3 tips for working with guests to increase your podcast’s reach

Inviting the right guests who have a following which aligns with your future listener can be a great way to gain new regular listeners and ultimately increase your reach. However, it can be challenging to define what ‘right’ means when it comes to guests so we’ve shared three key learnings below.

1. Spend time researching the most relevant guests

We know podcasts can run into endless seasons. However, we also know they take a lot of time to produce so it is important to focus time and attention on your edit of guests as well as the audio edits too. In searching for a relevant guest, ask yourself what it is your listener wants to learn about and whether that guest can answer questions on that topic. We find that consistently asking ourselves ‘what does success look like?’ for projects ensures we focus our attention on achieving an ROI.

One way to achieve this is to research potential guests thoroughly via news websites and social channels. Understanding your guest’s career and life experiences will help you ask relevant questions which draw out their advice and insights. This can make your episodes even more valuable to listeners which in turn becomes more shareable content too.

2. Choose guests with strong social media presence

If one of your success metrics is engagement on social media and professional networking sites such as Instagram and LinkedIn, choosing guests with a strong engagement (rather than just a following) can help achieve this higher engagement. When these guests share your podcast’s social media assets on their channels, not only will it reach a new audience but it will reconfirm your authority with your existing listener base. Selecting the right guest, as well as their audience, will boost your reach exponentially. However, it is also key to check your guest will be happy to share the assets ahead of you both committing to the interview.

3. Allow guests plenty of time to prepare for your recording

Sharing your questions with guests in advance allows them plenty of time to prepare and offer you and your listeners the best answers possible. It will also highlight areas they may not want to talk about too, which is important when building your relationship with them. We often use the expression ‘do as you would be done by’. Imagine if you were appearing on a podcast, and consider what time you would like to prepare. We find this makes for a more natural interview and less of a clipped edit when it comes to the production side. Given podcasts are elected content i.e. people choose to listen to them, the audio needs to be of the highest quality possible to keep people listening and wanting to share the episodes further.

Find out about FF&M’s podcast production service via hello@fallowfieldmason.com.