Throughout the previous a number of years, many PR professionals have acknowledged the worth of podcast relations as a chunk of their earned media technique. Not solely will purchasers who visitor on a podcast earn a backlink from being included within the present notes, however they’ll even be creating long-form content material that may and must be repurposed in some ways.
And, not for nothing, in a digital, noisy world, the worth of getting conversations with different thought leaders in your or complementary industries can’t be underscored sufficient. Whether or not the connection between the host and visitor evolves right into a networking relationship, a referral relationship, or another kind of collaboration, these alternatives ship on many purchasers’ needs to carry a little bit of humanity again to their manufacturers.
For corporations that resolve to embrace this newer PR medium for his or her purchasers, there are two choices for touchdown these interviews: outsource the pitching to a devoted podcast interview reserving company or use the identical sorts of pitches you ship to media shops to podcast hosts.
Neither is right.
Outsourcing this technique might be costly and typically results in your shopper being pitched for podcasts and subjects that don’t match their PR objectives. As a result of the outsourced group typically isn’t intently linked to your shopper, they often lack the nuanced understanding of their model and perspective that may make all of the distinction in crafting stand-out, well-aligned pitches.
Then again, making an attempt to navigate a brand new medium alone typically leads corporations to ship their already developed and typically high-performing conventional media pitches to podcast hosts and producers.
This strategy hardly ever works.
Podcast Pitching Is a Completely different Beast
Podcast pitching is a distinct beast than conventional media pitching, primarily as a result of it’s extra private. You’re not simply pitching a narrative; you’re proposing that your shopper spend not less than half-hour conversing with the host, whose interview shall be shared on their owned media platform—the podcast.
So, how will you flip an efficient media pitch into one which grabs a podcast host’s consideration and lands interviews? Listed below are 5 fast fixes:
- Electronic mail like a human.
- Ditch the multi-paragraph shopper bio.
- Don’t bury the matter.
- Give the host the whole lot they want and nothing extra.
- Use formatting to your benefit.
Electronic mail Like a Human
When pitching to podcast hosts, skip the flashy stats or tales that may catch an editor’s eye. Such as you and me, podcast hosts anticipate real and conversational emails.
Listed below are some strategies that may go towards what you’re used to in conventional media pitching:
- Greet the host: Tackle them such as you would a colleague. Embrace their title and the title of their podcast. You’d be stunned what number of pitches embrace neither.
- Keep away from feigned admiration: Should you’re not, there’s no must recommend you’re a fan of the present. Dropping the title of a latest episode does nothing to persuade the host that you just ‘get’ their viewers. As a substitute, share the way you discovered their present (ex, researching on behalf of a shopper) and specific an understanding of their viewers and objectives. Hosts must know that you just SEE the work they’re doing. They don’t want you to be a fan.
- Use non-assumptive, assertive language: Overlook the ABCs of promoting (All the time Be Closing). As a substitute of together with a scheduling hyperlink as a result of your shopper is an ideal match, use language that offers the host an ‘out.’ This lowers their defenses when studying the pitch (bear in mind: many hosts obtain a number of pitches a day) and provides them area to think about in case your shopper and the proposed matter are a match. Utilizing phrases like “is perhaps a match,” “may talk about,” or “what do you suppose?” respects the host’s function in planning the content material of their present.
Utilizing the identical tone you’ll with a colleague or buddy will finally result in extra responses from hosts as a result of they know a human is on the opposite aspect of the inbox. That reply, whether or not a sure, no, or not now, is the place to begin of constructing a relationship that might profit future purchasers.
Ditch the Multi-Paragraph Shopper Bio
Does a bunch want your shopper’s three-paragraph bio to resolve whether or not or not they’d be a very good match as a visitor? No. Do they want a concise descriptor of your shopper’s experience and credentials, coupled with what units them aside from tons of of friends with comparable backgrounds? Sure.
So typically, podcast hosts obtain pitches that spend nearly all of the time detailing the potential visitor’s biography, accomplishments, and lists of awards. Whereas together with credibility metrics is vital in leveling your shopper’s experience, sharing greater than that solely distracts from how the visitor will serve the host’s viewers.
For many people, we signify purchasers whose whole biography appears critically vital to share. Should you can’t resolve what to maintain and what to ditch, think about using an AI software to make the bio extra concise and related to the podcast you’re pitching.
Don’t Bury the Subject
Whereas it might be true that your shopper can communicate to myriad subjects, it’s not the job of the host to have a look at your shopper’s experience and develop a subject that’s the proper match for his or her viewers. That’s our job.
A podcast pitch is the suggestion of a selected matter that could possibly be the main target of a related and interesting dialog for the host’s viewers. your shopper much better than the host, so the onus is on you to develop that matter.
Listed below are some methods to make it simpler:
- Discover the candy spot between your shopper’s story and the viewers’s pursuits. What can your shopper speak about that might fall below the umbrella of the general focus of the present? You’ll must personalize one in every of your shopper’s core subjects for every present you pitch in order that it’s clear it’s meant for that viewers.
- Analysis the podcast totally however effectively. No, you don’t must binge-listen the final 10 episodes of the present to personalize a subject for the present. Reviewing the podcast description, earlier episodes, and the host’s web site and social platforms will doubtless provide you with all of the perception you want. Should you discover it arduous to provide you with a related matter, that’s your signal that the present is probably going not a match in your shopper.
- Pitch a selected matter for an interview. In case your conventional media pitch highlights your shopper’s journey, analysis, or e-book, contemplate crafting your matter round one related opinion, angle, or thought management.
- Bridge the hole between the subject and the viewers. Don’t be afraid to obviously clarify, in typed phrases, why the subject is related and would doubtless profit the listeners. Hosts admire realizing that you just’ve carried out your analysis, perceive the viewers, and are proposing a subject that might be related to them.
Give the Podcast Host All the pieces They Want
Think about, you’re a podcast host who’s accepting visitor strategies in your present. You’re excited to interview thought leaders in your trade and share them together with your listeners who worth sharp, clear, knowledgeable friends.
You obtain a pitch on behalf of a possible visitor with a subject that’s spot-on in your viewers.
You suppose this particular person sounds fabulous on paper. Because you’re not aware of them or their work, you marvel:
- What do they sound like?
- Will they present as much as the interview and sound and look skilled (or hip, or sensible, or regardless of the present’s tone is)?
- Have they ever been interviewed earlier than?
- Can they articulate their ideas clearly and concisely?
- Are they a strolling, speaking billboard for his or her model, or can now we have a enjoyable dialog?
However, alas, this data isn’t shared within the pitch, and there are not any hyperlinks that you need to use to search out out extra. As a substitute, in case you’re VERY motivated in vetting this explicit visitor (which you doubtless should not), you Google their title (how do you spell it once more?) and see what comes up.
How may you assist this host? Embrace hyperlinks to the next within the pitch:
- The shopper’s web site and/or social media platform
- The shopper’s media web page or digital one-sheet (right here’s an instance of 1 constructed out in Notion)
- A earlier interview, video, or an edited audio pattern
You by no means need the host to get to the tip of a pitch and have a query they want answered earlier than making a call. In the event that they do, they’ll doubtless by no means ask it, and the pitch will get deleted.
Use Formatting to Make the Pitch Scannable
Whereas now we have quite a few formatting instruments at our fingertips, utilizing all of them with out taking a step again to see how they work collectively is a recipe for catastrophe. When the whole lot is bolded, nothing stands out. When one thing is bolded, underlined, and italicized, its rank, when it comes to significance, is misplaced.
See what I did there?
In addition to emphasis instruments, like italics, bolding, and underlining, we will additionally use paragraph formatting instruments like white area and bulleted lists to match our pitches extra scannable and nice to the reader’s eye.
Listed below are some strategies (written so you may SEE how they work):
Hyperlink to the shopper’s web site or social media profile within the greeting or bio if you first introduce the host to them.
Title: and paragraph break the quick shopper bio.
Daring the pitch matter amongst the wording that shares why it’s related to the viewers.
- Italicize the bullet factors that share what the dialog may embrace.
- Italicize the bullet factors that share what the dialog may embrace.
Close to the underside of the pitch, hyperlink to the shopper’s web site and social media account. When hyperlinked, these will seem blue and underlined, drawing the reader’s eye down the web page.
See how a lot simpler that’s to learn in comparison with the primary paragraph on this part? Scale back the friction in studying the pitch by formatting it in an inviting and main means.
Whereas many extra points of podcast PR can have an effect on the success of a pitch, together with podcast choice, matter improvement, follow-up frequency, and shopper success in interviews, these 5 tweaks can considerably improve your pitch’s effectiveness at present.
Should you’re curious to see how actual podcast pitches might be improved, contemplate becoming a member of The Flop Recordsdata publication. Every week, I share an anonymized pitch that didn’t fairly hit the mark, share the right way to make it stronger, after which rewrite it for a contemporary perspective on what works.