You’ve identified all the podcasts that are appropriate for you by podcast hunting, right? You found the shows where the audience is right for your business, their topics intersect with “the Five,” and you have good contact information. What do you do with all of it?
Before we get into the mechanics of pitching yourself as a guest, now is a good time to set realistic expectations. First, be prepared to be rejected a lot. Moreso, be prepared to not hear back from a lot of podcast teams. Getting booked as a guest is a combination of what you bring to the show and the number of pitches you send.
Extremely popular podcasts get lots of high-profile guests, so it’s probably best to approach them with realism and experience. Early in your journey as a guest, aim for some of the smaller shows that will be ecstatic about someone who wants to be a guest on their podcast to build your guest resume. Once you have experience as a guest and a portfolio of appearances to point to, you can go after the bigger podcasts.
1. Listen to an Episode
Before you reach out to a podcast, listen to at least one episode of it that includes an interview or a panel. Listening will give you a glimpse at personality issues, problems with the format, or that you don’t actually want to sit down for a 3-hour interview that only hits on your five areas of focus once or twice. Listening to an episode will eliminate about a quarter to a third of the directory you’ve acquired through your podcast-hunting efforts.
2. Prepare a One-Sheet
A “one-sheet” is an introduction to the podcast host(s) and producers about you. In it, you are providing podcast hosts and producers with the right information to know that you are right for their show. It serves as your podcast resume, summarizing who you are and what you do. Most importantly, it centers around the value you can add for their audience.
Your one-sheet should include:
- Your photo (headshot preferred) and your business logo
- Your qualifications as an expert
- “The Five” – the five areas of focus you can add value in
- Any suggested questions for the interviewer
- Recent appearances on other podcasts or outlets
- How you plan to help promote the episode that features you
Your company website should also include a page (maybe as a sub-page of your About or Contact page) that contains the above for any media contacts that might be seeking you out for an interview. Having this information available would make any show’s host or producer invite you in a second. You can also share the URL on any online forms for guests that may only allow plain text submissions.
3. Reaching Out With Your Pitch
You’ve reached the easiest part of getting booked, reaching out. You’ve done the hard work of researching the podcast and preparing your one-sheet for their viewing. While reaching out to podcast teams, do yourself a favor and make sure you don’t flood every podcast at once.
That means two things:
- You should send each podcast an individual e-mail focused on that show and the value you can add to their audience. No mass emails to every show.
- Your contacts should be spread out, so as not to confuse one show with another. Besides the embarrassment of possibly confusing shows, your time spent finalizing your calendar to appear will be more organized and defined with fewer appearances to juggle.
Finally, by sending your one-sheet information in the body of an e-mail, rather than attaching it, you are more likely to be seen by the intended recipient and not caught in a spam or threat filter.
4. Follow Up in a Week
Be prepared with a follow-up e-mail that shows even more value than your initial contact. In it, you should include a link to another podcast or news appearance, a testimonial for your speaking or writing capability, or links to an article you’ve written on the topic you’d like to be a guest on the podcast about. You should probably wait at least five business days before sending a follow-up to your initial contact.
With these tips, you’ll be on a podcast in no time.