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Designing the Ideal Podcast Guesting Call To Action (CTA)
Table of Contents
How are you doing in podcasting as a guest, host, or both?
When I first started being a guest on podcasts, THIS is the blog post that I needed.
When I started my first online business, I knew the first thing I needed to do was get the word out there! So, I began guest podcasting, sharing on social media and of course, podcast guesting. But, I had no clue what I was doing.
I would send people to my website, to my Calendly, I’d give out my phone number, I’d tell them to look me up on social media.
Sounds… All over the place, right? It was. But it gets worse!
Not only was I sending people to all 4 corners of the internet, my website had more than 20 different products and services. Once you were there, you’d have no idea where to go!
Now if I’m describing you, don’t worry – You’ll learn a lot from this.
If you’re someone who has nothing yet and you’re just getting started, this will also help you avoid some serious time wasting mistakes that I made.
This course is about designing the ideal call to action (CTA) for your brand.
We’re going to get into how you only need ONE THING to help you begin making money, even before you have a business, product or service.
If I could time travel back to 2006 to coach myself, if I could only share one thing, it would be this course.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this blog post:
#1. Get clear about the one thing you want people to do. You have to decide what the ONE THING you’re going to ask people to do and why you picked this one thing.
#2. Flip the funnel upside down. Start by creating what you want people to ultimately do. Whether it’s a book, course, coaching, or another product/service, you need to keep that in mind first.
#3. Repurpose what you already have. Don’t start building random marketing material, or smaller products from scratch. Use what you already have!
#4. Designing the steps of your CTA. You only need to create 3 steps for an effective call to action.
#5. The tools you’ll need to get started. Here’s the craziest part about this whole CTA thing… If you’re just getting started, you don’t have to spend any money to do this.
#6. Use the marketing channels that work. Many of us assume we need to be everywhere when it comes to marketing. But, I’ve found it’s better to only be one place.
Oh, one more thing… If you want this to be a slam-dunk, check out this list of 12 things for being a great podcast guest (and getting booked). It’ll help you a lot in converting your CTA!
#1. What You Want People to Do
The very first thing you have to do is get crystal clear with what you want people to do. And take note: IT CAN ONLY BE ONE THING. ?
Believe it or not, people want direction. If you’ve earned trust with them, you are leading them and they want you to tell them exactly where you want them to go. You cannot do this unless you, yourself know the destination; and no destination has two paths.
Enroll in a course and buy your book.
Subscribe to your YouTube channel and invest in a coaching session.
Buy your new productivity journal and subscribe to your podcast. You cannot ask people to…The only way an ideal CTA works is if it is ONE THING, clearly stated.
Here’s how you do this:
STEP# 1: Know exactly what you’d ideally have every person do, and WHY you’d have them do it. Always start with WHY you’re doing something. Ultimately, what’s the point?
STEP# 2: Get very clear with what the one thing is that you ultimately want people to do.
Take your time on this part. Really figure it out. In every course you take from me, you’ll notice that I always ask you to start with why. ❓
Always being with the end in mind. – Dr. Stephen R. Covey
Further into this course, we’ll figure out how to get your prospects to follow the path that you want them to take.
#2. Build a Path for your Prospects
This is where most people will tell you to build a sales funnel. Here’s the thing about building a sales funnel, most people do it backwards. They start with the smallest thing, then work their way to the big sell.
Although that’s the journey your prospects will take, much like leadership, you can only take someone where you have been. ?
Because of this, we’re going to flip the sales funnel upside down!
Meaning, let’s go back to the ultimate desired action to be taken by your prospects as talked about in the previous step. What was that thing?
If it’s a course you want them to enroll in, if it’s a book or product you want them to buy, or coaching that you want them to invest in, we need to start from that point and begin working our way to the top of the sales funnel.
I like to think of this process more of a journey along a mountain…
There’s a path with a group of people waiting at the start of it. When out of nowhere, they see you heading toward them from the path… You’re heading backwards, because you’ve already been on the journey, and you’re going to guide them to the same destination that you’ve found. As the guide, we don’t start where our prospects start, we start where they want to be.
So what do we do?
For the rest of this course, I want you to think about the things you learned along the way of creating or releasing whatever it is that you have to offer. Everything needs to be reverse-engineered from that.
Meaning, we’re not making anything new – We’re taking people on the same journey we ourselves went on.
#3. The Power of Repurposing
I know what’s probably been in the back of your mind the whole time you’ve been going through this course… Social media. What about what I’m going to share on “all the platforms”?
Sadly, this is the world we live in. ? I can tell you now that no matter how much influence you have on social media, it cannot be as powerful as being a guest on podcasts.
Being a guest on a podcast with 100 listeners is far more powerful than an Instagram account with 10k followers. ?
For all the social media influencers, I know that’s super offensive, and I’m sorry to say that – But, it’s true. Social media breeds distraction, but podcast listeners are conditions for action. (It’s the difference between scrolling through a feed and intently listening to someone.)
Now I’m not telling you to not share on social media, but what I’m telling you is that you should never create any new content for social media. You should only repurpose what your ultimate destination for your prospects are.
In fact, you should not create new content for anything, even your call to action. It should all be repurposed content.
One big problem I see people making is that they spread themselves thin by building random marketing material or smaller products to offer from scratch to keep people interested. Using what you already have is more powerful! ?
Here are 2 examples of how this can work for you:
➡ Example #1: The Fitness Foam Roller
If you’ve created a foam roller for fitness enthusiasts that you’re selling on Amazon, here’s what you can do to repurpose content.
✅ Here’s what you SHOULD do:
- Share blog posts that explain why you designed this one in particular.
- Share pictures of the foam roller being used.
- Create a free give away (via email) containing your 10 favorite stretches to do with a foam roller.
- Talk about the health benefits of using a foam roller.
- Testimonials from customers about your foam roller. ?
❌ Here’s what you should NOT do:
- Share on social media about your 3 favorite CrossFit workouts.
- Sending people emails about what you should be eating to get abs.
- Talking on podcasts about best practices for sleep.
- Be involved in anything that isn’t directly about foam rollers.
➡ Example #2: The Mental Health Coaching Session
If you’re a mental health coach selling one-on-one coaching packages to help people heal, here’s what you can do to repurpose content.
✅ Here’s what you SHOULD do:
- Share blog posts explaining how to know if you’re mentally healthy.
- Share pictures expressing what it feels like to be mentally healthy vs unhealthy.
- Create a free giveaway (via email) containing 10 things people can do to improve their mental health today.
- Talk about the importance of mental health.
❌ Here’s what you should NOT do:
- Share on social media about your favorite places to go on vacation.
- Sending people emails about what they should be eating to be healthier.
- Talking on podcasts about how to grow a coaching business.
- Be involved in anything that isn’t directly about mental health.
Do you understand?
Never create anything new once you have your end product/service. All you need to do is repurpose based off of that. Don’t get off course, remember, there are people following you who are relying on your for direction. Don’t take them down the wrong trail!
#4. Designing Your Podcast Guesting CTA Steps
Believe it or not, you only need 3 steps for an effective call to action. Yep, only 3!
Now I will say, if you’re selling a 10k+ product, you’re going to want more than 3 steps – (And for something like that, I recommend working with a company like Click Funnels to really drive your sales!)
Designing the 3 steps of your CTA:
STEP# 1: Give something away for free.
STEP# 2: Get them to opt-in to get something slightly greater than your free giveaway.
STEP# 3: Reach out 7 times with your big ask/sell.
Let’s cover each of these in more details.
STEP# 1: Give something away for free. ?
The very first thing you need is something that’s completely free. If you’re asking for an email address or phone number before giving someone something for ‘free’, then it’s not free.
Your free giveaway can come in many shapes and sizes, here are some examples:
- A helpful resourceful social media post that shares a free exclusive snippet that you’d typically offer in a one-on-one coaching session.
- A blog post on your website that covers a part of your book in more detail.
- A detailed instructional video showing people how to release more lactic acid using a foam roller.
- A podcast episode where you’re talking about some of the high level things you’ve learned that helped you create your daily productivity journal that you now sell.
Don’t be afraid to add value.
One of the most common things I hear when I tell people to share the most valuable information they can is, “Alex, I cannot give away all of my secrets! They’ll never buy anything from me.”
Not only is that thinking called a scarcity mindset, but it’s always flawed. The truth is, the more value you add upfront, the more likely someone is to buy from you. Why? Because you’re establishing TRUST.
People buy from people they trust.
I recently found out that an author that I admire released a new book. But he put the entire audio book on his podcast. Free, for everyone to listen to… WHAT? I couldn’t believe it. I listened to the whole thing. Guess what I did after I listened to it? Yep, I bought a hardcopy of the book that’s sitting on my bookshelf next to me right now.
He started by offering FREE value – I trust him, so I want to buy from him.
For more on this topic, check out this super insightful podcast episode with the legendary David Meerman Scott about the power of giving something away for free.
STEP# 2: Get them to opt-in to get something slightly greater than your free giveaway.
Once you’ve started by adding value and given something away completely for free, your next step is to get them into your funnel. Now that you’ve established trust, this shouldn’t be difficult.
But here’s what you want to do: You want to offer them something else in exchange for their email address or phone number. No dollars are being transferred yet, it’s just an email address for something else of value.
Using one of the same examples we did above:
If you’re on a podcast talking about the high level things you’ve learned that helped your create your daily productivity journal at the end when the host asks you,
“Where can the audience learn more about you?”
Now that you’ve given them something for free, you can have them go to a specific page and give you their email in exchange for something, like this:
? “Thanks for having me on the show, if the audience would like a copy of my morning routine checklist that sets me up for a productivity win every day, they can go to daily-productivity-journal. com/morning.”
^ BOOM! ⚡ That’s powerful right there.
Please note: The morning routine I mentioned above should be part of the daily productivity journal, not something totally separate. Remember? We’re repurposing content. (No making anything new!)
Now if you’re saying, “That sounds sweet, Alex. But, I don’t have a website or a way to collect emails from people.”
Worry not, my liege! We’ll explore that more in the next step.
STEP# 3: Reach out 7 times with your big ask/sell.
Now that you have your prospects email addresses or phone number, you need to reach out 7 times asking them to invest in your product/service.
A lot of people get this wrong. Even famous marketers get this wrong. There’s one right way to do this. You ready? Don’t be annoying.
The key is to always lead with value. You want these emails to be SUPER short.
#5. The Only Tools You Need for a CTA
When I first meet people and start talking to them about their business ideas, I get really excited… Then I scare people. They start back tracking saying things like, “Well hold on Alex, I don’t have any money saved up yet.” or “I really don’t have the skills yet to do everything it takes to start a business, I need to learn first.”
When designing your CTA, I tell people it’s just like starting a business. Before you do anything, you need to prove the concept and start a lead generating funnel. To do this, all you need are some very basic, inexpensive tools.
Skip all the fancy stuff and keep it as simple as you can.
Here’s all you need to do:
#1. Go to mailerlite.com and create an account. (Or if you already use an email subscription service stick with what you already have)
#2. Use the landing page feature, and design a landing page.
- Whatever you’re giving away for free, make sure it’s on this page. (So if it’s a VIDEO, a guide, whatever it may be, list it out here.)
- Aside from your freebee, make sure you keep the copy short and straight to the point. What are you offering? What are they there for? (Here are some cool examples)
- Skip the logo, if you don’t have one, you don’t need one. You can do that later. Don’t waste any time making this fancier than it needs to be.
Next
#3. On the landing page’s opt-in section, ask for more than just their email. THINK: “What else could this person tell me about themselves that will help me serve them more later?”
- If you’ve already added value to them, they will be willing to give you more than just their email. I recommend getting their name. Past that, it’s what matters to your business!
- EXAMPLE: If your product is home workouts, you could ask people that are subscribing what their fitness goals are. If they are say they are trying to drop 30lbs, and another group says they are trying to bulk up, guess what? Those are two different groups of people! (? YOU WANT THIS INFORMATION!)
#4. Create your onboarding email. Something that gives them what you promised, or welcomes them to your network.
#5. Based off the list they entered, add them to segmented groups, then start creating VALUABLE emails to send out to them on a somewhat regular basis.
#6. START SELLING! If you have a product or service you’re going to begin offering, create an account with Stripe.com and you can start sending invoices/receiving payments.
- If you’re offering coaching calls, you can use Calendly.com to have people automatically schedule time with you. And if you upgrade your account with them, you can have them pay the invoice before meeting with you. (? PRO TIP: Include the link to book time with you in every email you send out)
Two of the most common questions:
“What should my email look like? I know I need to design a nice template.”
NOPE. I just use plan text, no formatting or anything fancy, and guess what? It converts almost 50% better for me than the pretty emails that we all waste our time to make!
“I set up my landing page, but the URL is really long. How can I share this with people?”
Now THIS is a great question. Two things,
First, I recommending buying yourname .com (But actually use your name there.) and buy your company name. Create a redirect that sends visitors straight to your landing page. Domains are cheap! Just visit Google Domains.
Second, consider SMS. SMS marking is POWERFUL. Plus, it gets you people’s phone numbers and you’ll get their email address when they sign up as well. This has some cost to it, but I use simpletexting.com and love it!
Don’t overthink your CTA. Make it something very simple if you don’t have a website. If you do have a website already, design something simple to what we talked about here on your own platform. Again, keep it simple and straight to the point while getting as much information as you need from people who are opting-in.
#6. Stop Wasting Your Time with “Marketing”
The #1 way I see people wasting their time is on ‘marketing’. In the next step I’m going to cover an effective marketing strategy that is going to help you grow exponentially.
For this step, I want to help you learn how to focus on the marketing that matters.
Who here loves Instagram? ? (That’s a selfie emoji) Me too, it’s the sexiest of the social media platforms from a UX perspective. Because I enjoy it so much, when I first started promoting my business, I went all in on Instagram.
Then someone gave me this same advice that I’m going you today… Stop wasting your time.
Someone challenged me to see where my results were coming from, turns out when I looked at my Instagram analytics, I realized that almost no one ever clicked through to my CTA.
I was pretty sad, but then I realized something…
I was getting a TON of traffic from LinkedIn! I was spending almost no time on LinkedIn at all, but it was producing 10x the results of Instagram. ?
Here’s the truth I had to come to: I needed to stop using Instagram, even though it was fun, because my audience wasn’t there. They were on LinkedIn. I could see that from the numbers.
So, I used Buffer.com to automate my Instagram, I spent no time on it, then I focused on LinkedIn.
Guess what happened? You guessed it, I started getting a ton of new subscribers and leads!
Here’s the point:
Stop spreading your time so thin! Stop guessing where your audience is. ‘Test’ all of the social channels, then look at the analytics. If all of your traffic is coming from Facebook groups instead of TikTok, shut down TikTok. Focus where your audience is, and you will see extraordinary results!
There you have it, that’s how designing the ideal podcast guesting CTA is done!
Let’s recap: What You Want People to Do, Build a Path for your Prospects, The Power of Repurposing, Designing Your CTA Steps, The Only Tools You Need, Stop Wasting Your Time “Marketing.” ✌
If you have any questions, feedback or would just like to discuss this blog post, please use the button below to join the discussion! One final question for you…