How to Spy on a Competitor’s Podcast Guesting Strategy

In this article, we’ll break down why piecing together their competitor’s podcast guesting strategy matters and how to use Rephonic to get a clear view of what’s happening behind the scenes, including:

• The reach of podcasts your competitors are appearing on
• Audience demographics for those shows
• Recurring themes and topics covered
• What call-to-action (CTA) they use

The truth is, you can learn a lot by investigating a competitor's podcast guest appearances. For marketing teams planning to get their CEO behind the mic or agencies pitching clients for interviews, these kinds of insights are gold.

Key Takeaways

• Doing a bit of recon can reveal many of the tactics behind a competitor's success.
• Competitor analysis can help you build your own target list of podcasts to pitch.
• The easiest way to uncover a competitor's podcast guesting strategy is with Rephonic.

How to find competitor podcast appearances using Spotify

Spotify's often the first port of call for marketers searching for podcasts to contact on behalf of their clients or bosses. That's not surprising, because so many people already have an account and it's relatively easy to find a podcast's name or episode number there.

With a little sleuthing, you can also search for podcasts where specific people have made guest appearances.

Try searching for the name (start with the founder, but you could also try another member of staff or the brand name), and Spotify will show podcasts that mention them.

This type of search is great for quickly seeing if your competitor is appearing on podcasts.

The problem is, it's hard to dive into the podcast's finer details on Spotify, and even more difficult to derive your competitor's strategy simply from a list of podcast names. You need the answers to many other questions to work that out.

How to spy on a competitor's podcast guesting approach using Rephonic

Here's a step-by-step guide to help you use Rephonic to uncover a rival's podcast guesting strategy.

#1. Search for episodes that mention your competitor

Rephonic's search bar gives you four options: Topic, Title, Publisher and Episodes. Choose Episodes to search for guest appearances over all podcasts.

1. Type the person's name in quotation marks.

(You might already know that competitor is running a podcast guest campaign because you've seen snippets on social media, so you probably know the right name to type. If not, but you're curious to know if they're running one, try searching the brand name or the founder or CEO to see what comes up.)

2. Apply the Guests filter.

This brings up podcasts that accept guests, so you'll find podcasts where your competitor gave an interview. However, you'll also bring up podcasts where they weren't a guest themselves but the host or guest mentioned their name.

🔍Tip: Try out the search bar’s Sort filter, too. Sort is automatically set to relevance, so the most relevant episodes appear first on the list. However, you could try sorting podcasts by listener numbers or asking for the most recent episodes first to re-stack the list.

#2. Click on a podcast where they are a guest

Rephonic's first two tabs are your window into the podcast's audience.

1. Find the podcast's key facts and figures

First up, you'll land on the Overview tab, which helps you build a picture of a podcast's key facts, figures and links.

See how long each show’s been broadcasting. After checking several podcasts, you might notice a pattern. For example, perhaps all their interviews are on shows with over 50 episodes and 10,000+ listeners (suggesting that competitor might prefer established shows and large audiences).

Check the Key Facts to see listener numbers. Is there a pattern? Maybe you notice that all the podcasts have under 500 listeners per month. That could mean they find smaller audiences more receptive. Or that they’re new to podcast appearances and are targeting smaller audiences to hone their interview skills.

Scroll down the Overview tab for other info like the podcast's Social channels and episode links.

2. Uncover listener demographics

In the Audience tab you'll find our analysis of the podcast's listener demographics. Research these for each podcast on your list to help you understand the type of audience a competitor is targeting.

See a profile of the podcast's typical listeners, then check where they're likely to live, relationship status, likely jobs, interests, gender, whether they're likely to be in a relationship etc. Together, they build a picture of the overall audience. If it overlaps with your client's target audience, add it to your podcast outreach list.

#3. Dig into your competitor's interview

First, tap the More episodes button to open the episode list. Then, enter your competitor's name into the episode search bar to find their interview.

Open the episode page.

Here's what you'll find on a Rephonic episode page

1. Episode description: This is the description that appears on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, etc.
2. Topics: Lists the major topics discussed during the interview.
3. Episode summary: Our AI-generated interview summary.
4. Transcript: Tap the button to open the full transcript, including a search bar. Use it to find stories, keyword mentions, calls to action, topic mentions etc. (Transcripts may not appear on the most recent episode, but should appear on all others.)

5.  Key moments: One-liners summarizing memorable moments in the conversation and timestamp links to the audio version and transcript.

6.  Q&As: Notes on some of the questions asked and answered—again with timestamp links.

7.  Format & Tone: Briefly summarizes the format (interview style, solo, discussion...) and tone (casual, informative, inspiring...)

8.  Evergreen: Checked ✔ if the episode contains evergreen content (i.e., it doesn't date.)

These episodes features help you find the most relevant information fast, whether you're uncovering someone else's strategy or planning your own pitches and campaigns.

Why uncover a competitor's podcast guest appearances?

Spying on brands similar to yours can reveal a heap of information to help you and your client form a podcast interview style and strategy.

It lets you:

🔍 Discover the podcasts that drive results

If you see competitors appearing on similar podcasts, it may be because those shows are converting listeners into customers, leads, or partnerships.

That intel gives you a head start on your client’s podcast interview campaign with an example of a channel mix that’s working.

Instead of pitching blindly, you can target the same podcasts and then give it your own spin by contacting other podcasts with those audiences.

🔍 Spot messaging and content gaps your CEO can exploit

What stories and examples do your competitors use? Which topics do they cover? What questions do they answer?

And how can your CEO use that knowledge to improve their own podcast interview?

Sometimes, seeing what they don’t talk about can help as much as knowing what they said. For example, perhaps there are topics they’ve never mentioned. Maybe they rarely cite concrete case studies, or talk product instead of customer outcomes?

Your CEO could fill those gaps with lessons learned, give key takeaways from customer case studies and tackle the topics their competitor missed. That gives them a point of difference (and you something to mention in your outreach emails).

🔍 Save time on show qualification

Don’t guess whether a podcast attracts your client’s target audience. Instead, use a rival’s guesting pattern to weed out poor-fit shows. When you spot another brand’s podcast appearance, do a little detective work around the audience demographics.

If the podcast attracts the right listeners, then it passes its first “fit test.” So add it to your Possibilities list for further research. If not, you can probably discard it now and move on.

🔍 Investigate frequency and campaign timing

Track when and how often your client's or brand's competitors guest on podcasts. Does it seem steady and consistent—perhaps an episode or two a month? Or do they do podcast tours (i.e., many guest appearances within a short timeframe) around product launches or book drops?

Understanding their pattern can help you and your client decide between a steady campaign or a podcast sprint.

🔍 Reveal PR and outreach tactics

If you really want to dig deep, you might investigate the show notes, descriptions and episode transcripts to uncover the language used in their bio copy or the CTAs they use. Recurring language or themes might reveal what's working for them.

For example, are they using specific CTAs? Do they keep making the same offers? That could be a clue to their podcast marketing strategy and that it's working well.

Do they mention particular resource links, offer discounts or other incentives? If your brand has similar offers, your marketing team could test and improve on a comparable strategy.

All the details you uncover about your competitor’s podcast guest strategies will compound. Once you’ve gathered all the evidence, you’ll have more than just a list of shows; you’ll have a blueprint for your own strategic podcast guest campaign.

Final thoughts

Podcast guesting research doesn’t have to involve guesswork. By studying where your CEO or client’s peers appear and how they approach each interview, you can design a guesting campaign that’s smarter, faster, and more strategic.

Every detail you uncover about other brands’ guest appearances adds up to a clearer picture of what works.

Rephonic helps you connect the dots.

Pitch smarter, reach the right audiences, and grow your client’s visibility through podcast guest appearances. Start today with a 7-day free trial.