In this episode we are going to talk about podcast guest outreach and how to handle cold, negative, no responses from the guests that you reach out to, for your podcast.
One of the lucrative aspects of Podcasting is the leverage it gives you as a host.
You can talk to people whom you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to reach out to, bring them on your show and build an authority for yourself.
This is probably why the interview format is the most popular.
This is a form of a content generation where you don’t need to be an expert, yet you can generate content on different topics.
And it’s a win-win for both the creator and the guest.
The creator gets an opportunity to talk to a successful personality, get content for his podcast, and get the guest to share the episode thereby building listenership and building his own authority whereas the guest gets exposure to a new audience, which helps improve his authority, and credibility in the field.
But then running an interview format show isn’t as easy as it sounds.
In comparison to a solo show (monologue), the interview format demands more effort and a lot of time.
Imagine this –
- In a solo show, all you have to do is write your content, read it out and record it. Most of these episodes will be barely about 20 minutes (beyond which it can anyways become monotonous and boring). Editing such an episode will take about an hour and that is all that is there to it.
- Whereas in an interview-based episode – you have to find ideal guests for your show, spend time researching them to find if they are a good fit, do outreach to check if they are willing to come on your show, schedule the interview, then interview them. The episodes might be around 40 minutes to an hour and editing such episodes can take anywhere from 3-4 hours if you do detailed editing and about 2-3 hours if you do quickfire editing.
Compare the efforts and you will realize that there is a lot that goes into an interview format show.
It hence becomes important that you get maximum value and return from every step that you take in getting a guest on your show.
And it starts with getting your guests to agree to come on your show.
Let us first attack the problems associated with it and then in another episode, we will look at the rest of the aspects.
Handling Rejections in Podcast Guest Outreach
Rejections can be demotivating.
It can destroy your morale to the extent that you might even end up quitting.
But, then the fact that every outreach comes with a probability of rejection. Hence, the faster we understand and accept that, the better it will be for us.
Guest outreach is one such area where rejections will be an everyday affair. Not every guest that you reach out to will agree to come on your show.
Some might reject your request, some won’t respond and some will plainly ignore you.
But then should these kinds of responses deter you from your goal?
No. Isn’t it?
Why?
Because we always have a choice – on how to react to each of those rejections though we do not have a control over who somebody reacts to our requests.
I love this quote on choices and I think you must read it before we get into a little more detail on how to deal with rejections in podcast guest outreach.
You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control the way you think about all the events. You always have a choice. You can choose to face them with a positive mental attitude.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
So, rejections!
The first thing in dealing with rejections is to understand why your prospective guest would have behaved in the way they did, which is what we will do.
But first,
Stop getting frustrated when your prospective guest doesn’t respond to your outreach.
Instead evaluate whey they might not be responding and take corrective action for the next podcast guest outreach.
Also keep in mind that a rejection today necessarily need not mean that they will never agree to come on your show.
So don’t discard the research you would have done on them.
Save it for later.
At this point it is also important that you don’t spend a lot of time researching guests before they have agreed to come on your show and waste a lot of time.
Do a superficial screening to see if that guest would have value to offer to your audience.
Then depending upon the outcome reach out to your guest. You can do an indepth research on them once they have agreed.
With those things out of the way, let us look at some of the reasons why your prospective guest did not respond to your outreach or, rejected it altogether and what you can do about it.
Big Industry Names
Most podcasters usually have a tendency to reach out to the big name in the industry expecting to bring in a lot of new listeners through the sheer mention of the name.
Also you might be expecting your listenership to grow on the expectation that your guest will share the episode link with their audience.
While all of this is good, something that you might want to keep in mind is that the size, enormity and the brand value of the brand that you are reaching out to.
They are big names in the industry and they aren’t really sure if your podcast is going to add any value to their brand.
When doing a podcast guest outreach to such bigger brands, don’t forget to include links to some earlier interviews with guests of a similar stature so that they can relate to it.
Also throw a few names of people whom you might have interviewed earlier, if you have in the past. This can help with establishing your credibility and can help onboard the guest.
Unfit Podcast
If the guest you are reaching out to is a big name in the industry and if your podcast isn’t a popular one, then it is normal for the guest to think that your podcast is not the right fit for them.
If you want have proof to show your guest in terms of what you have done in the past, you can always do that by following the tips in the earlier tip.
But if that isn’t the case then move on and look for another guest.
Remember that every one of us looks for a WIIFM before agreeing to something which is what the guest might also have done and if you were at their place you too would have thought of it the same way.
So move on for the time being and once you have built your authority, you can always reach out the same guest later.
An unclear WIIFM
Something that you need to keep in mind is that every decision of an individual, on buying into something is based on an assessment of WIIFM.
You might just have forgotten the CORE outreach fundamental and missed mentioning the WIIFM when you reached out to the guest.
Tell your guest what they will get if they agree to come on your show and get interviewed. They too would like to know what’s in it for them and how that one hour that they will spend with you will help them and their brand.
Be truthful when you do that. Don’t exaggerate and lie. It is better to get a “NO” from a guest rather than getting a “YES” only to destroy the relationship you could have built with them.
Minimize the barriers
One of the mistakes that a lot of us do is to not think from the perspective of the guest that we are approaching.
We tend to create multiple hoops that the prospect will have to jump through to finally appear on the podcast.
And this perception of the presence of obstacles, starts with the first email or, the first direct message that we send our guest.
Make it as easy as possible for them.
In your outreach tell them how you can make it as easy for them to come on your show. You don’t need to write an elaborate essay on how you will do that. Just a one liner in your message is enough to give that comfort to your guest.
Nobody likes jumping hoops to get to something. So try to keep it to ZERO.
Missed email Messages
In a noisy world where your inboxes are flooded with emails and where social media DMs often get pushed to the JUNK folders, it isn’t uncommon for somebody to miss your message.
It can happen to the best of us.
So try messaging them again. You could even try a different channel to reach out to them just in case the first channel of communication is a problem.
Attempt a couple of times before you decide to move onto the next one.
Guests ignoring YOU
It could be that your guest is plainly ignoring you.
If you don’t get a response to your second and third messages, it could mean that the guest is ignoring you and is probably uninterested in responding to you.
Move onto the next one on your list.
Don’t waste time on somebody who doesn’t deserve it. Value the ones who are waiting to appear on your show and reach out to them.
Conclusion
I hope that are some helpful tips for you. Don’t worry too much on the results of your podcast guest outreach attempts. Focus on the process instead.
There is a saying in sales – “For an increased number of positive outcomes, increase the number of doors you knock”.
Follow that principle in your podcast guest outreach as well and you are sure to see positive results.
In the next episode we will be continuing with this discussion on podcast guest outreach and we will be talking about some tips on guest onboarding.
Resources I recommend
Here are some of the resources I use and recommend for anybody who is serious about getting started with a podcast –
- Tidycal – Booking solution for a one time low payment so that you can minimize the barriers in guest outreach
- AKG P3S Dynamic Microphone
- XLR to USB Cables
- Thrive themes – The Website Theme Builder I use
- Aweber – The autoresponder I use and recommend
Thank you for joining in
Thank you to everyone of you who joined in on this episode.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and found value in the information I shared with you.
Do subscribe to the show so that you do not miss on new episode releases and important updates. You can do that by clicking on one of the links below.
If you have any questions, please feel free to drop them below in the comments and I would respond to them.
Episode-50
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[00:00:00] Dilip: Now, instead of getting frustrated, I recommend that you evaluate why your guests might not be responding, or if they responded in the negative, then why did they respond in the negative and take corrective action for your next podcast guest outreach. Welcome to the podcasting university. Looking for help on starting your own podcast.
[00:00:24] Then this is the place to be. We will help you with everything from selecting your topic to promoting and monetizing your podcast in the simplest language possible. Listen to other podcasters, who've been through the grind and learn from them as we interviewed them every week, you can find more details on the podcasting university.com.
[00:00:53] Hello, and welcome to episode 50 of the podcasting university. This is Dilip, your host and in today's [00:01:00] episode, we are going to talk about a very important aspect of interview format podcasts. This is about getting guests for your show and the podcast guest outreach that you would do for your show. Now, one of the lucrative aspects of podcasting
[00:01:19] is the leverage that it gives you as a host. You can talk to people whom you wouldn't otherwise have been able to reach out to and bring them on your show and build an authority for yourself. This is probably why the interview format is the most popular format in podcasting. This is a form of content generation where you don't need to be an expert yet you can generate content on different topics.
[00:01:46] Anything that you are probably not even aware of. And it's a win-win for both the creator and the guest, the creator gets an opportunity to talk to a successful personality, get [00:02:00] content for his podcast. Get the guests to share the episode, thereby building, listenership and building his authority.
[00:02:07] Whereas the guest gets exposure to a new audience which helps improve his authority and credibility in the field, but then running an interview format show isn't as easy as it sounds. In comparison to a solo show, which is otherwise called as a monologue, the interview format demands more efforts and a lot of time.
[00:02:31] Now, imagine this in a solo episode, in a solo show, all you have to do is write your content, read it out and record it. Most of these episodes in a solo show will be barely about 20 minutes because beyond that it can anyways, become a lot monotonous and boring. Now editing such an episode will take about approximately about an hour, and that is all that is there to it.
[00:02:56] Whereas in an interview based episode, [00:03:00] you will have to find ideal guests for your show, spend time, researching them to find if they are a good fit for your show, then do an outreach to check if they are willing to come on your show. Then schedule the interview, interview them and then starts the entire editing episode..
[00:03:20] These episodes might be around 40 minutes to an hour. And hence editing such episodes can take anywhere from about three to four hours if you do a detailed editing and about two to three hours, if you do a quick fire editing, now compare these two efforts and you will realize that there is a lot that goes into an interview format show.
[00:03:40] It hence becomes important that you get maximum value and return for every step that you take. And every effort that you put in, in getting a guest on your show. And it starts with getting your guests to agree to come on your show. So [00:04:00] let's first attack the problems associated with this aspect, which we will otherwise be calling podcast guest outreach
[00:04:08] and then we look at the next aspects. A lot of us get frustrated when we do not get responses to our guest outreach messages. But the fact of the matter is that, you ideally need not get frustrated because there are multiple reasons why the guest is probably not responding to your messages. And it is important that we look at it from their perspective, as well as to why is it that they have not responded
[00:04:36] to your outreach messages. Now, instead of getting frustrated, I recommend that you evaluate why your guests might not be responding, or if they responded in the negative, then why did they respond in the negative and take corrective action for your next podcast guest outreach. Also keep in mind that a rejection today necessarily need not mean [00:05:00] that they are not going to come on your show ever.
[00:05:03] So don't discard all of the research that you would have done on those guests before you reached out to them. Save it for later because you will be able to use it for inviting the guests again on your show at some point later. Also at this point, it is important that you don't spend a lot of time researching guests before they agreed to come on your show and there, and in that way waste a lot of time.
[00:05:31] What I recommend is to do a superficial screening of your guests to see if they have value to offer to your audience, then depending upon the. Reach out to your guests. You can do an in-depth research on them once they've agreed to come on your show, because that is what will help you frame questions of value that you can ask your guests.
[00:05:56] Now with all of these things out of the way, let us look at some of the [00:06:00] reasons why a guest might not be responding to your outreach efforts and what you can do to either take it positively or to build and correct the errors that you would have done in your outreach effort. So, number one, the guest is a big name, the guests that you've reached out towards a big name, and they aren't really sure if your podcast is going to add any value to their brand value.
[00:06:27] At this point, it is important that you include links to some of the earlier interviews with guests who are of similar stature. So that, these guests can relate to those past interviews and they will know that your podcast will provide some additional branding to their overall brand value. Also, if possible, throw a few names of people that you might have interviewed earlier, because some of these big names
[00:06:57] also get convinced when they see [00:07:00] that people from similar backgrounds have already been a part of the podcast. So when you're doing your outreach, ensure that you're including links to some of these earlier interviews and also mentioning about people who've already come on your show earlier. Number two.
[00:07:17] Now the guest is a big name in the industry and they don't think that your podcast is a fit for them. In these kind of scenarios, what I recommend is that you move on and look for another guest, because if you want at their place, you too would have thought of it the same way. So maybe this time is not the right time to continue or continue pursuing that outreach with the guest.
[00:07:44] Instead, look for another guest. Park these guests in your list and you can come back to them when your podcast has become a little more popular. Number three, you forgot the core outreach fundamental and [00:08:00] missed mentioning the What's in it for me in the email that you sent out. It is important that you tell your guests what they will get
[00:08:09] if they agree to come on your show and get interviewed. Because they too would like to know what's in it for them before they agree to come on your show. So when you're doing your outreach, irrespective of you are doing it on an email or maybe on a social media platform, tell them what they will gain by coming on your show.
[00:08:29] Number four. Minimize the barriers in your outreach, tell your guests how you can make it as easy as possible for them to come on your show. What you need to understand is that nobody likes jumping hoops to get onto something, especially when they don't even know if what they're going to do is going to benefit them.
[00:08:50] So it is important that you minimize the barriers of entry, minimize the number of hoops, make it as smooth as possible for the guests to appear on [00:09:00] your show. And you can just give them a glimpse of how that will be done by dropping them a message with what is it that you're going to do to make it easy for them to come on your show, because this is a very important aspect.
[00:09:12] Number five, your guest might have missed your message or your email. The internet world is very noisy and in a noisy world where your inboxes are flooded with emails and where your, social media DMs often get pushed to the junk folders, it isn't uncommon for somebody to miss your message. It can happen to you, and it can happen to the best of people around.
[00:09:34] So try messaging your guests again, you can even try a different channel to reach out to them, but try reaching out to your guests at least a couple of times. Just to be sure that it hasn't or your message hasn't landed up in a junk folder and that you guest hasn't missed your message. But if they still don't respond, then I would recommend you to follow any of the other steps that I spoke [00:10:00] about in the previous four points.
[00:10:02] Number six, your guest has plainly ignored you. If you don't get a response to your second or the third message. Then I would recommend that you just move on and understand that the guest is probably ignoring you and not willing to come on your show. You don't need to feel frustrated or demotivated with it.
[00:10:24] Just understand that they never deserved to be on your show. That is it. Move on. Find a guest who can add value to your podcast. So I hope those six tips were helpful, and it will help you in getting your guests to agree to come on your show. If you want a guest outreach template, then you can visit the podcasting university.com and you'll be able to find the link to this template in the show notes for this episode.
[00:10:58] So visit the [00:11:00] podcasting university.com/50, and you'll be able to grab your copy of the podcast outreach tempalte. In the next episode, we'll be looking at the guest onboarding experience and what is it that you can do to get the best out of your guests? So, stay tuned, that is all that I have for this episode, do visit thepodcastinguniversity.com/50, in order to check the show notes
[00:11:26] the downloadable transcript for the episode and also you can grab your copy of the podcast outreach template, which you can then use to reach out to your guests. If you have any questions, you can drop your messages on the comment section at thepodcastinguniversity.com/50 and I will respond to it there.
[00:11:45] The podcasting university is available on pretty much all podcasting platforms do give it a listen. You can pick your favorite platform of choice and listen in there. While you do it don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so that you don't. On the latest episodes that I release, [00:12:00] that is all that I have for this episode
[00:12:02] I'll be back again the next episode with another interesting podcasting related conversation until then keep listening to the podcasting university. This is goodbye from Dilip. You all have a wonderful rest of the week.
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