3 Steps to Get Clients & Grow Your Audience
Every business—even established businesses that are doing well—must constantly reach new, larger audiences in order to grow.
But getting in front of the necessary volume of people can be a daunting task.
And between delivering value, managing the business, and working to get in front of more prospects, it can feel like you’re stretched too thin and have little time to focus on getting more clients.
Not to mention, sometimes the time you do spend on trying to reach new prospects doesn’t yield the results you want.
So what’s missing?
Over the years I’ve spent helping dozens of entrepreneurs grow their client base via podcasting, I’ve seen that most of the time, what’s hindering their business growth is that they don’t have a repeatable system in place that reliably gets them in front of the right people.
In other words, you need to have something set up to consistently get your message out to larger audiences of qualified prospects.
I’m talking about a system that will work around the clock, month after month for years to come, to help prospects discover you, hear your message, and reach out to work with you—without you spending all your time calling, emailing, and shuffling to organize the next window of opportunity.
And in this article, I’m going to break down exactly how to set that up.
THE FAST-ACTING FORMULA
One of the fastest, easiest, and most underutilized methods for gaining fantastic exposure to massive new audiences is being interviewed on someone else’s podcast.
Why?
Because getting podcast interviews puts you front and center for a brand new group of prospects.
What’s more, once published, that content is online, promoted, ranked in Google searches, discoverable in iTunes and other platforms, searchable, and listened to for years to come.
If you’ve never booked yourself on other shows before, your goal in getting podcast interviews should be to share your expertise and message with a targeted group of folks who will recognize its importance, connect, and take action.
And if you have done interviews on other podcasts before, I’m going to share how you can get 3-10x the leads from a similar interview to a same-size audience using what I call The 3-Step Fast Exposure Formula.
You can start implementing it today to reach new prospects, use your expertise to connect with them, and generate hot leads right away and for months to come.
Here’s how it works:
STEP 1: FIND HOT PODCASTS
First, you’ll need to find five podcasts that do interviews and have a big audience full of your target prospects.
To do that, start by opening up Spotify and selecting “Podcasts” from the home menu.
Then, on the right-hand side under categories, select a category that most closely applies to your target audience.
The screen will update to display the top podcasts in that category.
From there, you’ll want to review the top shows that look promising to determine:
Whether the audience is predominantly your prospects.
Whether the show does interviews.
Another option is to use the search function to find more targeted podcasts.
Search for the kinds of terms your ideal audience would be interested in and follow the same process as above to narrow down shows.
Keep in mind that you want to find five solid candidates if possible.
Then move on to the next step.
STEP 2: MAKE THE CONNECTION
Now that you’ve identified five podcasts that would be a good fit, it’s time to contact the hosts and offer yourself as a valuable guest.
Of course, you don’t want this to be a salesy pitch.
It should be a straightforward, “what’s in it for them” offer to share your expertise and experience with their audience.
If you’re not sure how to do this, here’s a script you can use when you reach out:
Hey [Insert Name],
Just got done listening to your latest podcast episode, and the part about [Insert Specific Example] really connected with me. I decided to finally reach out.
That said, I specialize in helping [your target market] achieve [specific result] and would love to share the insights and specific strategies I’ve developed with your podcast audience if you’re interested in having me as a guest.
Do you think that [getting X result through your area of expertise] might be a worthwhile topic for your listeners?
If you’re interested, shoot me a reply and we can figure out the timing.
Just try to make it as personalized and specific as possible.
Then, figure out how to contact these hosts.
There are three main choices (in order of my personal preference) for reaching them:
Email
LinkedIn Message
Facebook Message
To start, you’ll want to visit their websites and check out their contact pages to see if their email addresses are openly offered.
If so, you’re all set! Send them an email.
If not, your next step is to try finding them on LinkedIn.
Messaging people on this platform sometimes requires a premium account, but you can sign up for a free trial and cancel later if you wish.
If neither of those options work, try finding the hosts’ personal Facebook pages and sending direct messages through there.
(Bonus Option: If none of the above works out, try sending a quick message on another social media platform.)
Then wait and see what they say!
STEP 3: DRIVING ENGAGEMENT
Once you have a podcast interview (or two or three) scheduled, your job is to bring the rain to your audience.
You want to give as much helpful advice and share as many insights and as much knowledge as you can throughout the interview.
Your goal should be to use your expertise to offer real value to listeners.
Then, as you near the end, it’s time to make the most of the interview and maximize audience engagement.
How?
Usually, an interviewer will close with something like, “Tell us where our listeners can find more about you,” or “What’s next for you?” or some other form of wrap-up.
That is where you want to directly mention one of your existing opt-in offers on your website.
You should frame it as a way of giving folks more helpful information for free.
To do that, you can say something like this:
“Thanks, [HOST’S NAME], for having me on and giving me the incredible opportunity to share so much with your audience.
I’m excited about what we were able to share in this interview, and if folks want to learn more about [THE RESULT YOU HELP THEM ACHIEVE], I have a completely free resource on my website that’ll help them take that next step.
Otherwise, they can find me on my website at [YOUR WEBSITE DOMAIN].”
Please note that this is not meant to be a salesy move; you should offer something of value as an opportunity for the audience.
Whether it’s a PDF guide you’ve created, a checklist to help with a process, or anything in between, the key is to make it something this audience, in particular, will find useful.
This simple step of offering value to the podcast’s audience instead of making it all about you will convert 3-10x better than your average interview.
Then the leads you see as a result are yours to move through your sales funnel.
KEEP IT GOING
Once you’ve had a chance to speak to various audiences and get them interested in what you have to offer, your next goal is to keep your new leads engaged with your podcast until they’re ready to buy.
And if you have more tips for getting podcast interviews, leave them in the comments below!