How to Follow Up on a Podcast Pitch
If you pitched a podcast last week and heard nothing back, the host probably hasn't read your email yet. Plenty of hosts get several guest pitches a week, and yours may have slipped down the inbox.
Our rule at Rephonic, for our own outreach and for the pitch sequences we built into the app, is to send one follow-up and then stop. Every preset sequence in Rephonic sends the pitch plus exactly one follow-up.
Key takeaways
- In Backlinko's study of 12 million outreach emails, a single follow-up lifted replies by 65.8%.
- Most replies still come from the first email, so put most of your effort into the pitch.
- Wait 2 days for a small show that books a few weeks out, and about a week for a big show with a waiting list.
- Reply in the same thread and give the host something they didn't have in your first email.
- After two unanswered emails, close it out and pitch someone else.
Table of Contents
Should you follow up on a podcast pitch?
Plenty of podcasts are run by one or two people who fit email around making the show. If your pitch arrives on a recording day, the host may never scroll back to it, and when you follow up, your pitch is back at the top of their inbox.
There's data on this, though none of it is specific to podcasts. Backlinko and Pitchbox found that sending just one follow-up boosted replies by 65.8% across 12 million outreach emails. That study is from 2019. More recently, Instantly's 2026 cold email benchmark, based on campaigns sent through 2025, found that 58% of replies came from the first email and 42% from follow-ups.
We read that as a reason to send a follow-up and to spend most of your effort on the first email. If your pitches aren't getting replies at all, our guide on how to pitch a podcast is a better place to start.
How long to wait before following up
Rephonic's preset sequences send the follow-up 2 days after the pitch, and you can change that to anything from an hour to four weeks.
For a small show that books guests a few weeks ahead, 2 days is fine, since the host is likely still choosing next month's guests. Bigger weekly shows often book further ahead and take longer to work through their inbox, so we'd set the delay to a week for those.
Some shows tell you how long they take. If the guest page says "we reply within two weeks", wait the two weeks before you follow up.
And if a host replies with "check back in a month", you haven't been ignored. Put a reminder in your calendar and write back when they asked you to (that email doesn't count as your follow-up).
How many follow-ups should you send?
We'd send one. Cold email tools usually suggest more (Instantly's benchmark suggests spacing emails 3 to 4 days apart), and Rephonic's sequences let you add up to ten messages if you want them.
Hosts often know each other and pass guests between shows. We'd rather you didn't become known as the guest who sends four nudges.
Two unanswered emails mean the show is a no for now, and a third email won't change that.
If something changes a few months later, like a book coming out, you can pitch the same show again. Write it as a new email with a new reason to talk, and don't treat it as follow-up number three.
What to put in your follow-up
Reply to your original email so the follow-up sits in the same thread. The host can scroll down and see your full pitch without hunting for it. Rephonic sends follow-ups this way automatically.
Then add one thing the host didn't have before. It might be a recent interview you did, or a second topic in case the first didn't suit them. Keep the whole email to three or four sentences, because your bio and topics are already in the thread below.
A follow-up email example
Imagine you're the founder of a payroll startup and you pitched a small-business podcast a week ago. Your first email offered to talk about the hidden costs of hiring your first employee. Since then, you've been quoted in a trade publication about a change to overtime rules.
Your follow-up could look like this:
Hi Sarah, Just following up on my guest pitch from last week. Since I wrote, I was quoted in Accounting Today about the new overtime rules, and I'd guess plenty of your listeners are working out what those mean for their first hire. If the hiring-costs topic doesn't fit your calendar, I'm happy to talk through the overtime changes instead. Thanks, Daniel
It's short, and Sarah now has a new reason to book Daniel plus a backup topic.
Rephonic's preset follow-up templates have the same shape, with a slot for a recent development and a slot for a second topic.
What not to send
- "Just bumping this to the top of your inbox." The host has nothing new to respond to, so it's easy to skip a second time.
- Guilt lines like "I know you're busy, but I haven't heard back." The host knows they haven't replied!
- A brand new email with a different subject line. It splits the conversation, and the host has to go looking for your pitch.
- Attachments. Link to your media kit or one-sheet instead, since attachments from people the host doesn't know can land in spam.
What to do when they still don't reply
Mark the show as a no for now and stop emailing it.
Check the address you used before you give up on the show. Many shows have a separate producer or booking contact, and a pitch sent to an old general inbox may never have reached a person. If you find a better contact, sending your pitch to that person once is fair. Our guide on how to find a podcast's email address covers where to look.
If the contact was right, add the show to a list to revisit in six months or so, when you have a new angle.
How to automate podcast pitch follow-ups in Rephonic
Once you're pitching more than a handful of shows a month, keeping track of who got a follow-up, and when, gets messy fast. In Rephonic, you set the follow-up up once per campaign.
- Add the shows you want to pitch to a campaign.
- Pick a sequence. There are presets for pitching yourself or a client as a guest, for sponsorships and for cross-promotion.
- Set the follow-up delay.
- Choose your inbox and the days and hours your emails can go out.
When a host replies, the sequence stops for that show, so nobody who has already answered gets your follow-up. Rephonic also checks whether a reply came from a person or an auto-responder, and an out-of-office message won't cancel your follow-up.
If you'd like help with the wording, our guide to writing a podcast outreach email with AI shows how we draft pitches with ChatGPT.
Final thoughts
Send one follow-up with something new in it, 2 days after the pitch for a small show or a week after for a big one. If that doesn't get a reply, spend your time on the next show instead.
We think choosing the right shows does more for your bookings than any follow-up. Rephonic's listener numbers and audience demographics are there to help with that part, alongside contact details for over 4 million podcasts.
Start your 7-day Rephonic trial and send your next round of pitches with the follow-up already scheduled.