the Podcast Pitching Guide HOW TO PITCH YOURSELF + DELIVER YOUR DREAM INTERVIEW BY: Table of Contents 4 LETTER FROM NATALIE 5 PREPARATION 6 RESEARCH 11 THE PITCH 12 PITCH TEMPLATES 14 STARTING THE SHOW 15 EXTRA MILE TIPS 16 HIP HIP HORRAY! Hey there! Over the past few years, I’ve been interviewed on over 75 shows including some of the top business podcasts in the world. I have shared everything from cultivating community to building a business to navigating infertility. Podcasting has become a powerful way that I have been able to serve my community, expand my audience, and make an impact. After getting questions about how I’ve been able to scale this side of my content marketing efforts—I sat down to create The Podcast Pitching Guide for all of you. Here’s the bottom line: podcasting is an incredible way to share your expertise, impact others, and grow your thought leadership platform. Gone are the days when blogging was the only way to share what you know. We live in a world that is moving fast, where most online users are simply scrolling and not always taking in the text-based content you have to offer—why not create a more digestible form of content through podcasting. According to Nielsen’s Q1 2018 report, 16 million people in the US are “avid podcast fans”. Of these loyal podcast listeners, 80% listen to all or most of each episode published by the podcast they subscribe to. Most podcast listeners subscribe to at least 6 podcast shows, averaging 7 different episodes per week. This means the average podcast listener spends 6 hours and 37 minutes per week listening to podcasts. So grab a cup of coffee and let’s jump in. I can’t wait to hear your first podcast interview and watch your platform grow. WITH LOVE, COVER PHOTO TAKEN BY: CHEERS BABE PHOTO PAGE 4 Preparation Now I know you want to dive right in and get to work, and to you, that may sound like writing the pitch email and sending it out! However, there is a bit of prep work that we have to do fast in order to make sure that each pitch is set up for success. Trust me, this extra effort that you’re going to put forward now will pay off in the end. YOUR ONLINE MEDIA KIT: Landing Page There is so much importance in creating a professional landing page and media kit that houses all of the assets for the host to pull from! This could include your professional bio and a variety of images for the producers to choose from. Don’t stress, this doesn’t have to be over the top, keep it clean and to the point. Click here to see my online media kit! Links to Include While sometimes a good topic or pitch is enough to get you booked for a podcast interview, for some of the more established podcasts it’s important to share your resume of previous interviews to share your experience. So either send them links in your pitch, have links on your media kit page, or if speaking is a big priority for you, make your own speaking page like me! Click for an example of my speaking page. TAKEAWAY: CREATE A WEB PAGE WHERE YOUR POTENTIAL PODCAST HOSTS WILL BE ABLE TO FIND EVERYTHING THEY NEED IN ONE PLACE. PAGE 5 Research You’ve got your media kit all ready to go, now it’s time to figure out who we’re going to send it to. When you’re first looking into pitching yourself it can be overwhelming to determine which podcasts are the right fit and how to determine where you should begin. So in this section, I’m going to break it down for you. We’re going to figure out who the right audience is for you specifically, how to find podcasts that speak to that audience, and what you need to know before you pitch to them. PICKING THE RIGHT AUDIENCE: When you start pitching podcasts to bring you on for interviews it’s important to understand the audience you’ll be sharing with. Your audience can change the direction of the conversation or the talking points the host may want to focus on. Make sure that you are going to be investing your time wisely. Write: My target audience & their key characteristics. PAGE 6 RELEVANT TOPICS: When you pitch yourself for a podcast, keep in mind that you’re selling yourself to the host or producer of the show. This means that you have to have an understanding of your topic, key talking points, and practical takeaways for their audience. While it’s the host’s responsibility to keep the flow of conversation going, it’s your responsibility to guide them on where you want to direct the conversation for your particular topic. Listen to their show before you pitch if you can, and definitely listen to an episode (or two…) before your own recording. Write: What topics do you consider yourself an expert in? Have a few ideas flushed out and ready to go so you can pinpoint which topic to pitch to which podcast. PAGE 7 THE HOST & PREVIOUS EPISODES: There is nothing worse for a podcast host than getting halfway through an interview and realizing that the talking points are duplicates of another episode’s conversation. Make sure you’re doing your research for each and every podcast you’re pitching by: 1. Researching the host to know their interview style. Do they like to hold back and forth conversation, is their style live demonstrations that share practical walkthroughs for listeners, or are there step by step instructions? 2. Search previous episodes of the show you’re pitching for the topic you want to cover. If they’ve already covered it, how can you put a spin on the conversation to make it a new concept? This comes in handy when you’re pitching—it’s important to note the similar episodes and share how you have more to add to the conversation. This will show that you’ve done your research and care about their audience more than your own gain. Write: 3-5 things you want to make sure you pay attention to when you’re doing your podcast research. PAGE 8 HOW TO FIND PODCASTS: Start with reviewing the podcasts you know and love to personally listen to that match the audience you want to speak to within the Apple Podcast App. • Scroll to the bottom of that podcast overview in the Apple Podcast App to the You Might Also Like section to review similar podcasts. • Review those podcasts for the following: 1. Recent episodes— You want to reach out to podcasts that have recently published an episode and do so on a consistent basis. 2. Ratings— Reviewing the ratings will help you understand what the audience loves/hates about the show, which helps when deciding whether or not to pitch that podcast. 3. Guests— It’s important whether you’re just starting out or have been speaking for a long time to understand what types of guests a podcast host will bring on the show. Some shows will only bring on professionals that have specifically transitioned into the education space, while others will bring on a larger variety of guests to lend different perspectives. 4. Social Media & Websites— Make sure you’re reviewing the type of content they’re sharing, if your following aligns with their audience, and how much information they provide for guests on the website. DESIGN COMEDY FICTION Over 850k ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOOD Podcasts (with 19 categories, 15 PARENTING of which are broken into MENTAL HEALTH sub-categories) SCIENCE PAGE 9 Write: In these next boxes write down the name of the podcast, topic you’d pitch them, what their interview style is, how you can put a spin on the conversation if your area of expertise has already been covered on the show. PAGE 10 The Pitch Alright, we’ve come to the part that I know you’re eager to learn about. If you skipped forward to this section I urge you to start at section one, otherwise, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice and not be setting yourself up for a successful pitch! Here you’re going to find some pitch templates but here are a few things that I want to encourage you to do. SHOW THAT YOU CARE: Podcasts get pitched all the time. What makes hosts stop and reply to your email is if you’ve done your research (which you now have!). So insert your personal and professional opinion on the show. In your pitch make sure they know that yes they’re a fan of their podcast, but that you also care about their audience. Their audience is so important to them, so how are you going to show that you’ll be serving them? Also, make sure you go and show some love on their podcasts social accounts. Like, comment, and share their posts. Show your support for the podcast before you send the pitch. This will help your name be more familiar to the host when your pitch pops up in their inbox! KEEP IT SIMPLE: Show that you care but don’t go over the top. Keep it genuine and keep it simple. MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM: Leave links to your media kit, social media, website, etc, to make it easy for them to click and learn more about you without them having to google anything.