Real talk: Just about any podcast that uses interviews as a part of their show’s format is looking for guests. Hustleburg is always looking for guests to interview. Both interviews and serving on a panel are wonderful opportunities for you to build and promote your brand, while the podcast team creates content for the community they’ve built.
1. Identify Relevant Podcasts
You’ll need to find relevant podcasts where you can add value for the audience. Start with seeking those whose topics match or dovetail well with “The Five,” the five areas of focus for your content as the beginning of your search for relevancy. With how many podcasts exist, you will probably find several that complement your expertise well. You just need to know how and where to search.
How to Search
To begin, go through Apple’s Podcast Directory by category to identify potential shows for your appearance. Podcast creators self-categorize their show with a good degree of generality. Your best bet is to list all shows that look to intersect with your five content areas. When starting to compile your list, don’t focus on specifics yet. You want to amass a list before going too deep about each podcast and narrowing it down.
Additionally, search Google’s Podcast Directory for specific keywords that make up “The Five” for you. In addition to finding entire lists of possible podcasts, you’ll also find individual shows that didn’t categorize themselves well with Apple for your category scan of their directory. Don’t fault the creators for this, as Apple only three categories for a podcast.
Next, turn to Google and search. Your efforts with typing “podcast+ {one of your five focus areas}.” Additionally, if you identified a target audience for your guest appearance, I would also search for that “{target market}+podcast.”
Other Ways to Find Podcasts
Those aren’t the only options to find suitable podcasts. By looking at the influencers in your industry and in “The Five,” you can find previous media appearances they have done. This will likely overturn an opportunity or two here that you hadn’t thought about previously.
Obviously, Apple’s podcast directory and Google searches will only turn up so many opportunities. There is actually a large enough disconnect between podcast hosts and potential podcast guests that there are several podcast matching services, like podcastguests.com, findradioguests.com, and perfectpodcastguest.com, aiming to connect podcasts and guests. A bit of a disclaimer here: We’ve not found much success either as a host or potential guest with any of the matching services.
Last, but not least, your local podcasts might be a fit for you. Attending local podcast meetups to network with podcast hosts and reaching out to your local Chamber of Commerce may point you in the right direction. Often, the Chamber features local businesses on their podcast.
2. Get More Information
At this point, you identified a lot of possibilities, but you don’t know a lot about them. Now, amassing a list is replaced by eliminating those irrelevant to your business. To look further, Google each podcast name from your list. You should look to find the following:
- Podcast Website
- Podcast Host(s) Name(s)
- Topics
- Reach (local, state, regional, national)
- Contact E-Mail or Online Guest Form
Knowing this information will give you a better and deeper look at whether they are a good fit for you. You’re likely to strike a lot of podcasts because their topics, while related to your five areas of focus, don’t really line up with where you can add value to the audience. You will also eliminate a lot of podcasts because they have a reach that won’t intersect with your intended audience. For example, there’s no sense in appearing on a podcast that is focused on New Mexico when your business serves Saint Petersburg.
While taking this deep dive for information, you will also discover that several shows’ contact e-mail addresses or online guest forms are hard to find. If you’re really lucky, they may share how they source guests on their website. With Hustleburg, we find Saint Petersburg entrepreneurs through our activity within the business community and we urge them to contact us here. This type of information could be found on the about page for the show, the hosts’ personal websites, or in the reply-to for their mailing list or newsletter.