The Playbook This Startup Used to Get Their Founders on 100+ Podcasts in 6 Months

The numbers don't lie — podcast audiences continue to steadily grow, and it's estimated that in 2022, 125 million Americans will be tuning into podcasts at least monthly. For a growing startup looking to turbocharge brand awareness, it's fertile ground to reach your target customer base. But getting started is a tricky hurdle to clear.

Whether you go the advertising route or try to spin up your own podcast show, each path presents plenty of potholes. Advertising can get pricey, even on smaller shows, and a 30-second ad spot might not be enough to explain your product to customers who haven't heard of you before. By creating an original show you get to own the channel, but it's a resource-intensive initiative — one that can take years to build an audience and start seeing results.

So when Tom Griffin joined Levels as its Head of Partnerships, he took a different approach, booking as many interviews as possible for the company's founders on shows that Levels' target audience was most likely listening to. "Podcasts are an opportunity to spend an intimate 60 minutes in the ear of thousands of people who have opted in to listen to you alongside a host they trust," says Griffin.

We'll cut right to the chase — he ended up pulling it off, lining up 100+ founder podcast interviews in just six months. Thus, doubling the company's website traffic and quadrupling its waitlist.

In our latest on The Review, he provides a thorough step-by-step guide you can borrow for executing your own podcast tour. To start, he shares his tips for pulling together a list of target podcasts that fit your audience. Next, he offers pointers for tapping into your network for intros, and includes email templates for getting started with cold outreach. He also includes ideas for honing your interview skills and balancing your own product pitch with providing value for the audience.

Whether you've never considered leveraging podcasts or have dabbled a bit but with limited results, Griffin's approach will have you rethinking your strategy with tons of ideas and templates to try right away. Thanks, as always, for reading and sharing!

-The Review editors

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