Why Being a Podcast Guest Is an Effective Strategy for Your Startup Growth?
Are you the owner of a small business and you’re struggling to promote your business with no direct cost? Have you considered taking part in a podcast? According to Ofcom, about 7.1m people in the UK listen to podcasts each week.
Podcasting is a great tool for any business, but, in particular, if you have a small or local business without an existing online presence, a podcast may just be one of the best growth tools for you. Podcasts are so easy to download onto your computer, tablet, or smartphone and listen to them straight away or whenever you want. You can listen to them on your commute or journey to and from business meetings, whether you use your car or public transport. With so many podcasts aimed at start-ups and small businesses, there is so much wealth of knowledge and inspiration that you can learn from.
Small business entrepreneur (SMEs) podcasts usually feature successful founders and leaders talking about their approach, as well as key challenges they’ve overcome, and provide inspiration and advice for other businesses. Other podcasts focus on tales of trial and tribulations in the business world, as well as entrepreneurial trends and opportunities. As an SME, you can often feel isolated in what you do, and listening to business podcasts by other business owners will help you feel more connected to the network of entrepreneurs in the UK.
Benefits of Guest Podcasting for Your Business
- They are an authentic, cost-free medium: In a world full of automated emails, podcasts cut through the noise to create more authentic connections with listeners. Plus, you get the opportunity to share your message with the listening audience and your community for free. Once one of your interviews goes live, you can repurpose it into image quotes, social media posts, and audiogram highlight clips. This means you can squeeze lots of extra advertising value out of every appearance.
- Networking with powerful industry leaders: Being a guest on a podcast offers the incredible opportunity to make connections with renowned names in your industry! Connecting with other business leaders can be key for finding new clients, landing contracts with new retailers, you could connect with people who may want to invest in your company, or you might chat with an industry leader who shares a piece of advice that ultimately changes the whole trajectory of your marketing strategy. The more you grow your network through being a guest on podcasts, the more opportunities that can come your way!
- Community building: Regular engagement with your customers allows you to engage in one-on-one conversations with your customers, so you can really build and foster those relationships and loyalty.
- Traffic generation: Podcasts are an effective way to build brand awareness and drive traffic by allowing you to reach new audiences worldwide. So, instead of you solely relying on you seeking new audiences, new audiences can find you.
- Increase brand credibility on the market: Being a podcast guest can enhance your brand credibility, which can open up other opportunities, such as partnerships, speaking gigs, collaborations, etc. The best part is that you can add the podcast link onto your webpage or share podcast segments on your social media channels!
- Revenue stream: Having a podcast for your business can open up a new revenue stream. While you have to work on your podcast a bit before monetization is realistic, once the avenue opens up, you can generate some substantial revenue from your podcast.
- Content marketing: Podcasts are valuable content that helps to build community and trust and they can be repurposed in many different ways (i.e., transcripts, show notes, blog articles) to create more opportunities for value delivery.
- You might realize you need to refine your company’s mission: When you are a guest on podcasts, you will be asked many questions about your business journey, what problems your enterprise aims to solve, your company’s main mission, etc. This may make you realize that you need to refine your business mission to meet those needs
How to Pitch Yourself as a Guest
Unfortunately, this is the hard part: you’re going to have to pitch! Ideally, you should have at least listened to one episode of any podcast you’re pitching. You should also have a good understanding of the show’s demographics and what value you might be able to offer the host and the audience. Expecting a podcast host to approve your guest appearance simply because you published a book or run a successful company is pure arrogance. Most podcasters want to delight and entertain their audiences. The point of pitching is to show them how you can help them deliver on this promise. Here’s a template that can make things a lot easier:
- Friendly introduction
- Your topic areas/the value you’d bring to the podcast’s audience
- Your bio
- Where else you’ve been featured or links to your blog, YouTube channel, social media, etc..
- Your audience stats
- Your online calendar links
- Your contact information
- Thanks + Sign off
Here Are Our Top Podcast Picks
- The Small Business Sessions: almost 70 half-hour episodes are available, with a general theme of how to start and grow a small business. Download for free from Apple Podcasts
- Conversations of Inspiration is a weekly podcast by Notonthehighstreet founder Holly Tucker, who chats to some of the UK’s most successful founders and entrepreneurs. Previous guests include Karan Bilimoria (Cobra Beer), Mark Constantine (Lush), Sahar Hashemi (Coffee Republic), and Richard Reed (Innocent Drinks). Download for free from Apple Podcasts
- Secret Leaders is described as “a collection of contrasting, irreverent interviews with the high-flying CEOs and forward-thinking founders of some of the most successful businesses in the UK and US”. These include Nick Wheeler (Charles Tyrwhitt), Jo Malone, David Buttress (Just Eat), and Karen Jones (Café Rouge). Download for free from Apple Podcasts
- The Diary of A CEO by Steven Bartlett: “A few years ago I was a broke, university dropout, living in one of the worst parts of the country, with nothing but a laptop and a dream,” remembers Bartlett. “Fast forward a few years, I’m the 26-year-old CEO of Social Chain, which now turns £146m, has 500 staff and 80m followers.” Download from Apple Podcasts
- She Means Business podcast “brings together incredible stories of female entrepreneurs from around the world who are following their hearts, building the business of their dreams and creating the success and abundance they desire.” Download from Apple Podcasts
So what are you waiting for? Start looking for podcasts to be a guest on today!
You can listen to SOL podcasts here.
