Why You Should Invite Podcast Guests

Guests will improve your content and stop it from getting stale. It also adds new perspectives, viewpoints and voices into your podcast. When people listen to your podcast the likelihood is they’ve become accustomed to hearing certain things at certain times. It’s always good to change things up a bit so that your podcast doesn’t become predictable. It’s also good to have people with differing opinions to spark debate, represent different people or to add entertainment value.

Why it Works for Other Podcasters

Some podcasts require guests for the very genre or purpose of their podcast. For instance, the Be Reasonable podcast features a different guest each episode who holds a controversial or unpopular opinion. Everybody from conspiracy theorists to people who believe they possess healing powers or other difficult to explain gifts take part. The guests are integral to the content of the podcast so it’s necessary that guests are found to take part.

The Fashion Unzipped podcast is a good example of a podcast that already has a structure and specific content but guests are brought on to give their expert opinion or share a different viewpoint. For instance, in one episode of this podcast, they are discussing the 20th anniversary of Sex and the city. They could do this on their own but instead, they feature a guest who knows a lot about Sex and the city and its relationship with the fashion world.

These podcasts have been enhanced by featuring guests and get a larger amount of listeners for featuring guests. If you have guests on your podcast then you’ll begin to reap the rewards.

8 Ways Guests Improve Your Podcast

Podcasts often become stale over time. By shaking up your usual structure with a guest, they can add another layer of engagement you wouldn't normally get doing it alone.

8. Expanding Your Circles

Your guest’s listeners, fans, or friends will undoubtedly listen to your podcast if given the proper nudge. Therefore, you’ll expand your reach and listenership when you have a guest on the show. The more guests you have (and depending on how popular they are), the further reach your podcast will get expanding beyond your usual circles.

7. Social Media Promotion

The guests you have on are likely to promote your podcast on their social media and website. They will also most likely publish your podcast on their website or social media which means you will get more click-throughs to your podcast.

6. New Friendships

You’ll make friends with other hosts who will invite podcast guests like yourself to events and introduce you to other podcasters. This will further your reach and put your podcast in new settings.

5. Learn New Skills

You will learn new techniques from other podcasters which means you will improve your output, content and skills.

4. Extra Promotion

When you’ve got new guests on your podcast you can promote them a lot more than your regular shows. It’s something new and exciting so audiences accept the extra promotion.

3. Bragging Rights

You gain some bragging rights by letting others on your podcast. You can tell everyone who’s been on and even contact other podcasters saying who’s been on your show and that they should collaborate with you as a result.

2. Reviews

You can get reviews from your guests which will look good on your website.

1. More Sponsorship Opportunities

The more famous guests you have on the podcast the better sponsors you can access. Bigger brands take notice of bigger names.

5 Essential Ways to Get Guests on Your Podcast

It's a no-brainer why you need to invite podcast guests. Help boost your podcast with industry-leading experts, but how do you actually get them on your show? Depending who you're after inviting on (famous vs not well-known guests), it's best to think about and plan everything out first.

5. Create a Dream Guest List

Got someone in mind that you would love to have on your show? Choose guests you think would suit your podcast. Essentially, that's anyone you're currently listening to at the moment, people relevant to your industry or focus, and local guests close that wouldn't mind popping by to be on your podcast. Approach this by picking 20+ people and work through your list, contacting those who you think will most likely want to get involved.

4. Edit Your List

Look at your list and concentrate on who is most likely to feature on your podcast from the list. Think about if they’ve been on a podcast before, if they have a good social media presence and you think they’ll promote you. Also, think about their relevance to your podcast or style. When you’ve figured these things out narrow your list down.

3. Find Contact Details

Next thing find contact details for the people on your list and make a note of your findings. Most people can be found and contacted through social media but this often looks slightly unprofessional and can often get swamped by the other messages the person receives. If you want to try and look more professional you can look on LinkedIn. If you can find and email or phone number that’s even better and will most likely give you better success at contacting the guest.

2. Plan Your Guests Role

Decide what your guests will talk about on your podcast and when you’re going to need the guests to feature.

1. Contact the Guest

Make sure you include all your information e.g. what it’s about, when is your guest required, etc. Make sure to sell your podcast by giving listener stats, social media stats, details of awards you’ve won or other guests that have previously featured.

Conclusion

There are many reasons you should invite podcast guests to get them involved with your show. Whoever you choose, as long as they’re eager to join in and get involved in sharing your content then you’re more than likely to succeed. 

The bigger the following of your guests, the more popular the episode will be (and given time, your podcast overall). If nothing else, it will make for an interesting show that switches up your format ever so slightly. However you look at it, it’s a win-win situation!