What’s the best way to grow your podcast audience? That is a topic that could be debated hotly by pretty much anyone who works in podcasting. But all would agree that if being a guest on other people’s podcasts isn’t the very best method, it’s high on the list.
Pitching well, which is to say, effectively and in a manner that results in guest appearances and new professional relationships is one of those things that is simple but not easy.
Simple: Find complementary shows, communicate your value, bring your best content and generally be a helpful and gracious guest.
Not easy: How do you pitch, are you good enough, will they listen to you, how much research do you need to do, do you have to promote your episode, how long is this all going to take and what if no one accepts you?
Maybe I’m the only one who gets a little in my head about it, but it’s not likely.
Angie Trueblood the founder of The Podwize Group is one of my very best friends in the industry, and since our very first interview, we’ve been talking, collaborating, workshopping and generally working together to create ways that different kinds of businesses owners can leverage podcasts and podcast appearances.
And through these conversations we’ve come up with really excellent use-cases for different kinds of business owners—most specifically, authors. Turns out we also have in common a love of the written word and the people who create those words as a marketing strategy for their companies.
So, enjoy this conversation I had with Angie; there have been some changes in both of our businesses since it was originally released. Check the show notes for the latest links and details but the strategy and practice of pitching is solid.
There is so much gold in this conversation that will help you refine your own pitching strategy to get more visibility on your show, your book and your business.
If you’re interested in that, listen to the episode below or continue reading the blog post!
Tune in to the full episode to learn about:
- Benefits of podcast guesting for authors
- Pitching for Podcasts vs. Other Publications
- Should you outsource the pitch?
- Overcoming Pitching Anxiety
- Pitching time and scheduling
- How to be a great podcast guest
- Launching your book with podcasts
Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!
Angie Trueblood’s Favorite Podcasts
Angie: “So I listen to a variety of genres. I’ve recently gotten into true crime, but I specifically like true crime shows that have an ending. I don’t love when it is unresolved.
I listen to The Prosecutors and that’s really fascinating because it’s two attorneys and they’re telling the story, which I love, they’re expert storytellers. But then they’re also hitting it kind of from the legal angle, which is really different. So, I love that.
Business-wise, I’m listening to Stacking Your Team with Shelli Warren, all about leadership and leading a team. And then my all-time go-to is SmartLess with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. It’s hilarious. They’re so sharp and it’s incredible. It’s one of my favorite podcasts.”
Angie’s Journey into Podcast Pitching
Angie: “We think about going even more niche sometimes. We explore that as well. But I had a previous business in the meal planning space where I was helping moms and parents learn how to meal plan for families.
In that space, I had created an online course. And I pitched myself for interviews on podcasts and local media just as a way to grow my audience. And I was able to see the impact that that had on my audience size.
Eventually friends and colleagues started asking, well, how did you land that interview? How did you get the local news channel to do a spot on you and your kitchen? And my answer was always that I just asked.
I quickly learned that wasn’t everyone else’s go-to, that they did not enjoy pitching. I saw it more as an outreach to create a connection and it was just an ask for a collaboration because I recognized there were win-win opportunities.
But when I started to see that this sort of gift that I had was not something that other people had and that they needed it, then I kind of beta tested a couple of clients back in 2017, and it just grew from there.
We quickly scaled or we quickly niched into podcast pitching and not pitching for media or written publications.”
Pitching for Podcasts vs. Other Publications
Angie: “For media, like television media and online media, I feel like it’s very time sensitive. So, the topics that you need to pitch, typically, I mean, there are definitely evergreen topics that you can pitch, but you’re also competing with whatever is happening in the general political space or environmental space, like whatever is happening in the news cycle, you are competing with that to get your story picked up.
Over the last couple of years, I have friends who are in the media pitching space. And it’s been a lot of competition to have a traditional business story, like make it to the top of the news stack. And also, I feel like for me to have gotten excellent results for our clients, it was more of a numbers game, whereas in the podcasting space, it’s really about building relationships and having this long form conversation.
It just felt more human to me, even though that’s not taking away at all from journalists or television personalities. It’s just the relationship part of what I do was far more of a better fit in the podcasting space, than in other types of earned visibility spaces.”
Different Kinds of Pitches You Can Receive
Angie: “It’s interesting because there’s just an entire gamut of pitches. And, you know, I think sometimes podcast pitching agencies get a bad rap and I take that personally because we kind of come under that umbrella, even though we’re more of a micro agency.
So, I see great pitches come from individuals and we’ve gotten great pitches from other agencies, and I’ve also seen the flip side of it. And I am not a tech wizard, but there are definitely ways that people are getting email addresses of podcast hosts and emailing them.
If it’s not in bulk, they’re at least creating some sort of general database with email addresses and just pitching out the same templated email to those hosts.
So, we do see a lot of that too where the topic is totally misaligned. I mean, the show is Go Pitch Yourself and it doesn’t take any amount of time to recognize that we are really focused on pitching for visibility opportunities or something in the podcasting space and we get really random topics that get pitched to us and sometimes no topic at all. It’s just a description of who the guest is. I’m sure you have seen all of it.”
Receiving an Irrelevant Pitch
I once got a pitch, and it was talking about how great this awesome guest in a completely unrelated industry was. And it was one email, so I just ignored it, as you do.
Then I got a follow-up being like, no, really, this guest super wants to be on your show. And I’m just like, I really don’t think that’s true.
This is apparently an expert in like e-commerce and I’m just like, cool, I don’t know anything about e-commerce. So, the owner of the company then came back and he’s like, oh, you know, I’m sorry. My assistant didn’t do enough research, but you know, hey, I’m a pitcher for all of these cool podcasts. Do you want to jump on my calendar and have a call?
No, no.
Angie’s thoughts on irrelevant pitches:
“Just send me a list. I mean, like that’s what we do to some of the people that we’ve got close relationships. We can just send a list of who we have as clients or people that we also support in pitching. And, you know, then we’ll flesh out a topic for them.
You’ve got to really connect the dots for the host because you don’t have time to sit around and get pitches from random people that you don’t know and figure out how they might be a good fit for your show. No one’s going to say yes to that.”
Should you outsource the pitch?
Something that I know our clients ask us a lot, is this pitch legitimate? Is this pitch real? How would you evaluate a pitch, especially from a third party?
I know it is legitimate for there to be third party pitches. People have assistants that do that kind of like work, there are great agencies that do it, but there’s a little bit of a oh, this isn’t from the person themself. Do they really know me? kind of feeling.
So how do you make that sort of judgment?
Here are Angie’s advice:
“I’m obviously a fan of third-party pitches because that is a big part of our business, but I think there’s a difference. It’s interesting when you said that your clients ask, is this real? Like, is this actually coming from someone?
Because the pitches that leave our inbox come from Kim Stewart, primarily, who is our outreach executive. She does the pitching; she helps create the strategy. And she makes personal connections with the host.
So, there’s never a doubt that Kim was sending that email to that host or that assistant. And so that’s really all in the personalization of the email and how familiar you become with the show before you send it.
It’s interesting because it’s changing. Like when I got into this almost five years ago, there weren’t a lot of people out there even pitching. It didn’t matter if it was from an agency or an individual. Not a lot of people were doing that. They weren’t landing these opportunities. They didn’t know the impact that it could have. And now the space is just much more crowded.
For me, if I don’t feel like they have a grasp of what my show is about, and honestly, I don’t care if they listen to it. There are ways to find out what my show is about in order to know if you could come up with a topic that’s relevant. That’s what I always look for is just, are they giving me a topic that makes sense? Because if it doesn’t, then I know they for sure haven’t paid any attention to what is publicly available.
Read the Apple podcast description. Tells you exactly what my intent is with the show. There’s the bar, everybody.”
Angie Trueblood’s Business Ecosystem
Angie: “It’s definitely evolved over the years. And it’s funny because we’ve added on things and we’ve never really taken anything away, which sometimes I wonder, is that the way I should be doing this?
We started as me pitching clients one-on-one, me doing the legwork and all of it. And we’ve kept that. That is sort of the bulk of our business.
What we are known for is the concierge pitching to where we partner very closely with a business owner or someone on their team, depending on how they’re structured. And we develop their strategy, their pitch template, we decide what shows to pitch them to and what topics, and we do all of that for them.
We have more of a consulting package, we call it the Jumpstart because it really does help a team, or an individual get what they need to get started pitching quickly. So, they don’t have to, if they know they don’t want to hire us on an ongoing basis, if they want this marketing effort to be an internal process that they can kind of flex whenever they need it, then we’ll create that pitch template.
We’ll give them a pitch list. We’ll give them access to trainings that show them how to pitch and then they go off and do it. And we actually have one client who we are refilling her pitch list because she and her team have pitched all the shows that we initially gave them. And she’s like, I don’t want to refill it. I want you to refill it. So that’s what we’re doing. And it’s great.
It’s like such a fun way to see a business that doesn’t have the bandwidth for a full-on marketing team, but they’re able to pull what they need from the experts and then go and execute on their own behalf, which is really, I think what a lot of us in this more solopreneur, you know, to a couple of employees, contractors are really looking for.”
Delegating Pitching Tasks
Angie: “Jenny Blake calls them delightfully tiny teams. Sometimes when you are taking on a new task like this, often it really is easier to just find a particular subject matter expert and just get them to do the thing—especially pitching.
Maybe you can enlighten me on this a little more because I feel like it’s one of those things that is very well understood as best practice. Everyone knows that if you’re a podcast host, you should be out pitching yourself, but it’s, I know now that I’m a podcast host myself, I believe thoroughly that I should be doing it frequently and I almost never do.”
Angie: “You’re not alone, Megan. You’re not alone.”
Why People Hesitate to Guest on Other Podcasts (Despite the Benefits)
Angie: “A lot of times it is because people haven’t done it enough to have realized the impact it can have.
Because people can tell you all day, every day, hey, the best way to grow your show is by being on other people’s shows. But if that has not been your experience, then why would you invest time that you don’t actually have available to you?
Why would you find the time to go out and learn something new and hope that you figure it out? And that’s where that Jumpstart package is perfect because they get our strategy brain and then most people have someone on their team that can do the executing on their behalf, which is nice because it really gets you closer to being able to keep that as an internal process.
So, it’s not a complicated process, podcast pitching and guesting, but there is a lot of strategy and there’s a lot of moving parts. And so, it’s pricey to outsource it completely. That’s not where everyone wants to use their money to invest, especially if they’ve never done it and they don’t know the ROI on it for them.”
The Cost of Cutting Corners on Podcast Pitching
Megan: “I’m just going to bring in this because we all know what cheap looks like and it’s that example, we were talking about earlier that was bulk sent to everyone.
You can get it cheap, but if you want it to work and be effective, you’re always going to pay in some way. You’re going to pay in time or you’re going to pay in money.”
Angie: “Or your reputation because so now people send me bad pitches. They’re like, Angie, look at this pitch that I just got.
I had a friend that sent me one and it was pitched through a third-party agency. And all that her email to me said was, can you believe someone paid for this? But it’s sad on so many angles because it diminishes the reputation.
It is an extension of that person’s brand, the person that is being pitched. And so, you can’t really change in your mind how they were positioned on that pitch, even if it wasn’t them. So, I think your reputation is important.”
Overcoming Pitching Anxiety
It’s such an impression because when I get a bad pitch, I don’t consciously remember the name, but if it comes up somewhere else, I check my inbox every time I meet a new person. It’s just like, have we been in touch before? What is the context for this?
It comes back. And I mean, maybe that’s one of the reasons I find it nerve-wracking. I guess pitching still feels a little presumptuous to me. And I don’t know if that’s just lack of experience or still a lack of confidence, but it’s just like, oh, why would they want to talk to me? I’m not going to go take up their time or their inbox.
Here’s how Angie helps people get around that:
Angie: “We call it being assumptive because a lot of the language and pitches that we see that we don’t say yes to are written in a way that almost puts the host on the defensive in the sense of you would be an idiot not to say yes to have me on your show because I am so great.
So, you would never do that. But sometimes it’s not having again, not having seen the language of a pitch that feels like, hey, I have an idea for something that might really be able to serve your audience. I want to throw it out at you. And if it’s a good fit, cool, let’s move forward. If it’s not, we can still stay connected.
And that’s really the energy that our pitches go out with. They’re definitely longer and include more information. But it’s all around the idea of, hey, we discovered your show. We don’t act like we’re a giant fan and have been listening for a year and a half.”
Angie’s pitching approach:
Angie: “I discovered your podcast, and I really appreciate how you are doing this thing that is very specific to that host and that show.
And then I noticed you haven’t talked about XYZ in a while, or I noticed you’ve never talked about this.
I had an idea. We have a client who does this, and we thought there might be a conversation to be had here, and we wanted to get your thoughts on it.
And then we lay out the topic.
Maybe that, as a coaching moment is where you are having the challenge is because the pitch is so less about the person and much more about the topic. So, it’s almost like removed.
Yes, we like to include credibility metrics and things like that so that the host knows, okay, she’s done audio recordings before. If she has your bio, it definitely shares that you are an expert in audio.
And so, I think if you reframe it, I’m suggesting this topic and if they don’t think this topic is a good fit, that’s cool. That’s nothing on me.”
Consider Pitching Time When Setting Your Schedule
Pitching one of those things that it really does get so much easier. I remember the first couple of interviews I conducted on the show were totally nerve-wracking as well and now it’s a much more comfortable activity and pitching must be exactly the same way.
I need to stop being such a horrible hypocrite because I am telling clients all the time, you have to be out pitching yourself if you want to see any traction.
Here are Angie’s thoughts on this:
Angie: “Racheal Cook was my coach back when I launched the show and I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but I had the great idea—I was going to launch a twice a week show and publish weekly. And Rachel was like, girl, are you pitching yourself regularly?
And at that point I wasn’t. I mean, we were pitching our clients left and right. She really reiterated the fact, I mean, kind of like what we tell our clients, to grow your audience, to grow your own podcast, you need to be on other people’s shows.
And here I was planning a frequency of publication that wouldn’t allow me to be interviewed on other people’s shows, much less actually pitch them, you know, because you have to think about that too when you’re figuring out your frequency for pitching, you have to allow time for following up and for actually guesting.”
How much time should you spend pitching to podcasts?
Angie: “I think once you get your system set up, which means you’ve got your pitch template, you probably have a pitch list with maybe 10 shows to kind of get you rolling, you have a one sheet if you’ve gotten to the point where you want one, like you have everything in place or you’re just sitting down to send the pitches, easily two hours a week would be plenty of time to be able to get two pitches out every single week and do the required follow-up.
If you want to stretch it in the beginning because you are getting some of your ducks in a row, if you’re not outsourcing that part of it, you could lean up to five hours a week. We have a four and four approach to where once you have pitched for a while and gotten acceptances, then you can calculate roughly how many pitches you need to send to be able to land four opportunities a month, which would be just going on a show every single week.
The beauty of that is they just come out, you know, and they don’t all come out week by week. Sometimes you’ll get three in one week and a couple weeks with none. But the beauty is you just have this consistent, slow burn of visibility and exposure.”
The Long-Term Benefits of Consistent Pitching
Megan: “It really does build up traction over time. Because again, the more you do, the more people hear you, and then all of a sudden, you’re being heard everywhere. And you know, you become one of those voices and those experts that people expect to hear in the spaces you’re playing in.”
Angie: “And you get invited. I mean, that’s the other part of it is as you pitch, one, you get better at it. So, you don’t need to send as many pitches to get the same number of yeses. Although you should always start stretching the size shows that you pitch to.
As you get better and you land shows, you should definitely want to get in front of bigger audiences. But then you also get invited to be on other people’s shows and virtual summits. And so, for me, that ticks off one of my weekly visibility opportunities.
So, I’m like, okay, that week, I have something planned. This next week, I have a podcast interview. And so, it just allows you to not have to do so much grinding, if you will, to land the opportunities after a while.”
How to be a great podcast guest
Angie: “A lot of our clients don’t have shows when they come to us who want us to pitch them but then eventually, a lot of them end up launching their own show because they get the bug, and they realize how much they love podcasts as a medium.
So that’s the first thing we normally help them with. We audit their podcast interviews so if they come to us having recorded an interview on someone else’s show, we’ll give it a quick listen and give some tips and recommendations.
And then when they’re with us, definitely their first interview that goes live, we give them an audit of that as well.
Something for listeners who are thinking of being a guest is to figure out what you want the listener to do. If they are interested in working with you or want to learn more about you or stay connected with you on social, get that kind of tightened up beforehand so that you feel confident going into that.
The other thing that’s really important is storytelling—the importance of bringing your expertise to life on a show by telling stories.
So, you don’t just give facts of like, this is how we do it, but share the depth of, I’ve worked with this client before and like share how you help them and what the impact was. So, we’re doing more help with storytelling because I think that’s sometimes, guests, they just get nervous about the content.
And if you know you have some really descriptive examples of different things that you can share with hosts, then you already know you have content to share so it’s not that intimidating.”
Weaving Your Message into Podcast Conversations
Megan: “I love that when we tell our clients and our hosts this all the time is, you know, practice your anecdotes. It doesn’t come out the first time sounding perfect. You can refine it. You can practice it. You can test your timing. And like, if you’ve got a good handful of like 10 really good anecdotes, you can bring them out to fit purpose.”
Angie: “I think also dripping through the interview, what you’re ultimately going to share with them.
So, if listeners have listened to the beginning of this interview, they know I have a podcast called Go Pitch Yourself. And it wasn’t because you formally asked me, like, what is that show and what is it about. But I’ve been able to kind of plant seeds throughout that I have that, and a membership and listeners know that we work with clients.
So, it’s getting comfortable sharing things about yourself, in an authentic way, because we definitely heard people complaining about guests that show up and just want to pitch their thing. So, I think if you practice. It’s awful.
But if you can tell stories where you just plant seeds, and it’s a normal part of conversation, then the listener starts to in their mind, create a fuller sense of who you are. And that’s really what I want is at the end of interviews, listeners to know if I am for them and not to pay me, but like if I am someone they want to kind of stick with or if I’m not for them.
I mean, 30 minutes, you should be able to figure that out. I feel like, if you’re being yourself.”
What to Look for When Auditing a Guest Appearance
Angie: “The three key pieces, I mean, there’s sound, there’s all the things you would think about, like, do you sound like you’re in a cave? No, carry on.”
The Bio
Angie: “In terms of content, that first bio when the host says, tell me a little bit about what you do. And there’s no magic bullet for what that’s supposed to sound like. I just want to make sure it sounds natural and it doesn’t go on for five minutes without the host interjecting.
One of the things we do is if I hear the guest talking for a long period of time without the host talking, sometimes I’ll be like, oh, there is this like seven-minute period of time. Like we need to bring the host into the conversation because that’s who the listener showed up to listen to is the host, right?”
Megan: “I sometimes advise people, don’t let your guests give their own bios. Don’t do it. Don’t let them do it. Because I mean, not everyone has had the training from you to be concise.
Stories are interesting. Stories of where people are coming from is interesting, but honestly, I don’t care what you learned in elementary school and how it impacted you as an entrepreneur.”
Angie: “Well, I have shared this story before, but the first podcast interview I was on, the host asked for a bio, and I didn’t come from a communications or journalism or PR background. I came from biology, like I was in grad school, and I did research.
And so, I sent a little synopsis of my CV. It shared where I went to school and then after, because she read it, I also don’t like that. I feel like if you’re the host and you’re going to introduce the guest, it’s just awkward.
I don’t like when the bio is read when I’m listening to it, but thank God she did because I heard her reading it and that’s when everything clicked for me because I was able to imagine being the listener. I mean, like, I don’t care where this girl went to graduate school.
Oh, it’s such a mess.”
Learning from Mistakes
Megan: “Oh my gosh, we all have those. But what a gift that ended up being for you to get that kind of insight and that knowledge. Man, it’s fun to think about those.
That moment right after that you’ve said something and you’re just like, oh no, that didn’t come out the way I wanted it to or just after and you’re just like, oh no, that was a terrible choice. It’s out there now. We’re just going to have to deal with that.
I remember it was our first couple of episodes on this show and my audio was so bad. I don’t know, it was embarrassingly bad for a producer but we kept it up because it’s just like, okay, here’s what it sounds like when it’s wrong. Now it’s a great teaching tool that we have up there, but it’s still old.”
Storytelling & Call to Action
Angie: “The two other parts that we audit, just so that we loop your listeners back into it, is the storytelling, which we’ve already talked about. It’s are you planting seeds? Are you telling really great stories?
And then the call to action, which we also talked about. It’s the beginning, the middle and the end that we listen to make sure it just sounds conversational, but it’s also hitting what’s important to them and their listeners.”
Megan: “I love that concept of planting seeds, too, because I mean, often you do worry about, you know, because you want to share what you do and who you are. I mean, like, especially when you’re podcasting, it’s part of work. It’s not just for the joy of your heart.
This is a strategy that still feels good to be able to do that. I really like that.”
Preparing for “Uh Oh” Moments
Angie: “First of all, the tech—that is the one big variable that can always go wonky, no matter how many times you’ve done it, no matter how seasoned the host is.
We have all had those weird times too where your microphone isn’t picking up. I had an interview one time, and we were supposed to interview through Riverside, and it would not pick up my microphone. And to this day, I still have no idea why.
So, my recommendation on that for listeners, and this doesn’t matter if you have hosted for 10 years, guested for 20, show up early to the interview so that you have time to see Okay, my mic isn’t picking up, I might need to restart. And in this case, I want to let the host know. That’s why it’s great to have phone numbers beforehand.
So, when we pitch clients, we make sure the host has their phone number so that they can get in touch if something weird with the tech happens. I’m sure you’ve had weird tech situations.”
Megan: “We’ve had to pivot and record on Zoom. And we’ve had Riverside, largely a very reliable software, I’m a big fan of them and the quality is good, but every now and then there’s a sync issue. It happens.
It’s tech. It breaks. But I think you make a good point to be prepared for it. And for all of you hosts, add to your booking form a phone number where your guests can be reached in case of emergency. You would hate to want it and not have it.”
Guest & Host Courtesy
Angie: “For guests, one of the things that we do is once we have booked a show for our clients is we send an email with all of their links, all of their bio, their headshot, and we do include the phone number.
So, from the guest’s perspective too, if the host is not giving that to you, feel free to lead the charge. Hosts totally appreciate that. I want more than anything else to have a guest who is prepared and taking this opportunity seriously.
If they proactively send me information that’s going to help negate any weird things happening, perfect. I’m your biggest fan.”
Megan: “It’s almost coming back to the original ideas of hosting and guessing before podcasts were ever a thing is, you know, the idea is to be solicitous and gracious with the person that you’re engaging with.
There’s a responsibility almost in both hosting and guesting to make it a pleasant experience for the other person. Let’s bring more of that back—the very traditional.”
Biggest Podcast Pitching Mistakes to Avoid
Angie: “It’s interesting, it’s actually not including things that would help the host make a decision.
Because again, we’re not trying to strong arm the host into saying yes, if it’s actually not a good fit for their audience. We are offering them up an opportunity to collaborate. And if they think it’s a good fit, then they will say yes. But as a podcast host, there are things that you need in order to make that decision.
The first we’ve talked about, which is pitching a specific topic so you don’t just share who you are and 10 topics that you could talk about. You share a tiny bit about who you are, basically why you’re qualified to talk on this, and then share a topic that would be relevant for that show and that audience, because then the host can really gauge whether it’s a good fit.
Two other things to include that I don’t think everyone, especially some of the pitches I’ve seen, this drives me nuts, when there’s no hyperlinks in the pitch. So, if you pitch Suzy Q, and the topic sounds interesting, well, I want to go and check out what she doing on Instagram or what’s on her website, you know, I’m going to do my due diligence and making sure the people that I choose to share my audience with I take my audience very seriously.
The people that I choose to put in front of them, I want to make sure that they’re a good fit. If I have to go Google Susie Q’s name to find information about her, that just takes time and I’m likely not going to do it.
Lastly, include a link to where I can get some kind of audio sample, whether that is a link to the show she hosts.
One thing that we do for clients is create just a Headliner ****audiogram. If you’ve been a guest somewhere else, you can pull the audio right into Headliner or Canva. You can do this in a million different programs now.
And if you’ve never guested and you’ve never hosted, maybe you’ve done a Facebook Live or maybe you just go in Zoom and record a 60-second snippet of you talking about something you know, that would be relevant to that pitch, but really letting the host hear you because that is the medium that they will be showcasing you in.
So, I want to know if you’ve got good audio and if you can formulate intelligent ideas.”
Final Thoughts
I loved this conversation, and particularly the bit about assumptive language and why you should avoid it at all costs when you’re pitching yourself. I’ve put Angie’s advice into practice, and it makes the process feel so much easier and more natural.
I mentioned at the top that Angie and I had put our heads together, specifically around podcasting for authors and we have something really exciting to share with you.
Here’s the situation non-fiction authors often find themselves in:
They’ve written a book and it’s time to launch and there is a lot of activity happening around that, all geared towards getting that book into the hands of the ideal readers and customers who need it. Podcast tours, where an author makes several guest appearances right around release are very common and effective, for building up some buzz.
When it goes well, it goes beautifully well. But sometimes it’s a challenge, especially when the end goal of the book isn’t just having people read it, it’s having those readers become customers, and even more importantly having a regular flow of new readers to become new customers.
That transition from stranger to reader and reader to customer is a difficult one and that is as true after launch as it is during.
A podcast can really help bridge that gap. Books are big pillar, take-your-stance pieces of content and there is little better to demonstrate your authority and expertise, but they don’t necessarily have the personal connectivity that an audible voice does.
A podcast can fill that gap and take the people you are meeting and being exposed to by guesting through a nurturing process to know, like and trust you more.
And it doesn’t have to be a big permanent, 40 minutes every week commitment. You can strategically deploy a short, limited-release podcast into your marketing and engagement funnels to nurture, educate, connect with and generally become closer to your newfound community.
A limited release podcast can be used to teach your audience something important, build the know-like and trust factor with you, demonstrate the different problems you solve and solutions you offer, continue the conversation you started in your book and all manner of other things to get them ready to change from traffic to listeners to readers and buyers.
And regular, strategically chosen guest appearances can keep that engine running with new audience members who can ultimately help you grow your business.
So, with Angie’s expertise being guesting, and mine being podcasting, we’ve put together something special for authors to support their launch or renew interest and build out the marketing funnel around a previously published one.
Launching Your Book with Podcasts & Guest Appearances
The Six and Six Podcast Offer for Authors is a combined service from One Stone Creative and The Podwize Group.
It’s a complete, almost entirely done-for-you limited release podcast based on your book, followed by 6 guest appearances where you will be the guest expert on other shows, directing people back to your podcast, book and business.
Picture this:
You’re on a series of exciting, on-brand and on-target podcasts talking to an interested host about your expertise which you can easily demonstrate via your current or upcoming non-fiction book.
At the end of the episode, after you’ve wowed the listeners, you can direct that audience to your website, where they have a choice, they can get a copy of that book they just heard about and some will!
But others need more before they make a commitment and they’ll get it from a polished, professional limited release podcast designed to nurture, educate and connect with them. Then they buy the book or jump right to working with you.
It can be even more exciting if you’re in pre-launch. We can time the release of your podcast to align with your book release, part of the attention building buzz can be building a strong, intimate relationship with future readers with your podcast and when orders open for your book, they’ll be in!
After the official book release, you can keep that flywheel of attention flowing with a series of podcast appearances that prevent your launch from being a one-and-done event on your calendar—the traffic will keep coming to you, being engaged by your show, an making it easy for people to get to know and start working with you officially.
If this sounds great, then you can get all the details here. We can’t wait to help support your book and your business.
Next Week on The Company Show
Angie mentioned that her coach when she was getting started was Racheal Cook, the founder of the CEO Collective and host of Promote Yourself to CEO and I’m delighted to announce that she is next week’s guest!
Now, you know I am a fan of tracking, databases and well-organized indexes of content. I do not mind telling you that if there is a crown to be awarded for content-based organization and tracking the results thereof—Racheal Cook and her team would win it.
Here’s a quick preview:
I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation. I took a page of notes and have a new aspiration for diligence and effectiveness when it comes to content auditing and repurposing.
Need A Podcast?
As always, this is Megan Dougherty, and The Company Show was made possible by the team at One Stone Creative.
If you know a business owner that you think should have a podcast, do us a favor and send them to podcastingforbusiness.com!
Key Quotes
“I want more than anything else to have a guest who is prepared and takes this opportunity seriously. If they proactively send me information that’s going to help negate any weird things happening, perfect. I’m your biggest fan.” – Angie Trueblood
“The more you do, the more people hear you, and then all of a sudden you’re being heard everywhere.” – Megan Dougherty
Resources
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Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
Angie Trueblood Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | The Podwize Group | Go Pitch Yourself Podcast