Crafting a Killer Podcast Guesting Sales Funnel | Sara Lohse

Do you ever question whether podcast guesting can yield the results you seek? Can it lead to book, course, or program sales? Can it drive traffic to my website/brand? The answer to these questions is a resounding YES. You can yield incredible results and drive sales/traffic through podcast guesting. In this episode, Sara Lohse shares how you can create a high-converting sales funnel and call to action as a podcast guest. Get ready to start earning the results you seek from your podcast guesting efforts!

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Takeaways

Know your topic and the common questions related to it when appearing as a podcast guest.
Create a lead magnet to answer those questions and generate leads.
Fill the sales funnel by moving potential customers through the stages of awareness, interest, consideration, conversion, and advocacy.
Use a clear call to action and set up landing pages to capture leads effectively.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Goal of Podcast Guest
00:43 Step 1: Know Your Topic
01:39 Step 2: Identify Common Questions
02:34 Step 3: Answer Questions with a Lead Magnet
03:02 Types of Lead Magnets
05:20 Step 4: Create the Lead Magnet
05:49 Step 5: Fill the Sales Funnel
06:19 Awareness Stage
07:17 Interest Stage
07:46 Consideration Stage
08:44 Conversion Stage
12:35 Advocacy Stage
13:03 Call to Action
14:27 Setting Up Landing Pages
15:48 Conclusion

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Transcript

0:02

You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. I'm your host, Alex Sanfilippo. For this episode's guide and resources, please visit podprose.com slash 272. And now let's get to the episode. We all have a goal as a podcast guest. And for a lot of us, it's to grow our business. So how can we take a podcast guest's appearance and turn that into a sale? I'm here to walk you through my five steps for creating a killer lead generation funnel. As I go through this, I'm going to use a case study. That's going to be one of my lead generation funnels. And I'll explain the ins and outs of how I created it and give you a chance to see all the steps that I lay out to you in action. So the first step to creating a killer lead generation funnel is to really know your topic. What is it that you're going to be talking about when you go on a podcast? Now you can have more than one topic, but you'll wanna go through this process for each one. So when I go on a podcast, a lot of the times I'm talking about how to be a great podcast guest, or what I'm talking about right now, which is how to turn podcast listeners into warm leads. So my topic is set. Think about all of the topics that you talk about on podcasts. And that brings us to step two. What's a common question that you get when you talk about your topic? If my topic is lead generation through podcasts, there's a lot of questions that people might have. They might ask me, how does it work? What does it mean? The question I get most often is how do you create a lead magnet? Take the time to write out all of the topics that you talk about. and then list out some of those common questions that you might get for each topic. This is going to help you create a lead magnet. So the third step is how are you able to answer those questions using a lead magnet? First, let's talk about what a lead magnet is. Simply put, a lead magnet is anything you use to generate leads, and a lead is a person, group, or organization that may potentially make a purchase from you. Often when I talk about lead magnets, I talk about them in the context of growing a subscriber list. By getting someone onto your subscriber or email list, they're giving you permission to follow up with them. So lead magnets are generally free content and you give them away in exchange for that person opening up a window to conversation. It's the beginning of a relationship that you start cultivating and hopefully grow into a lifelong customer. So when we're creating a lead magnet, we wanna think about those questions that people would ask us about our topic. And how are we able to create an enticing piece of content that will answer those questions? So I mentioned that my topic was lead generation, and the question that I most often get is how to create a lead magnet. So I created an ebook with 50 ideas for lead magnets. Ebooks are probably my favorite type of lead magnet. They let you really dive deep into your topic and give a lot of context and information that you just can't give on a podcast episode. You're limited to the amount of time and you want to focus more on stories and more on why you do what you do versus the actual how. So as a writer, I like to create short ebooks that are five to 10 pages that just explain in greater detail the topics that I go on to talk about. There are so many other ways that you can create a lead magnet. I already told you, I have a book with 50 of them. So clearly there's a few. If you're an author going on podcasts to promote your book. You can create a lead magnet by just pulling out a chapter or two of the book or giving your prologue or your introduction. Having that book preview is a way that you can not only get subscribers onto your list, but start to generate buzz around your book. If you're a podcaster, a bonus interview is a great option for a lead magnet. If you have a big name guest or a guest that you're really excited about, have them stick around after the traditional interview. and answer a few fun or personal questions. Then release that piece of the interview only to the people who will subscribe to your list. This will help you access not only your listeners, but also people who are a fan of the guest that was on your show. Another option for the creative types is a swipe file. Swipe files are a lot of fun to create. They're also called inspiration files. These are kind of like a treasure chest of content ideas. It's basically a portfolio of your best work that you can put together so that someone can swipe through it when they're trying to find ideas. This can be great for social media managers, graphic designers, anybody who works within a creative position and has a library of content that they've already created. This is also great for copywriters that can put their best headlines and high converting text into a swipe file to give ideas for people that are looking to improve their writing. And remember, not all lead magnets need to be original or creative. You see lead magnets every day on different websites that you go on. We've all seen the spinning wheel that has different percent discounts on it when we go onto a retailer site. That is a lead magnet. You only get the code to use your coupon if you subscribe to their mailing list. There's also things like free shipping, free trials, and free consultations. Anything that is enticing enough to get someone interested that you can use to get access to their email address. Step four is create the lead magnet. Set it up and guard it behind an email capture form. Email capture forms are in most of the email softwares that we use to create our mailing lists. I use Constant Contact. There's also options like Beehive or Active Campaigns or MailChimp. If you don't have an email system or yours doesn't have forms, you can use something like Google Forms or JotForm to set this up. The fifth step is to start filling that sales funnel. A sales funnel is meant to look like an inverted triangle, basically like a funnel. And it's our goal to move people from the top of the funnel all the way down to the bottom of the funnel. And at the bottom of the funnel, that's when they start to make a purchase decision. The top of the funnel is when we're in the awareness stage. This is when people are just starting to know about us, and we're just spreading brand awareness about who we are and what we do. Podcast appearances are so powerful for this awareness stage because it lets you talk to different audiences that have already been curated by the host of the show. Being a guest on a podcast means you're introducing yourself to a new audience and starting them in that awareness stage. but we need to be able to do it well. We need to be a really good guest. So tell stories, focus on connections, be really authentic and help the audience get to know who you are and who your brand is. Don't use this time to be salesy. You don't have to because we're setting up a sales funnel that will help us make those sales later. Just focus on getting them in that first step of the funnel and really putting out great content and a great interview. Once you've captured their attention, potential customers move down to the interest phase. Here is when they start seeking more information about you. These are the people who will access your lead magnet. The goal is to engage them by providing really valuable content and information to help foster their interest in your product or service. Now, not everyone that hears you on a podcast is going to download your lead magnet. That's why the funnel is an inverted triangle. As it goes down, it gets smaller and smaller. So if you have a hundred people listening, Maybe only 10% are really going to be interested in moving to that next phase. That's okay. You're not meant to work with everybody. The people who really resonate with what you say on the podcast episode and what you have to talk about, those are the ones that you really want to continue the conversation with. Once they're ready to move past the second phase, they move into what's called the consideration phase. And this is when your email campaign comes in. They've already downloaded your lead magnet, which means they've been put on your email list. So you have to have an email sales campaign that is triggered to automatically send every time someone gets added to that list. Every lead magnet that you have should have its own list that triggers a specific email campaign. This means that all of the content is able to be tailored precisely to the content that you put out that person accessed. I have lead magnets about building a personal brand, podcasting for higher education, building a business through podcasts, and podcasts for realtors. Those are all very different audiences. So you don't want to have the exact same email campaign sending to people on every list. You want it to be very tailored so that the content in the email resonates with them based on something you know they're interested in. The people in the consideration phase are reading reviews, researching your competitors, and trying to learn more about what you do. So you want to create a sales campaign that really guides them to the purchase decision. I do this in four to five emails. In the first email, All I do is deliver the product. There's no sales message. It's a short and sweet email delivering the piece of content that they subscribe for and thanking them for downloading it. The first email in your series will always be the most opened email because it's the one that they need to get the piece of content that they wanted. So if you see your open rates drop a little bit after this first email, don't feel bad. This is normal. You don't open every email in your inbox either. For the second email, I like to give an easy next step. Now this is not a sales pitch. This is something that they can do themselves by putting in action the ideas that I gave them in my lead magnet content. So because my lead magnet was about types of lead magnets they can create, my second email gave the three best practices that I have found to actually create a great lead magnet. Once I give them those three steps, I invite them to book a call with me just to discuss the content that I've given them so far. It's their chance to ask questions about the content and talk through some of the ideas. and start to see if lead generation and lead magnets are really right for them. They may not book that call yet. That's okay. They're still considering. And we have a lot more emails to go. The third email is meant to offer a solution. This email talks about the problem that the customer is facing and shares how your product or service is able to solve it. Explain their problem in a way that reminds them of it and creates a sense of urgency so that they really feel like it needs to be solved and it needs to be solved soon. Because social media is the more talked about option, I compare email marketing with social media marketing to show the prospect that they might be missing out on some great opportunities. I do this using statistics. So in this email, I explain that email marketing is 40 times more effective in obtaining new customers than social media. Your email is five times more likely to be seen than a Facebook ad. The email marketing click-through rate is six times higher than organic social media engagement and email conversion rates are three times higher than social media marketing. The solution I'm explaining here is email marketing, but I also explained that you need to get leads onto your email list if you're going to have someone to market to, and that's where I come in. So I end that email with a call to action for them to book time with me and discuss ideas that they might have for lead magnets that could work for their brand. The fourth email, I call the peace of mind email. Anytime you hire a new service provider or purchase a big ticket item, that can be stressful. So how can we offer peace of mind to our prospects? This email is meant to do just that, by answering some frequently asked questions that you might get about your services or outlining some of the common objections and overcoming them so they don't stand in the way of your prospect making that purchase decision. You can also use this email to explain what someone can expect when they work with you. That's what I did. I use this email to lay out the three steps of working with me so that it seems super simple and easy for the customer. They're more likely to make a purchase decision if they know what comes next. So I make it as easy as step one, two, and three, and then invite them to book a call. So now we're in the conversion stage. This is the stage where the potential customer finally decides to make that purchase decision. This is the final step in the email series, the pitch email. Instruct the customer to make the purchase decision and use things like limited time deals or coupon codes to really push them over the edge. The aim is to make the purchasing process as easy as possible, providing clear calls to action and supporting them throughout the decision making process. Now that you've turned that lead into a client, the final stage is the advocacy stage or the loyalty stage. Our focus shifts from creating a customer to continue to cultivate the relationship and have that customer continue to be loyal to our brand. And to be an advocate. If you're like me, a lot of your new business comes from referrals. So you wanna turn as many clients as you can into advocates for your brand so that they refer their friends and network to work with you as well. So for this phase, Think of the ways you can continue to support your customers. This can include post-purchase support, encouraging repeat business, or motivating your customers to share their experiences with others. You want to develop long-term relationships with your customers and encourage them to become repeat buyers and brand advocates. So now we know how to create that funnel and how to create an email sales campaign to turn those leads into customers. But how do we get them to be aware that this lead magnet even exists? This is when we have to really nail our call to action. Our call to action is what we want someone to do after they listen to us talk on a podcast. So my best advice for creating your call to action is gonna be to go buy a URL. Every lead magnet that I have has its own URL. These are only about $12 on GoDaddy and they can help you generate thousands in revenue because it makes it easier for a podcast listener to get on your funnel. At the end of your podcast guest interview, the host is probably going to say, Tell our audience how they can learn more or get in touch with you. Now instead of saying, well, you can visit my website at favo or follow me on social media or even send me an email at sara and giving them all of these steps to follow, we're able to give something really simple. So I can say, to learn more about creating a lead magnet for yourself, visit favo Now that's easy for a listener to remember. They don't have to remember my whole brand name or the name of the ebook itself. They just have to remember that one URL. But the key is that URL just forwards to my website. So it leads to a landing page. Now, how I set up those landing pages is really important. The headline is just the name of the e-book. I want it to be really obvious as soon as someone gets to this landing page, what it was that they went there for. Maybe they remembered the URL, but didn't really remember what the name of the book was. That's okay. They still got there and they have a reminder right in front of them. Right under the headline is a short two sentence introduction to who I am, what I do, and what the value of this piece of content is. I want to make it really clear what value this piece of content holds, and giving them that brief introduction to myself can actually add the value because I position myself as an expert on the topic. Right underneath that is the form to fill out to download that ebook. All it is their name and their email address and a button to hit submit, and they're going to automatically be added to my mailing list. and that triggers the email series to send them the piece of content. But it's important that this is on my website because I want them to have full access to everything that I do. I want them to be able to explore more, click around and learn more about my company. So after they download my lead magnet, they can go see my services page or my about page or read some of my blogs or download some of my other free content. They also will be able to see all of the links to my social media so they can go interact with me online or follow me to stay connected. They can also go to my contact page to either send me an email or book time if they want to talk to me after hearing me on the podcast. Having all of this put together before you go on a podcast is going to make your experience so much better because you'll really be able to capture your audience and turn them into leads for your business. I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please visit podprose.com slash two seven two. Then share the link with one person that you believe it would add value to. Until next time, thank you for listening.