How to build a profitable podcast.
This post details will give you tips and tricks on how to find great guests for your podcast
The best podcast episodes will make listeners want to engage, debate, and invite their friends to listen.
Hands down...
The BEST way to do this is to bring on awesome guests.
Even if your audio quality is a little off, your hosting skills aren't insane or you don't have the best audio editor, if you have a GREAT guest - the episode will still perform.
Most podcasters do not know that to achieve sustainable and prosperous podcast listener growth, you must consider your podcast as a product for your audience. And the best and most powerful way to get your product out there is through "word of mouth" marketing.
One of the best ways to achieve word of mouth marketing is by inviting GREAT guests to come on your podcast.
Doing this will help you generate valuable and positive word of mouth marketing for your show and brand. You will form bonds through healthy relationships in your niche, and your voice will become an authority.
Here is an example of ME being a guest on a podcast, find out later in the post HOW Aaron booked me onto his new podcast 🤯
Bringing guests on your show is arguably the best way for podcasters to get your podcast in front of a new audience... because from our testing, approximately 50% of guests that appear on a podcast, will share.
Now this is clear, you may be thinking:
You will find all these answers in this article, as we take you through the best strategies to find and convince guests to come onto your show...
Let's do this!
As with any form of podcast marketing, it's essential to start with a plan of attack.
You need to have:
Note that we do NOT say that you need a live podcast before you start reaching out to guests... you do not. Guests will still want to come on your show if it's pre-launch, it's just a little harder.
You first guest will be your hardest to book, then things will get progressively easier from their as your podcast grows, along with your authority in the niche.
Having a guest strategy is really helpful when it comes to growing your podcast audience for these three main reasons:
And now you know WHY you need great guests to grow your show, let's find out how to find them 🎳
There are several ways to find great guests for your podcast, from using social networks to finding other podcasts within your niche to joining forums.
Let’s jump in...
1. Cold LinkedIn outreach
LinkedIn is one the best platforms to reach out to professionals. Don't overlook the platform as a podcaster, as you can find anyone in almost all industries in the world on LinkedIn. Network within LinkedIn groups for hobbies, alumni groups and initiatives. You can also use LinkedIn to discover the head of companies that will make great podcast guests or people that can help you get to them. You can also find people who publish articles on topics that excite your audience and bring them to your show.
2. Your existing network
You must have built a good network in your niche through relationships with other podcasters, guests and brands that you have worked with. You can ask for recommendations from them or bring them to the show whenever you need them. There will be a level of trust that exists between both parties.
3. Guest referrals
When you bring a guest to your show, it creates a relationship with them. You can trust them enough to ask them to refer to other people within their industry with enough knowledge to add value to your show.
4. Guest recommendations
You can get your guest to unconsciously recommend other guests for your show by asking them a question like: "who in the world of X would you most like to take for lunch? Or "who would you like to have a roundtable conversation with?" during an interview, then you go ahead to reach out to that person.
If you do this for every guest that comes on your show, before you know it, you will have a complete list of valuable guests to bring to your show.
5. Finding relevant conferences
There will always be conferences in the niche that you specialize in. If you find these conferences and attend, there is a high chance of meeting highly knowledgeable people willing to come on your podcast. Of course, you will meet them, but you can also get invited to these conferences in the future, which is a chance to promote your podcast.
6. Your customers or partners
Your partners, sponsors or customers are valuable guests for your show, as you can always bring them on to talk about their products. Whenever you are stuck, or your guest is about to bail on you, they are always there to fill the space.
7. Finding guests of other similar podcasts
There are other podcasts within your niche, and they will always bring on guests. You should listen to other podcasts within your niche, find valuable guests through these shows and bring them on your podcast. You can tackle a topic they spoke of from another perspective.
8. Asking your salespeople to reach out to prospects to see if they would like to be a guest
Your sales team can research prospective guests within your niche and reach out to them to see if they would love to appear on your podcast. This will ensure that you never run out of guests as your sales team will always bring guests to your show.
9. Adding a CTA to your show to ask listeners to apply to be a guest
You can always add a Call to Action (CTA) at the end of your show, asking listeners to use it if they want to appear as a guest on your show.
Here is one of our recent posts on how to add audio inserts as CTA on your podcast. You can ask your listeners to drop their two cents when they apply to be guests on your show. It could be podcasters, authors, or business owners.
10. Other podcasters
The big pro of bringing other podcasts onto your show is that their audio quality will be GREAT and they should also have a good network in your niche (as they would probably be finding guests just like you are!).
11. #hastags on Twitter
Twitter is one of the best places to connect with people and has great conversations. It is easy to identify strong voices within your niche through hashtags and to follow the right people. In addition, you can get influencers to come on your show or explore lists to see the people that your audience will be interested in.
12. Facebook Groups
Facebook has the most prominent platforms where you can connect with professionals. Simply search for your niche/industry, join the Groups and then start engaging! You can also tag potential guests on your posts to get their attention.
13. Having an awesome podcast
Listeners will want to appear as guests on your podcast if they find it interesting. The best way to attract guests to your show is by producing quality content, such that they will be eager to be part of it. Even when reaching out to high-profile guests and sponsors, you will have leverage.
Now that you have found a way to get great podcast guests on your show and probably booked some of these awesome guests in your niche, we now need to understand how we can leverage these guests for maximum exposure.
Here are some ways you can do this:
Uploading an entire discussion or interview segment might not be ideal in all cases. However, generating interactive pieces might help your podcast marketing to bring more entertainment to the audience. As you create these segments, it will get consistency into your marketing and grow your audience as they will expect it. You can add features like quick-fire question segments, ask guests questions sent in by listeners, or content recommendation from guests. These segments can be shared easily.
Bringing guests to your show is an excellent way to create bonus content or sell paid membership to your audience. For example, getting an expert or influential person on your show, hosting round tables and conducting guest interviews is a way to offer added value and extra content on your show.
If a hot topic or trending discussion is going on, you can reach out to industry guests, past guests, and listeners for their comments. Although you will have to act fast as the topics are hot, you can curate this into short clips or a hook to get people's attention or add your bit too hot conversations.
You can also offer your commentary on these topics as an authority. This will help you place yourself as an expert and trusted voice within your niche.
After recording with your guest, you should prepare to promote it. This way, you can double your audience effectively and get a huge opportunity to take your content and brand to fresh listeners. If you fail to promote your podcast material, you will not get the desired return. Your content must be easy to engage in and share.
If you appear as a guest on another show, be prepared to add a call to action to market yourself to the audience so that they can easily find your content. You should do the same for guests on your show by allowing them to promote their content.
You can make use of audio/video clips, teasers or animated graphics to promote your content. You can also tag people that will be interested in your content. Request for feedback, sharing your content, encouraging interaction and other ways to create buzz around your content.
You can also give your guests images, links, pre-written copy and clips that they can use to promote your collaboration. Doing that will help both of you market the content once it goes live, and the message will be consistent.
One of the most powerful tools to promote your content is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). People don't like to miss out on exciting things; therefore, they will be ready to download your content if you create a buzz around it.
You can use some FOMO tactics like asking your audience to guess who is coming on the next episode. For example, asking your guest to put up a teaser on their social network accounts or teasing the interview topic and leaving your audience to guess the guest. You can also share behind-the-scenes pictures or videos on your social network page.
Every fresh podcast episode brings an opportunity to optimize searchability. When you repurpose your audio, it will get more traffic and help your content rank highly on search engines such as YouTube. When you invite a guest to your show, creating video and audio content will give both of you better marketing opportunities, more materials to share and more content for your listeners to consume.
You have to know that a good number of your audience are likely oblivious to how a podcast works or what it means. This is why it is vital to get your content on other platforms like YouTube to increase the chances of being discovered via search engines.
You must optimize the YouTube description and video title for search by adding essential information like the name of your guest and other targeted keywords. This way, your video will have a better chance of appearing in YouTube search.
In summary...
Guests are vitally important to the success of your podcast.
They will help promote your show and boost your exposure. There are numerous ways you can leverage on guests to take your show to the next level.
Using the above-listed methods will help you get guests consistently. Finding great guests will also help you build long-lasting, strategic relationships while also helping you become THE authority in your niche.
Once you are set up and consistently getting great guests on your show, you can start to use bCast’s guest notification feature to maximise the chances that your guest will share their episode.
And finally, if you have any questions about getting good guests on your show… hit us up on support@bcast.fm and we are happy to advise 🚀
