Are You Ready To Be a Podcast Guest?

Over the past few years, podcasting has continued growing in popularity. It’s been dubbed “the modern radio”, “the new blogging” and “the latest wave in marketing”. An estimated 67 million Americans over 12-years old listen to podcasts monthly, according to Edison Research, with the number significantly growing annually.

By being featured as an authority on podcast interviews, more and more businesses, professionals and experts are establishing themselves as thought leaders, growing their global following, increasing their SEO, and producing quality evergreen content for their websites and social media.

But can anyone be an expert guest on podcast shows? What are hosts looking for in a guest? And what do YOU need to have in place to start, and succeed at podcast guesting?

Let's consider some essential factors:

Credentials and Experience

First and foremost, you need to be good at what you do. Nowadays, words such as “expert”, “guru” and “master”, get used a lot, but not always accurately. If you are going to be interviewed as an expert and an authority on a subject, then you need to know what you’re talking about. You must know your profession well and be up to date with the latest knowledge in your field. It’s important that you have experience and the credentials to back you. This is particularly important if you work within certain professions such as finance, real estate, health & wellness, etc. Hosts will need to know that you have the appropriate qualifications to be giving advice to their audience.

Hopefully, you love what you do! If so, let your enthusiasm and passion bubble out in your interviews as it will be noticed and will be rubbed off on to listeners.

Competent Public Speaker

You might be the best in your industry, truly talented and skilled at your profession, but can you articulate what you do in an easy to understand, compelling way? Let’s face it, most of us don't enjoy public speaking. It's ranked as one of the most stressful things in life for a reason. It’s certainly not something that comes naturally to the majority of us. But that does not mean you can’t be good at it!

Podcast interviews can a great stepping stone to performing live interviews on stage, TV or radio. Podcasts are usually audio only, removing the minefield of “how do I look” and the added stress that brings to the equation. In addition, most podcasts are conversation style. This makes for a more relaxed setting and can help you really hone your conversation skills and overcome your public speaking fears.

If you would like to learn a few tips and tricks, we suggest you read the article, How to Be a Great Conversationalist.  

Practice will not make you a perfect speaker, be comforted to know there’s no such thing, but it will certainly help you to become a better speaker and a confident guest whose a joy to listen to.

Website and Social Media

Having a professional website and an active online presence is a must for all podcast guests. You’re presenting yourself as an “expert” in your field, so your website and social media pages need to resemble that.

When a podcast host is considering you as a potential guest, they will most likely visit your website. They’ll look for an “about” page, research your service, and be interested in your experience and qualifications.

An enormous factor for your ROI is ensuring that you Promote Your Podcast Interviews. You are probably very well aware that producing content for your website, and social media pages is a never-ending task. So think about having a dedicated page on your site where you can post all of your interviews. Every episode you feature on results in great evergreen content that can be leveraged to bring you SEO benefits and drive more traffic to your site. After your interview, be sure to ask the host to send you the link once it has aired. Kindly, ask them if they mind including a copy of any show notes or transcript. Most hosts will gladly give you this information as they will want and expect you to promote the interview.

When both the host and guest promote the interview, by posting to their separate websites and social media pages, it doubles the exposure which benefits both parties! In fact, it is for that very reason that you need to pay attention to your online presence and activity on social media. Hosts will be interested, not only in your expertise but also in your follower and network numbers. If you have a large following across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, a mailing list, etc, that will be a huge attraction to any podcast host.

Time and Commitment

Now, this may sound obvious, but does your schedule allow enough time and flexibility for interviews? Whether you are running your own business, or you are an expert working within a company, it’s probably fair to say you are a very busy person.

As far as marketing strategies go, podcast guesting doesn't have to be overly time-consuming. In fact, most interviews are only 30-45 minutes in length. So include a little time for research, and we’re talking a total of an hour to an hour-and-a-half time commitment per interview. But what you need to keep in mind, is that show hosts are in varying time zones that may be different to yours. Often podcast hosts have set times for when they record their guest interviews. Most hosts will be as accommodating as possible in finding a time that works for you both. However, you are a “guest” on their show, so you need to ensure that your schedule allows enough flexibility so that you can work with a host in securing a recording time.  

So in conclusion, are you ready to be a podcast guest? If you are an expert in your field, who has a nice website and a good social media following, can find the time for interviews and can hold your own behind a mic, then the answer is yes!

What are you waiting for?