Your equipment’s sorted. You’ve put your media kit together and you’re keen to begin your podcast outreach. But first you need to find podcasts to approach about being a guest.
With over a million and a half podcasts out there, where is the best place to start?
I’m going to take you through one of the simplest ways to pull together a targeted list.
Who are your target audiences?
Think about who your book will appeal to? Who is your target audience? There’s likely more than one group of people who will be interested in your book. For example, your book may be about leadership, but perhaps you, the author, are also a successful entrepreneur, as well as a writer. You already have three categories right there.
Now let’s think about where your book sits. Consider which other books you have read about the same topic as your book?
Let’s take leadership as an example. Say the focus of the book you’ve written is about leadership and you happen to know that the author Cy Wakeman has written a successful series of books also about the subject of leadership. We know the readers of Cy’s books are interested in leadership and so they’re likely to be interested in your book too.
Now brainstorm another four authors who have also written about leadership or search leadership on Amazon and see which authors come up.
Next create your podcast outreach spreadsheet
Before we go any further set up a spreadsheet and label the columns:
- Podcast name
- Contact
- Email address
- Website
- Social media channels
- Reference link for the specific podcast interview to mention in pitch
- Date (For first email and follow-up email)
- Response
- Follow-up
- Notes
Put together your list for podcast outreach
Now go back to the list of authors you made and Google their names with the word podcast, one at a time, for example, Cy Wakeman Podcast. This will bring up a list of podcasts these authors have been guests on.
Listeners of these podcasts are likely members of your target audience.
Click on each podcast and have a listen. I can’t emphasise this enough. Take the time to listen to the podcasts on your spreadsheet. It will help you to understand the goals of the podcaster and to see if you’re a good fit.
I know this sounds time consuming but think about how many hours you spent writing your book, then editing it to get it to the point of publication. You spent all that time perfecting your book to making sure it was as good as it could be. So, don’t make the mistake that many authors do and send a blanket email out to each podcast.
The more you can tailor your outreach letter the better responses you’ll get. Podcaster Srinivas Rao explains the importance of tailoring your emails well in How to Pitch a Podcast If You’re a Book Publicist.
It’s inevitable as you fill in the podcast details and listen to some podcast episodes that you’ll decide some aren’t a good fit. That’s OK. Remove the obvious Nos but don’t be too critical, some might surprise you with a Yes. It’s usually worth an ask.
Podcast audiences
As a podcast guest there are many benefits. It’s not wise to get hung up on the size of the audience. As well as speaking to the people listening to the episode you will be exposed to the hosts’ social media following and their email lists which are often sizeable.
Starting small is a great way to build your confidence especially if you’re not used to being interviewed (learn more about the benefits of guesting on podcasts.)
Small is all it takes to have an impact. Size is not the most important factor when assessing podcasts. If you’re talking to the right people it’s going to be far more beneficial to you than talking to a large number of listeners who aren’t your target audience.
When you’re evaluating each podcast check they’re currently podcasting, accept guests, that they have a professional online presence and ideally more than 20 episodes.
Consider if the host could be a valuable connection for you. Our clients have been offered other opportunities such as speaking and consultancy work as a direct result of connecting with podcast hosts. There may be extra criteria you want to add according to your values and your style.
If there are some well established podcasts you’d really like to appear on think if there’s anything special you can offer their audience.
Ask for an introduction
Do you know anyone who can make an introduction to any of the podcasters on your list?
LinkedIn is a brilliant tool for helping you identify who might be connected with someone you want to approach. What connections do you have in common? Would your friend be prepared to introduce you?
Struggling to find contact details for your podcast outreach
Usually podcast hosts say on their website how they wish to be contacted so be respectful of this but don’t assume all prefer to be contacted by email. Some prefer you to reach out to them on social media. And you can make yourself stand out by sending a video message.
Sometimes contact details can be tricky to find. We’ve tried a couple of tools but our current favourite is ContactOut which is great extension for helping you find people’s email addresses if you get stuck.
Search categories
As well as searching authors you can also search categories on your podcast app. Just open up the search bar on your app. Type Leadership, for example, and you’ll come up with some more podcasts to add to your spreadsheet.
Good luck – and if you need any support with planning your podcast outreach please get in touch.
