🎙️Amplify Your Voice: 5 Strategic Moves To Become A Podcast Guest
How to appear on a podcast, explained: CC #286
B2B podcasts matter. According to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2023 report, the majority of Americans aged 12-54 have listened to a podcast in the last month. Furthermore, Spotify’s Podcast Trends 2023 report indicates 68%+ growth for business and technology news, entrepreneur, and technology and startup podcasts over the past year.
Being a podcast guest also matters for brand and personal visibility. Appearing on a podcast gives you a chance to have an in-depth discussion with a potential customer, lead or promoter. It helps organizations get free earned media coverage in circumstances that are hard to replicate otherwise.
So Why Are You Talking About This Anyway?
I host a client’s podcast, the Kaplan’s AccelPro IP Law Podcast, and consult on several others.
I also work as a marketing communications consultant and help some clients make their own podcasts and other clients appear on other peoples’ podcasts. Not to mention that I appeared on podcasts frequently back in my journalism days.
Here are five tips I frequently give clients who want to appear on podcasts:
1. Identify Potential Podcasts
If you (or your client) want to appear on a podcast, the first step is finding out which podcasts you want to appear on.
I strongly recommend searching for your chosen podcast keywords on Apple Podcasts, Spotify podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher and Substack and looking for relevant podcasts which have published new episodes in the past three months.
If you can’t find enough for your field, expand the search to Twitter/X and LinkedIn and type “(keyword) podcast” into search.
Create a spreadsheet of the podcasts, their URLs, their contact information and a 1-2 sentence description of each.
Make a list of 25 podcasts to reach out. This will be your target list.
2. Cold Reachout To Podcast Guests & Producers
Contact the podcasts you want to appear on individually. Email is best, followed by webform, followed by LinkedIn, followed by Twitter/X.
Write a short pitch with a format similar to this:
“Hi X,
I would like to suggest a potential guest for $PODCASTNAME. $CLIENTNAME is an experienced $SUBJECTMATTEREXPERT who would love to talk to you about $TOPICNAME. $CLIENTNAME can speak about…
Sub-topic 1
Sub-topic 2
Sub-topic 3
They would be a great fit for your podcast because…
Please let me know what you think.
Best,
$YOURNAME”
Demonstrate value to the podcast producer or host and position your potential guest as someone who’s a great fit for the podcast.
3. LinkedIn, Substack, X/Threads, YouTube & TikTok Posting
There’s another way to position yourself as a podcast guest which involves a longer and more indirect game. With that said, it works.
Post frequently on social media and content platforms on a handful of topics and establish yourself/your client as an expert on them.
Be direct about your areas of expertise and make it so that when someone does a topic search on the platform, your name comes up.
4. The Beg
Not too proud to beg?
Post on LinkedIn or Twitter/X that you/your client wants to appear on a podcast to discuss a topic.
Odds are good that you will get at least two referrals for people to approach or potential appearances from a host or producer.
5. Engage With Guests
Play the long game of engaging with podcast hosts and building relationships with them before pitching.
Build relationships with hosts and producers through comments, shares and reactions to their social media posts as well as direct communication.
Interact with them with the goal of establishing yourself or your client as a topic authority.
Go Get Those Podcast Spots!
Appearing on podcasts as a guest isn’t just a one-off; it’s an ongoing project where you are introducing yourself or your clients to listeners.
The process sounds much more complex than it actually is; appearing on podcasts (if you have the expertise to back it up) is more about persistence and email follow-ups than anything else.
There’s also a flywheel effect for podcast appearances: The more you do, the more you are offered. Appearing on podcasts is proof for hosts and producers that you are familiar with the format, are comfortable on-air and have something to say.
That leads to more appearances on its own.
And if I can ever be of help for training or strategy on your podcast project, let me know.
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Thanks for your article, Neal. Great stuff.
I work for a podcast production agency, and some of our podcasting clients also want to be guests on other shows. So we sometimes pursue paid options to investigate guest spot opportunities on other pods. For instance, we sometimes use PodMatch (a paid service) to find suitable shows to pitch our clients to as guests.
What I like about PodMatch (and possibly other services that match podcast hosts and guests) is that both hosts and wannabe guests have to go through an application process to get onto the site, plus they both have to pay to be on the site. I like this because I have a strong hunch that these two hurdles prevent crappy shows and low-quality guests from being on the site.
Just thought I'd mention all of this, in case it's helpful.