We’ve mentioned that there are several different podcast formats. Podcasting is still a young field, and there’s room for experimentation and mixing of formats and styles as well. But there are also common points or conventions. Some are trivial – most podcasts will read credits at the end of the episode and ask you to leave them a review or follow them, for example. Some are more meaningful, like the presence of guests.
Whatever the format, a given podcast is likely to feature new voices. It could be a conversational podcast between two hosts where a guest joins to change up the dynamic. It could be an interview podcast where the whole aim of the show is to feature guests. Reporting or documentary podcasts often feature multiple guests. There are exceptions, but think about it this way: unless you feel that you have enough to say week in and week out to keep listeners engaged on your topic, you are going to need fresh voices to both engage with your listeners and attract new ones.
Booking guests can be intimidating, however. If you go beyond your friends and acquaintances, you’re cold calling/emailing a person to ask them to spend their time with you. I find this to be one of the most terrifying things I do in my day-to-day, normal life. And yet, outreach is also a must for podcasting (as well as just about any job or passion project) and a skill you can build up. Here are a few tips for you when you want to book guests for your podcast.
Do your research
You know you want to book person X for your show. They are an expert on your subject, or they have a good following, or you like their social media presence, whatever. You know why you want to book them.
Before you reach out, develop that ‘why’. What topics do you want to discuss? What expertise or perspective do they bring to your discussion? How does this person connect to your podcast, and will it be easy for them to understand that discussion? How do they broaden the conversation you’ve had on the podcast already?
Then, look into their online presence to see if they do this sort of thing. Spotify’s search allows you to find episodes where the person may have guested, for example. Their twitter or Linkedin or Instagram feeds will also hint at their media presence. You can get a sense from the sorts of appearances they’ve made in the past of whether they might be open to joining your podcast. That’s not to say you shouldn’t reach out if you can’t find that they’ve done a podcast before. It just helps to calibrate your expectations, the same way you might for their degree of celebrity or reputation.
Be Polite and To The Point
Once you have an idea of what you want to talk about with them and what your chances are of getting your potential guest to join, you have to write the actual email. There are a few things to emphasize here:
Make the subject line clear – “My Podcast – Guest Appearance” is perfectly fine as a template. Something that makes the ask evident without being too long of a subject line.
The email itself should be polite but to the point. You are asking for their time, so keeping the email concise is important. I usually start by introducing myself in the first sentence, explaining why I am emailing the person in the second, and then making a clear request to start a second paragraph (Would you be interested in joining our podcast?)
Make your request very clear – how long will you talk, what do you expect to talk about, and how do you want the person to follow up? It’s a little aggressive to send a Calendly or Schedule Once or similar link in a cold outreach email, but it can be done. I usually just ask that they reply if they’d like to do this or have any questions.
If you have an audience to boast of, boast! – Let the potential guest know who will be listening to this. If you have stats to brag about, share them here. But at the same time, if you don’t yet have that audience, don’t try to gussy things up – it’s ok to say ‘we’re a newer podcast and would love to have you on to explore this topic,’ for example.
If you have a connection to the person’s work, share it at the end – i.e. if you’re a fan, or listened to their podcast or to them on another person’s podcast, mention it (without going on too long!). It’s a good way to bring the message home to your potential guest.
I’ve included a couple examples at the bottom of this post for reference.
Don’t Be Shy About Following Up
We’re all busy, especially in a work from home, 2020 sort of world. While we all hope for an outreach target to get back to us immediately, and that they’re as excited about joining our podcast as we are about hosting them, that usually doesn’t happen. Not getting a response doesn’t mean you never will.
After a few days, or even as much as a week, it is a good idea to send a brief follow up email. Reply to the email you sent with something like:
Hi <guest>,
I hope you’re having a great week. I just wanted to check in to see if the idea of coming on <My podcast> might interest you. No problem if not, but I know things can get lost in the shuffle so I just wanted to check again.
If you are interested, please just let me know when a good time is for you. Thanks!
Daniel
The follow-up email should be short – you have the longer email below it to remind the guest about what you’re looking for – and not pushy. I’ve been on the other side of outreach emails, though, and know that a second email often works – I know this is a real effort and not just a mailing list email, and the second email strikes on my empathy nerves, or at least the feeling of giving consideration. Even if the response to a follow-up is a polite no, it’s worthwhile as a way of opening a conversation.
Be Flexible And Consistent
You’ve reached out to someone and they say yes. Congrats! Now, keep in mind that they’re doing you a favor by taking time out of their day to speak on your podcast. That means you should be as flexible as you can be in terms of arranging the interview. Maybe they want to speak at a weird hour, or maybe they can only give you 15 minutes instead of 45. There are some stretches that are too hard to make, but do what you can to make it work.
Once the scheduling challenges are resolved, facilitate things for your guest as much as you can, and deliver on what you’ve promised. Show up on time, send out the invite with plenty of advance notice, and send questions in advance if relevant. You want to respect your guest’s time, and to make it as easy for them to join your podcast. That includes confirming how much time they have before you begin the podcast, and tailoring the discussion to stay in that timeframe.
If you do things right, including asking good questions and holding a good conversation, you might be surprised to find the guest will stick around longer than planned.
(We’ll write a separate post about the actual interview part of the podcast).
Thank Them And One More Ask
Follow up after the call to thank the guest for their time. That’s obvious. But it’s also a good idea to let them know when the podcast will be published – and you can email a second time when it is posted, for example, or when you know for sure what the publication date is – and to ask them to share the podcast with their followers or friends. This is both a trivial ask and, because they took part in the discussion, something they may want to do anyway. Which is a great way to raise your podcast’s visibility.
Don’t Be Precious
A bonus tip – sometimes a person will reach out to join your podcast, or a listener will suggest you book someone as a guest. It’s possible that person is not a good fit, but it’s still worth being open to booking unplanned guests. You’ll find a lot of great conversations from people you didn’t expect to have on your podcast. That only happens if you’re open to going off your original script.
Summing it Up
Reaching out to people you don’t know to invite them on your podcast can be intimidating. It’s also the best way to get beyond your own perspective on your podcast, and will open doors both with those guests and with your listeners. And it’s a skill that applies to the world beyond podcasting. I’ve included a couple emails I’ve sent (details changed to anonymize them) that draw on some of these tips. Get in touch if you have other tips for getting people to join your podcast, or if you find these ideas useful. And good luck!
Example 1
Hi <X>,
I host the podcast “ABC”, we just interacted on social media around the topic. Would you be interested in joining us on our show for an episode on that topic in more depth? We’re focused on this aspect of the topic, so we could talk about what you think about that part of the topic and your expertise. We’re happy to go as in depth on the part you focus on in your podcast if you’d like, or we could just talk about the topic at a high level.
I listened to your interview with these people and really enjoyed it, the podcast looks great! We’d love to get a chance to chat with you, let me know if you are interested, my email is [email protected] and my DMs are open on Twitter.
Have a great day,
Daniel Shvartsman
Example 2
I hope you’re well. We emailed a little over a year ago when I was at Seeking Alpha, we were talking about inviting <Person YZ> to join us as a guest on our podcast Behind the Idea.
I’ve since left Seeking Alpha to start a podcast company, and one of the podcasts we have is called The Razor’s Edge, a more tech focused investing podcast that has built up a bigger following – we have over 4000 downloads an episode on average. I co-host the show with Akram’s Razor, who is a leading tech investor/trader.
We’ve been talking a lot on our podcast about collaboration software and companies like Slack, PagerDuty, Atlassian, Zoom, Microsoft, etc, and I wanted to see if <Person YZ> would like to come onto the podcast to speak about this area. We’ve been following their work on these companies as well, and think it’d be timely to chat if they were interested. We just spoke with the CEO of Superhuman for example, so it’d be great timing to go further.
Please let me know if you’re interested in this or if you need any info from me. I’d be happy to speak about this or provide any other details.
Thanks for your time, and have a great week,
Daniel