Glossary40 terms
The vocabulary, without the jargon
Every term that comes up when you start pitching yourself as a guest, defined in one or two sentences.
A
- Audience overlap
- The degree to which a show’s listeners resemble your buyers. The single most important selection criterion, and the one most often replaced by download count.
- Authority positioning
- Establishing yourself as a credible voice on a specific problem, so buyers arrive already persuaded rather than needing to be convinced from cold.
B
- Booking guarantee
- A commitment to secure a minimum number of placements in a period. Only meaningful if the agency defines precisely what counts as a placement and what happens if it is missed.
- Booking lead time
- The gap between a host confirming and the recording happening, typically two to six weeks. It is why a first placement in month one usually records in month two.
- Booking rate
- The proportion of pitches that convert into confirmed recordings. A well-targeted campaign with a specific angle typically runs far above a generic one, which is the entire argument for research.
- Branded search lift
- An increase in people searching your name or company directly. Usually the earliest measurable signal that a guesting programme is working.
D
- Discovery call
- The initial conversation with a booking service to establish topics, goals and whether the channel suits your business at all.
- Download threshold
- The minimum audience size a show or an agency treats as worth pitching. Useful as a filter, misleading as a proxy for value, since a small show with the right listeners outperforms a large general one.
E
- Episode drop
- The publication of a recorded episode, often weeks or months after recording. The gap is why measuring a guesting programme too early understates it.
- Evergreen episode
- An episode whose subject does not date, so it keeps attracting listeners and search traffic long after publication. Most of a guest appearance’s value accrues here.
F
- Flat-rate booking
- A pricing model charging a fixed monthly fee regardless of how many placements land. Predictable, and it rewards rather than penalises a campaign that works.
- Follow-up sequence
- The planned second and third contacts after an unanswered pitch, typically seven to ten days apart. Most bookings come from these rather than the first email.
G
- Guest bio
- The short third-person description a host reads when introducing you. Write it yourself and keep it under sixty words, or you will be introduced with whatever they found online.
- Guest churn
- The tendency of guesting programmes to stop after a handful of appearances, almost always because the follow-up admin lost to something more urgent.
- Guest pitch
- The email proposing yourself as a guest. Under 200 words, one clear angle, evidence you have heard the show, and one checkable proof point.
- Guest prep notes
- A briefing prepared before a recording covering the host, the show’s style, likely questions, and the points you want to land.
- Guest-to-lead conversion
- The rate at which listeners become enquiries. Consistently under-measured, because last-click attribution assigns the credit to whatever channel the listener used to reach you afterwards.
H
- Host-read
- An advertisement read aloud by the host in their own voice. Distinct from a guest appearance, which is editorial rather than paid.
I
- Interview format
- A show structured around conversations with guests, as opposed to solo commentary, co-hosted banter, or narrative documentary. Only interview-format shows are realistic pitch targets.
M
- Media kit
- A fuller version of a one-sheet, sometimes including headshots, logos, past appearances and audience figures. Hosts rarely need this much; the one-sheet usually suffices.
N
- Niche podcast
- A show serving a narrow, specific audience. Smaller reach, far higher intent, and usually a better use of a founder’s time than a general-interest show ten times the size.
O
- One-sheet
- A single page a prospective guest sends a host containing their bio, topics, suggested questions, proof of expertise and links. Also called a media kit or speaker sheet.
P
- Pay-per-placement
- A pricing model where you are charged for each booking secured. Lower risk for a single appearance, but the cost rises with campaign success, which inverts the incentive at volume.
- Pitch angle
- The specific episode idea you offer a host, as opposed to a description of yourself. "Why most SaaS pricing advice is wrong" is an angle; "I am a pricing expert" is not.
- Placement
- A confirmed, scheduled recording with a podcast. A pitch sent or a reply received is not a placement, and the difference matters when comparing agency guarantees.
- Podcast SEO
- The search value of a guest appearance: the episode page, show notes and transcript typically carry a link and rank for your name and topic.
- Podcast booking agency
- A service that finds relevant podcasts, pitches you as a guest, and handles the scheduling on your behalf. Pricing is usually either a monthly retainer or a fee per placement.
- Podcast directory
- A searchable index of shows. Public directories help with discovery but rarely record whether a show actually takes guests, which is the thing a prospective guest needs to know.
- Podcast guesting
- Appearing as an interview guest on someone else’s podcast to reach their audience, rather than hosting a show of your own.
- Positioning call
- The working session that establishes your topics, angles and target shows before any outreach begins. The quality of everything downstream depends on it.
- Pre-interview call
- A short call some hosts run before recording, to check fit and agree direction. Treat it as part of the booking, not a formality.
- Publishing cadence
- How often a show releases episodes. A useful liveness signal: a show that has not published in three months is effectively dormant even if its back catalogue is large.
R
- RSS feed
- The XML file a podcast publishes its episodes through. It is the source of truth for episode count, cadence and often the contact address for the show.
- Repurposing
- Turning one recorded appearance into clips, quotes, posts and written assets, so a single hour of work feeds months of content.
S
- Show notes
- The written summary published alongside an episode, usually containing guest links. Often the only backlink a guest appearance produces, which makes it worth asking about.
- Solo show
- A podcast presented by one person with no guests. Pitching one is a wasted email regardless of how well the topic fits.
T
- Talk track
- A rehearsed way of explaining a specific idea concisely. Not a script, but the difference between a fluent answer and a rambling one.
- Target list
- The set of shows an agency intends to pitch on your behalf. You should approve it before any outreach begins; an agency unwilling to share one first is a warning sign.
- Top-tier show
- A large, well-known podcast with substantial reach. Harder to book, longer lead times, and valuable more for the credibility of the association than the direct response.
W
- Warm introduction
- An introduction made by someone both parties trust. Hosts and fellow guests become a reliable source of these, which is one of the less-discussed returns on guesting.
Next step
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