How Podcast Guests Can Convert Listeners Into High-Quality Leads

Feel like you’re giving away your best content inside every interview, but still not getting the ROI you want for your time invested? In this post, Courtney Elmer helps us discover how to tap into the power of listener psychology and structure your content in a way that compels someone listening to take action, so you can convert more listeners into leads and get the most out of every interview.   and FINALLY, experience what it’s like to be one of those guests people can’t stop raving about — this is for you!

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Have you ever felt like you are giving away your best content in podcast interviews, but still not getting the leads you were hoping for?

This is a very common problem that podcast guests face.

They are passionate about their message, but they are not so good at presenting their information in a way that compels listeners to take action.

This is one of the main reasons why many give up on being a podcast guest altogether. If you are investing your time and energy but not seeing much of an ROI as a podcast guest, it can be very discouraging.

In fact, you’ll probably wonder if it’s even worth your time.

The reality is that it’s one thing to know how to create great content. It’s another thing to know how to deliver your content in a way that compels someone to take action.

When you master both you’ll find that listener engagement skyrockets and that every interview you conduct results in a steady stream of high-quality leads.

Then you’ll finally experience what it’s like to be one of those in-demand guests that people just can not stop raving about.

Below is a five-step guide on how to optimize every podcast interview

That way, you can spend your time speaking to the right listeners on the right shows and delivering the right content in your interview to get the right listeners to take action.

1: Find the specific shows that your listeners are listening to
2: Evaluate those shows to make sure they are worth your time.
3: Position yourself as a Problem Solver for The host’s audience
4: Effectively drive the conversation
5: Move the listeners to action

Chances are, you already use various parts of this process to some degree.

Otherwise, you would not be appearing as a guest on podcasts.

It’s also likely that you have not yet tweaked this process as much as you could.

So let us dig further into these five steps to figure out how you can convert more listeners into leads.

Step 1: Find the Specific Shows Your Audience Listens To

The first step is to first understand who you are targeting and where you can find them. To illustrate why this is so important, let me tell you a personal story.

Go back with me about five years ago. At the very beginning of my business, I knew that in front of people to gain more visibility and brand awareness.

Appearing on podcasts seemed like an easy way to do it. All I had to do was show up, answer someone else’s questions, and then share that interview once it went live. Turned out, it was not that simple.

I remember later looking at the two-plus page Google document of the shows I had participated in and then looking at my email list and realizing that it had remained unchanged. Something just did not add up.

Fast forward to the present. I have since started my own podcast.

The more I hosted interviews and appeared as a guest on other people’s podcasts, the more I realized what the missing link was.

A lack of audience alignment.

Before you can hope to convert listeners into high-quality leads, you need to know who your audience is.

And more importantly, you need to know where to find them. I am going to let you in on a little insider secret. The tool we like to use most to find shows that our ideal audience listens to is called listennotes.com

Here you can search for any show and see its global ranking. You can also search for similar suggested shows and view their rankings.

Listener psychology

When you speak to an aligned audience, your topic will resonate with them and have a much greater impact.

This is because you are speaking to their unique pain points and their specific desires, and the outcomes that they want to achieve.

Not only will you be well-equipped to solve their problem, but you will also increase the perceived value of what you deliver in your interview.

Step 2: Evaluate Shows to Make Sure They’re Worth Your Time

To better position yourself from the start, you need to evaluate those shows.

You want to make sure the podcast appearances you do are worth your time. You do not have time to waste.
Whenever I evaluate other shows, I look at those shows through the lens of

A. Can I help this audience?
B. Is this show the same size or bigger than mine?

My personal goal is to grow my show and audience. I currently only want to spend my time on podcasts whose shows are the same size or bigger than mine. Maybe your goal and strategy look different.

In any case, you still want to be vetting those shows to make sure you are reaching an aligned audience. It also needs to be large enough to increase the likelihood that some listeners will take action.

This does not mean you have to appear on the biggest shows in the world. Certainly, speaking to a very niche, highly targeted audience can be just as effective.

The main takeaway is before you book an interview, make sure it’s an aligned audience and a show worth appearing on.

Once you have identified the most appropriate shows, you can then pitch the host as you normally would with a tool like PodMatch or by reaching out to them directly.

Step 3: Position Yourself as a Problem Solver for The Host’s Audience

This is where most guests miss the mark. It’s not what you say in your pitch that gets the host’s attention, it’s how you position yourself when you pitch.

Imagine these two scenarios.

A. Hey, I am Courtney Elmer. I am a top-rated podcast host and an expert at helping people leverage podcasts to grow their businesses. Here are the five topics that I can talk about on your show. And I’d love for you to bring me on.

B. I have noticed that your listeners are looking for effective ways to build their authority, increase their visibility and drive traffic to their business. I would be honored to share my secrets for launching a top-notch podcast with your audience and show them how they can leverage it as a lead-generation machine for their business. Would you be interested?

Any host in their right mind will likely say yes to a pitch that positions you not just as an expert, but as an expert who can help their listeners solve a very specific problem.

That’s because you have laid the groundwork.

1. Increased the likelihood of converting more listeners by making sure the audience is an aligned fit for you.
2. Vetted these shows and know the interview was worth your time.
3. Effectively positioned yourself as an expert who can help listeners solve a particular problem.

How can you convert more listeners into leads from your interviews?

Now it’s time for the final part of the preparation, which I call the “pre-interview setup.”

Step 4: Effectively Control the Conversation

It’s time to control the conversation by giving your host the questions to ask you.

Before you say it, let me be clear. Of course, the host still has the liberty to ask you whatever they want. It is, after all, their show.

But let us imagine for a moment that you are the host of a very popular podcast.

Chances are, you are booking these interviews back to back.

You show up with a cup of coffee and the guest’s bio. You have not really prepared for the interview.

So you just ask whatever questions come to mind on the fly, with no real plan for how to bring the conversation to a definitive conclusion.

When the episode is over, you have a question that sometimes seems almost like an afterthought. “Hey, by the way, where can people find you online?”

The guest then gives a list of all the places they have an online presence, and the interview ends. Then you sit back and wait for the prospect to come in, but nothing happens.

If you know how to steer the conversation and make it seem like you are doing the host a big favor by saving them time (because they do not have to think up questions to ask you), you’ll suddenly stand out in their eyes as someone who’s making their life easier.

They will feel the deep and intrinsic human need to return the favor by asking you the questions you presented to them. I recently did this at a big online summit I attended.

The host asked me every single question I gave her, which made it very easy for me to solve the specific problem I came to address in that interview. It also made it easier to give a clear call to action at the end to get people to sign up for my offer.

That way, I was able to convert those listeners into leads.

Now, hopefully, the host will ask you the questions you have given them in advance.

You have strategically prepared your answers so that you identify the listener’s specific problem related to your topic, address that problem, and then solve the problem at a high level.

This is PAS, “problem-agitate-solve” model at work.

It goes back to listener psychology.

Remember the old saying:

No one cares until they know how much you care.

By showing podcast listeners that you have a keen awareness of their specific problem, you trigger all the little receptors in their brains that want to get this problem solved.

Then you’ll hit a home run by solving the problem on the air and then moving your listeners to a specific call to action (inviting them to take the next step with you).

Step 5: Move Those Listeners to Take Action

Listeners will take action because they want their problem solved.This effectively gets you a brand new lead for every person listening to this episode now and in the future and has a problem and wants it solved.

Now you might object, “Courtney, I have already given a call to action at the end of my episodes and it did not work.”

If that applies to you, my question to you is this: Did you do the other steps I’ve outlined here for you today before posting the CTA?

If the answer is yes, then please contact me and I will personally help you pinpoint the issue.

But if the answer is no, then you can not say it does not work because you did not prepare the CTA properly.

You probably did not know how to do it or that you even needed to. But now that you have that knowledge, it’s time for you to put it into action.

How to Implement this 5-Step Process

You’ll want to listen to the podcast version of this post linked at the top.

Pay attention not only to what I say but how I say it. You’ll notice that throughout the training, I have been identifying and agitating the problem you currently experiencing.

And that is that you are not able to get a better ROI and convert more listeners into leads from your podcast interviews.

I have solved this problem for you at a high level by anticipating the potential questions and objections you are likely to raise as you go through this process.

So by the time you get to this part of the lesson, you should feel completely confident in following the steps I lay out for you next.

Revisit your list of dream podcasts you’d like to be on. Instead of looking at them through the lens of “How much credibility can this show give me?”

Now look at them through the lens of “How likely is this audience to want to learn from me and potentially buy from me?”

Rethink your pitching strategy

To be an effective guest, you must first and always position yourself as an effective problem solver for the host audience. Remember, the more specific the problem you can solve, the better.

Do everything in your power to steer the conversation within the interview.

Give the host a list of specific questions to ask you. Prepare your answers in a way that identifies the listener’s problem with your topic, agitates their problem, and then solves the problem for the listener on the air.

Last but not least, provide a clear call to action at the end of your episode, inviting the listeners to take the natural next step with you.

This way, you can stop wasting your time with interviews that do not get you anything and start structuring your content in a way that compels listeners to take action.