{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "A complete podcast pitch template and framework: demonstrate your value to the audience, show your research, and give hosts a 'choice of yeses' on topics.",
  "path": "/articles/podcast-outreach-email/",
  "publishedAt": "2015-10-30T05:05:33.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:jznynyzgerlqmdbbj33o7wfs/site.standard.publication/3mnll3icujb2z",
  "tags": [
    "Outreach and Email"
  ],
  "textContent": "Guesting on podcasts is like presenting a room full of your dream buyers.\n\nBut how do you get on a podcast? What are you supposed to say? How do you write an email that:\n\nCuts through the noise?\nBuilds a relationship with the host?\nand makes you the obvious choice to come on their podcast as a guest?\n\nIn a nutshell, you, dear reader, want to pitch the podcast host on why you will be valuable to have on their podcast.\n\nThere are three primary elements that you need to consider when writing your pitch email:\n\nDemonstrating your value to their audience (why should they have you on?)\nShowing that you’ve done your research (why are you emailing? are you relevant to their audience?)\nMaking it an ‘automatic yes’ to have you on the show (give a clear call to action, so it’s an ‘automatic yes’ to have you on)\n\nDemonstrate Your Value\n\nFirst off, you want to show your value to their audience.\n\nThis is a bit different than you might expect. You don’t want to demonstrate your value to the host. You want to frame your experience and your value in terms of how you will help their audience learn something new.\n\nWhy would a host care about your pitch? Because you’re telling a story that will be attractive to the host’s audience. To do that, you want to pick topics that align with the podcast and audience that you’re pitching.\n\nIf your business is focused on helping consultants raise their rates, you won’t get much benefit out of appearing on a podcast dedicated and talking about work/life balance as a salaried employee. You want to make sure there’s alignment between\n\nThe audience you’re speaking to\nThe topics you’re talking about\nYour personal area of expertise\n\nThis way, you’re presenting your value to a relevant audience who has the exact expensive problems that you’re great at solving.\n\nTo do that, you need to do three things:\n\nDefine Your Unique Story\n\nFirst, you want to identify your unique story. Why are you interesting to the audience you’re pitching? What do you have to teach them? How can you help them improve their business?\n\nWhen you define your unique story, you want to identify\n\nThe problem that your clients are experiencing or are at risk of experiencing (“The ‘Why’”)\nThe solution that solves the problem for your clients (“The ‘How’”)\nYour product that provides the solution for your clients (“The ‘What’”)\n\n(You can download a short worksheet on identifying your business’s unique story here: Your Unique Story)\n\nWhen you define the unique story that you want to tell, you’re able to pitch based on your value to their audience — instead of just pitching on your background or your business.\n\nFollow The ‘Impactful Story Framework’\n\nYou want to pick stories that would be impactful or relevant to the audience you’re pitching.\n\nHere’s the framework for that: you want to have 3-5 topics that you can draw from when you’re pitching, based on your area of expertise, the expensive problems you’re great at solving, and common questions that you’re great at answering.\n\nThe first place to look for these topics? Content you’ve already created:\n\nYou can use Buzzsumo to look at the articles on your site and see the most shared articles. These are topics that are popular, impactful for your audience, and proven.\nYou can use Google Analytics to look at your most viewed pages. These are topics that are getting the most traffic overall on your site and, similarly, are proven topics that you have the credibility to talk about on their show.\nYou can look at your business and area of expertise and identify a topic that you’re great at explaining.\nYou can identify a particular expensive problem that you’re great at solving for your clients or customers and that you can teach other people how to solve.\nYou can look at your industry overall and identify a controversial, against the grain opinion that you hold.\n\nFrom these sources, you want to identify 3-5 pitches, with at least one in each of the following categories:\n\nA Controversial Opinion that you have about your industry. This should be something that goes against the grain for your industry.\nA Solution to a Common Problem in your market. This should address a common problem that your dream buyers in your market have and walk them through how to solve it.\nA Overview of your Area of Expertise. This should walk the listener through what exactly it is your do: the problem you solve, the audience you work with, your solution, what makes your solution unique, and your methodology.\n\nPick topics that align with the audience you’re pitching to\n\nThen, as you pitch, you draw on these pitches, choosing the ones that make the most sense for the audience you’re pitching.\n\nShow You’ve Done Your Research\n\nWhen you’re emailing the podcast, you want to do a minimum amount of research. That means you’ve identified:\n\nThe podcast’s name\nThe host/contact person’s name\nThe name and topic of a recent episode of the podcast (ideally, an episode relevant to what you’re pitching)\n\nThat’s the minimum you need to research and identify about the podcast. The more research you do and the more custom you make your message, the more you can tune your pitch to be relevant to the podcast and their audience.\n\nMake It An ‘Automatic Yes’\n\nYou want to present such a compelling pitch that they immediately want to have you on their show as a guest.\n\nThere are a few best practices you want to follow:\n\nWrite a short email. Ideally, 200 - 400 words.\nYou want to demonstrate how you can contribute value to the show. By including reference to how you can help teach their audience something new and specific topic pitches for their show, you show how their audience will benefit from hearing you speak.\nWhen you pitch, you want to offer the podcast host a ‘choice of yeses’. By presenting the person you’re pitching with multiple topics to choose from, you’re offering them a choice of yeses. Instead of a yes/no decision to “Do I want to have this person on my show?”, the host is now presented with the choice of how they want to work with you.\nYou want to include a clear call to action. Avoid weak calls to action like ‘Let me know if you’re interested.’ Focus on strong calls to action that ‘assume the yes’ and give a clear next step for the recipient to take. A great example of this would be the call to action “As a next step, just reply and let me know which topic your audience would be most interested in hearing. After that, we can work out the scheduling details.“\nAnd, most importantly, you want to follow-up persistently and politely until you get a ‘no’. If someone doesn’t respond to your first email, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested. It only means they didn’t have time to respond. You want to develop a habit of consistently following up, every week until you get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.\n\nPodcast Outreach Email Template\n\nThis template is what I use for all of my podcast outreach and all of my podcast outreach on behalf of my clients.\n\nHeya Name,\nAre you currently looking for guests for {Podcast Name}? {Recent Episode} where you talked about {topic} was great and inspired me to write in.\nI help teach {target market} how to solve {expensive problem}. Would your audience be interested in learning about {area of expertise} or any of the following topics?\n• Topic #1 — Short description of the topic and the outcome for the audience\n• Topic #2 — Short description of the topic and the outcome for the audience\n• Topic #3 — Short description of the topic and the outcome for the audience\nWould one of these be a good fit for your audience? Just hit reply and let me know which topic you’d like to talk about. After that, we can work out scheduling details.\nAdditionally, I’d love to learn more about how you like your guests to prepare for an interview. If you have any onboarding documents you’d like me to read ahead of the interview, please send them over!\nThanks so much,\nKai\n\nWith this template, you’re:\n\nConnecting with the podcast creator\nHighlighting your familiarity with their show\nDemonstrating how you can offer value to their audience\nOffering them a ‘choice of yeses’ regarding topics\nPresenting them with a strong call to action to follow\n\nHere’s what my friend Mojca Mars had to say about this template based on her experience pitching podcasts as a business owner:\n\nI wasn’t sure what steps to take to get on a podcast. When Kai suggested using his Podcast Outreach Template, I thought ‘it has to be harder than that!’ but after I sent my first email I was booked to record on a large podcast with over 100 episodes (and counting!) with amazing guests that reached an audience of my dream buyers. Now I’m starting a serious outreach campaign to land more interviews on popular podcasts”\nMojca Mars, independent advertising consultant\n\nIt’s a great template that you can take, use, and adapt when you start your podcast outreach.\n\nI’m thinking about podcast outreach lately because I’m rereading my book Podcast Outreach, a quick, specific guide on how to get on podcasts as a guest expert as I prepare for my next podcast tour.\n\nIf you’re interested in learning more about how to pitch podcasts — as a newbie or an expert with an established audience — I recommend that you order a copy today!\n\nBy the way, if you’re looking for information on how to start a podcast, then you should check out this guide from my friend Justin Jackson at Transistor: https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/",
  "title": "How do you write an email to get on a podcast?"
}