If you're trying to move copies with your book, unless your book is perfectly tailored to that audience, and as long as that audience is more than 10.000 people, then maybe try to get on podcasts, but it's not going to be in the majority of podcasts.

According to Alex Strathdee it doesn't work if you just try to sell books while getting on podcasts, because the ROI it's just going to be non-existent unless you're perfectly pitching the right podcast with the right audience, which are very few.

We're talking about the top 0.01 percent of shows, and when you're starting out in your career it can be a little difficult to get on. For those of you that have services and other things you work on, besides your book, you can actually use your book to aid you in the podcast.

Building authority

You write your book, not to sell your book, but you sell it, the money you're going to make from sales is not going to change the game, but the authority and the visibility of having a book gets you onto podcasts that you wouldn't be on, and that's why every podcast is interviewing authors because a book elevates you above the crowd and makes you credible.

Your book is that elevation piece, it's that credibility piece and it's a chance for people to get to know you. On some level, it's like an introduction to who you are, a reader picks it up, the right reader is going to know, like, and trust you, they're going to have inspiration, transformation, and then they're in.

But it's important you have clarity about this, you can be interviewed all over the place, you could throw money, and you could just get on in a random podcast, but it's not gonna work if you don't take the time to really figure out where your people are hanging out and get there.

Systematize your marketing

According to Alan Dibb "random acts of marketing won't work", everything has to be systematized, you really need to know why you're doing something, and then do it in the long term, that's what produces results. If you have a service and someone spends a whole hour with you, you hope you presented yourself so well, because now they like and trust you, and they are listening.

Wondering how you can do it? Alex Strathdee highly recommends a platform called Listen Notes to gauge the authenticity of a lot of the shows. It's a search engine for podcasts, with an algorithm that web scrapes and brings together all the podcasting data out there. You can know how many times those shows appear in the news, how many times they are mentioned by people, and how many reviews they have on Apple.

You can see verified top 10 shows, so you know this is probably something that's worth looking into, this gives you a lot of great information and shows what is the listening score, a metric that shows the estimated popularity of the podcast compared to others from a zero to one hundred, and then you can also look at the global rank.

Don't be afraid to reach out to your heroes... but know how to do it

People are accessible, write to them, the best thing in the world is a rejection letter from your hero, post that, and be proud. If their email isn't on a list of notes then you can type their name, and it's worth it because you can be emailing your favorite person ever. That's one way to find emails that aren't on Listen Notes.

Don't pitch a podcast if they don't take guests, it's not gonna work, see if it is an interview-based show, cause it is the right space. Don't send a query to an agent on social media if their last name is literally "not accepting queries", just don't burn air. Also, don't pitch a show that hasn't released an episode in the last 30 days, it means that they are probably not active or they're not serious about their podcast.

How to pitch those shows?

Provide value first. You can leave a review on their show, listen to an episode or four and you'll oftentimes hear something that you can relate to or that you really like, and then leave a review. Mention that review in your email and you're ten times more likely to get a response because you've already provided them value without them even giving you anything.

• Start with a compliment sandwich, butter people up but in a genuine way!
• Pick something specific to say, like "I love how you make all of your guests laugh with your initial joke, I think that's great".
• Get vulnerable in the second sentence. Say something like: "the recent guest you talked about how it's never too late to start really resonated with me". Vulnerable people love vulnerability.
• End it with another quick thing you like about the show, and move on to the next part.
• Pull out the host's goal for the show, this way you're immediately addressing what they care about.
• Tell them about what you've done, and then back it up with a wow statement: "I'm not a newbie to book marketing" or "I had over 4.000 students..."

Hook them with a wow statement

Having that "wow statement" is a first initial hook, you're not always going to get it right on the first try, so you can include some more talking points, but before you get there, be sure to come up with two or three episode ideas, check out the exact formatting for each show.

You need to come up with your title, something catchy, every title format is different and If you come up with some really catchy stuff, like three to four additional talking points and wow statements in different areas, their listeners might be interested, and you're helping them get in their head an idea of what an episode with you might look like.

Talk with personality

People love personality, they love something different, so make one of your talking points something really interesting, because people want to have conversations with people, and then add two to three different previous experiences, there are different categories that you might go after. Your email is better short than repetitive, people don't have time, and you want to cut to the point.

So, How do you systemize it?

Random acts of marketing don´t work, to really get into the hustle of getting on podcasts set aside four to five hours per week, find 50 shows at the beginning of the month with contact information, batching everything makes it a lot easier, and then do all the research on the show and pitch them.

Leave a review, write and send the pitch, and then follow up with everything. You'll double your acceptance rate on these shows if you just follow up, but also know that people are busy so don't get offended when you don't get a response.

Follow up

Whenever you pitch a show, you can wait a considerable time, for example 7 days, and follow up. Go look at what their most recent episode was, showing that you care about them, and just say: "Your recent episode was great, loved how your guests talked about the topic, I still love to have a chat and see if I can provide your listeners with some value", keep it nice and short.

Podcast hosts know other podcast hosts, at the end of the show reach out to them, be specific and ask if they know two other shows that might be interested in having you. Leave a review, that'll always show you are interested in their work, and it will open an opportunity for you.

If you want to know more, get access to Alex Strathdee free course:https://www.advancedamazonads.com/gifts

Red Thread Publishing is on a mission to support 10K women to become successful authors & thought-leaders. Check us out www.redthreadbooks.com.