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(By Yann Ilunga) Being a guest on other people’s podcasts can be a powerful asset for the marketing strategy you use in your business. Showing up prepared for a guest interview can lead to you achieving your goals. Is your goal to grow your email list or to attract more customers through your guest interviews? Then keep reading, because that’s exactly what this article is all about.
Understand How Podcast Listening Works A common mistake I hear podcast guests make is the result of a lack of understanding of how podcast listening works. Think about yourself: what do you typically do when you listen to podcasts?
Chances are you listen to podcasts while jogging or walking your dog, while cooking, while driving or commuting to work, or maybe you’ve incorporated podcast listening into your workout routine at the gym.
In all likelihood, you rarely listen to podcasts while sitting in front of the computer. Keeping in mind that podcast listeners tend to multitask is key for podcast guesting conversions.
You’ve probably heard this on podcasts. A guest who doesn’t limit him/herself to one call-to-action for the show, but has several:
- “The link to my website is…”
- “My new book is called…”
- “I have a Facebook group called…”
- “I’m on Twitter…”
- “I’m on Instagram too…”
- “Download my eBook over at…”
Have ONE Targeted Call-To-Action The types of CTA mentioned above rarely lead to any conversions, as people don’t tend to stop what they’re doing while listening to podcasts to check out the website mentioned, join the Facebook group, look for the book on Amazon, download the eBook, etc.
For you, this means picking only one well-defined goal you’d like to achieve and make your call-to-action revolve around it.
Having a hard time picking only one CTA? Then think about what the conversion you and the host had. Choose the call-to-action that makes the most sense as the “next step” to the podcast interview.
Memorable CTAs Your aim should be calls-to-action that are easy for podcast listeners to remember.
If you plan on creating a landing page to direct listeners to, then consider using a url that’s memorable. YourWebsite.com/blogging101 is easier to remember than YourWebsite.com/-How-To-Start-A-Blog-From-Scratch.
In case the landing page is already up and running or you’d like to make sure it’s optimized SEO-wise, then you can create a redirect. This is a link that, once typed, redirects a user toward the landing page. You can create one using the WordPress plugin Pretty Links or link-shortening tools such as Bitly or JotUrl.
Get A Higher ROI With The “3 Yeses Principle” You’ve chosen the one call-to-action you’re going to focus on and have to create a landing page that has a link that’s easy to remember.
Now what?
If you’d like to achieve a higher ROI from your podcast guest interviews there’s one more piece to the puzzle. It’s what Podcast Guest Profits author and Interview Valet CEO Tom Schwab calls the 3 Yeses Principle.
A common mistake many podcast guests make (I was guilty of this too) is to treat the landing page they use for podcast interviews just like any other landing page on their website.
When it comes to landing pages, the traditional marketing advice is to have one – and only one – call-to-action for the page. Things like, “Book an appointment,” “Sign up for the webinar,” “Enroll in the video course,” etc.
In most cases, the CTA is the entry level of a funnel that leads to an offer for a specific product or service.
Here’s the problem with this approach for podcast guests (and hosts).
The traffic that’s sent to a traditional landing page (through a paid ad campaign or similar) is mostly cold traffic – people who aren’t necessarily familiar with who you are and what you do. When you’re a podcast guest, however, people have listen to you for 30 minutes or even longer. This means that, if directed to a landing page, they won’t see you as a stranger and they will be “warm” traffic.
In some cases, some listeners will even be ready to buy from you.
Because of this, you should treat the landing pages related to your podcast guesting endeavors differently. The 3 Yeses Principle builds on this aspect and it consists of not having just one CTA for your podcasting landing page, but rather three (the 3 Yeses):
The “Small-Size” Yes requires little investment in terms of time and none in terms of money (e.g. download a resource that can be consumed easily and quickly, like a checklist or an email script).
The “Medium-Size" Yes requires a bigger investment in terms of time with no or little monetary investment (sign up for a webinar, access an audio training, buy a low-priced product like a book).
The “Big-Size” Yes requires the biggest investment in terms of time and money (hire you as a consultant, buy your premium video course, purchase access to your membership site, etc.).
This way, your pages will offer something for both those who want to learn more about you and need more “warming up," as well as for those who, after having listened to your guest interview, are ready to buy from you.
And if you host a podcast too, you can use the 3 Yeses Principle for your show note pages as well.
Yann Ilunga is a podcasting consultant and systems strategist. He’s the host of The Podcaster Lab and creator of what Forbes dubbed “Podcast Community to Join” — the Podcast Growth Mastermind.