Ever listened to a podcast where the guest spent most of the episode pitching their product or service? Probably not.
Podcast appearances are about providing actual value, not selling. But there is one moment in every interview where you can—and should—directly promote your business or brand. It’s at the end of the episode, when the podcast host asks:
“Where can people learn more about you?”
Plenty of people mess this up because they haven’t prepared a clear call to action. You don’t want to be one of them.
In this post, we’ll share five easy steps to help you create the kind of call to action that listeners won’t be able to resist.
1. Define your goal
This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people appear on podcasts without knowing what they’re trying to accomplish.
Your goal could be any number of things:
- Grow your email list
- Attract new customers
- Promote your book
- Expand your audience
- Get more social media followers
- And the list goes on…
Before you even think about doing a podcast interview, decide exactly what your objective is. Try to limit it to one specific goal, or two at the most.
2. Identify required actions
For this example, let’s say your goal is to promote your book. Now you have to figure out what exactly you’ll tell listeners to do in order to make that happen.
If you’re promoting a book, you might:
- Tell listeners to search for your book on Amazon.
- Use a smart redirect to send them to the Amazon page.
- Send them to a specific landing page on your site.
- Offer a free chapter of your book in exchange for their email address.
It all depends how tech and marketing savvy you are, but any of the above options work.
Just make sure that the action you’re asking listeners to take is something you would do yourself—and be honest.
3. Explain the benefits
Meet your new favorite acronym: WIIFM (what’s in it for me?). It’s time to tell people why they should be interested in your offer, and why they should take the actions above.
If they do so, what will they get in return? Will you send them something cool? Will they learn something new? Will they laugh?
Keep it short and specific. For example:
“This chapter of my book will teach you how to identify your target audience’s favorite podcasts.”
Or:
“Send me a DM on LinkedIn and I'll send you the exact sales script I used to triple our sales team’s conversion rate.”
4. Fill in the blanks
Everyone loves a good template, right?
To get even more specific with your call to action, just fill in the blanks in the following text:
“Thanks for asking! The best way to get in touch with me is [email or social media handles]. If you’re interested in [WIIFM], go to [URL]. Once again, that’s [email or social media handles] or [URL]. All the links will be in the episode notes as well.”
Want to see what the final version looks like? You can find an example in our PDF guide.
5. Practice out loud
The last thing you want is to sound like you’re reading straight from a script. Once you’ve written out your ideal call to action, spend some time committing it to memory.
It’s only a few lines, so this shouldn’t take too much effort—but it will pay off.
You don’t have to say what you wrote word for word, but make sure you hit all the important points in a way that sounds natural, friendly, and convincing.
That’s it! Now you’re ready to get out there, seize that opportunity, and tell people exactly why they should take the next step.
For more tips on preparing for the interview, check out this article.
