I’ll walk you through the process of getting booked as a podcast guest, from understanding the benefits of guest podcasting to preparing your pitch and locking in your interview.

What are the benefits of being a podcast guest?

There’s a reason that IG Lives and Remixing is so popular for growth on social media, because it’s built on a fundamental marketing principle. Collaborating with other brands that align with yours is a great way to increase your visibility, and amp up your credibility. As a podcast guest you can reap all the benefits of building your authority, improving your SEO, and increasing your brand awareness without all the work of podcast production. Here’s how guest podcasting to benefit your business:

Reach new audiences

One of the biggest benefits of appearing as a podcast guest is the ability to tap into the host’s existing network and get in front of a new audience – one that may not have ever heard of your business before. By bringing you on their podcast, the host is telling their audience that you have something worth sharing. The listeners trust the host, and therefore are more likely to trust you as a guest. During your interview, if you deliver the value you (and the host) promise, that guest appearance has the potential to open doors for future collaborations, additional email subscribers, and even new customers/clients.

Build Authority

Serving as a podcast guest is a great way to increase the credibility of your brand. As a guest, you’re showcasing your expertise during your interview and have an opportunity to prove yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Not to mention, if the podcast you appear on is well known, simply being associated with that well known (and trusted) brand can increase your authority.

Content Creation

Podcast interviews are one of the best types of long form content and can easily be repurposed to other platforms. As a guest, you’re usually provided with an outline or a list of topics for discussion. Every single one of those questions or topics can be fleshed out in depth on a blog, or broken down into individual social media posts. So, in a one hour podcast interview you’re easily generating a week (or more) worth of shorter form content.

How to prepare your podcast interview pitch

Okay, so you’ve decided that being a podcast guest is worth your time. But, how do you convince a podcast host to bring you on? There’s five things you need to do.

Clarify your message

First and foremost, a podcast host needs to understand what it is you do and what value you can share with their audience. They’ve worked hard to build a loyal listener base and inviting you on as a guest is a reflection on their brand. So, before you even think about pitching yourself as a podcast guest, you first need to get super clear on your message. Polarity is key if you want to stand out as a guest. Answer these questions to begin the process.

What problem do you solve?

How do you solve it differently than others in your industry?

What is a common belief in your industry that you disagree with?

Understand your audience

I know you’re probably sick of hearing it, because I’m sick of saying it, but it’s true – you need to know your ideal client. The impact of your message depends on it. 

But, I don’t want you to focus on hypothetical surface level facts about your ideal client, like their age, income level, where they like to shop, blah blah blah. I want you to focus on the deeper things, like what keeps them up at night, what is missing from their life, what hobbies/habits do you have in common with them, what do they value and what do they despise? Once you know those things, you’ll be able to speak to them in a much more relatable and impactful way.

Create your media kit

Now that you have clarity on who you are and who you help, you need a way to share it with podcast hosts. A media kit is a simple PDF guide that you can easily create in Canva. It should include:

• Your name, title, and contact information
• Your social media handles
• Links to past interviews or existing blog posts (if they are a good representation of you current messaging)
• A summary of your unique POV (which you clarified in step one)
• A description of your audience (which you outlined in step two)
• The value their audience will get from hearing from you

Make your list of shows to pitch

Now it’s time for my favorite part – the research of deciding which podcasts to pitch. First, create a new spreadsheet to log your ideas and note the name of the podcast show, the core topics the show covers, the host name, the hosts email, and a checkbox for whether or not a pitch email was sent. 

As you’re making your list, consider the podcasts that align with your brand on values and target audience. Oftentimes, you’ll experience a higher success rate when pitching to podcast with an audience size that is similar to yours. But don’t be afraid to shoot for the stars with a few and pitch bigger brands if you believe you’re a good fit.  Ideally you want to be a guest on shows that have an engaged listener base full of your ideal clients. 

Here are a few questions to help you identify podcasts that could be a good pitch opportunity:

Who are some podcast hosts that you look up to/admire?

What podcasts have your competitors (or brands in a similar stage of business as you) recently appeared on?

What podcasts does your ideal client frequently listen to?

What are your content pillars? What podcasts frequently discuss those topics? (if you don’t know which podcasts discuss those topics, search those terms in Apple Podcasts)

One more thing to keep in mind as you build your list of shows is you want to avoid pitching yourself as a direct competitor. The goal is to find podcasts that align with your beliefs and have listeners that are your ideal audience but not someone who offers the same services/products as you.

Make the ask

You’ve got the list of shows, you’ve created your media kit, now all you have to do is pitch yourself – but what do you say? If talking yourself up doesn’t come naturally, don’t worry it doesn’t for most of us, but do your best to think of this as what it is, an offer to provide free value for their audience. When it comes to drafting the pitch, here are a few best practices:

• Make it personal. Listen to a few of the recent episodes and find one that stands out to offer a genuine compliment about it. Then, find the hosts email and address them by name.
• Lead with the benefit for them. At this point, you should have a good understanding of what their audience finds interesting (because it’s full of your ideal clients) so let them know that you have their listener’s best interest at heart and explain what value you believe you could offer.
• Make it brief. No one wants a monologue or ten point bullet list of the topics you’d like to discuss as a guest. State in one sentence what your unique perspective on the topic you’d like to discuss is and then invite them to learn more from your media kit or by booking a call to chat details.
• Attach your media kit. This should go without saying but be sure to attach the beautiful media kit you created so the host can get to know you better.

One more bonus tip to keep in mind. If you have a personal connection to the host or any of their previous guests be sure to mention it, networking opens doors that logic won’t. 

Now, hit send and detach yourself from the results. Their response is not indicative of the value you offer, pitching is a numbers game and sometimes you need to wade through a few no’s before you get to the yes’s.

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In case we haven’t met yet, I’m Michaela – content writer, behind the scenes expert, and chaos coordinator (aka the virgo energy to your creative spirit). 

And I’m completely obsessed with helping you turn your journal full of ideas into profit driving offers with research backed strategy, magnetic content, and streamlined systems. It’s about time you got the all-inclusive support you deserve – and I’m here to make it happen.

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