Ready to connect with your target audience, define your brand and build a media profile?
Podcasts are a great way to get media exposure and speaking experience while creating buzz about your business.
Because of the longer format, podcast interviews help develop a personal connection with listeners, which makes it more likely that they will follow you on social media or research your products and services.
Podcasts can also be a more accessible route for building up your press links than traditional media, especially when you are first starting out.
But to cash in on these benefits, you need to be the best guest you can be.
Here’s my top 5 tips for making a splash on your next podcast interview.
Tip #1: Do your research
To get a sense of the type of questions, tone, and host’s interview style, nothing beats listening to a few episodes of the podcast you’re about to be a guest on. Choose recent episodes with similar themes or guests and be sure to take notes on what you notice. It can also help to visit the podcast’s website to learn more about their subject matter and mission statement.
Tip #2: Choose your number one message
Chances are, the podcast picked you for a reason. Either they sought you out as an expert guest because they liked your biography or they picked you based off of an enticing pitch. So what subject do their listeners want to hear more about?
Spend some time brainstorming on your primary subject matter and the message you most want listeners to take away. If you start to get sidetracked or flustered, knowing your message makes it easy to get back on track.
Tip #3: Support your message with short stories, stats and soundbites
Stats help listeners build trust with you by providing proof of your points, short stories make you relatable, and soundbites are what listeners are going to remember after the bulk of the interview fades.
Spell these out in a document that you can study and/or have in front of you during the interview. Podcast interviews work best when they feel natural, so there’s a good chance you won’t get to all of them. Having them memorized or readily available will make it simple to call them up when it makes sense within the flow of the interview.
Tip #4: Understand how and when to include a CTA
A call to action is what turns an interview into a sales funnel, but how to include one can be tricky.
Some hosts will ask you directly to share your information, which will usually include where to find you on social media and where to buy your product or service. They might also share that with listeners themselves at the beginning or end of the pod.
However, if you are being brought in as an expert on a more news-oriented podcast, they may not appreciate you mentioning your products or services directly. Make sure you are clear on the type of pod you’re a guest on and what their standard practice is (see Tip #1). When in doubt, ask!
Tip #5: Practice
Knowing what you’d like to say and having it written down on paper are very different experiences from saying it out loud. Give yourself time to practice sharing your stories, stats, and soundbites. If you can, role play with someone who can act as an interviewer to give yourself practice for responding off-the-cuff to questions and queries.
Remember, publicists are also media coaches! We can help you develop talking points, practice being interviewed, and give you tips and pointers for improving your skills at being a great podcast guest. Find out how in the comments below.
