Podcast guesting is a content marketing tactic that involves targeting, reaching out and getting booked on podcasts that are relevant to your niche.
Podcasting is bigger than ever, but still massively underrated in the marketing community – and almost ignored in the SEO community in terms of being an SEO tactic.
But when you combine the link building benefits with all the other other benefits that podcasting guesting provides, you can see why our agency believes that this is one of the highest ROI marketing tactics of all time.
Before we get to link building and backlinks, what are some of the benefits of a podcast guesting campaign?
Exposure to a New Audience
What better way to grow your business than to increase your exposure, connecting specifically to your niche market to reach new customers?
It’s efficient and effective marketing, especially when you get instant access to someone else’s trusted audience.
Let’s face it, guest blogging is the currently the most popular way for most companies and agencies to generate decent quality backlinks at scale.
But guest blogging is an old and tired way of generating links (but it does still work).
Quality guest blogging takes a lot of work and no matter how well you can execute, it’s still perceived as being spammy.
The best outcome of a guest blog post is a single backlink shoe-horned into a 3rd party website – and your audience exposure is minimal, even if you manage to get an author bio place at the end of your guest post.
Podcasts are engaging in a different way.
Because they are audio, there is a more personal and direct connection with the listeners.
You can reveal your personality more and establish a relationship with potential customers because of the perceived intimacy.
And when you are booked as a guest on an established show, you get more than just an anchor link on a web page, the entire podcast episode is about you!
In addition, the production value of this form of content is higher than a guest post, and the host does all the production work!
Improve Credibility as an Expert
If you don’t know by now, let me tell you, the key to being successful in modern marketing is through personal branding and authority building.
Podcast guesting is the fastest, most cost-effective way to build your personal brand and authority, because you are being booked as a guest expert!
I’ve been on over 70 podcasts in the last year, all of them worthwhile and many that are super influential in my niche, like Chris Ducker’s Youprenuer Podcast:
When a podcast host interviews you as “the” authority on your subject matter, that implicit endorsement goes far to promote the notion that you are indeed the go-to expert.
This increases trust and confidence with your prospective ideal customers.
Over a series of guest podcasts, you can really demonstrate the depth of your knowledge base, which is a value-add for your own audience.
You also build your own influencer status by identifying yourself as a helpful resource to your industry peers and your audience.
Ability to get Exposure on Social Media Networks
Simply by the nature of podcasts and the way they are produced, you will get the unbelievable benefit of leveraging the hosts’ social and content distribution network.
Podcast episodes are routinely distributed on the hosts’:
- Podcast networks like iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM and many more
- Social media channels
- Email distribution
- Website(s)
The audio format is highly shareable, and you can educate your followers while sharing your story and building your brand.
You elevate your own worth when you can consistently provide followers with content of value.
Lead Generation from Listeners
The extended reach to your niche market is most certainly an opportunity to generate new leads, but avoid actually “selling” during your guest podcast.
Rather, use that opportunity to solidify your status as an expert.
You are sharing your story, insights, and point of view.
The exposure and demonstration of your knowledge bank will drive the leads back to you.
We’ve generated over $200k in new business (annualized) for podcast guesting, and this tactic is now our #3 source of leads after organic SEO and referrals.
– Phil Singleton
Creating More Content to Share
The content that you create from guest podcasting is usually dense with facts and is a useful resource for your audience.
You can easily convert that content into other forms for use on your site.
We have even transcribed audio files from shows I’ve been on, turned them into guest posts on this site, and they’ve gained top rankings like this one has for “podcasting SEO benefits“.
That is pretty amazing – the transcript from someone else’s show ranks #1 organically for relevant terms on my website.
Great SEO Links With Show Notes
OK, so this is what you came for…
People and companies with podcasts are already advanced content marketers.
If fact, if you are a company that doesn’t have a podcast, you’re starting to get a little bit behind the marketing game.
Podcasters are authorities by definition, they have better content, and they typically rank better and have more SEO equity than similar sites without a podcast.
Most shows I have been on have a minimum Moz Domain Authority of 20, and usually higher.
The great thing about being a guest on an established podcast is that standard practice to to have a “show notes” page, like this one I did for my Larry Kim interview on my own podcast:
You will see on this page, I transcribed the post and made a long-form blog post (~5,800 word) and provided links to Larry’s website and social media accounts.
So if you get organic backlinks generated from your host’s show notes pages, you are benefiting on both counts.
The show notes posts are also the most common way to launch an episode, so that listener click back to the episode page.
Herein is why podcast guesting backlinks are so valuable:
- organic link from established website to your site
- multiple links
- links to your social media sites
- link from site with higher average Domain Authority
- episode show note pages have higher dwell time rates
- epidsode show notes page are often long-form
- highest degree of content relevance for your niche
- high social distribution
- higher engagement rates
- secondary links through show-note syndication on podcast hosting and podcast networks
The value is real.
Take this into consideration: many link building companies charge a lot just for a backlink.
Over the years, I have researched dozens of link building companies. The following represents a common retail pricing structure for real (non-PBN) style link building:
- DA 20 – 30 = $100 – $200
- DA 31 – 50 = $200 – $400
- DA 51 – 60 = $400 – $600
- DA 61 – 70 = $600+
- DA 71 – 80 = $800+
- DA 81 – 90 = $1,000+
- Premium Tier = $1,500-$5,000
Check out this show notes page from my interview on Active Campaign’s Podcast:
If you want a high ROI SEO tactic, it’s a smart move to be proactive in identifying opportunities to guest podcast, both for your self and for your clients.
Search iTunes and Google using keywords; tap into social media networks like LinkedIn and Facebook for industry-specific opportunities.
The more you know about the show that you hope to be featured on (i.e., the style, the topics, the audience, etc.), the better .
Not only will you have a better chance of getting booked, but also you can fully leverage the exposure opportunity that it generates.
How to Start a Podcast Guesting Campaign
Podcast guesting is definitely something you can try DIY through direct outreach.
But like anything good in marketing, it’s not a magic bullet and is more of a long game.
You need to be on dozens of shows over the period of months for the value to build and start paying off.
We found that this tactic worked so well for our own business, that we created a new business called Podcast Bookers as a podcast booking service.
If you’re looking for an SEO or marketing edge this year, try podcast guesting – it’s been the single best marketing investment my agency has made in years.
