How To Contact Podcast Hosts & Request An Interview Video Lecture - Online

Hey this is Tyler and today I am talking
to you about being a guest on podcast.
Now in yesterday's episode, I talked
about why being a guest on our podcast
can be such a great strategy for getting
the word out and attracting some
potential students for your online
course and I should and I talked about
some ways that you can search for
podcasts that you potentially want to
get interviewed on. So I left you with
that task of putting together a list of
a bunch of podcasts that you think are a
good fit,
now the next step before you actually
reach out to a podcast host and ask
for an interview is to just quickly do a
bit of research on that show ahead of
time just to make sure that it is a good
fit. So one of the ways that you can
research a podcast is directly on itunes.
Every podcast has a description and a
listing of all those recent episodes
that they published so it's also a good
idea to visit their website have a look
around read some of the articles on
their blog, look at some of the guests
that have appeared on the show,
check them out on social media. Those are
pretty much the three main places that
you want to spend your time, just getting
a little bit familiar with the show and
of course if you listen to a few of
their episodes, if you listen to some of
the interviews that have been published
on that show that will give you a really
good idea of the host style,
what kind of topics have been discussed
and then just what kind of format
they have for their episodes.
As you're doing this research there are
three questions that you want to answer.
The first question is, is this podcast
relevant to my topic and another way of
framing that is do they serve your
target audience. So maybe the podcast
isn't directly about your topic or
whatever it is that you teach in your
course but that doesn't mean that their
target audience wouldn't be interested
in your course so you just want to make
sure that it is relevant it's not a
stretch, it's not a long shot that their
listeners would be interested in your
subject. For example, if you find a
podcast about graphic design and you've
got a course on photoshop, a lot of those
listeners for graphic designers are
probably interested in learning how to
use photoshop. There isn't a disconnect
there. There's definitely a good fit
there.
So you want to make sure it's relevant
that's the first question. Second
question is, is the podcast still active?
So if you reach out to a podcast host
that's no longer active,
it just makes you look really bad
because it only takes a second to figure
this out on itunes. You're going to see
all the recent episodes and just take a
look at the date that it was published.
So if they haven't published something
for a few weeks or even a few months and
especially year too and there's a really
good chance the podcast is no longer
active so there's really no point
sending them the whole pitch for that
whole email asking to be a guest, you
maybe just want to check with the host
on social media and say hey you know i
know I just came across your podcast,
noticed you haven't published anything
in awhile.
Is it still active? Are you looking for
guests?
The third question you want to answer is,
do they do interviews. Not all podcasts
our interview based. So a really easy way
to check that out is again, look on
itunes or look on their website, look for
the names of guests . If you don't see any
names of guests on any of the episodes,
it's probably not an interview based
podcast so reaching out to them and
asking for an interview is going to be a
bit of a long shot.
Those are the three questions that you
want to be able to answer. If you answer
yes to all three of those questions and
then the next step is to go ahead and
contact the podcast host. Now after
speaking with several podcasts host and
asking them how they like to be
contacted and basically narrowed it down
to three methods.
The first is email, the second is social
media and the third is the contact form
on their website. Now most podcast host
end up booking their interviews and
coordinating those interviews in email
anyways, so even if you start the
conversation on social media or if you
you know fill out a contact form on
their website. those conversations get
moved to email anyway so where you make
your pitch is probably going to be in an
email.
Now if you reach out to a podcast us on
social media, your goal should just be to
ask permission. Ask permission to pitch
them, ask them if they're looking for
guest, let them know you think you'd be a
good fit and you'd like to send them
some more information and then ask for
their email address so that you can do
so. Same thing in the contact form, let
them know you're interested in being a
guest on this show. Once you get a
response through email, then you can keep
the conversation going there and some
podcast host will even have an
application form on their website for
interviews and they'll ask you for some
details upfront like your bio and what
you want to discuss and so they're
actually going to check you out before
they respond to you. Regardless of how
you first get in touch with the podcast
shows, once you get that response, once
you get that email, you basically have to
pitch them and there are a few things
you want to include in a pitch but the
number one rule is, when you reach out to
a podcast hose is it has to be a
customized email. Don't put together a
template that you send to 10 podcast
host and
if they hire somebody like a PR firm for
example to reach out to podcast host on
your behalf, make sure that they're not
sending templated emails as well. It's
really easy for a podcast host to spot
at an email template. They know if it's
been sent to a lot of people, they might
not even respond to you and if they do
it's probably gonna be "no thank you".
So make sure you're sending a custom
email to every single host that you
reach out to. Let them know how you found
their show, let them know you listen to a
few episodes, tell them which episode you
really like to,
why you like their show, then tell them
why you think you'd be a good fit for
your show. So obviously you want to
introduce yourself,
give them your name, the link to your
website, your company or the company you
work for, some links to some of your work,
just so that they can, they can check
those things out and you're showing
that credibility, the proof
that you have expertise on whatever it
is that you want to discuss with them.
Then you want to give them some ideas of
what you actually want to talk about.
Give them maybe a small bullet list of
talking points or subjects that your
most prepared to discuss on your podcast
and if you notice that one of those
things has been discussed before, maybe
just tell them how you're going to you
know come at it from a different angle,
or you're going to share more recent
example, a recent story or you know
something that still adds value to their
audience even though it's already been
touched on in a previous episode. So
the big ,the key word here is value.
So talk to the podcast host in terms
of the value that you can provide to
their audience. Now another thing you
want to include in your pitch is some
social proof. So if you've been on any
podcast before, maybe include a link or
two to some of those interviews so they
can quickly go and see or even
listen to an interview that you've done
before.
If you have any connections in common,
don't be afraid to you know to drop that
name of that person you have in common.
That's a great way to break the ice
and then just get, just validate the
fact that you know you want you would be
a worth having as a guest on the show
and I would also recommend offering to
hop on a quick call with them.
Not every podcast host will be
comfortable committing to interviewing
you based, just on the information that
you send them in an email and they probably
are gonna go scope you out online, they're
going to check out your social media,
they're going to check out your website,
if you know if you're willing to have a
quick call with them, just to figure out
what you want to focus on during the
interview what you guys want to discuss
or just helped make sure that you have a
report there, be willing to do that. So
that's what you want to include in your
actual pitch. Most podcast will get back
to you pretty soon but even if they
don't, even if you don't hear from them
for a week or two,
don't be afraid to send a quick email,
just to check in and see if they
received your request to be interviewed
and maybe it's just the wrong time for
them so you can always ask permission to reconnect in a couple of months.
Maybe they're already fully booked for
the next few weeks, the next few months.
So that's how you pitch a podcast host
and what to include in your email to the
podcast. So make sure you join me on
thursday's episode where I'm going to
talk to you about how you can prepare
for your interview and how you can give
a great interview that that podcast host
and their listeners are going to love so
thanks so much and I will see you on the
next episode.