What is podcast guesting?
Podcast guesting – also known as podcast tours – is a strategic marketing endeavor that enables health and wellness business owners to become featured guests on multiple podcasts.
With low barriers to entry and easy distribution, podcast guesting has emerged as an important marketing tool for companies. It allows them to share their stories and life experiences, talk about how they can positively impact people’s lives, and generate leads.
Benefits of being a podcast guest for health and wellness businesses
The expansive reach of podcast audiences worldwide makes being a guest on podcasts a strategic move for healthcare businesses – regardless of their size. Here are the advantages of podcast guesting.
Humanize your brand
Health and wellness isn’t just about numbers and statistics – it also entails talking about challenges and how to overcome them. Podcast interviews enable health professionals and coaches to show they’re not only interested in making money but also invested in the well-being of their audience. As a result, they can catch the attention of listeners and encourage them to take action in their own lives.
Moreover, it’s worth highlighting that creating content that reflects their brand’s values is the third most popular marketing trend, according to HubSpot. It has the fifth-highest ROI of any trend.
Generate new leads
Given that listeners already know and trust the host of their favorite shows, podcast guesting enables health and wellness companies to connect with new audiences and build a list of potential customers for future marketing efforts.
Keep in mind that talking about yourself and the impact you have on your clients might be enough to win over some listeners. However, it’s also essential to provide them with valuable tools and resources if you’re aiming to grow your community. We’ve gathered some inspirational ideas to help you along the way:
- Create in-depth guides or ebooks on health and wellness topics that offer actionable tips, strategies, or solutions to common issues.
- Offer a free email course covering various aspects of health and wellness.
- Design a quiz or self-assessment tool that helps listeners identify their specific wellness needs or goals. For example, Ali Shapiro leverages a quiz to provide value and generate leads from her podcast interviews.
Attract and strengthen investment opportunities
With the right podcast guesting strategy for your healthcare business, you can secure interview spots on podcasts that permeate the VC community and speak directly to the influential individuals who can make your funding dreams come true.
Additionally, with podcast interviews on well-respected shows, you can use these features as social credibility to build trust with investors. As previously mentioned, these interviews allow you to showcase your human side, which goes further than you might realize with VCs.
“VCs are much more emotional than founders realize” states Robbie Crabtree, a communication professional helping founders win over investors through storytelling. He advocates, “In the calls what often happens is that VCs sit there very stoic and they’re not really responding to anything. But if you talk to them behind the scenes, they’ll tell you they make decisions based on emotion, based on how they felt about that founder.”
When looking at a potential VC, you can share your past podcast interviews with them to strengthen that emotional sensation. And if you’re the founder speaking on a podcast, then this is a double win because, according to Robbie, VCs are looking at the founder.
Leverage the host’s social media presence
Being a podcast guest creates an opportunity to tap into the host’s well-established social media presence. Their audience isn’t only interested in the podcast but also values their perspective and recommendations.
That’s why you must look beyond their podcast ratings on Apple Podcasts to get a better understanding of their social media presence. This is because hosts might have a substantial number of followers on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, enabling you to expand your reach.
(Needless to say, you need to promote interviews on your social media platforms to show the host you appreciate their time and work, strengthening collaborative relationships.)
Get backlinks and improve SEO
Once your podcast interview goes live, the host almost always includes a backlink to your home page, social media profiles, and other online platforms in the show notes and on their websites.
These links play a critical role in boosting your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, as search engines view the quality and quantity of the links as votes of confidence from other web pages. And pages with high numbers of backlinks tend to excel in Google’s ranking hierarchy.
Create long-form content that demonstrates value
Did you know that, on average, users view three seconds of an Instagram reel?
With healthcare companies at the forefront of the world’s health issues, condensing the complexity of your business’s products and services into just a few seconds can be almost impossible.
But the good news is, thanks to long-form content like podcasts, you don’t need to feel crunched for time when sharing your business with the world. This is because podcast listeners are some of the most engaged audiences, with research showing that 80% of them listen to all or most of every podcast episode. When speaking on a podcast, you have the necessary time to break down how AI plays a vital role in your product or why your wearable tech stands out from the rest.
Create different types of content easily
Constantly creating content to increase engagement and generate new leads can be a daunting task. But getting booked on podcasts offers a way out for health and wellness businesses.
With interviews typically spanning 30 to 60 minutes, hosts and guests can dig deep into a topic, share anecdotes, and open up about their personal experiences. From these moments, you can craft attention-grabbing social media posts, infographics, or audiograms. At PodWritten, we turn our clients’ podcast episodes into SEO-optimized blog posts or ebooks to help them make the most of their interviews and increase their online presence.
💡 Learn more: 6 ways to repurpose podcast content.
Misconceptions about being a guest on podcasts
Myth #1: Without strong connections with hosts, you can’t get booked on podcasts
Not currently having connections with podcast hosts should never be a reason to pump the brakes on your podcast guesting journey. Instead, start firing out those cold emails and make them shine!
👀 Need inspiration? Read our blog: 10x your results: How to get booked as a podcast guest.
Myth #2: Hosts aren’t interested in you unless you have a large social media presence
While some hosts do look at social media numbers, this isn’t the case for all of them.
In fact, there are many podcast hosts who don’t focus time and energy on their own social media, as they are far more interested in investing their time into their podcasts.
Take Elizabeth Cush, host of Awaken Your Wise Woman, as an example. On the 9th episode of Mics to Millions, she admitted that marketing her podcast has never been her forte, and that includes not being super active on Instagram. But this didn’t stop her from getting booked as a podcast guest on other podcasts and bringing in clients to her business.
Myth #3: Having a technical background and expensive equipment is a necessity for podcast guesting
The reality is anyone can get started in podcasting without being techy, thanks to the various options when it comes to tools, software, and equipment. And if you’re worried your podcasting setup will cost you an arm and a leg, no problem! Sounding like a professional podcast has never cost so little.
For those on a budget looking to do primarily audio-only podcasts, we recommend the AT2020USB+. On the official site, it will cost roughly $170, but you can find around $100 on more common online retail sites. And given that this is a USB mic, all you need to do is plug in and get started.
The good news is that since podcast hosts handle the recording and editing of your interview, all you need to do is turn up with high-quality audio, and the rest is on them.
Myth #4: Experience in public speaking is important to deliver a good interview
Are you fearful of speaking in front of others? You’re not alone! According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, the vast majority of people rank fear of public speaking as number one – 75% to be precise.
When that little red light pops up, and you’re recording, it’s ok if you feel under pressure – that’s normal. The important thing is to be comfortable in this setting, and there are a number of ways you can do that.
Firstly, reach out to small shows that have only a handful of listeners. Interviewing on these shows will be a great way to get some time behind the mic before moving up to bigger shows. You can also use your own social media platforms to build up confidence. This was the approach that Michele Riechman, host of Healthy Beyond 40, took before launching her podcast.
In her interview on Mics to Millions, she shared, “I actually started with some Facebook lives and Instagram lives, just thinking of different topics I could talk about that my audience would be interested in. It was almost giving myself a little outline because it was almost like I didn’t know how to formulate all this information in my head that I have.” She adds, “And then from that, I went to do guesting on other people’s podcasts and really just continuing to build up that confidence.”
Myth #5: What you have to say isn’t special or interesting enough
Whether it’s from your personal experience or your perspective, finding out what you have to offer just takes a little bit of time and work.
Start by asking yourself: Do I have a unique methodology or personal background story? Then, reflect on why you started your business, especially if it addresses a problem conventional methods couldn’t solve.
Alternatively, consider reaching out to your audience on social media and asking them what their pain points are and decide if you have solutions that your competitors might be talking about. On that note, what beliefs do you have that stand out from others in the health and wellness landscape?
If you’re drawing a blank with the above, turn to your story and identify what leaps out as exciting or different. This can help give you ideas of how you can set yourself and your story apart from others. Once you’ve identified your unique approach, enhance engagement and credibility by adding real-life examples or client stories.
Myth #6: Podcast guesting is only for people who have a nice voice
Have you ever heard a recording of yourself and asked, “Do I really sound like that?” Chances are, yes, you’ve gone through this. Because not liking the sound of your own voice is so common, there’s a term for it – voice confrontation.
Marc Pell, a neuroscientist at McGill University who specializes in the communication of emotion, shared in a Guardian article that, “When we hear our isolated voice, we may go through the automatic process of evaluating our voice in the way we routinely do with other people’s voices … we then compare our impressions of the voice to how other people must evaluate us socially, leading many people to be upset or dissatisfied with the way they sound.”
Once you accept that by disliking your voice, you’re part of the majority, you can see it’s not as a roadblock to podcasting but as a limiting belief that you can overcome in time.
What are the steps of being a podcast guest?
To provide a structured view, we’ve categorized the stages of being a podcast guest into three sections.
Step 1: Create the connection
Write a personalized pitch: You can start your pitch with sentences like:
- In your episode with (the guest’s name), you spoke about (something specific that was discussed or mentioned).
- I really enjoyed your interview with (the guest’s name), particularly when you started exploring (topic—and make sure you’re specific, don’t just take snippets from the show notes).
Following that, delve into what makes you a great fit for the show and what you can bring to the host’s listeners. You should conclude by compiling a list of the topics you want to cover as bullets.
Contact the host: In this step, you need to find the contact information of the host and send out your pitch.
Follow up if necessary: If the response is crickets, you can send a polite follow-up email.
👀Want to 10x your results? Check out our blog: How to get booked as a podcast guest.
Step 2: Get ready for the interview
Schedule the call: Congratulations! The host is excited to have you on the show. Now, you need to coordinate the recording date and time of the recording and discuss any technical requirements.
Provide supporting materials: Make sure to share a detailed press kit or media sheet that includes your bio, headshot, relevant links, and any additional information that the host might need before the call.
Prepare your content: To be a great podcast guest, you must tailor your message to the podcast’s format and audience, ensuring that it aligns with their interests. Added to that, you can sprinkle real-life examples or client stories into the mix to increase engagement and credibility.
Practice what you want to share: By recording and timing yourself, speaking aloud, or conducting mock interviews, you can polish your talking points and feel more confident.
Set up the necessary equipment for recording: You wouldn’t want the host to decide against airing your episode due to poor audio quality. So, ensure you have a good microphone, headphones, and a stable internet connection.
Step 3: Generate value
Promote the episode: After the episode is live, actively promote it. You can:
- Share the interview with potential customers to demonstrate your expertise.
- Include the feature on your “Press” or “As Seen In” page on your website to enhance your credibility.
- Add a link to the episode in your email signature.
- Write a blog post summarizing the interview’s key takeaways, providing additional value to your audience.
Build a relationship with the host: Maintain a positive connection with the host by leaving a good review on Apple Podcasts, providing access to your content, or offering special deals.
Should I work with a podcast booking agency?
The process of booking podcast interviews isn’t rocket science. However, doing it well consumes a significant amount of time since you have to repeat the same steps for every single booking. This is where podcast booking agencies come into play.
At its core, podcast booking agencies like PodWritten bridge the gap between podcast hosts and potential guests. They also deal with writing pitches, sending follow-up emails, scheduling calls, and sharing the necessary information with the host, allowing you to focus on improving your content.
Before deciding whether to handle it yourself or team up with a podcast booking agency, you should answer the following.
Is my time better spent elsewhere?
As we’ve already discussed, the process of booking podcasts is pretty time-consuming. That’s why you need to decide how much time you can realistically dedicate to finding the right podcasts, writing personalized pitches, and managing logistics. Take a moment to think: “Can I use this time to improve my product and service or develop business strategies?
Do I understand the podcasting industry and its dynamics?
From audience behavior to content trends, the podcasting landscape is constantly changing. Are you ready to adapt your message in sync with these shifts, or do you seek expert assistance and guidance to navigate these new territories effectively?
Do I have the resources to handle podcast bookings internally?
Podcast booking agencies have established connections. Are you actively engaged in networking activities within your industry? Do you have a database of potential hosts, including their contact information and details about their podcast?
What is my budget for podcast guest booking? Assess your budget and decide how much you’re willing to invest in podcast guest booking.
FAQs about getting booked as a podcast guest
How do I find podcasts to be a guest on?
What equipment do I need to be a podcast guest?
How can I promote my podcast appearance?
How can I build a relationship with the podcast host?
2. After the podcast episode, send a personalized thank-you email expressing gratitude and highlighting what you enjoyed during the call.
3. Share exclusive insights related to your expertise, making the host feel valued.
4. Find common interests beyond podcasting—be it shared hobbies, books, or experiences, to create more personal connections.
5. Follow and engage with them on social media.
6. Leave positive reviews for the podcast on Apple Podcasts.
How can I track the ROI of my podcast interviews?
2. Provide exclusive promo codes or custom URLs during podcast interviews. Track the usage of these codes or URLs to measure the direct impact on sales or conversions.
3. Monitor social media platforms for engagement related to your podcast appearances. Look for increases in followers, likes, shares, and comments.
Implement customer surveys to find out how customers discovered your brand.
Thank you so much Alex! We’re glad you liked the piece and found it useful.