What to Do to Attract and Please High-Value Podcast Guests

People often go where they believe the highest value for them lies. In the world of podcasting, this often comes in the form of listeners choosing shows that best suits their tastes. However, the search for high value is also prevalent behind the scenes. Both podcast owners and prospective guests need to be discerning of whom to choose. When it comes to the former, here are tips that can help land high-value guests:

Tip 1: Be Flexible With the Schedule 

Any guest worth his or her time will surely be in great demand. Those who are happy to come on a certain show may find it discouraging if the production schedule is too tight. They might even start to think that the extra hassle of showing up isn’t worth it and cancel. To prevent this, podcast owners may want to offer multiple choices of recording schedules, or be open to rescheduling at the high-value guest’s convenience.

Tip 2: Come Prepared With the Topics

One mistake that hosts commit from time to time is asking their guests what they want to discuss on-air. While it might seem like a considerate move, it is actually the opposite. High-value guests would always prefer not to do the mental heavy lifting of deciding the show’s topic, unless they agreed to appear for the sole purpose of discussing something specific. If owners or hosts cannot decide on anything in particular, then the second-best option would be to at least provide choices of topics that the guest can select.

Tip 3: Skip the Origin Story

When a guest has a high enough profile, it is guaranteed that many of his or her followers already know how they rose to prominence. It is also a guarantee that the guest has already repeated the story of how he or she got started multiple times. Landing guests of a certain caliber means skipping the origin story. Not only because repeating it would be redundant for the listeners, but it would also be tiresome on the guest’s part to talk about the beginning again.

Tip 4: Keep an Eye on the Time

On a related note to the first tip, podcast owners and hosts need to be mindful of their podcast production length. High-value guests are often pressed for time and it may inconvenience them to request more than an hour of their time. There will certainly be exceptions to this—such as when the podcast is already an established one, with episodes that go beyond an hour. But if this isn’t the case, then it comes highly recommended to keep the recording brief.

Tip 5: Avoid Pre-Interview Meetings 

Here is another tip that relates to time and scheduling constraints. When approaching a guest, it would be more of an inconvenience than not if podcast owners require pre-interview meetings. Even worse would be if there are multiple pre-interview meetings. The ideal setup would be to just establish everything beforehand and set things up so that the guest can come in, do the interview, and then move on. An exception to this would be if an established podcast with a huge following needs the guest to discuss a specific topic that requires careful handling and fleshing out.

Tip 6: Avoid Making Guests Do Extra Work

There may be podcast owners that want to gather further information. To that end, they may decide to surprise their guest with questionnaires or surveys. The additional time and effort that the high-value guest puts into doing something like this will, more often than not, leave a bad taste in their mouth. As a result, that guest may not want to return or may even warn those in their networks against appearing on the podcast.

Bonus Tip: Prepare the Marketing Materials

Once the recording is done, it is easy to think that all that’s left to do is have the podcast editor do their magic and then release the episode. There may be hosts or owners out there who want their high-value guest to help in the marketing. If that’s the case, then it would be helpful to prepare ready-to-post materials already. That can include images that are already formatted for various social media platforms, as well as links and texts that can be used for the post. Doing so goes a long way in creating an impression of professionalism and preparedness that will surely please any guest.

Put the tips stated above to good use and it is a guarantee that any high-value guest will enjoy their time spent on a show. For any podcast owner, host, or podcast producer that needs more in-depth help with their shows, there is always the opportunity to book a free discovery call with Podcast Engineers. Help them in helping you aso that your podcasting journey can start with a bang.