To get booked on podcasts, you need to stop treating guest spots like one-off interviews and start thinking of them as a core part of your marketing. It's about finding hyper-relevant shows, crafting pitches that hosts actually want to read, and turning every single conversation into a long-term marketing asset. This is a repeatable process, not a game of luck.
Why Podcast Guesting Is a B2B Growth Engine
Too many B2B brands see podcast guesting as a simple PR play—a nice little bonus for brand awareness. That mindset misses the whole point.
Done right, getting your experts on the right podcasts is one of the single most effective ways to build authority, create demand, and directly feed your sales pipeline. This isn't about vanity metrics. It's about connecting with your ideal customers where they're already learning and looking for answers.
The intimacy of audio builds trust in a way that written content just can't. When a decision-maker spends 30-45 minutes listening to your exec share real insights, they're forming a genuine connection. This isn't an ad they can just scroll past; it's a deep dive into how you think and solve problems. Of course, all of this needs to fit into a bigger picture, which is why developing a robust content marketing strategy is the foundation for making guesting efforts truly pay off.
The Audience Is Already Tuned In
The B2B podcasting scene is exploding. The data doesn't lie: guest selection can make up 50% of a podcast's ROI, and top-tier guests often see 25-40% conversion rates into their sales funnels within a year. Businesses are pouring money into this channel because it flat-out works.
As our founder, Tom Hunt, often says, "The magic of podcast guesting is that you're not trying to create an audience from scratch. You're borrowing the trust and attention of an audience that a host has spent years building."
This is exactly why a spray-and-pray approach is a total waste of time. The game is about getting on the shows where your ideal customer is already a loyal, engaged subscriber.
Moving Beyond Brand Awareness to Pipeline Growth
When you get strategic, a podcast guesting tour becomes a reliable engine for high-quality content and qualified leads. Every appearance is a chance to:
- Establish Authority: Sharing unique insights on relevant shows, week after week, cements your expert status in the niche. You become the go-to voice.
- Build Relationships: You're not just connecting with the audience. You're building a relationship with the host, who can become a powerful advocate, partner, or friend in the industry.
- Drive Direct Action: A sharp, well-placed call-to-action can send listeners straight to a demo request, a valuable resource, or a consultation. You can learn more about turning listeners into leads from our guide on podcasting as a a growth engine.
But let's be honest—the process of finding the right shows, writing pitches that don't get ignored, and managing all the back-and-forth is a massive time sink.
That’s why we built our Podcast Guest Booking service at Fame. For $2,000/month, we handle the entire workflow, getting our clients booked on two targeted podcasts every single month, providing guest training, and creating video & written assets from the appearances. We turn their expertise into a predictable growth channel.
Build Your Unignorable Guest Profile
Before you even think about sending a single pitch, you need to build the one asset that makes hosts say "yes" without a second thought. This is your guest profile—a strategic package that instantly shows you're worth their audience's time.
A weak, generic profile gets deleted on sight. A strong one opens doors and is the real secret to getting booked on podcasts consistently.
This isn't just about listing your accomplishments. It's about framing your expertise in a way that solves a problem for the host and their listeners. Stop thinking like you're applying for a job and start thinking like a content partner. What unique angle can you bring to the table? What problem can you solve for their audience?
Define Your Core Topics
First, distill your knowledge into 3-5 core topics you can speak on with genuine authority. Don't be broad. Subjects like "marketing" or "sales" are meaningless. You need to be specific, intriguing, and pack a clear promise of value into each one.
Action Step: Brainstorm topics at the intersection of your expertise and your audience's biggest pain points.
- Weak Topic: "B2B Sales"
- Strong Topic: "Scrapping the Demo: How to Use Product-Led Storytelling to Close 6-Figure Deals"
See the difference? The strong topic is specific, it hints at a contrarian viewpoint, and it promises a tangible result. A great way to brainstorm these is to think about the most common questions your customers ask you, or the biggest myths in your industry that you love to debunk. We've gone deep on this in our guide on creating what goes into an unignorable podcast topic.
Assemble Your Guest One-Pager
Next, consolidate everything into a single, easy-to-share document or web page. Think of this "one-pager" or media kit as your professional calling card. It needs to be skimmable and give a host everything they need in a single glance.
Your one-pager absolutely must include:
- A Professional Headshot: Clear, high-resolution, and on-brand. No cropped vacation photos.
- A Compelling Bio: Keep it short—under 100 words. Establish your credibility without just listing your entire resume.
- Your 3-5 Core Topics: List them out with catchy, benefit-driven titles.
- Sample Questions: For each topic, provide a few thought-provoking questions. This makes the host's job a thousand times easier.
- Links: Don't make them search. Include links to your LinkedIn profile, company website, and any previous podcast appearances you're proud of.
This simple document signals that you're a pro who gets how podcasting works and respects the host's time.
A well-crafted guest profile does more than just inform; it sells the interview. It makes the host feel like booking you is a guaranteed win for their show.
Don't Overlook the Technicals
Your world-class expertise means nothing if you sound like you're recording in a tin can. Investing in a decent USB microphone is non-negotiable. You don't need a professional studio setup, but you do need to sound crisp, clear, and professional.
To really drive this home, let's look at what separates a profile that gets ignored from one that consistently gets booked.
Guest Profile Breakdown Weak vs Strong
The difference is night and day. A strong profile removes all friction and makes saying "yes" the easiest decision a host will make all day.
At Fame, we handle all of this for our clients through our Podcast Guest Booking service, ensuring every element is polished and professional. We secure two high-value bookings a month for our clients precisely because we obsess over this foundational work—it's the key to unlocking consistent success.
Find and Vet the Right Podcasts for Your Brand
Anyone can get booked on a podcast. Seriously, it’s not that hard.
Getting booked on the right one, though? That’s what separates the pros from the amateurs. This is where a thoughtful, surgical strategy blows a high-volume, spray-and-pray approach out of the water. Sure, mass-pitching dozens of shows might land you a few appearances, but they won't move the needle if the audience isn't a perfect match.
The real goal here is to find the specific podcasts your ideal customers are already listening to. You want to become a trusted voice in their ears, and that only happens when you show up where they already are. This means you have to stop chasing vanity metrics like download numbers and start focusing on what really matters: audience relevance.
I'll take a smaller, hyper-engaged audience in your niche over a massive, general audience any day of the week.
The takeaway is simple: a well-defined angle and a polished profile are the foundations of any successful guesting campaign. Everything else is built on top of that.
Building Your Targeted Hit List
First, you need a list. Your goal is to curate a targeted hit list of 50-100 perfect-fit shows. This isn’t about finding every podcast in your industry; it’s about finding the best ones for your specific goals.
Here's how to build your list:
Action Step 1: Database Search
Jump into a podcast database like Listen Notes. Start by searching for broad keywords related to your industry ("B2B SaaS," "demand generation"), then get granular with the filters. You’re looking for shows that have published recently, regularly feature guests, and have a consistent release schedule. Export these to a spreadsheet.
Action Step 2: Audience Cloning
Go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Find a show you know is a perfect fit and scroll down to the "Listeners Also Subscribed To" section. This is a goldmine for finding similar podcasts that share an audience profile. Add these to your list.
Vet Like a Pro
Once you have a long list of possibilities, the real work begins. Vetting is the most critical step—it’s how you separate the high-impact opportunities from the time-wasters. It's about looking past the cover art and download stats to truly understand the show, the host, and the audience.
Action Step: Use this vetting checklist for each podcast on your list.
- Audience Relevance: Is the show's content laser-focused on the problems your business solves? Don't just read the descriptions. Listen to at least two full episodes to get a real feel for the topics and the kinds of questions listeners are asking. Is it a direct match? (Yes/No)
- Host Engagement: Is the host just going through the motions, or are they genuinely engaged? Check out their LinkedIn. An active host is far more likely to promote your episode and become a valuable connection. (High/Low Engagement)
- Guest Quality: Who have they had on before? If they've featured your competitors or other respected leaders in your space, that's a massive green flag. It tells you their audience is your audience. (High/Low Quality)
- Audio Quality & Professionalism: Does the podcast sound professional? Poor audio quality reflects poorly on everyone involved. Stick to shows that clearly invest in their production value. (Good/Bad)
This manual vetting process is time-consuming, but it's non-negotiable. With over 4.5 million podcasts out there—and only about 15% actively publishing—hosts are absolutely bombarded with pitches. A well-researched, targeted approach is the only way to cut through the noise.
The mistake most people make is pitching a show based on its topic. The pros vet a show based on its audience. Your goal isn't just to talk about what you know; it's to talk about what you know to people who can buy from you.
At Fame.so, this meticulous vetting is the heart of our Podcast Guest Booking service. We don’t just find podcasts; we find the right audiences. By focusing on brand alignment and audience fit, we make sure the two bookings we secure for clients each month are high-impact opportunities that drive real business results.
If you want to go even deeper on this, check out our guide on the 5 steps to find the most relevant podcasts.
Craft Pitches That Actually Get Opened
So you've got your vetted list of perfect-fit podcasts. Now comes the part that trips up almost everyone: the pitch.
Your outreach email is your first and often only impression. And with hosts getting slammed with requests every single day, you've got about five seconds to prove you're not another time-waster. Send a generic, self-serving email, and you're getting archived. Instantly.
The real secret to getting booked isn't some magic template. It’s genuine, thoughtful outreach that puts the host's audience first, always. You're trying to build a professional relationship here, not just begging for a platform.
Your pitch has one job: to signal immediately that you've done your homework, you respect the audience, and you have something uniquely valuable to say.
Anatomy of a High-Converting Pitch
A pitch that actually gets a reply has three simple parts: a personalized hook, a clear value proposition, and a zero-friction call to action. Get these right, and you'll immediately stand out from the 95% of pitches that are just lazy and self-serving.
Action Step: Draft your pitch using this structure.
1. The Subject Line: Ditch "Podcast Guest Pitch." Write something that proves you’re a real listener.
- Weak Subject Line: Guest for Your Podcast
- Strong Subject Line: Loved your episode with [Previous Guest]
2. The Personalized Hook: Your opening line is make-or-break. Reference a specific moment from a recent episode. This is non-negotiable.
"I listened to episode 112 with [Guest Name] and loved how you challenged the idea of 'growth at all costs.' Your point about sustainable scaling really resonated because..."
That kind of specific reference is a world away from empty flattery like "I'm a big fan of your show!" It shows real engagement and positions you as a peer. Once you've hooked them, you can briefly introduce who you are and why you matter to their audience.
3. The Value Proposition: Don't just list your accomplishments. Propose 2-3 specific, compelling topic ideas that solve problems for their audience.
- Topic Title: "The 3-Step Framework to Double B2B Pipeline in 90 Days."
- Brief Description: One sentence explaining the key takeaway.
- Sample Questions: Give them 2-3 sample questions to make their job incredibly easy.
This shows you're thinking like a content partner. For a deeper dive, we've broken down exactly how to craft a podcast guest pitch that achieves 50% reply rates in our detailed guide.
Managing this whole process—from research and personalization to tracking replies and following up—is a ton of work. It’s a full-time job. It's the exact problem our Fame.so Connect service was built to solve. We handle the entire outreach and booking workflow, securing two high-quality podcast appearances for our clients every single month for $2,000, so they can just show up and share their expertise.
Turn Every Appearance Into a Marketing Asset
Getting booked on a podcast is a huge win, but that's only the halfway point. The real value from any guest appearance isn't what happens during the interview; it's what you do before you hit record and long after the episode goes live.
Treating a guest spot like a one-and-done event is a massive missed opportunity. If you shift your mindset and see each appearance as a content creation session, that single 45-minute chat can fuel your marketing for weeks. This is how you scale your authority and actually turn listeners into leads.
Prepare for a Performance, Not Just a Conversation
A truly great interview never happens by accident. It’s the result of sharp preparation.
Action Step: Complete this pre-interview checklist before every show.
- Research the Host: What are they posting about on LinkedIn right now? What conversations are they in?
- Re-listen to a Recent Episode: Get a fresh feel for the show's format, the host's interview style, and common transitions.
- Outline Your 3-5 Core Talking Points: Frame them as stories, frameworks, or hard-won lessons to make them memorable.
- Define Your Call-to-Action (CTA): What’s the one thing you want listeners to do? Create a specific, relevant landing page or resource just for them.
Squeeze Every Drop of Value from the Content
Once the episode is live, your job has just begun. Now it’s time to amplify its reach and break that content down into a whole library of assets. The podcast industry's global listenership is projected to hit 619 million people by 2026—this isn't just a big audience; it's an engaged one.
The most successful podcast guests understand that the interview is the raw material. The real marketing happens when you slice, dice, and distribute that raw material across all your channels.
Action Step: Create a simple distribution playbook.
- Get the Transcript: Use a service to transcribe your podcast appearances.
- Write a Blog Post: Turn the key ideas from the conversation into a cornerstone blog post for your company site.
- Create Social Assets: Pull out 5-10 killer quotes and turn them into text or image graphics for social media.
- Chop Up Video/Audio: If you have the video, create 3-5 short clips (30-90 seconds) of the best moments for LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube Shorts.
- Share with Your Network: Email the episode link to your team, partners, and newsletter subscribers.
This level of prep and post-show promotion is incredibly time-consuming. It’s a core part of what we do at Fame.so Connect — we don’t just get you booked for $2,000/month, we give you the assets and coaching to make every appearance count.
And for an even wider reach, this content can be seamlessly integrated into a larger strategy managed by our B2B Social Media Agency or B2B Email Newsletter Agency, ensuring your message continuously finds new audiences. You can also dig into our guide on how to turn your podcast interview into powerful content to see exactly how this system works.
Got Questions About Getting on Podcasts? We've Got Answers
Even with the best game plan, a few questions always bubble up when B2B teams start diving into podcast guesting. It’s a real investment of your executive's time and your company's reputation, so wanting to get it right from the start is only natural.
Let's cut through the noise. Here are the most common questions we hear at Fame, along with the straight-up answers from our experience booking execs on hundreds of B2B shows.
How Many Pitches Does It Actually Take to Land One Booking?
This comes down to one thing: your approach.
If you're blasting out generic, copy-paste emails, expect a success rate of maybe 1-2%. That means you'll need to fire off 50-100 pitches just to get a single "yes." It's a brutal numbers game that burns time and bridges.
When you ditch the volume game for a value-driven approach, your success rate climbs dramatically. A well-researched pitch sent to a perfectly vetted show can achieve a 10-20% success rate, sometimes even higher.
This is the entire philosophy we've built Fame on. We focus on quality over quantity, building real relationships with hosts and making sure every pitch is a perfect match for their audience. It's exactly how we can confidently land our clients two high-quality podcast bookings every single month without ever resorting to spammy outreach.
Should I Ever Pay to Be a Guest on a Podcast?
Short answer: Almost never.
The vast majority of reputable, high-impact podcasts don't charge guests to appear. The whole point of podcasting is an authentic exchange of value—your hard-won expertise for the host's audience and platform.
When a show asks you to pay for a spot, it's usually a massive red flag:
- They probably have low engagement. If they had a real, dedicated audience, they wouldn't need to sell guest spots to make money.
- They lack credibility. Top-tier shows attract fantastic guests organically.
- It’s not a real conversation. The interview will likely feel like a thinly veiled advertisement, which can damage your credibility.
That budget is much better spent on a service that gets you organic spots on authentic shows. For example, our partner Lead Cookie, a top-tier LinkedIn lead generation agency, focuses on building genuine relationships, not paying for placement—a principle that applies directly to podcasting.
What Kind of Results Can I Realistically Expect?
The payoff from a smart podcast guesting strategy splits into two camps: brand building and direct response. You need to track both.
The brand-building side is a long game, but the benefits compound over time. You’ll cement your executive as a go-to expert, build a powerful network of influential hosts, and create an incredible library of content.
For direct response, the results are more immediate. We regularly see clients get:
- Spikes in website traffic. You can often see a noticeable bump in visitors on the days their episodes go live.
- More demo requests. A clear, compelling call-to-action during the interview drives listeners to take that next step.
- New sales conversations. It's not uncommon for leads to mention, "I heard your CEO on this podcast," directly attributing the conversation to the sale.
With a consistent strategy targeting the right shows, seeing a tangible, positive impact on your sales pipeline is completely realistic.
How Much Time Does a DIY Campaign Actually Take?
Managing a DIY campaign is a huge time sink, and the workload is almost always heavier than teams expect.
Let's break it down realistically:
- Research & Vetting: Just building a properly vetted list of 50-100 target podcasts can easily eat up 15-20 hours.
- Pitching & Follow-Up: Crafting genuinely personalized pitches and managing the follow-up sequence adds another 20-30 hours per month.
- Coordination & Prep: Then you have to factor in all the back-and-forth scheduling, pre-interview briefings, and tech checks. That's several more hours for every single booking.
All in, you’re easily looking at 40+ hours of work in the first month alone just to land a couple of quality interviews. It's no wonder so many marketing teams and busy execs decide to hand this process off to experts.
At Fame, our Podcast Guest Booking service is built to handle this entire time-intensive workflow. For $2,000/month, we take care of the research, pitching, and scheduling, and provide you with training and marketing assets. We get our clients booked on two high-value podcasts every single month, turning their expertise into a predictable growth channel.
