How to Best Use Podcast Book Tours to Sell Your Book - BM350

[Susan Friedmann]
 Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. 

Today. My special guest is Tony Guarnaccia. Tony has grown over 10,000 small businesses and a dozen Fortune 500 companies, including ADP, Ford, and AutoNation, and became the Google Partner of the Year. Later, Tony returned to his entrepreneurship routes to bring the strategy, tactics, and resources normally reserved for large enterprises to small businesses. Today, he's focused on bringing that same vision to podcast hosts and guests to make podcasting profitable. 

 Tony, what an absolute pleasure it is to welcome you to the show and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Thank you. I really appreciate it and looking forward to it.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 Good. Well, Tony, one of your specialties I know is podcast book tours. Let's focus this episode on that and let's find out more about them. And we'd like to start at the beginning and so that everybody is singing out of the same hymn book. Let's know exactly what is a podcast book tour.
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Yeah, so it's kind of like the modern iteration of the old book tour. So if you've been around long enough, you probably remember, oh, there used to be all these bookstores where you could go in office, would be there, they would sign the book, maybe tell you about the book. Obviously the world has shifted dramatically. Everything is now virtual. And so along with that, you've seen a big transition to a lot of book tours being done virtually. And so that means is a podcast or a guest will go on various podcasts that are relevant to their book and then give some knowledge about what they're doing and ultimately leverage that to get more awareness for the book and sales.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 Let's talk about the actual benefits of doing the podcast book tour, obviously primarily for the author. What are they going to get out of it?
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 One of the things I love about podcasting is that it's so leverageable. I like to think of it kind of like the Swiss Army knife of marketing and the reason why is it can do various things. So first and foremost, it can be used to grow your audience and so getting more listeners, more eyeballs. If it's a video-based podcast on who you are and what you're doing, it can also be used to get more people as a lead. So if you have a compelling message, a lot of times you can take those listeners from just being kind of out in cyberspace somewhere and driving them to perhaps your website or social media account and connecting with them there. So you kind of take them from being just some abstract person out there to being someone you can actually interact with. And so that's another benefit. And then ultimately many people they want to sell some books. Right. And so I can be leveraged to then drive income. The way I like to think about it is podcasts are probably the greatest way to build your audience, your income, and your impact.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 I love that. I mean, I know that this is something, obviously, that authors want. They want to make that impact. They want to be visible, and as you rightly said, they want to sell books. However, it's not only about selling books, as you and I know. It's being able to share that wisdom that obviously is encased in that book. Authors often ask me, well, okay, Susan, what podcast should I look to be interviewed on? Let me throw that question out at you, Tony. What would you recommend?
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 The easiest way to do it is, especially if you're a nonfiction author. What I do is I go into Amazon, I look there and say, okay, who else has been on podcast? So I'll look at the top, say, ten books, 20 books, however many you want. But ten is a good number to start with. You take all those authors and then you search based on their name and podcast in that niche to find all the podcasts they've interviewed on. The only challenge with that is sometimes there are special searches you have to use in Google, which makes it kind of hard to find. But the good news is, I actually built a free tool that will do that for you automatically. So you literally put in your top, quote, unquote competitors. It will give you a list of all the podcasts they've been in Jubilee on, and then simply go on those same podcasts because they're pretty well vetted, and so it's going to be highly relevant to what you're doing.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 Wow, a free tool with all the podcasts. That's wonderful. Yes. And Amazon is such a great research tool to find out, as you say, who are your competitors, knowing who else is out there talking about a similar subject or might be the same subject. So looking for the kind of podcast as well. I talk about that in terms of a niche, and I suppose that's really what you're saying here, is looking at a niche topic or a niche audience, who would be interested in your subject matter? Our audience love learning about mistakes, and I know that this environment is just ripe for all sorts of errors. So let's focus on some mistakes that authors can make on podcasts.
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 I'll start with kind of an overarching theme, which is if you want to sell anything, you really need three components. The first one, which is what we kind of already hit on, you need to be in front of the right audience. That's step number one, which I just showed you exactly how to do that.

 The next thing you need to do is have a compelling offer. This has to be something that would get them primarily on your list. So you don't want to necessarily sell books directly from a podcast interview.

 You're better off getting them on your list and then selling your books. And then the third component is your messaging. You have to have a compelling message.

And so the mistake that many people make from an offer perspective is they just try to sell the book. What you want to do is have something that's quick and easy to consume. Of course, most people don't have time to read a full book and it's more of an investment time on the listener's part.

But what you want to do is have some kind of checklist or abstract or like what I do. Like I just mentioned, I give away tools. And so that's a great way to build your list very quickly and very efficiently.

 That's the first thing. In terms of messaging, you want to make sure you have a solid message that you can communicate, which of course some of the best ways to communicate a message is through stories. So if you're an author, you should be great at stories, but sometimes nonfiction authors aren't great at stories.

 So really learning how to tell a compelling story and then also be able to really identify in your messaging exactly who you're solving, what the exact problem you're solving, and kind of looking at it from a transformation perspective. So there are point A they want to get to point Z. How can you help them along the journey and how do you help them just in the first few steps? 

So if we take it from being A to Z to say, okay, there's ten steps on the podcast interview, ideally you want to help solve one or two of those steps. The first steps, one and two, maybe your gift or what's called sometimes a lead magnet might be steps three or four.

And of course, if you're selling consulting or some other service that's higher ticket on the back end, then that would take them all the way from say, five to ten.

And so kind of mapping out that journey and just making it where your gift is, just solving a small part of it that gets them to where they want to be with a very tangible result, and then taking the rest of the journey with your book and ultimately whatever else you have to offer.

 [Susan Friedmann]
 Yeah, that's nice and succinct. I love that I missed a step because before we can get on the podcast, we have to convince a podcast host to interview us. I know that having run this podcast now for close on seven years, that I get pictures from people all the time that say, oh, my client, or I've just written a book and you should interview me. And I'm like, that's not what I do. You don't know what I do. If you're making that kind of request, talk to us about actually approaching an interview host in the right way, in a compelling way, obviously, that will say, hey, I definitely want this person on my show.
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Yeah, absolutely. So I like to take again to simple concepts, but probably one that we're all aware of is the idea of people like to work with people that they know, like and trust. And so that's the first starting point for getting booked on a podcast.

 In addition to that, podcasters want to make sure the guests can add value. And then finally, a lot of times hosts are looking for guests that want to collaborate and so having a compelling offer. The other principle, of course, is like, how do you get this information to the host? 

Because let's face it, none of us want more work to do. And so this is where the concept of a media kit or podcast once she comes into play, because it pulls together things like your bio, which gives you credibility and trust, getting things like your intro in place, which makes the work for the host easier, giving them an idea of the topics and questions you'll handle as well as your offer. And so the media kit really packages all this information together in one place and it makes it very simple for the host.

So that's a great place to start is by putting together the media kit, which sometimes, to be honest, some podcasters don't use it, but the fact that you put that together and you have all that together in one place. So when the podcaster only asks for it because sometimes they want for mediate, but they'll ask for portions of it, they'll say, hey, can you send me the bio? Hey, can you send me the offer?

 So having all that together really succinctly makes it very easy. So if you're pitching someone, that's a very helpful exercise. And like everything else, I have a free tool that will help you build that media kit automatically in minutes, as opposed to spending tons of time, money and effort on it. 

That's the first part. Now the second part is how do you actually connect with that podcaster? That's the bigger question. 

Best way to do that, again, like how we met is through a referral. So looking at, okay, who's in my network that can give me a referral? What podcast have you been on I can get a referral from? 

Who can I help? The other way is to add value. So if you have a podcast, it's a great way to get on a podcast by inviting them on your podcast. 

So creating your own platform, it doesn't necessarily have to be a podcast. It could be maybe you have a blog, maybe I have a directory. And so those are kind of the two or three of the top ways to do it.

Actually, I have a whole course that teaches like ten ways to do it, but those are two of the most highly valuable one, the cold one, where using agency is kind of the hardest one, the most expensive, starting with your own network and referrals is the easiest way and it's free. 

[Susan Friedmann]
 Yes, and that's so funny that you mentioned because I know that our colleague Dan Janelle, who has been a guest many times on my show and a dear friend, he said, You've got to interview Tony. And I was like, well, if Dan tells me I have to interview Tony, I have to interview Tony. You're absolutely right. That referral that know, like and trust that somebody else has heard you, knows you and can recommend you, hey, that obviously is the prize. Yes, I know agencies who have pitched me people, their clients, they're not a fit at all. One of the things that I like is to listen to a few episodes of a podcast before being a guest on that show because I want to make sure that I know the style of the interview and how they run the show. I've got a few little pointers that you and I went over at the beginning of the show and I'm assuming that other people have the same it's just being a little bit familiar with the show and the host, I think makes an enormous difference. What are your thoughts on that?
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Yeah, absolutely. Every show is different. There'll be a lot of common themes you'll find, but sometimes, for instance, a lot of shows will have a special question at the end. If you haven't listened to the show before, you might be blindsided by that. It's important just so you come off polished. It's a great way to build rapport as well because you can refer to past episodes. 

 There's a lot of reasons to do that. And then it also gives you an opportunity to add value because you can say, hey, I know that's on this episode you had such and such person. I actually have a friend that is very similar, might also be a good fit. So in terms of referrals, you can certainly get referrals, but you can also give referrals, which helps you in two ways. You're helping the host, you're also helping your friend, which builds your own kind of credibility authority. So it's really a flywheel effect if you do it correctly. So as you can probably tell by what I talk about, I like creating leverage. So how do you have one thing and use it in ten ways? Again, podcasting is great, but within that there's many opportunities just by adding value on both sides of the equation.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 Talk to us more about that leverage because yes, I mean, there's so many opportunities in podcasting, but when you talk about leverage, what does that mean to you?
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 What I do is I take one thing and make many things out of it. So for instance, from a relational standpoint, it's a great way to stay top of mind with people. It's a great way to build relationships. It's a great way to give referrals some of the ideas we talked about. But what's equally important is what comes out of the podcast. Particularly if you have a video based podcast, there's a lot you can do with that because you can now take that video and you can turn it into micro content, little pieces of content. You can then share it onto YouTube. You can take that content and put it into TikTok, on Facebook, on social media.  

One of the things I do actually built a tool for this. It's not available yet, probably available sometime next year. I built a tool that will take all the interviews I've done and automatically syndicated on my website. So when someone visits my website they can say wow, Tony has been on 300 interviews or whatever and so they can kind of see that gives instant proof. You can also use your guest interview as part of a sales sequence. So say for instance, someone gives you a compliment, you can take those, splice them out and put kind of like a video summary of all the different things you've done, put that in as part of a sales process. 

So when you meet a prospect, you can then take that and build it into like an email campaign where when they first meet you, they get all the social proof. So there's just a few examples but podcasting is nice because it covers in guest podcasting. I'm talking from a guessing perspective. Same idea works on a host side. But the point is you can take it and use it to really if you look at sales or marketing funnel, help people that don't know who you are to get visibility and awareness. You can use it to engage people, to get them on your list, to build credibility. But then you can also use it for sales because it can help your sales process, your sales cycle, build credibility, build trust and also get referrals. So it really covers the full gamut of a sales and marketing program.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 Yes, and there's an opportunity too for people to sort of get to know you a bit better because yes, a onesheet is great. Having been a public speaker for 30 plus years, I know the importance of a onesheet. However, that's different from hearing the person and seeing the person. I know that this is only not only but I choose to have this as an audio only podcast. So yeah, they don't have the opportunity to use video, obviously, but still there's an opportunity for people to get to know you just listening to the conversation and how we interact together. I think that has a lot of credence to it as well. I hope you agree with that.
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Absolutely, I can't remember the step, but if you look at the old stat, it takes seven touches to make a sale. It's probably much more now because of social media and we're inundated with so much information. But if you could be in front of your ideal prospect and have them listen to you for 20, 30, 40 minutes, that really bypasses that whole process. It's scalable because you get in front of a lot more people than just a one off, one person at a time, but also the length of time just builds that much more rapport virtually. And so it's just very powerful. 

Again, every stage. So when people first learn about you, they're listening to you for a long time, but you can then take that same video, like I said, on the sales side, when they already are going through the process and they can listen to you for a full 20 minutes there. So, yes, absolutely, you can build that trust at any stage of someone's journey. Getting to know who you are.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 Now, what are your thoughts about being a guest versus being a host?
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Yes, if you're new to podcasting, guests is a great place to start because you really want to understand both sides of the chair, so to speak, on the microphone. And so you want to get familiar with how podcasting works before you become a podcaster, in my opinion. And you kind of want to get your messaging down, your offers, all those things in place.

That being said, I think where the world's going is you want to build your own platform. A lot of people are familiar with the Oprah effect, which is the impact of being interviewed by Oprah. You get this huge kind of influx of sales because her authority and influence transfers over to you. 

But how many people think about how did Oprah become Oprah? Chances are through the interviews that she did. On the other side, I think once people have done a bit of guessing, it's a great idea to graduate to become a podcast for yourself because then you can leverage your platform in many, many ways. 

It can be used to drive sales. So you interview your ideal prospects, you can use it to get sponsors, you can use it to do joint venture and affiliate programs with partners. And so the leverage just becomes that much bigger when you own your own podcast.

But beyond that, I talk about the importance of building your own platform. So it's a difference. The podcast is a part of a platform, but I think people should be really building three specific assets because if you have a business and you want it to be saleable and actually have some real value, you want to be able to have a property or assets.

So the first level of that is a property. So what's a property? A property is a website.

A property is a podcast. A property is a book. What goes in that is content, right?

So your books have chapters, podcasts have episodes, website and blogs have posts. And so the more content you have, the more opportunities you have, the more exposure, et cetera. And then the third component of that is building list.

So email lists, social media lists, followers, these are all assets that make you more viable and more valuable. And so when you have all those kind of a conjunction, you can then leverage that in many, many ways. And so the podcast is a lot of times the epicenter of that, the foundational block, and then building off beyond that.

But having your own platform is really the biggest thing you can do to grow your audience and your income and impact the things we're talking about very, very quickly.

 [Susan Friedmann]
 Yes, a platform. I mean, that's what an author is looking to do, is build that platform. Because, yes, the book is one thing, but the content and the wisdom and just being out there and being visible, people know you, see you and can associate a certain topic with you. I mean, that's gold dust. This is a great segue, Tony, for you to tell our listeners how they can get in touch with you more about your services. So take it away.
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Absolutely. So I really went into the space, as you mentioned, to really disrupt it in a way, because I noticed that unfortunately, most people aren't having success with podcasting, or guest interviews for that matter. In fact, 85% of podcasts only last, I think, up to eight episodes, so they quit. And so going into this industry, I thought to myself, well, why are people quitting? And really a lot of times it's because people aren't seeing success out of it, they're not getting any momentum. 

And to me the reason why is because they're not marketing and monetizing correctly. And so I created four things. I created software that helped solve that problem and built tools. Then I also built trainings, I created templates so people can model success, and finally Tribe, which is community. 

And so I built this whole kind of infrastructure and platform to really help serve people that really want to make that bigger audience, income and impact. That's really what I'm all about. Most of my tools are free. What I always try to do is give a little extra value, however, and so I do have free tools. I also have paid tools.  

When I want to show like yours, where I really want to add value to you and your audience, that's what I do is I give you a free tool, and I give you one of my paid ones that are usually anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $500 if you go to Podcast onesheet.com/ Aviva  I'm going to give you access to my Media Kit software, which, again, this is completely free. And then also the podcast Finder, where you can use that tool to find all the podcasts that would interview you based on your competitors and topics that you can get from Amazon. So that's it. So if someone wants to take advantage of that you go to podcast, one sheet/Aviviva fabulous.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 And that is so generous, Tony. And listen as well. What a gift that Tony is giving you. Please take advantage of that. I'll put the link in the show notes so that if you weren't able to write that down, you'll be able to link to it from the show notes, because that is invaluable. Anything that people give away on these shows is just that added value, which we all want. So. Thank you, Tony. As you know, we always end our podcast with a golden nugget, sort of some words of wisdom that you'd like to leave our audience with. What are yours?
 
 [Tony Guarnaccia]
 Yes. Well, mine is going to be pretty simple. What I like to do is say, take action, because hopefully I gave a lot of value here, but unfortunately, if no one takes action on it, it's going to be a waste of time, really, for everybody involved. And so my one piece of advice would be go and take action. And so maybe take one of the thoughts I gave today and do something with it. Maybe it's tell a story, come up with a compelling story. Maybe it's start building my one sheet. Maybe it's looking at the different podcasts where I might be a good fit, and listening to them and learning not to go on the show initially, but to learn how other people are interacting with the host. Listen to this show, take out one thing that you can apply and then apply it this week.
 
 [Susan Friedmann]
 And this is one of those shows, listeners, you're going to have to listen to it a few times to really get all the nuggets that Tony has shared with us, because this has been amazing. And you're right, Tony, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. So the whole idea of taking action as a result of these incredible tips and strategies that you've shared with us today, thank you so much.  

By the way, listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected it to, let's jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales, because you've invested a whole lot of time, energy and money, and it's time you got the return that you were hoping for.

So go to brainstormwithSusan.com to schedule your free call that's brainstormwithsan.com. In the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. He is wishing you match Book and Author marketing success. 

Resources:
Get access to Tony's  Podcast One Sheet Media Kit software
Podcastonesheet.com

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