I recently interviewed Interview Valet founder Tom Schwab for the Reputation Revolution podcast. The topic was ‘How to use podcast interview marketing to build your brand and your business’ – you can listen to it here.
We had a few technical hitches and there was a chunk of the interview that was a bit tough on the ears, so I had it edited out. Unfortunately, the section I deleted contained some great tips from Tom!
So I got a transcription done (I use Rev for transcribing and video captioning – check ’em out!) – here’s an edited version:
Trevor Young:
What’s the best way for people to go about that and what are some suggestions on how to become a good podcast interview guest?
Tom Schwab:
It’s so important to look at it strategically. Just like anything, that if you’ve got a plan behind it and what you’re trying to do, you’re much more likely to accomplish it.
Early on, some people will just go on a podcast interview and it’s as much of an ego stroke as anything, “They wanted to interview me,” but what came out of it? And I look at this as great content.
Looking and saying, “How can I make the most out of this?”
TIP! Just like if you’re speaking at any event, don’t go in there cold.
If you’re on a podcast, you’re talking to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people. You wouldn’t walk onto a stage without doing all your homework.
- Listen to the podcast,
- know what the audience is about,
- know what value you can give.
I’m always amazed when you can see that somebody is on a podcast and they’ve probably never listened to it before and they don’t know what the lingo is on there.
So, definitely prepare. And then, from that standpoint, make sure that you’re offering value and that you give people a next step and it’s a next step that is rational and logical.
We’ve done all kinds of testing on this, and I’ll pull behind the curtain here.
When you’re on a podcast and at the end they say, “Well, how can we get in touch with you?” – I cringe every time that I’m running, listening to podcast in 2X and somebody starts reciting that “you can get my Twitter here, you can get my LinkedIn here, you can get my email, here’s my phone number.”
It’s like: “Don’t you understand the medium?”
We’re driving. We’re multitasking. We’re running. I won’t remember any of this.
TIP! When as a guest you’re asked “how can people get in touch with you?” >>> Give them one place to go to!
TIP: The other thing is, our testing has shown, don’t just give them the homepage to go to. Tests have shown that you should do a dedicated Welcome page.
(Here’s an example of one Tom created for our interview – https://interviewvalet.com/reputation)
Because what we’re seeing is that when people hear you on a podcast interview, they’ve never seen you, they’ve never seen your website … that’s like the perfect recipe for bad conversions and losing traffic. So, when they go to that page, you know where they’re coming from. But, also, the first thing they’re going to see is the podcast’s artwork, so make sure there’s the podcast artwork (on the welcome page).
Because, even though we’re recording this in 2018, I guarantee you there’s going to be someone in 2020 that listens to this and goes, “This is great!” If they click on your homepage, I guarantee you that in two years, it’s going to change, and if they don’t get the same thing they expect, that’s just … it’s wasted traffic and it’s not courteous to them. If they go there, they should get what they expect.
So, those are some of the best principles in how to be a great guest when converting.
What we tell all of our clients is, your number one job when you go on a podcast … make the host look like a genius for inviting you. Because, think about it, if you promote yourself, it looks bad. Nobody like an infomercial. I love the way Doug Sandler from Nice Guys on Business says: “If you promote yourself, the people will never hear you.” But he says, “If you do a good job, I will promote you.” So, I think it’s always that thing – Gary Vaynerchuk always talks about, jab, jab, jab, right hook. No, it’s serve, serve, serve, serve, ask.
Exposure brings opportunity, and the more that you can get out there, the more opportunity that you’ll have.
Listen to my interview with Tom here.
CONNECT WITH TOM:
- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION & RESOURCES: https://interviewvalet.com/reputation/
- FOLLOW TOM ON TWITTER – @tmschwab
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