The Ultimate Guide to Guest Scheduling for Your B2B Podcast in 2023
What makes a great podcast?
Is it the questions you ask?
Is it the recording equipment?
Is it the strategy?
Is it the promotion?
We would argue that it all comes down to the guests.
Great guests = Great content.
As B2B podcasting continues to evolve as a revenue-generating tool with great ROI, it’s crucial to rethink the importance of guest scheduling.
What Is the Goal of Your Podcast?
If you’re planning a podcast, the first thing to decide on is what you aim to accomplish. For the majority of B2B tech companies, the goal is either account-based marketing or to position themselves as thought leaders. Whichever your goal, your starting place in planning a podcast is your podcast guests. You need to create content for your podcast in order to meet and exceed your goals, and you need guests in order to produce this content.
As a CEO or head of marketing, how do you ensure you meet your podcast goals? Simple: you bring on the right people as guest speakers. Even simpler, you get your guest scheduling right. A great guest will likely drive new listeners to your podcast.
Read on to learn the guest scheduling process we use for our clients’ revenue-generating podcasts.
What Is Guest Scheduling?
At its most basic level, guest scheduling is the process of inviting guests to your podcast.
Guest scheduling, in its broadest sense, refers to the process of planning, researching, vetting and inviting the most suitable guest speakers for your B2B podcast. You will probably never accomplish anything more crucial than this when operating your show.
At its core, guest scheduling comprises the following:
Let’s examine each of these steps:
Strategy
When a firm has reached the point where they want Content Allies to take them to the next level, we schedule a strategy call with them. It's possible that you have anticipated this, but this is the point at which we align on goals. There is one constant, and that is the goal of the podcast, which can often be broken down into three categories:
Thought leadership
Network/account-based marketing
Mix of both
Thought Leadership: A thought leader is someone who’s been in the trenches of their field/industry and can transfer their experiences in concrete, practical and scalable ways. The purpose of this type of podcast is primarily educational and is typically geared towards CEOs wanting to brand themselves as thought leaders. CEOs are generally the hosts, too, and would likely connect with guest profiles of director level and above to exchange knowledge and discuss industry trends.
Network/Account-Based Marketing: In this category, you meet with your most ideal customers/client/partners. Nothing is more crucial to you as the head of marketing in your company than turning your efforts into revenue. How do you go about that?: through expanding your clientele. How is that possible with a podcast?: you invite decision-makers who represent your ideal clients to be guests and provide them with a forum for sharing their insights.
Mix of Both: While you may tilt towards one more than the other, we often find that this is the sweet spot; a mix of both worlds. You connect with decision-makers while simultaneously positioning yourself as an expert in your field. We find that this is best for CEOs at smaller companies with less than 20 employees.
How do you know which podcast goal is right for you? {pop-up of free consultation}
Setting Guest Criteria
So, you’ve determined the purpose and structure of your podcast. You also know what your ideal guests look like, but how well do you know them? Where do you find them? What are their titles? What industry vertical? How much revenue do they bring in on average? You may even go as far as asking what’s their Glassdoor rating? How many employees do they have?
This is where you identify certain criteria to vet your potential guest. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because guest criteria is a two-edged sword. You use it to compile your potential guest list and vet leads that respond to your outreach.
Research
Once you’ve set your guest criteria, you might have something like:
CEO, CIO, COO
200+ employees
$500M in revenue
Finance, healthcare, real estate
4.4 on Glassdoor
Series A-D
Where do you find a list of guests that matches this? Now it’s time to get your hands dirty and do some good ol’ research. There are a number of online repositories and social media networks you can dive into to set filters, and you’ll get a pretty sizable list of profiles that match your criteria. Here are a few to get you started:
You can set parameters on these platforms and save your list of potential guests.
Outreach
Now you have a sizable list of potential guest profiles that match your criteria and it’s time to reach out to them and get creative. To conduct the perfect outreach, you need the following:
Email address dedicated to podcast outreach
Strong subject line for your emails that feels natural
Outreach emails, with a couple of follow-up emails. Your outreach email will typically contain: podcast name, website, host name, value proposition and CTA
A platform to send bulk emails. There are a number of platforms but we recommend Mailshake or Lemlist. These platforms are pretty straightforward and contain excellent tutorials.
A team member to screen and respond to emails and schedule guests.
Scheduling
Once you’ve compiled your first list of potential guests, say a list of 500 profiles that match your guest criteria, and you’ve loaded this into your email outreach tool, the active guest scheduling process begins. On average, a PR specialist responsible for six to eight podcast accounts at Content Allies responds to about 80-100 emails per day, excluding corresponding with podcast hosts. Expect to respond to these potential guests and guide them through your process.
In our experience, we typically come across a variety of guest responses that can be categorized as the ones who:
Say “yes” to an episode.
Want to connect on a pre-interview to determine a fit before committing to an interview.
Need more information.
Need to clear with legal and corporate.
Let their comms team handle the request.
Say “no.”
Say “not at this time.”
You should vet every lead to ensure they match your guest and company criteria. And it is your duty to share with potential guests all the information at your disposal, such as the podcast website where they can learn more about the goals of the podcast.
Ideally, you should share the following information with your leads;
Podcast format (episode length, structure, etc).
Audience.
Promotion (where episodes will be published).
Scheduling link or booking page (we recommend Calendly or HubSpot).
Alternatively you can share a calendar of available times
There you have it. Once the episode is scheduled and recorded you can ship it off to the production process.
We know this all sounds like a lot of hard work, and that’s why we exist — as one of the top podcast agencies, we pride ourselves in taking the hassle out of guest scheduling. Want to find out how?
We help B2B companies launch revenue-generating podcasts. We schedule podcast interviews between you and your ideal prospects and partners. You show up to have conversations, we handle EVERYTHING else. Contact us today to learn more.
Additional Resources:
https://contentallies.com/learn/how-to-conduct-great-podcast-interviews
https://contentallies.com/learn/how-to-convert-podcast-interviews-into-revenue