Latest / Business Podcasting: Production Strategy / Should you make a podcast, be a guest, or advertise?

Transcript

Should you make a podcast, be a guest, or advertise? · Business Podcasting: Production Strategy

• 0:00
  [Synthetic version of Lam Hoang's voice]
• 0:07
  This is Business Podcasting: Production Strategy, produced by WorkHacker.
• 0:12
  I'm your host, Lam Hoang, co-founder of WorkHacker.
• 0:16
  You're hearing a synthetic version of my voice.
• 0:18
  Each episode I take one question about making a podcast for your business,
• 0:23
  tell you what I would do and how solid the evidence is.
• 0:31
  Today's question: should you make a podcast, be a guest or advertise?
• 0:37
  Forty percent of American podcast consumers said a
• 0:40
  host's endorsement would likely get them to try or buy.
• 0:44
  Those asked were under fifty-five and listen at least monthly.
• 0:48
  For a prerecorded ad the host didn't read, it was twenty-seven percent.
• 0:53
  That's from The Podcast Study 2026, paid for by three podcast publishers.
• 0:59
  That's a host's trust at work.
• 1:01
  A guest borrows it, and a host-read ad rents it.
• 1:05
  So which should you do?
• 1:07
  For most businesses, I'd start by being a
• 1:09
  guest on the shows your buyers already hear.
• 1:12
  You'll need someone who speaks well.
• 1:14
  And something new to say.
• 1:16
  Need sales you can count?
• 1:18
  Advertise, once you know what a customer is worth to you.
• 1:21
  Want a channel you own?
• 1:23
  Make your own show, if you can give it the hours.
• 1:26
  And if a show asks you to pay to be its guest, that's an ad.
• 1:30
  Judge it like one.
• 1:31
  Here's what you'll leave with.
• 1:33
  Why the guest chair comes first, and how to choose where to appear.
• 1:37
  When a guest spot is really an ad.
• 1:40
  Then what ads buy you, and when your own show earns its hours.
• 1:45
  First: why be a guest before anything else?
• 1:49
  Because the audience is already there.
• 1:51
  So is its trust in the host.
• 1:54
  The same survey asked about favorite shows.
• 1:56
  Eight in ten named the host as a big reason they listen, or the only one.
• 2:02
  That's the asset.
• 2:03
  Your own show has to earn that trust from nothing.
• 2:06
  And that takes months.
• 2:08
  Guesting mostly costs your time.
• 2:10
  Two podcasting teachers rank guesting near the top for reaching an engaged audience.
• 2:15
  They were advising podcasters, but the reach works the same for a business.
• 2:20
  Second: which shows should you pitch?
• 2:23
  Pick them by who listens, not how many.
• 2:26
  A few hundred of the right people beat thousands of the wrong ones.
• 2:30
  Do shows even want guests?
• 2:32
  Often, yes.
• 2:34
  One podcast index company counted guests automatically,
• 2:37
  in a sample of English-language episodes from 2026.
• 2:41
  On business shows, about six in ten episodes had one.
• 2:45
  Across all shows, it was four in ten.
• 2:48
  Its most-booked guests mostly had something new to talk about, like a new book.
• 2:53
  So pitch a reason to have you on.
• 2:55
  Not just your credentials.
• 2:57
  And what will guesting bring back?
• 2:59
  The only figures come from firms that sell it.
• 3:02
  And from single stories.
• 3:04
  So you'll be judging it on your own results.
• 3:06
  Third: what if a show wants money from you?
• 3:10
  Then you're buying an ad.
• 3:11
  Whatever the show calls it.
• 3:13
  Do shows really charge guests?
• 3:15
  Some do.
• 3:16
  In 2022 a Bloomberg investigation found popular shows
• 3:20
  asking guests for up to fifty thousand dollars.
• 3:23
  Often, listeners weren't told.
• 3:25
  Fifty thousand was the top end, back in 2022.
• 3:29
  Business shows were among the main ones.
• 3:31
  Daniel J.
• 3:32
  Lewis teaches podcasting, and he doesn't call paying wrong.
• 3:36
  He says it makes the most sense when you have something to sell.
• 3:39
  And when you treat the spot as advertising.
• 3:41
  He recommends guest-booking services, and is an affiliate for some.
• 3:45
  He also says the show must tell its listeners it was paid.
• 3:49
  So weigh a paid spot like any other ad.
• 3:51
  What does it cost, who hears it and what comes back?
• 3:55
  Fourth: if you advertise, what are you buying?
• 3:58
  Two things, mostly.
• 3:59
  Only one carries the host's trust.
• 4:02
  A host read is the host voicing your ad on their own show.
• 4:05
  The other is your own recording.
• 4:07
  The seller places it for you, even on shows you pick.
• 4:10
  One company that measures podcast ads compared host reads with prerecorded spots.
• 4:16
  In its campaigns from January to June 2026, host reads did better.
• 4:21
  They sent about half again as many listeners to the advertiser's website.
• 4:26
  Those are site visits rather than sales, from a firm that sells the measuring.
• 4:31
  Host reads cost more.
• 4:33
  One podcast ad company's 2026 guide prices them per thousand downloads.
• 4:38
  On business shows, it's forty dollars or more.
• 4:41
  Say a show's episodes get two thousand downloads in their first month.
• 4:45
  Then one read there costs about eighty dollars.
• 4:49
  That's our arithmetic on an asking price, and it assumes the show sells ads at all.
• 4:54
  The episode on whether a podcast is still
• 4:56
  worth it looked at that from the show's side.
• 4:59
  What about your own recording?
• 5:01
  There's a self-serve platform that can aim
• 5:03
  it down to postal codes, at a higher rate.
• 5:06
  As of October 2026, its campaigns start at two hundred and fifty dollars.
• 5:11
  Even so, its own advice for a niche audience is about a thousand euros to start.
• 5:17
  So a local business can buy podcast reach by place.
• 5:21
  What it can't buy that way is a host's endorsement.
• 5:24
  And no one has published what those ads return.
• 5:27
  Either way, one hearing is a thin test.
• 5:30
  How often should each listener hear it?
• 5:32
  In 2025, another company that measures them
• 5:35
  found a handful of hearings a month worked best.
• 5:38
  Then wait a month to judge an ad.
• 5:41
  In one set of 2026 campaigns, a week caught less than half of a month's site visits.
• 5:47
  And don't judge it by the promo code alone.
• 5:49
  A podcast audience researcher made that case in 2022.
• 5:53
  Codes miss people who search for the brand instead.
• 5:57
  He adds that enough people use them to be worth having.
• 6:00
  Last: when does your own show make sense?
• 6:04
  When the relationship matters more than the next sale,
• 6:07
  and you can keep at it for months.
• 6:09
  A firm that books business owners onto podcasts puts it by goal.
• 6:13
  Be a guest to win new clients, and host to look after the ones you have.
• 6:18
  An agency that makes interview shows for companies sees it another way.
• 6:22
  It backs interviews for relationships with potential customers.
• 6:26
  Each recommends what it sells.
• 6:28
  Neither shows data.
• 6:30
  Whether your own show needs guests comes up in a later episode.
• 6:34
  Take one financial advisor with a retirement podcast.
• 6:38
  By his own count, his show and the funnel
• 6:40
  around it brought nine new clients in 2025.
• 6:43
  And it's no small show, with over a hundred and twenty thousand downloads that year.
• 6:48
  To grow it, he pitches the shows retirees already listen to.
• 6:52
  He starts with hosts he knows.
• 6:54
  If you start one, how long before you judge it?
• 6:58
  The episode on starting a podcast suggested six months of steady episodes.
• 7:02
  Not ready to commit that long?
• 7:04
  That same episode had another way in.
• 7:07
  You might start as a guest on other shows instead, or by writing.
• 7:11
  Should writing come before a show?
• 7:13
  That's a question for another episode.
• 7:16
  So let your goal pick the route.
• 7:18
  For most businesses, that means starting as a
• 7:20
  guest on the shows your buyers already hear.
• 7:23
  Give it a run of appearances.
• 7:25
  Then judge them together.
• 7:26
  Sales you can count?
• 7:28
  Advertise, and judge it after a month.
• 7:30
  A channel of your own, and months to give it?
• 7:33
  Make the show, and judge it at six months.
• 7:36
  And a guest spot you pay for is still an ad.
• 7:39
  Ask three of your best clients which podcasts
• 7:41
  they listen to, before you pitch a single show.
• 7:44
  Their answers are your first list.
• 7:47
  The next episode asks: which podcast production steps can AI do well?
• 7:52
  A free prompt for your own AI to check a podcast ad
• 7:55
  or paid-guest offer comes with the written version.
• 7:58
  And that's it for today's question.
• 8:00
  Thanks for listening.
• 8:01
  The written version is on workhacker.com,
• 8:04
  with every source, and a place to send us your questions.
• 8:07
  And if you want a podcast like this for your business, WorkHacker makes them.
• 8:11
  See you next time.