Tips for fostering meaningful industry connections through podcasting
It’s great to have a podcast guest with a huge audience and reach. But if that person/brand has a business with values that misalign with yours, it’s wo’t have the right kind of impact. In fact, it could confuse your audiences and dilute your branding. You want to be consistent with your brand and what it stands for. Choose your guests intentionally and not only based on their following size.
If you’re going to send an invitation to a potential guest, it pays to do your research. Through digging a little deeper, you’ll discover:
a) Whether your guest will be a good fit for your brand
b) How to tailor your invitation to increase your chances of locking in an interview. It’s important to convey that you know about the person/brand you’re pitching to. Also include a brief explanation of why you would love to have them on your podcast. It’s the norm that a guest should receive a backlink to their site and/or socials information. Plus, it’s good practice for a guest to be able to share a relevant service/product/freebie.
Higher reach and impact is about working smarter not harder. I’m a huge advocate for repurposing core content. You can turn a podcast into many pieces of content across various marketing channels. One podcast can become a blog, email(s) and many social media posts. This not only will save you a buttload of time but will help with brand omnipresence (a.k.a being everywhere).
Don’t have a podcast? Consider being a guest instead.
Hosting your own podcast is a huge undertaking. Creating and maintaining a podcast requires dedication and work. If you’re in this camp – consider pitching to other podcasts to be a guest, instead. being a guest on a podcast can still be an impactful marketing move. The content you can use can be worth it, alone.
Experienced podcasters often produce lots of content per episode that you can use. At a minimum, podcasters will send an email blast, many socials posts and have an episode webpage. This is invaluable for your brand awareness and reach. It’s also done-for-you content that you can re share across your own marketing channels.
Courteous pitching will see more success in becoming a podcast guest. No one enjoys cold-pitches landing in their DM’s or inbox. Do some research, take time to familiarise yourself with the podcast host & brand to ensure you’re a good fit. Choose podcasts where you genuinely believe you can add value to their listeners. Don’t send impersonal, generic emails. Spend time crafting a personalised message to conveys you’re a real-life person, not a chatbot.