Ready to attract some fantastic guests to your show? Well you’ve come to the right place.
We all know that in the podcasting game, you can only go so far without featuring guests. Guests are an essential part of bringing something different to your show by offering your audience a variety of views, voices, and perspectives.
But to attract the perfect guests, you need to highlight why your show is worth their time. There are thousands of shows out there, so here are our tips to help your profile stand out from the crowd.
What You’ll Need
Firstly, let’s have a quick look at what you’ll need to include in your show profile:
- Your podcast cover artwork
- A short tagline that describes your show in a snappy soundbite
- Your show description
Each of these elements needs to be carefully crafted to grab the attention of potential guests.
Artwork & Headline
When guests are searching for the perfect podcast to pitch to, your podcast artwork and tagline will be their first impression they get. If these elements alone don’t pique their interest, they’re not going to click through and check out your full profile. So it’s crucial to get them right.
With artwork, the key is to deliver an impression that suggests a professional, high-quality show. Your podcast artwork should be able to rival those produced by top-tier production houses like NPR and Wondery. If it looks like it was created 10 years ago on Microsoft Paint, you’re going to seriously struggle to attract high calibre guests.
Be as honest as you can in your appraisal of your current podcast artwork. Does it look professional? Is the text / font easy to read? Does it help convey the central theme or message of your show? If not, then we strongly recommend going back to the drawing board and coming up with a new design.
Even if you don’t have brilliant design skills, you can still do a good job on your atwork with the help of free online tools like Canva. Unlike Photoshop, it’s incredibly easy and intuitive to use and has hundreds of free templates, icons, and fonts to choose from. So there’s no harm in experimenting with it to see what you can come up with.
If you’ve got a small budget to work with and you really want to go the extra mile to help your show stand out, you can hire a professional designer to do your artwork for you. We’d recommend using a site like Fivver or Upwork, where you can find a wide range of freelancers. You can see people’s portfolios and read customer reviews to make sure you’re spending your money wisely.
Following your artwork, the next element to consider is your profile Headline / Tagline. You’ve only got 140 characters to work with, so you need to make them count. Your tagline should instantly convey what your show is all about. If it’s vague or comes across as a bit dull, it reduces the chances of people clicking through to check out the rest of your profile.
If you want your show to be found for a specific keyword (e.g. Investing, Fitness, or Video Games) then you need to make sure you include that word in your Headline. You only have 140 characters so focus on the single most relevant keyword for your show. Don't stuff your headline with multiple keywords to create a sentence that makes no sense! You still need to craft an enticing headline to make sure people actually click through to your profile.
Writing a snappy soundbite is harder than you’d think. Don’t just throw down the first thing that comes into your head. Give yourself some time to work on it and come up with a few different variations to choose from. It’s then often a good idea to ask other people for feedback on which tagline they think is the most enticing.
Once you’ve nailed down your artwork and tagline, then it’s time to think about your show description. This is the final element that will help convince potential guests to git that all important ‘Contact Show’ button.
Show Description
There’s one common pitfall to avoid when it comes to show descriptions - the ol’ copy/paste trap.
Copying and pasting your standard show description isn’t a terrible thing to do but you have enough real estate in your profile to be a little more descriptive and a lot more enticing.
That doesn’t mean you should fluff your description up with needless information. As a rule of thumb, always frontload your description to give the most important information up top. At best, readers will read the first few sentences and then skim the rest.
But giving more detail in your show description will help you instantly stand out from other shows. So use the opportunity to describe the sound and feel of your episodes. For example, is your podcast fun or serious? Are you looking for technical experts or personal stories?
You can also include what kind of guests you think would be best suited to your show and what topics you’re open to. Don’t fear specificity. Be open about who you are trying to attract because they are out there and they are looking for you too!
Add Personality to Your Description
Ultimately, what’s going to attract the perfect guest for your show is - you!
Don’t forget to inject your personality into your description. When deciding which show to pitch to, a potential guest won’t always take the time to listen to the podcast. Instead, they are likely to go off their gut feeling and general vibe of your show profile.
This is why it’s important to hook them in by capturing as much of your personality in your writing as you can. If your description comes across as stale, corporate, or uninspired, it’s going to immediately put lots of people off. So stay away from the jargon and try to write how you’d normally speak to someone else in a face-to-face conversation.
Ready to Create a Great Show Profile?
Podcast promotion works best if you’re open to having guests and being a guest on different podcasts. Matchmaker is a fantastic way of discovering new shows who are open to working together!
And now that you know how to put together a great show profile, why not get to creating a guest profile? To find out how, follow us and we’ll take you there.
Don’t have a Matchmaker account yet? Fear not! Hit this link and sign up for FREE!
