Pillar

As one of the fastest growing mediums in the world right now, podcasts are an invaluable tool for you to use in whatever capacity you deem fit.

Want more sales? You can find new leads by being on a podcast. Want more brand awareness? A podcast serves as a perfect platform to kick off that goal. Have a life changing message? A captive audience awaits your story to be featured on their favorite podcast.

The good news is that just about any business owner can get booked as a podcast guest – as long as you are providing valuable content to the podcast audience.

Want to start getting booked on the podcasts in your niche? Here’s how to start the process.

No, not a monetary value – though that does happen in some cases. Instead, you have to think of your expertise or experience as a value product. On the same hand, you have to also realize that the podcast is providing you value as well – but through the form of a captive audience.

This is the exchange of value. Your valued opinion gives a different perspective to a niche audience who are ready to consume it. In exchange, the podcast host is offering a captive audience who can help grow your brand, purchase your product, or spread the word about your unique perspective.

Your value is measured by your ability to effectively change (or reinforce) the audience’s perspective after they have listened to your expertise. In other words, what does your interview provide that the audience didn’t already have to begin with?

This is why getting booked on podcasts really isn’t that hard because the overall concept is quite simple.  Value is exchanged by both parties as long as they see each other’s time as valuable. Are you willing to spend your time speaking to a podcast host? Are they willing to spend their audience’s time on you? Thus, find your value, cross reference that value with a podcast you believe would add value to your business and you’ll be booked as soon as yesterday.

Notice above, though, our one prefacing statement: “cross reference that value with a podcast you believe would add value to your business.”  The key is to find a podcast that is not only specific to the niche of your topic, but also a well liked and well produced podcast.

Admittedly, this task takes a bit of research. Well liked podcasts speak for themselves.

Since you already know your niche, and you more than likely established that the podcasts you want to be booked on are in your target market, that is already the first big step. The podcasts also speak for themselves because the audience can tell you right off the bat how much they like a show via a variety of different methods.

All of these methods should be taken into consideration as a whole, and understood within context. One podcast may not have all the assets you’re looking for, but it may excel in other areas which might be valuable to you or your business. Nevertheless, these are steps you can take to start measuring your compatibility and value exchange:

If a listener takes time out of their day to rate the podcast  and actually WRITE a positive review – that means they find a lot of value in that show and they’re a highly engaged listener. How many ratings does the podcast have? How many written reviews are there? Does the good outweigh the bad? This method isn’t about deciphering how many people are in the audience, but more to delineate how much engagement the podcast is having with its respective audience.

Learn more about ratings and reviews by listening to this episode of our podcast!

A podcast audience might be small, and the show may not have many reviews but that does not mean it lacks value to you. As long as you can see that the audience members have provided reviews and they are positive in nature, that means it’s a happy and engaged audience.

A happy and engaged audience means it’s also a captive audience for your needs. Remember, you are exchanging value – your knowledge for the influence provided by the audience.

The number of reviews a podcast has on its page is not always the best indicator of engagement because it could very well be that the podcast is new to the market. Perhaps the particular audience isn’t necessarily prone to giving reviews – it could be any number of perfectly valid reasons.  Luckily, reviews aren’t the only barometer by which we can measure engagement.  This is where social media steps into play.

Is the podcast host interacting with its audience in the social sphere? Better yet, is the audience interacting back with the podcast host? A well liked podcast will have a social following. Again, let’s not confuse the number of social followers with the ENGAGEMENT of social followers. A podcast can have 30k likes on social media, but if its audience isn’t reacting, commenting, or sharing posts, then how valuable is that 30k number? Even if the social accounts see a couple of comments per post, or an occasional share, that is certainly better than no comments or shares.

Your goal of getting booked on a podcast is supplemented by your ability to find a podcast with a social media account that is active, engaged, and in alignment with your brand. As long as the social accounts fall within your moral or business compass, and people are engaging – even if it’s a minimal amount – then you may have found the right podcast for you.

There are those who believe that you should not go on a podcast unless it has a certain baseline of downloads.

While those people are certainly entitled to their opinion we simply do not subscribe to this methodology. An engaged and targeted audience is a valuable audience irrespective of the size of that audience.

Your niche may be very specific, and may not warrant large numbers of listeners. But, if a podcast gives you access too an audience that can help grow your authority, then you should absolutely try your best to guest on that podcast.

If a podcast has a reach which helps supplement your authority, has a good reputation indicated by positive reviews, and creates content which aligns with your brand – and is being actively engaged – then the podcast is likely going to suit your needs.

The question remains, though, does YOUR value suit their needs?

Podcast hosts generally want one thing: to provide an entertaining and informative product (i.e.: value) to their audience. How are you going to help the producer/host serve that  value to their audience?

Some podcast hosts will find value in how many followers you have, or how engaged you are with your own set of fans.  Perhaps you have a best selling book, or a highly sought after expertise – that, in and of itself, is valuable to any podcast seeking out guests.

Your client testimonials, books sales, or amount of interviews you have done won’t get you booked on a podcast without an effective pitch.

Your pitch needs to communicate to the podcast host how you will add value to their audience.

As established earlier, your content needs to change the podcast audience in one way or another – whether that is in a profound philosophical way, or by way of actionable advice.

Tell the podcast host how you can create that difference for their audience, and you can create that difference because you have a specific expertise or angle that no one else seems to understand except you.

Perhaps your education gives you a unique insight? Maybe it’s your professional career which has provided you with a new perspective on business practices? Could your life experiences inform your angle? These are all important factors to consider in your pitch to a podcast host.

Keep it short, to the point, and relevant.  Here is a template you can use while pitching yourself to a podcast you think fits well with your expertise:

If you want any podcast to take your expertise seriously, respect the producer and/or host’s time and personalize your pitch. Never, ever, EVER send out a generic templated pitch and never lie in your pitch. For example, only say you love their show if you actually listen and love it. Podcast hosts can tell if you’re blowing smoke..  You are trying to pitch why your angle or idea is different and could provide value to an audience, so don’t undermine that by sending a bad pitch.