You’re ready to start pitching podcasts — congrats! You recognize that podcasts are one of the best ways to increase your reach and you have a plan to bring your message to more people. This is an exciting time, but it also comes with a ton of questions.
What should you include in your pitch?
How long should you wait to follow up?
How do you know where to submit your pitch?
We answer questions like this (and many more) in this blog, but there’s one more question we want to answer: How long will it take to see a booked interview go live? Podcast interviews aren’t like client discovery calls or sales calls — they can take longer to book, to edit, and to finally publish. So, what are reasonable podcast pitch timelines to expect?
We answer questions like this (and many more) in this blog, but there’s one more question we want to answer: How long will it take to see a booked interview go live? Podcast interviews aren’t like client discovery calls or sales calls — they can take longer to book, to edit, and to finally publish. So, what are reasonable podcast pitch timelines to expect?
Important podcast pitch timelines to consider
From pitching to hearing your published interview on the airwaves, here’s a general idea of what you can expect:
From the pitch email to booking the interview
There’s one major misconception about podcast pitching that we’d like to lay to rest: This idea that you can send a podcast pitch and listen to your recorded podcast interview within a week or two.
The truth is that most podcasts can take 1-2 weeks to even review your pitch, and some can take even longer. When you pitch a podcast, keep that in mind. Send your first (and only!) follow-up about 10-14 days later. This gives everyone on the podcast team a chance to review your initial inquiry.
Scheduling times for interviews
Once you get a response from the podcast host or their team, it’s usually to ask further questions or set up a time for the interview. That’s where scheduling conflicts can come into play. We’re all busy and podcast hosts often batch their interviews, which means that your interview could be more than a month out once your pitch is accepted.
This doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong; it doesn’t mean you chose the wrong podcasts to pitch. This is fairly standard across the board.
Time between interviewing and publishing
Last but not least, just because you’ve done a podcast interview, it doesn’t mean that your episode will air tomorrow. Even smaller-scale podcasts that are just starting out need a bit more time for editing, show notes, and so on.
We’ve seen that, on average, it takes 2 months for an interview to go live after an interview.
It’s not unusual for it to take 6 months. Our internal policy is to check in with a podcaster if an interview hasn’t gone live within 6 months of an interview, and I encourage you to do the same
All of that to say: Pitching is not an overnight strategy.
If you’ve just started pitching podcasts and you’re wondering why things aren’t happening faster, don’t let it discourage you. Instead, build this timeline into your pitching expectations and your own calendar, so you know when to start pitching at times that are most in line with your own goals.
You’ll want to consider that most podcasts record well in advance, and many take the summers and winter holidays off from recording. Those interviews you hear in July were often recorded back in March!
That means you’ll want to start pitching podcasts at least 3 to 4 months before you ever expect the episode to air. Depending on your goals and the size of the podcasts you want to book, you might want to plan even further out. We start book launch projects 8 months before publication!
Success is all in the pitch
Of course, there’s another element to getting pitches booked in a timely fashion: You want to send a great pitch. We’re about to announce something really exciting in just a couple of days that can help you:
1. Rock your next podcast pitch
2. Save time batching your pitches so you get more bookings in less time.
If you want to be the first to hear about it – and get a special offer — make sure you’re on our email list!