Podcasts are a powerful channel for reaching your B2B audience. But when it comes to guesting on other podcasts, not all guests are created equal. There is plenty that you – as the guest – can do to make the episode as good as possible and make you and your brand come off well to the listeners.
If you haven’t made podcasting part of your multichannel content marketing strategy, now is the time. In 2022, there were 125 million monthly podcast listeners in the US. Last year, 22% of worldwide internet users listened to a podcast at least once a month.
Becoming a podcast guest is an incredibly valuable marketing strategy for improving your exposure and reach, building new networking opportunities, and establishing yourself as a thought leader.
However, just because you are the one being interviewed doesn’t mean you don’t need to put work in. As a former podcast host, I have interviewed over a hundred podcast guests and been a guest myself a good few times. Here are some things I recommend for being the best guest possible for B2B podcasts.
Prepare Your Podcast Guesting Strategy
Before you reach out to any podcasters, it’s important to put together your pitch, media kit, and overall podcast guesting strategy. This will help you find the right podcasts and help you demonstrate why you are the right guest. Make sure to:
- Set podcast guesting goals: What are your marketing goals for becoming a podcast guest? How do these fit into your overall multichannel content strategy? Understand that podcast guesting is a long-term strategy that takes time to see results and set specific goals to meet.
- Find podcasts that align with your brand and target audience: Create a list of a few dozen podcasts that your target audience listens to and that fit your niche.
- Define your unique point of view: What are you an expert at? What can you speak intelligently on better than anyone else? What benefit or perspective can you offer to the podcast listeners? Outline the topics you’re best prepared to cover and the unique point of view you can provide on these topics.
- Prepare your media kit: Your media kit should include your headshot, short bio, and company and social media links.
- Practice, practice, practice: If this is your first venture into podcasting, you may be a little reserved at first. You’ll naturally get better the more you do it, but you can also practice recording yourself or doing mock interviews with your team to improve your delivery.
Once you have this information together, you can reach out to individual podcasts and pitch yourself as a guest who can bring value. Briefly summarize your background and expertise and then discuss the topics and unique points of view that best fit their show.
Working with a PR consultant can make the above steps much easier. They will also often have relationships with podcast hosts and other media to improve the responses to your pitches.
Prepare for Each Podcast Interview
Once you have an interview scheduled, put in some preparation time to be the best podcast guest possible. Just because you aren’t the one asking the questions doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put thought into how the show will go. Here are a few tips:
- Ask for the questions ahead of time: Don’t be afraid to ask the host for the questions they plan to ask or at least the topics they would like to cover. This gives you time to put some thought into those topics. Don’t write out answers to read during the interview, but try to think about some good stories or experiences you can have ready.
- Listen to previous podcast episodes: Listen to a couple of episodes of the show you are guesting on. This helps you understand the audience you’ll be speaking to and get an idea of what to expect in terms of format, style, and questions. If you can demonstrate your familiarity with the show – by understanding ongoing bits or segments – the host and the audience will appreciate you for it.
- Ask when the episode will be published: Podcasts can often take weeks or even months from the time you record to the time they are published. Knowing a rough window for when the episode will go live will help you avoid referencing things that will have already passed by then and help you mention things that will be relevant during that time. Which brings us to…
- Let the host know your marketing goals: If you have a specific goal for the podcast, let the host know so they can set you up to succeed. You want to deliver value to the podcast’s audience, but you also want to meet your own marketing goals. These are smaller goals such as promoting a new product release or getting exposure before an upcoming conference.
Finally, think about the story you want to tell. Kathy Berardi, Storyteller PR & Marketer focused on B2B companies, says:
“Any communication told as a story – in any form from podcasts to movies – will engage listeners more than anything else. And every great story has a short beginning, a long middle, and an even shorter ending. So when you consider what you wish to discuss in a podcast interview – think about how long the podcast is; and separate your key points to organically converse into an intriguing opener, an engaging middle, and a punchy ending and you will please listeners and your podcast host!”
Get the Best Possible Podcast Recording
It’s game day! Time to put all the preparation and strategy into action and deliver a great interview.
These tips get more into the technical side of podcasting because getting the best possible sound is incredibly important. Have you ever listened to a podcast episode where the host sounds crisp and clear and the guest sounds like they’re on speakerphone in a tunnel? Did you listen to the entire episode or did you switch to another with better sound?
- High-quality microphone: You don’t need to invest thousands of dollars in recording equipment, but having a good microphone makes a huge difference. Don’t simply use the built-in microphone from your computer or webcam. Pat Flynn has a good podcast equipment guide at various price points, including one for under $100.
- Headphones: This may seem simple but it really helps to prevent echoes from your speaker and microphone. Any headphones are perfectly fine.
- Good recording environment: Please, please don’t record from an open floor office (or anywhere in public)! Any ambient or background noise like people, lawnmowers, or fans can make for a very rough recording. Try to record in a small, quiet room to reduce ambient noise and echoes.
- Record a local backup: Your podcast host will likely record everything from their end through whatever voice chat or podcasting software they use. However, accidents happen. Consider recording a backup of your audio just in case their recording gets lost.
Okay, sound engineer hat is off. Time to put back on the marketer hat:
- Give real information: Don’t come off like a sales presentation or blog post. Podcasts are a great opportunity to get a bit more vulnerable and real. Share your methodology, mistakes you’ve made, and any secrets you can.
- Have a call to action: What do you want the audience to do after they listen to your episode? Point them to a specific social channel or landing page and make it very easy for them to find you.
Promote the Podcast Content
Your job isn’t done once the interview is over. There is plenty you can and should do once the episode goes live to help your new podcast friend succeed and help you reach your marketing goals:
- Share the podcast episode: Pull out specific insights or ideas from the episode and share those on social media. This will let people know what to expect from the podcast and demonstrate that you gave real, valuable information (you did, didn’t you?).
- Leave the podcast a review: Support the show by giving it a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever it is hosted. This can make a huge difference to its ranking and get it in front of more people.
- Repurpose Episode Content: With the host’s permission, you can repurpose the podcast to create blogs, videos, and other content on your channels. Podcasts are a valuable source of unique content ideas and repurposing them presents another opportunity to link back to the podcast and create more growth.
As a podcast guest, you have a responsibility to the host and their audience to deliver real value and help them put together the best episode possible. Following these tips will help you be the best B2B podcast guest you can be. The host and your marketing ROI will thank you for it.
If you’d like further guidance in creating your podcast marketing strategy or putting together media kits and other content assets, check out our B2B podcasting services.
