Pro Podcast Confirmation Pages That Delights Your Guest And Amps Up Influence

Want your podcast and videocast to be seen, heard, found and rewarded in this noisy digital world, you are not alone. Join the nonprofit community at Podcasters United and podcast industry experts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard as they debunk all that outdated and bad advice you've been getting from the podcast gurus and find out what actually works. Today, get ready to finish Feed your brand with smart cut tactics proven to cast your original voice to the world.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Feed you'd brand. I'm Tom Hazard with my better half, Tracy Hazard, and today we want to talk about some tactics and best practices you might consider for how to get the most out of every podcast interview, especially with every guest. Right?

And so these are some advanced tactics. These are pro tactics. These are not stuff. If you're starting out, you don't maybe need to encumber yourself with all of this. This is for when you get things dialed in and you want to start to streamline them and you want to turn them into something that really generates a guest rapport. Right. You really delight your guest in this process and it also can really impress the heck out of all the people that are coming through and booking. So, like, if you're, especially if you're working with publicity agents who are booking guests for you, this stuff's impressive and it will really help them promote your show. So there's a two folded way that we're looking at. There's two sides of it. We're looking at it from sort of the guest education standpoint. So we're going to educate them in the process and we're also going to show them what we do in the process or what we're going to do with them. So we're really getting them hyped up and excited and this can really help you grow your show through that. You know, we're doing a lot by getting the guests on the show. We want to make the most of.

It right now, I'm sure most of you that interview guests have done something to in some ways automate the process of guest booking. You have a booking calendar link for them. We always recommend to our customers that they have a form that the guest has to fill out and collect certain pieces of information so you don't have to chase down the guest for it later. They can't even book on our calendar until they provide their headshot, their bio, their social accounts, their email, all sorts of information. And that's the best practice. I think a lot of podcasters know and take advantage of this is something more and Comes after that.

When someone's done booking on my calendar. I have my calendar and I'm using Calendly. I have my calendar set to auto forward to an external page. For those of you who are using a free calendar, this doesn't work. Or a free version of any kind of calendar software. Usually it's a paid version. I still think it only costs like 16 bucks a month or something on Calendly to have this version that does this. But it, it's basically an external forwarding URL. And so it forwards to a specific page on my website that is not navigable. People can't get there otherwise. Or only the people who book on this calendar can go to that page. So that's exactly what it's for. And I call it my confirmation page. So, you know, when you book with someone, if you do it in Calendly right now or you do it in any calendar program, usually it'll say you're booked or this page is booked, and it's usually branded for the calendar program. This moves out of that. And so what happens is on the top of my page, it says your interview on the Binge factor is booked. Like it's giving them that confirmation at the top of the page. But it immediately folds down into other things that we want to provide them. And so there are three sets of things that I want to, I want to accomplish on my particular page. So we're going to share the page with you. We'll type it in and we'll, we'll show it to you visually here. So if you're listening, you're one going to want to go check it out. The pages, the bingefactor.com forward/confirmation, just so that you can get to it right away. And we'll add in a moment, we'll add it over to the comments on Facebook. And So anyway, the bingefactor.com forward/confirmation is the page that we're going to. So the three sections on the page is, of course, I'm confirming everybody right at the top, right. Then I'm getting them into what I call the next steps. What do I expect of them next? What do I want from them? What do they need to do to prepare for me? Because my show is somewhat programmatic, it has a process that it follows. I have a five questions that are engaged in it. Instead of telling them that, I give them a sample episode that I want them to go check out and that they should listen to the show to understand the format. Obviously, I'm trying to get them to do some best practices. Because my podcast is focused on podcasters, so I want them to do a better job of being podcast guests. So I'm training them in this process, right, by getting them to listen to the show. So that's the first thing that I do. So here I shared a great show with Kim Seltzer that I really enjoy. I think most people will like it because a lot of my people who become guests are coaches and she's got a great podcast that is for coaches or that is modeled on the coaching model. So anyway, so that's what I've got here as my step. Step one, Step two is basically follow me and friend me everywhere. We want to encourage that early and that way we, you know, I send them out in the follow up emails, but sometimes the emails are going to the publicity partner or the PR agent, whoever is inputting it. It's not necessarily the person who's doing this, but they realize, oh, this is important and they'll usually send this information out. And so they'll usually make sure that, that either the social media team, if I've got a really high value guest, the social media team knows about these links, or that the person who I'm going to be interviewing gets them as well. And so this encourages that friend and follow thing that we want to do, but it does it earlier, which allows me to maybe do some pre excitement posts or tag them saying can't wait to have you on the next show, things like that. So it allows me to do that if they friend us sooner. So that's why I've got those there. And then step three is that it just tells a little bit about the fact that I'm giving them an open invitation to come check it out. I'm actually inviting them in to our group here on kind of like a freebie to let them check it out. And so I've given them an opportunity to join our Facebook group by clicking in and being able to come into the group here. And they really can't get that anywhere else. I don't do that in, I don't do that in the emails. I don't do it anywhere else. It's kind of the only thing that I know that they've used the confirmation page if they asked to come into our group.

So that way you really know that they paid attention, don't you?

Exactly. And then I know that I might have the right kind of person. Right. I'm talking to an active guest or I'm talking to an active team. Right. The team that's working with them. So that's section one. Section one is kind of informing them and educating them. And then now what do I get from an interview on the Binge factor? That's my next section. So, like, what am I getting? What are they getting by being on my show? Because I'm giving them a lot of value, and I want to outline that value for them. I'm showing them how high a value that is. And so I've got all of these different things that they're getting from me. You know, of course they're getting the podcast. Of course they're getting, you know, they're getting featured on all of these different places, like Apple Podcasts and iHeartRadio and Spotify, places where they might not have been featured before. You know, most podcasters know this, but it's still not. It's still not a bad idea to share this with them. I'm getting them that they get full graphics package that they can market the show. I talk about them featuring, being featured in articles because that's one of the things of. One of the benefits that you get from being a part of my show as well is that there are subsequent articles. BuzzFeed is another part of that. So I'm giving them all these pieces and I've outlined it, and there are seven things that they're getting in value. So I've really said, you know, this is a really valuable hour you're spending. And that's. I've set the tone for that from this section here. And for most people, sometimes they didn't realize, I thought, it's just a podcast interview. I'm just going on and being on air. And maybe some podcast listeners will pick it up. They don't realize they're going to be on YouTube, don't realize they're going to be in an article. They don't realize the blogs that are kind of come up, the graphics that are going to be able to use, the social posts that are going to happen, which is my next section on this whole thing. And that's the third thing that I do with this confirmation page, which is I'm sharing them all the types of examples of the types of promotions that they will receive. And I say this and more because there's always. And more because we never know. We're always switching it up and changing up the kind of posts that we do here. Like, I think I haven't updated this in a while. I don't have what we do on TikTok. I don't have what we do and what we really do right now. And Instagram's a little bit different than what you see here because that's just an audiogram example. So. But it's giving people an idea of the kind of post that they'll expect. And the quality of the graphical standard of them is really important here too. So I'm sharing with them how high quality our branding and graphics are. So that's also another reason that we're impressing them in the process of what we do. And now for my purposes here, if someone's coming through my guesting funnel, and not through a publicist, putting them into it, but truly someone who I wanted, who we want to become a client. And we're wooing them in this process, right? So we're getting them through this. This is the first touch point that I usually get from someone that says, because all of my guests are podcasters, the first thing they said is, who did your confirmation page? This is beautiful. And my answer is, oh, well, if you were a web maintenance client of my company, Potatoes, you could have this page added within a few days. And, you know, so like, it's a, it's an easy ad for you. This is something you could do for just your monthly maintenance fee. But if you're also a client, this is something you could request in the process of, of having added to it. So these are added things. They're not, they're not, you know, they're not a standard part of our programs here, but they are added things that are easy to add and low cost to add, but with high return on investment of that because you get this high value back. So they ask that and they're like, that's amazing.

So this is one touch point coming to the confirmation page and a chance for them to come back and say, that's so professional. I want that. The next touch point is when we start sending the stuff out to them and their pictures on there, right? They were expecting it, but they really, like there's something special about that. It makes them feel more official. And then they really love it when it starts coming out. And then they are more sure because when they see it and they recognize it on social media, they comment more, they engage more. So what I found is by prepping them with these things, there's an engagement in the process. So that's going on. And so for our purposes, because again, ours is a guesting funnel, right, that we're really showing them what we do in our process all along the way at this high level advanced pro tactics model. And that in and of itself creates a really high close rate for, for us. And so it's really worth the value of the time and the effort that we put through on this. And all this stuff is pre done and predetermined, templated. Like it's, there's no work on my part to do any of this anymore. Like, it's already set up. And in the process, this is just the example of what's going to happen to them. They're just going to flow through our normal process at any given time.

Now, depending on your purpose for podcasting in your business, obviously if you're not trying to put your guests into a funnel to lead, generate from them, then maybe some of what we're talking about and showing today is not going to be for you. But if in any way your guests, either some of the time or a lot of the time, are actually people that potentially are going to be your customers or your clients, then, you know, doing something like this can really help you. And obviously since in the binge factor Tracy's interviewing, you know, successful podcasters, then they see everything we do for our podcast and they're like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Can you do that for me?

I mean, and it also, it's a little bit of like I'm one upping them too, right? Because mine's better than theirs. And they're like, oh, I, I need an expert to help me, even though I think I'm an expert. Right. So that's where really demonstrating that we value in that process. So these are some things that you can do. Look, if you're, if your business is in social media, really amp up your confirmation page to really show how wonderful you are at the social media. Give them examples, show them how great it's going to be when they're on your show. If you're an expert in LinkedIn, make sure you're highlighting the LinkedIn things that you're doing for them. You know, give them some expectations about the things that you really are doing. That is you showing them and bringing them through, experiencing with you, your process. That's where we really get to be pros and not just pro podcasters, but pros with what we're doing with our podcast.

So really that's what we wanted to talk about.

Yeah, it was just the idea of adding confirmation page one, upping next leveling what you're working on and what you're doing and really taking these pro podcast confirmation pages, really making them into something that delights the guests, that impresses. How wonderful you are in what you can do.

You know, it's interesting, Tracy, I have been, you know, communicating with an awful lot of podcasters about booking guests on their shows. All right? It's something that we're actually doing now as a company, and I'm really surprised how many podcasts that are established, not rookie podcasts established, have at least 50 to 100 episodes, don't even have a booking calendar link that they're using.

I'm so glad you're saying that, Tom, because I interview podcasters who are supposed to be experts at this, who are supposed to be really successful, and I have some who don't have calendars in it and will come back to me and be like, how'd you create your calendar? And be like, you have 100 episodes. You should have one by now. Why don't you? You're making more work for yourself by not setting the system up and just making it simple. You don't this confirmation page, day one. But, you know, maybe after 25 episodes, you go, oh, it's time to add. I have enough posts. I have enough examples. I'm ready to add this or 50 episodes, whatever that might be. You know, there's a way to get this whole process to be working to your favor and utilizing the great things that you've done in the past, showing them to people to make yourself so likely to be the choice to have great guests on. Right. The show of choice.

And, you know, I'm always one that is more in favor of taking control of a situation, taking control of your fate and making things happen, not just hoping or waiting for things to happen. What do I always say, Tracy?

Hope is not a plan.

Hope is not a plan. Hope is not a strategy. So I've seen too many problems, especially in the last year. I don't know what it is about email programs and email communication these days, but one month, people will be getting my emails or I'll be getting their emails, and the next month, something's missed, and I don't see it for a week because it's gone into junk. Or they didn't get my email and didn't have awareness that, you know, I responded to them saying, oh, we could schedule it this day or that day. Which would you like? And I responded with, which one? And then it's crickets after that. So I think while email is obviously still a critical means of communication, we all use it and we all need to. Not everybody is as hyper diligent about checking that junk or spam folder every day like we probably need to be doing. So having this kind of booking calendar link eliminates a lot of miscommunication and people start second guessing and making assumptions. Oh, maybe they don't really want to be on the show like I thought they did, or maybe it's not very important to them because they haven't taken action yet. Well, you know what, the booking calendar link really cuts out a lot of those problems.

So with calendly, we have an Outlook calendly. I think it's called a plugin, but it's like a little.

Oh, it's what they call it. It's an integration into our Microsoft Outlook email program. I forget what an add in. Maybe they call it an add in.

Yeah, an add in. And so you can have a calendly one. And so I actually can go to the Binge Factor calendar and give them a couple of proposed times if they happen to be this kind of person who just isn't really someone who's going to go to a page and do it. They do have to eventually fill out the form and they are going to a page because they're clicking the link for the time slot they want. Right. On my calendar in the email.

Right.

And so like, it does make it easier. The problem is if they click a time that's already taken by somebody else, like, you know, it spits them out into the normal calendar program and sometimes they get unhappy about that, but there's nothing we can do. They didn't respond fast enough to get the time slots I proposed to them. But these are some things so you can use that add in that integration and make that even if you still prefer that sort of more personal thing.

So we have, and we'll put it in the blog post for this episode, but for any of our customers, we do have for you and do provide for you a boilerplate form for your booking calendar of recommended things you collect for from a guest when they book. And so that's something, you know, is a resource you can have and check out for making your own. You know, it's really not rocket science, but you know, just the things that you're going to want to know about the guest, the information you want to have, and you don't want to have to chase them down for it later, which is inevitably what happens if you just book somebody through a custom email. Okay, yeah, let's meet at this date and that time. And here's my link for our meeting. And then you know, oh, by the way, please send me your headshot and bio and contact info and all your social media, you know, handles. And usually that's such a laundry list of things. They start going blind on it, like, all right, I'll get to that later. And they don't do it right. But if they're forced to do it in order to book the appointment, they're more motivated. And always when they're more excited about being a guest, when they're booking, it is a good time to get them to provide that information instead of having it be just an afterthought.

And I can't tell you how many times I've been reached out to a publicist about the pages that I've created here, this confirmation page in particular. There's some others that support things along the way, but this is the one we're highlighting today. And they reach out and they said, I've shared this with my client and I can't wait to bring you more guests. So it actually engenders this kind of this, like, oh, I'm dealing with a pro here. It's not going to be difficult for me and I'm going to look good. So when you're dealing with an estate assistant or a publicist or someone in the middle there, they get to be like, oh, this is a show. It's easy for me. I can make this work. I'm going to be successful putting clients here or putting my boss here. Right. And so those things are what makes it pro.

All right, well, that's great, Tracy. Thank you for sharing that confirmation page. It's definitely very professional and it does the job, doesn't it? It really works, right?

Yep.

All right, so go to school on that. Those of you listening to the podcast and haven't been able to see what we shared, go to the blog post at. This one is on feed your brand. Right. So that's ponotize.com where you can watch the video of this or just see some screenshots of that page and learn what that confirmation page is really all about.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks, everyone, for listening. This is Tracy and Tom on Feed.

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