Five Questions to Find Podcasts That Fit Your Message

All your proverbial ducks are in a row. It’s time to “pitch” podcasters, to let them know you’re available to be interviewed. Woo-hoo!

Do you contact your family, friends, email readers, and Facebook group pals, asking them to connect you with their favorite podcaster? Hmmm…they’re unlikely to have a personal relationship with many podcasters.

Should you Google podcasts or Christian podcasts or Christian podcasts in America to find potential podcasts whose listeners will surely want to hear your story? Perhaps…

Or, like any good writer, you could follow your normal process and do the research to discover which podcasts are a good fit for you before sending your pitch. Let’s choose that path, shall we? 🙂

****

Select up to five podcasts from your research results, then listen to three entire episodes of each. Not one episode, or two, but three, all the way through, and answer the following questions about each podcast.

First question: Is it an interview-style program?

Does the host regularly invite guests to join him or her? If not, move on immediately.

Second question: What patterns do I notice as I listen, and are they positive or negative?

Patterns not noticeable in two episodes tend to surface after listening to three. Is that program–and that host–one with whom you want to be associated publicly? They ask themselves this question about you. You’re wise to ask it yourself…about them.

Third question: What can I offer their audience?

Focus on serving the host’s audience, not on pitching your book. Both goals are two sides of the same coin. Listeners are savvy. Just like you, they know when they’re being used and when they’re being served.

Identify how your presence will benefit the podcaster’s audience. If you can’t answer that question, wait to send out your pitch until you can. From the potential host’s perspective, this is the most important information in your pitch. It needs to fit their audience. Don’t be generic.

Fourth question: Will my personality mesh well with theirs…for a full hour?

As you listen to the various episodes, you’ll get a feel for the host’s interview style and their personality. You know which types of people you connect with best. Most of us have enough experience to adjust on the fly, but we don’t want to spend 60 minutes zigging if the host is consistently zagging. This makes the audience uncomfortable.

Fifth question: How can I connect (not contact) with the host?

Podcasters are people, too. 🙂 They like to know you recognize the value of their program and that as a listener, you appreciate their efforts (not just as a potential guest who wants access to their audience).

For each podcast program you’ll pitch, choose one episode and write a review about it. Then take a screenshot of that review (after you’ve posted online) and include that screenshot with your pitch email. That allows them to see that you’ve listened to their program and didn’t randomly pitch them.

Bonus Point #1: When writing your pitch, be sure to include a clear request to be a guest on their program. This applies whether you’re close friends or total strangers. Sounds obvious, right? But not everyone actually types those words.

Don’t be like the young man who thought he’d proposed but never actually used the words, “Will you marry me?” Clarity will help him get engaged.

It will also help you get booked more often.

Bonus Point #2: Be sure not to include these words in your pitch…”I’ve written a book and I’d love to join you on your program to discuss it.” If you don’t delete that from your email, the host will delete your entire email.

Why? You’re asking them to do you a favor. In their eyes, it’s a BIG favor: you want access to the audience they’ve nurtured and grown. But you’re not offering anything in return, such as a benefit to their audience. (See Question #3 above.) Though very common, this is rude, bad form, and unprofessional.

They’ll remember you, but not for the right reasons.

***

It’s a wondrous gift to be a podcast guest for a program that fits you, and vice versa. You’re given access to people who need want you’re offering but they didn’t know it until they heard your guest interview.

Following these five simple steps will place you light years of your competitors when podcast hosts are searching for guests.

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission