The simple yet entertaining nature of podcasting has made it an extremely popular form of lead generation and content marketing.
Podcasting also has a massive audience just waiting to be turned into leads:
- More than a third of Canadians 18 and up listen to podcasts monthly (36%)
- 6.5 million adults in the UK listen to podcasts weekly
About 90 million people in the United States listen to podcasts once a month
If you think your business can benefit from podcast lead generation (which it definitely can), there are two ways you can go about it:
- Starting your own podcast
- Appearing as a guest on other podcasts
While both are great for lead generation, podcast appearances have some advantages in that it:
- Takes less effort and resources compared to starting your own podcast
- Gives you access to a new audience every show instead of the same one every week
The question now becomes, how do you actually get leads out of your podcast appearances?
The general concept is the same as running a podcast and other forms of content marketing.
People listen to the podcast, find value in you and what you have to offer, then express interest in some quantifiable way (such as leaving contact information, reaching out to you, taking actions on your website, etc.)
But there are of course specific tactics you can do to maximize your leads, from your podcast appearance.
So, here are 8 strategies to help you generate leads through podcast appearances.
Talk About Topics To Show You Are An Expert
Demonstrating to people that you are an expert in your field will increase their trust in you, and by extension, what you have to offer.
So if you created an online tool that helps job seekers build resumes, and you can prove that you know what employers are looking for in a resume, people will then be more likely to trust your tool.
There are, of course, other ways to prove you are an expert, but a podcast has its advantages:
- Sometimes it is easier to explain complicated topics simply through talking
- Podcasts are an entertaining way of conveying information to people
- Listening to podcasts is a passive act, making it easier for people to hear what you have to say than if they had to read it
Proving your expertise on a podcast appearance starts with your pitches.
When reaching out to podcasts to be a guest, you will typically include two or three topics to talk about that you are well versed in.
That way, once you’re on the podcast, you’ll be able to have an in-depth discussion and display your knowledge on the subject. If possible, you should also bring something new or original to the conversation.
You could talk about a:
- New opinion
- Problem in the industry (and potentially a solution)
- Different take or angle on an existing topic
- Study you’ve done
- Analysis of a case study
In sticking with the resume tool example, potential pitches for that could be:
- I discovered one thing everyone does wrong when highlighting their skills that most people don’t realize.
- Results of a study show that employers actually like seeing a diverse work history.
- An argument for why people should keep their college GPA on their resumes for at least ten years.
You will hear great examples of showing their expertise on NPR’s podcast Throughline, where every episode is about how events in history are impacting the world today.
The hosts, Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah, often have guests who help them explore these topics and contribute new perspectives.
On the Throughline episode titled “White Nationalism,” Sam Sanders as a guest, who hosts his own podcast called “It’s Been A Minute with Sam Sanders.”
In the episode, Sanders explains how white supremacy has inspired policies in place today in the United States. In doing so, he establishes himself as an expert on the subject, hopefully earning listeners’ trust and encouraging them to listen to his podcast.
Prepare a CTA With An Incentive
Hopefully, after listening to your podcast appearance, many people will be interested enough to look you up on their own. But you shouldn’t settle for that.
You could potentially get more leads by having some kind of incentive and a specific call to action (CTA) that listeners can do, which works for two reasons:
- People are lazy
- People are selfish
Having an incentive will get listeners motivated to go to your website, as they will benefit from doing so.
Potential incentives could be:
- Discounts
- Free trials, lite versions or samples of a product
- An ebook
- Sample chapters of a book
A CTA also helps get people to your website, because sometimes, people need to be given direct instructions.
Not everyone is going to take the initiative and go out of their way to look you up.
Ideally, there will be a link they can click on in the episode description, making their lives even easier.
There are many ways you can phrase your CTA, but one template could be, “to get the discount [or another incentive], go to our website at [website domain].”
An example for a personal trainer could be, “to get a free fitness evaluation, go to my website at www.fittrainer21.com and book a call!”
The host may (rather, they should), either do this for you or present an opportunity for you to bring up your CTA. But if they don’t, make sure you find a way to get your CTA in there.
A podcast that does this well is the Eventual Millionaire Podcast, where at the end of each episode, host Jamie Masters asks her guest where listeners can find them, presenting the perfect opportunity for a CTA.
Pitch Topics To Promote Your New Release
Another way you can turn listeners into leads is to intrigue them with a preview of something new, like a:
- Product
- Service
- Business
- Book
- Video, film or documentary
Your preview shouldn’t be the only thing you talk about on the podcast (unless that’s what the host wants). But if you can, pitch topics where it would make sense for either you or the host to promote your new offering.
Let’s say you own a beauty product company, and you are coming out with a new anti-wrinkle cream, a pitch could be “new ways to stop wrinkles.”
Throughout your appearance, you can talk about several different tips and tricks for keeping smooth skin, with one of them being your new product.
For examples of what this sounds like, check out Scheer Intelligence.
It’s a podcast hosted by journalist Robert Scheer where he interviews people who “through a lifetime of engagement with political issues, offer unique and often surprising perspectives on the day’s most important issues,” according to the podcast description.
Frequently, his guests have recently published a book. The conversation doesn’t revolve around the book, however, but around topics related to it.
This allows Scheer and his guest to mention the book organically, hopefully peaking listeners’ interests and causing them to look up the author’s latest release.
In an episode of Scheer Intelligence titled “Lee Camp”, Scheer interviews Comedian Lee Camp, and through their discussions mention Camp’s new book “Bullet Points And Punch Lines.”
Promote Your Appearance Using Multiple Platforms
The host of the podcast is going to promote your appearance because they do it for every episode. It’s one of the ways they get people to listen to their podcast.
If they aren’t, that probably means they don’t have any listeners, and you shouldn’t waste your time with them.
But just because they are promoting your appearance, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t either!
Promoting your podcast appearance yourself will help for two reasons:
- People will hear about your appearance: People aren’t going to listen to your podcast if they don’t know it exists, right? So by promoting it, more people will hear about it, expanding your audience and driving up listens. This will increase the episode’s authority among people who discover your appearance, as the number of listens is often an indicator of the quality of a podcast.
- Promotion will help with SEO:You will also be creating a backlink to your podcast appearance by promoting it. A backlink is a link to an external site, page or content. And these are critical for SEO. They essentially serve as a stamp of approval from other people, which plays a significant factor in search engine’s algorithms.
So, promoting your podcast appearance increases awareness of its existence and improves its searchability, bringing it to the ears of more people who could potentially become leads!
You should use multiple platforms to promote your appearance, such as:
- Social media (like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Your website
- In other content like a blog
- PR releases
When promoting your appearance, you don’t have to come up with a crazy complicated campaign. Writing something simple will get the job done.
For example, you can send a tweet that says: “Hey, check out my appearance on the Entrepreneur’s podcast! I discussed with host James Smith about starting my marketing company, and listeners can get access to an exclusive discount on their first month of my services!”
A good model to look at comes from when Edward Snowden appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience a podcast where Joe Rogan interviews various influential people- to talk about his book, Permanent Record. Snowden sent out promotional tweets after the appearance that were to the point but effective:
Tell A Story To Connect With The Audience
Podcasts are a great place not to just talk about your product, but your story as well.
Why should you tell your story?
Because people respond much more strongly and emotionally to stories than they do to product pitches.
A story will deepen listeners’ interest in you, making them more likely to look up you and your business, becoming a lead.
You can also write your story, but a podcast has the advantage of allowing people to hear your story coming from your voice, creating a stronger personal connection.
On your podcast appearance, you can talk about:
- What inspired you to be in the field you are in
- How you came up with your product idea
- Your process starting your business
- Anecdotes with lessons you’ve learned
Again, this comes down to your pitches to get on a podcast. When you pitch a story for a potential talking point for your appearance, be sure also to include why your story is beneficial for listeners to hear.
Ideally, there will be some kind of lesson in the story. A couple of examples could be:
- A mistake you made and learned from- ex: My first company failed because I didn’t get enough investors in time, but it helped me learn how to be more persuasive in pitches to investors.
- A change in your life- How waking up at 4:30 am every day increased my productivity and led to me starting my consulting firm.
To get an idea of how this sounds, listen to Stuart Goldsmith’s, The Comedian’s Comedian podcast.
Every episode, Goldsmith interviews a different stand-up comedian and they talk about things, like:
- The comedic writing process
- Stage presence
- Tips for amateur comedians
But every episode, Goldsmith also asks them about how they got started in comedy.
In telling their origin story, the guest immediately becomes more personable and relatable than if they just bragged about how good their new stand-up tour is because you get to hear about their struggles and hardship.
Turn The Host Into A Lead
Yes, the host of the podcast you appear on can actually become a lead!
Think about it. They clearly are interested in your business and see value in you. If they didn’t, you wouldn’t be on their podcast.
Unfortunately, not every host will become a lead, because if you’re a marketing specialist on a marketing podcast, for example, the host probably won’t need your help.
But say you’re a marketing specialist on a podcast about starting businesses, the podcast host could potentially want your services.
So with every podcast you appear on, be sure to maintain a relationship with the host because you never know when they could become a client.
A real-life example occurred with Milotree’s Blogger Genius podcast, which is about successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs. SEO expert Deepak Shukla appeared as a guest on the podcast, which is hosted by Jillian Leslie, and Milotree later became a client of Shukla’s.
Improve Your SEO With A Backlink
As mentioned earlier, putting a backlink into the description makes it easier for listeners to get to your site.
Well, this backlink not only serves as a marketing channel to bring people to your site, but will also help improve your site’s search engine ranking, because again, backlinks are crucial to improving SEO.
Also, getting your name out there on more platforms, mediums, and spaces will boost your online presence and authority, increasing your searchability and lead generation even more!
So make sure you get a backlink in the description to one (or multiple) of your sites or profiles.The link can be for your:
- Website
- Social media
- CTA landing page
- Specific piece of content
One podcast that consistently gives their guests backlinks is the a16z podcast.
Hosted by Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz, the podcast is about what it is like to enter the world of startups and innovation. Their episode descriptions are pretty detailed, and always include links to their guest’s website(s).
On the episode titled “The Question of Education,” Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, appears as a guest, and there are links to the Figma website and some of its content.
Hire A Lead Generation Agency To Schedule Appearances
Don’t be afraid to get help!
Scheduling podcast appearances is not easy and will take a considerable amount of time and effort.
You’re also going to need to get on several podcasts to make it worth your time, probably 20 or more.
Hiring a professional lead generation service can help with the outreach process and scheduling appearances for you, leaving you more time to spend on nailing the interview. They will also:
- Be more efficient at getting appearances
- Have more contacts they can reach out to
- Get you on podcasts that align with your target audience
- Be able to get you on more podcasts
All of this will help you generate more leads faster.
An example of a company that does this is Pear Lemon Leads. They are an award-winning lead generation agency with a fantastic podcast outreach service that gets results.
Here is a case study on how they helped Amir Bormand, co-Founder of Elevano, get 12 podcast appearances in 2 months.
Conclusion
If you aren’t using podcast appearances to generate leads for your business, you have no excuse not to now.
It’s a great form of lead generation, and there are so many simple strategies you can use to maximize the number of leads you acquire from your appearances.
For a quick recap, here are 8 strategies you can use to increase how many leads you generate from podcast appearances:
- Talk about topics to show you are an expert
- Prepare a CTA with an incentive
- Pitch topics to promote your new release
- Promote your appearance using multiple platforms
- Tell a story to connect with the audience
- Turn the host into a lead
- Improve your SEO with a backlink
- Hire a lead generation agency to schedule appearances
So start getting on some podcasts and getting leads!
About the Author
Noah Carey is a content writer at Pearl Lemon Leads. He also attends the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies English, because he likes reading and writing, and runs for their track and field team because he likes running in circles.
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