
Here are five vital aspects that podcast guests can add to their websites to ensure listeners become leads.
Your Picture
It’s natural to want to know what someone looks like after you hear them. If you arrive a the website, and there is no picture of the person, you have missed an opportunity to build the relationship. Don’t use canned stock images of all the beautiful people smiling for no reason. They are fake. They’re not authentic; They destroy trust and confidence. You want to make sure that there is a professional image of yourself that’s consistent with your other branding.
About Us Page
Website analytics tells us the ‘about us’ page is often one of the most visited page on any website. Often it’s the same information on the one-page pitch sheet you gave the podcast host to get booked initially. The ‘about us’ page is not about you. Rather it tells the visitor what you can do for them. Failure to have an about us page can communicate that you are more focused on the transaction than the long term relationship.
Social Media
It’s 2016; people expect others to be on social media. Especially if you are an expert they heard online. Ensure your website has social media icons that link back to your profiles. You don’t need to be every social media. If your customers aren’t there, you shouldn’t be there either. For anyone focused on the business-to-business market or offering a professional service /product, you’ll be expected to have a basic LinkedIn profile. Make sure that with one click from your website, visitors can discover you on Linkedin and see to whom you are connected, who you follow, and validate that what they heard on the podcast is consistent with what they find online.
The Footer
Scroll to the bottom of any web page and you can pass or fail a major litmus test of trust. Is the date of the copyright current? If not it’s a warning sign that the site is not up to date either. The other thing people look at while there is a physical address, or, at least, a P. O. Box, and the city and state. People want to know who they’re dealing with, where they are. When you don’t have a location, people assume you could be a foreign scam.
Customer Testimonials
When podcast listeners visit your website, do they see customer testimonials? We all say great things about ourselves, but what do our customers say? Even a site doesn’t include testimonials it can be a major warning sign. People know that we take our best customers testimonials, but what does it say if they don’t exist? New visitors want to see and hear from somebody that looks like them; that has a company, or business, or life like them. They want to be able to relate to an individual that has said good things about your product or service. If you can get a picture of that person along with their name, and their company, some place that the visitor could click to and realize, “Yes, this is a real person,” you will see your conversion rates sky-rocket.
Ezra Firestone talked about this in ‘e-commerce conversions that having an image of a person’s face and a testimonial near any call to action is key helps people get over the fear of clicking and ultimately the fear of buyer’s remorse.
Ultimately we work with people we know, like, and trust. We buy from people that we trust. If people aren’t engaging with you on your website, it’s often not because of your product, they haven’t even experienced the product. The roadblock is that they don’t trust you enough to give you their email address. They don’t trust you enough to put in their credit card.
As a podcast guest, you’ve already talked to them for 30 to 45 minutes Once they arrive at your website let’s make sure we do everything we can to move that relationship along. These five trust factors can build trust to show them that you are the expert that can solve their problem, make their life better, and all they have to do is take this next step.
