Can someone else’s profile grow your podcast audience?
When you’re wondering how to grow your podcast audience, high-profile guests can feel like the silver bullet you’ve been waiting for.
But while successful, well-known guests are great for content and cred, it’s no guarantee people who love them will come and check out your podcast.
The impact varies from guest to guest
If a high-profile guest has a huge social following it’s easy to assume one tweet will have all those people flooding into your show. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case.
How effective a guest is at growing your podcast audience will depend on a bunch of factors all of which are entirely out of your control.
Some people have a highly engaged audience who’ll follow them wherever they go.
Others might have followers who are interested in reading articles they’ve written or looking at their Instagram feed but aren’t interested in listening to them on a podcast.
It all depends on the kind of relationship each guest has built with their audience and that’s something you can’t influence.
What are the benefits of high-profile guests?
Now that we’ve gotten the doom and gloom out of the way we can get to the positives…
They introduce your show to a new audience
Discovery is a huge issue in podcasting especially when you’re starting from scratch.
So if a guest shares your show that can expose your content to new ears and eyes who might never have found it, or you, otherwise.
This increased visibility is incredibly important to audience growth.
It builds trust and authority
If your guest has a community of followers who trust them, you’ll get some of that goodwill by association.
If they’re saying “I trust this podcast enough to be featured on it,” their audience is likely to trust it’s worth checking out too. That’s extremely powerful but so is the credibility and authority you get from having successful people on your show generally.
When potential listeners find your podcast, whether via your guest’s recommendation or otherwise, seeing names they recognise in previous episodes will help build your show’s credibility. This, in turn, increases the chances people will check it out.
The more interest there is in your podcast, the more potential there is to grow your audience.
You can rely on someone else’s expertise for content
Coming up with content every week is one of the most difficult aspects of podcasting.
Having high-profile guests on your show means you’ve got access to their expertise and experience and this can make for some really engaging and interesting content (that you didn’t have to come up with yourself).
A great guest can be the reason someone listens
If your guest has a recognisable name or face, promoting the fact they’re on your show can get people excited about the episode, even if they haven’t listened to your podcast before.
It’s much easier to get someone interested in hearing from someone they already know. So, high-profile guests can be a way to pique people’s interest in your content even if they don’t know who you are or what your show is about.
How do you increase your chances of success?
If you want to grow your audience with high-profile guests you’ll need them to share your show.
Whether or not they do is entirely up to them but here are some things that can increase the chances of that happening…
Make sure your podcast fits perfectly with their brand
If it doesn’t there’s no way they’ll share it and to be honest, they might not even do the show in the first place.
Even if they do, the angle of your show might be different to the content they regularly share on social media. This means they might be ok to do the interview but they might not want to share it.
Making sure you pitch your show to people who fit perfectly with your content will reduce the chance of them not sharing, or saying no in the first place.
Make sure they have an amazing time
From the minute you contact them to the very last email, the experience should be a joy. You should also treat every relationship as a recurring one.
You never know when you might want them to come back on or when you might get a chance to work together in the future.
Be organised, prepared and respectful of their time. But above all else make it fun.
If they have a good time and see you’ve put in the time and effort to make it a good experience, they’ll be more than happy to share your show.
Make it easy for them
Once the show goes live make sure they have links to everything they need and any creative you’ve knocked up e.g. images, videos, audio cards.
Some guests might find it helpful if you prepare a post they can copy and paste, but most guests will think that’s a bit presumptuous and will prefer to use their own words. There’s nothing wrong with asking which method they’d prefer.
Also, make sure you tag them in all your posts because that will be the easiest way to get them to share.
Don’t be pushy
If your guest retweets you or shares your show that’s AMAZING. But don’t expect it and definitely don’t bug them if they haven’t done it.
The relationship you’ll lose will be much more valuable than any retweeting they do because the jump in numbers often isn’t as huge as you’d expect.
Appreciate how precious the content they give you is and everything on top of that should be seen as a bonus.
There are very few things you can do that will grow your podcast audience overnight so you have to remember you’re playing the long game.
Got a burning podcasting question you’d like answered? Send me an email.
Want to start your own podcast but need a little help? Download my “How To Start A Podcast” guide or sign up for my online podcasting course, PodSchool.
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