10 step guide to how to write the perfect podcast guest pitch email

If you’d like to guest on podcasts here is my ’10 step guide to how to write the perfect podcast guest pitch email’.

Appearing as a guest on a podcast is a great way to expand your brand awareness and reach a broader audience, plus it’s free to do. Being a podcast guest can also open up additional marketing opportunities too. Guesting on podcasts is something that I’m focusing on at the moment, and have managed to have quite a bit of success.

My 10 step guide as to how to write the perfect podcast guest pitch email are as follows;

• Subject line
• Personalise it
• Introduce yourself succinctly
• Reference their podcast
• Why you would make a good guest
• Suggest potential topics to talk about
• Proof
• Give more background
• Contact details
• Sign off

1) Subject line – Make sure you use a email subject title that is clear and simple for the recipient. Something like ‘Potential Guest on <podcast name>’ would be my suggestion, but anything that’s clear should work.

2) Personalise it – Your opening greeting needs to be personalised. Make sure that you know the name of the host. ‘To whom it may concern’ or just ‘hi’ is not going to cut it.

3) Introduce yourself succinctly – Explain who you are and what area(s) you are an expert/specialist in, along with, a little background. Keep it short. In simple terms you are answering the question ‘who the fuck is this, and why should I be interested?’

4) Reference their podcast – Make sure that you let the host know that you are not shooting blind. Make reference to the show and talk about recent episodes that you have listened to. This shows that you are really interested in the podcast, understand it’s ‘raison d’etre’, it’s audience and that generally you have done your homework and put some effort in. Praising the podcast can also help, or even showing that you’ve posted a 5 star review, ….a bit of flattery never hurt anyone!

5) Why you would make a good guest – Explain clearly why you think you would make a good guest. It may be that you are similar to a recent guest, or that you match what they are trying to do. You are answering the question the host is asking ‘why should this guy be on my show?’ And note, make sure the ‘why’ is of benefit to THE AUDIENCE, not you.

6) Suggest up to three potential topics you can talk about – This saves the host from having to do any thinking. It also works well for you as you are suggesting talking on ‘your’ subjects. But again, explain the benefits to the audience. By offering up to three you also give the host a choice of three or more topics rather than just one topic, which they might not want/like.

7) Proof – If you have been on any other podcasts share links to them. This allows the podcast host to actually hear what you sound like as a guest, as well as your style, plus it takes away some of their fear in booking you (‘someone else has done it so it must be OK’). Much better than your email saying ‘I’ve never done this before, would you like to be the first…’

8) Give more background – Share links to your website, LinkedIn profile, attach your bio etc. This all makes it easier for the host to do any background research on you that they may want, to check your ‘fit’ with them. Again this is all about making it easier for the host.

9) Contact details – Make sure that you add contact details, more than just replying to your email address. Your telephone number makes you more accessible, as a host may want to chat before booking you. And also, if it is an international podcast, let them know where in the world you are. And, again, making it easier for the host, let them know your availability. If you can only do Mondays, for example, you are only going to annoy the host if they offer you Thursday mornings.

10) Sign off – make sure that you sign of with a ‘no pressure’ sign off. At the end of the day, it’s their podcast, and their choice whether or not they want you on as a guest. A pushy or stroppy sign off is only going to give one response… or maybe no response at all!

And finally if you are searching for podcasts to be a guest on, there are a variety of podcast guest matching services. I currently use these two; Matchmaker and PodMatch.

I hope that you find the above of use, and if you have any thoughts about the steps above give me a shout.

If you’d like to hear my podcast, and webinar, appearances to date, they can be found here.

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