Podcast Interviews for Authors Doing Book Marketing

Podcasts can be a great way to get exposure for your book, build your brand, grow an author email newsletter list and create that feeling of being everywhere. It can also generate links to build your website authority, uncover cool opportunities, and sell a few books too. But many authors are doing podcasts and not getting results. If you want to use podcasts as part of your book marketing plan and you want to get results, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad founder of a fabulous self publishing services firm called Book Launchers. At Book Launchers, we help with the concept development, author branding, writing, editing, design, publishing and promotion of your book. And as my marketing team will tell you, it is a team sport to create success in book marketing. We can tee up all kinds of wins for you. One of our clients had 21 interviews in a single month for his book launch. So we can get you places to talk about and showcase your book. But especially when it comes to podcast interviews, you need to be ready to promote your book, build your audience, grow your network, and just overall make the most of every opportunity that comes to you to help you. Here are my 7 best tips on making the most of a podcast interview. Number one don't expect podcast interviews to lead to book sales, at least not directly or immediately. Podcast interviews can be a a lot of fun to do and there are incredible benefits as mentioned already, like audience building, brand building, link building, and practicing your message to see what resonates. But you do need to go into podcast interviews really set on delivering massive value to that audience and making it a great interview. Seed your book in the conversation if it makes sense. Most interviewers will be sure to do that, so you don't need to do it and then just have a valuable conversation. If you do dozens and dozens of podcast interviews and you're always giving your best content, you're more than likely to uncover a few that have people who are going to buy your books, people that will ask to do business with you, and people that will invite you to speak or connect with you for some other purpose. I know people who have sold a business from podcast interviews. They've gained five figure consulting gigs, they've gotten bulk orders to sell hundreds of their book and more podcast interviews. Rarely will you find a podcast that sells a ton of books to individual listeners, but also you're just never going to know until you do it. You don't know what interview leads to a book sale either, but everything has a cumulative effect. When I find a podcast I like, I go back and I find episodes that are of interest to me. If you do one podcast interview and that's it, you're unlikely to see much result. But that one podcast interview could still be valuable if you do the next two things. 2. Rock your podcast moment Whether it's a big podcast or a new one, there are some big name podcasts, but some of them will actually charge to put a guest on and others have so much demand it's really, really tough to get a spot if you're not a celebrity of some kind. So naturally you're likely to be on podcasts that have a less famous name of a host. But that doesn't mean that they aren't worth your time. In fact, I've been on more than 150 podcasts over the last five years. Some were fairly high ranking with large audiences, and yet it's been mostly the smaller ones that have yielded the biggest results for me. One podcast interview led to a partnership that has brought us a handful of wonderful clients to book launchers, and that would be a podcast that very few people probably know about. Another podcast interview led to a speaking opportunity which did sell books and it brought in a client. A handful of podcast interviewers have also bought my book and become authors with book launchers. But here's the thing. Often the biggest results have come from the smaller podcasts that have a small but really loyal and dedicated audience. You never truly know the engagement of the audience and you never know who is going to be listening today or in a year. So caution on judging the podcast. Take the moment in the spotlight and shine. Number three. Make it your goal to make it the best interview yet. Some people show up really focused on selling their book and they just talk about their book endlessly. You need to learn to seed your book in an intriguing way and where appropriate, but for the most part, just focus on delivering massive value to the audience and make the podcast host look good. A question Christine McAllister shared with our clients in a client only training session was to ask the podcast host, how can I make this the best podcast interview you've had to date? And you can also ask the podcast host if they're promoting anything or or if anything is important for them right now that they would like to bring in the conversation because you can help them do that. Those things can go a long way to creating a team effort in your interview to make each other shine. Now seeding your book. Mention that it might look something like this. The host asks the question, what kind of help should an author expect to hire to make their book look professional. My answer might be, well, the most obvious is an editor and a cover designer. But there's a lot to this. I even have an entire chapter in my book, Self Publish and Succeed on the problem with Book Editors and how to avoid it. The best tip I can share right now is blank, and I'll fill in the blank on that tip. So I've seeded my book, but I'm giving massive value in the moment as well. Number four Grow your audience. From that interview, your closing call to action should be to send them to a download, not a bunch of miscellaneous social links websites. You can buy my book at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Kindle, all the places. Your call to action should be to go to website, forward slash word and that's your download. Like book launchers 7 Steps to Download the 7 Steps to Write and Publish a Book that will Sell. So instead of sending them to all the places, when somebody says where can people connect with you and buy your book? You'd say go to booklaunchers.com seven steps and you can download the seven steps to write and Publish a Book that will sell. And when you do that, you'll also get my email. You can connect with me from that email. Just hit reply. That'll work. So you're driving them to get your freebie. Join your email list and now you can build a relationship with them and invite them to buy your book afterwards. Number five at the end of the podcast when you're all done and you have crushed it and the podcaster really did think it was one of their best interviews, they're likely to say hey, how can I help you? This is your opportunity to say hey, if you know another podcaster where I'd be a good fit to be on their podcast, I'd love it if you connected us. One podcast can lead to many when you do that. Number six Send a thank you or a follow up email after by mail is ideal, but even by email and this will help you leverage one appearance into opportunities, new relationships and potentially new business. Podcasters are talking to people every day and you never know when someone might be the perfect referral for you. You can also get invited back again and again and become a regular. So keep in touch and say thank you. Number 7 share your episode far and wide afterwards, posting on your website, your social media and more. Some hosts make this easier than others to do, but either way this is an opportunity to build credibility and reciprocate to the hosts. Lookit, podcasts is a great way to build your network from home. Grow your email newsletter list, open the door to opportunities, get clients for your business, and ultimately grow your overall brand. It won't lead to a ton of sales at first, but but if you take these steps over time, it will lead to results. Many podcasts can have a big impact on your business, brand and overall book momentum. Wanna land more podcast interviews? Well, this video right here will help you make that happen. Do you wanna pitch yourself for traditional media? Then this video right here is what you need to see. Both videos are awesome, and before you click on one, hit that like button and comment below to say hi. I'd love to know where you're viewing from and what podcast you wanna be on next. Then head over to the next video I'm waiting.