To get business from a podcast appearance, plan the outcome before you record: tell listeners where to go, give them a free item that is worth a name and email, plant seeds about your work along the way, and then follow up with the people who opt in. Interview, free item, offer.
You get business from a podcast appearance by giving listeners a clear next step that is worth taking. Holding up your book and saying "buy my stuff" does not work. It is old school. What works is a game plan that covers before the interview, during it and after it, built around a free item that moves people from listening to opting in to buying.
Is a small podcast worth your time?
People say "oh, that is not a big media outlet" and talk themselves out of it. If the show reaches your target audience, you should be doing it. I have done interviews about media training for specific groups, such as experts, authors and CEOs, and about public speaking for financial service providers. Those listeners either asked me to speak or bought something from me. I invested an hour and got a full-on return. That is why I say the whole thing is about return on investment.
Also, the world changed. These days a media interview might be somebody who walks up to you at an event with a phone. I did that with a man named Gary at a conference. His session was on finding your million-dollar blind spot before it finds you, and I asked whether I could interview him on a selfie stick with a microphone. He said yes and went with it. Podcasts are just as casual: somebody asks, and you do it from your computer.
What is the game plan for converting a podcast interview?
Before you go on, decide the outcome you want. Mine goes like this: the interview goes on my website, on the blog, on the media page, and on any page where a sales decision can be made. Most people say "I will put it on my media page." You can place it all around your site. Then I link to it on social media, and if you learn to do paid promotion properly you can target the right kind of person and pay only per click. They watch or listen, and now you have a third-party endorsement.
The step after that is a free item. They give a name and email to get it. Now you can market to them, not spam them, and give them a few pushes. "Did you see the free item? I want to tell you about this. There is a webinar next week." Then some of them buy. People buy from people they know, like and trust, and every step in that funnel is the know, like and trust. So the game plan is interview, free item, and then, ideally, they buy your thing and maybe a better thing.
What makes a free item worth taking?
Challenge yourself here. The first chapter of a book is okay. It is not as exciting as it could be. A top five or top ten list is better. If you wrote a cookbook, offer your three most amazing recipes for family get-togethers. Listeners rush over, see what they are about, like one or two, notice the book on the same website, and think "I will just get the whole thing."
Say it clearly in the interview, with an extra push if you can. People act when there is a time, money or quantity constraint. You have seen those countdown timers on websites. About half of you hate them, but they work, because without a deadline people say "I will think about it." In sales the joke is that nobody ever thinks about it. You cannot reach through the screen and close the sale, so give them a reason to act now.
I have a different take on plugging. Think of PLUG as an acronym: Properly Leverage Your Gift. Your gift is the free item. Do not say "so anyway, I have a book, it is $14.97, and the web address is" and then spell out a long name letter by letter. Send them to the gift. For more, read promoting and plugging in media interviews.
How do you plant seeds during the interview?
A seed is a mention that you do something else, said on the way to making a point. Authentic and relevant, never forced. When I mentioned my public speaking training for financial advisors while answering a different question, that was a seed.
Take Gary. If he says "I have taken more than a thousand companies through an on-the-spot assessment, and what I find is...", now I am wondering whether I need that assessment. He planted a seed early and used it to make his point. Authors can do the same. "When I was researching the book I realized this was a bigger problem than I thought. What I found was..." Now everybody knows you have a book. Or: "I was so surprised by this I dedicated a whole chapter to it." Same result, no holding up the cover.
If you have ever watched someone sell from a stage, the good ones do not make a hard left turn at the end. They talk about the program all along, the results people got, even one specific person, and you start thinking "that is like me." By the time they make the offer, you are primed. That is how you convert interviews into sales.
What are the three stages of buying, and where does the call to action fit?
- Is this relevant to me? People ask whether they should keep listening.
- That is me. The seeds and examples help them recognize themselves. You are pre-qualifying an audience you cannot see.
- The call to action. You tell them what to do next.
This is why I like to make call to action one of the three columns in a message grid (more in a call to action in every interview answer). The more you tell people to try a small thing today, the closer they get to a buying decision. And if you are not selling anything, you still want them to opt in, so you can reach them later. A signup, a donation, attention for an event: all of them start with a clear ask. When you want to speak straight to the audience, say "for people listening right now," and the host will usually repeat the web address.
How do you handle objections from the host?
Learn to love them. If the host says "I do not know whether anyone would even want that," that is a good thing, because the host is speaking for the listener who is wondering the same. Deal with it, tie a bow on it, and keep going. Even better, raise the objection yourself: "some of you might be thinking this." People think "I was wondering that, and now I am not worried."
How much should you give away?
Give, and then give some more. That is the new model. But find the line. If you fill people up completely, they do not need you. Think of it as an appetizer: really valuable, feels good, and they want more. Do not say "you will have to find it in my book." Share a couple of great examples and plenty of the information.
Your website needs a page where people can opt in, with a headline and a place to enter a name and email. A website that cannot capture email addresses is not working for you. Few people move all the way through any funnel. It might be 2 percent, it might be less than 1 percent. That is why you want a lot of people at the top with something irresistible to start with.
Where to go from here
Pick one free item, write three seeds, and rehearse a clear call to action. Then read the complete guide to leveraging media interviews and see what to do after a podcast interview.