Below, you will find an unedited excerpt from my new book about building Internet-based businesses, Online Business from Scratch. To receive updates about the book, visit www.fromscratchbook.com.
A creative way to promote your brand and leverage other people’s audience is by getting yourself booked on podcasts that are relevant to your niche. A great time to do this is whenever you have a new product, a new service or a major piece of content that you want to promote. Many authors will do this when they launch a new book as a way to do a digital book tour of sorts. When you are interviewed on a podcast, the host is effectively introducing you to their audience and giving you an opportunity to sell your brand to their audience. If you interview well, listeners of your interview may start following your content and become part of your audience. Depending on the relationship you have with the podcast host, you may even be able to directly promote your products on their show if you give them an affiliate commission for each sale that you make. If that’s not an option, it’s still worthwhile to be a guest on other people’ podcasts to get out your name and the name of your brand.
In order to do this, create a list of relevant podcasts that you might be a good fit for. Make sure each podcast on the list actually has guests on their shows, because you’ll be wasting your time trying to pitch an interview to shows that don’t do interviews. For each podcast on the list, send an email directly to the host inquiring whether or not you would be a good fit for their show. In your email, focus exclusively on the informational value that you can provide to their audience. Never talk about what you being on their show could do for you, because frankly, they won’t care. You may not receive a response to your first email, but be persistent. Send a follow-up email every seven days until you get either a “yes” or “no” response from the host.
If a host says yes, prepare for the podcast by reviewing the topics that will be discussed on the show, getting a good microphone and testing you Skype setup by doing a call with your microphone and headphones with a friend a day before the show. At the end of the interview, the host will probably ask you how their listeners can find more about you. Write out exactly what you want to say to answer this question ahead of time. Focus on your main website and social media profiles. For extra credit, you might offer a lead magnet that is relevant to their audience so that you can collect email addresses.
Booking podcast interviews is a great way to build your audience, but the process of pitching shows can be somewhat time consuming. I recently became aware of a service called Interview Valet (www.interviewvalet.com), which will help get you booked on various podcasts. The service isn’t cheap, but it could be a way for you to shortcut the process of getting booked on podcasts.
Here is an example of a podcast interview inquiry email that I sent to Jaime Masters of Eventual Millionaire www.eventualmillionaire.com) during the launch of my first book:
Hi Jaime –
We haven’t had an opportunity to interact before, but I hope you enjoyed your trip to Portland for World Domination Summit. Instagram tells me that you kidnapped my good friend, Andy Traub over the weekend. You must have gotten sick of him and let him go because it appears he’s made it back to Sioux Falls in one piece (he and I live in the same town).
Anyway, I wanted to email you because I know that you regularly interview millionaires on your podcast (of which I am one). I’ve built a portfolio of technology-driven businesses that collectively generate seven-figures in profit annually (learn more at http://www.mattpaulson.com/about/) and have recently finished writing a book titled 40 Rules for Internet Business Success, which details the strategies and principles that I use to start, build and grow internet businesses. The book has been endorsed by Dan Miller, John Lee Dumas and a number of other people. The book is officially launching on 7/21 and I’ve attached a PDF and Kindle version for your consumption (if you’re interested).
If you think it would be helpful for your audience, I would love to have the opportunity to be a guest on an upcoming episode of your podcast and share some of the lessons that I’ve learned on my journey.
Let me know if that would be of interest to you.
Have a great day!
Matthew Paulson
Jaime said responded positively to my inquiry email and has since had me back on for a second interview. Although I hadn’t emailed Jaime directly before sending this inquiry, it worked because she and I have some mutual friends (including a couple that had already endorsed my book). I also focused primarily on the value I could provide for her audience and used a bit of humor to lighten the tone of the message. I also indicated that I was familiar with her podcast by noting that she only has millionaires on her show and by telling her that I met that qualification. All of these things put together indicated to her that I wasn’t just someone looking to pitch their stuff, but a friend-of-a-friend that was a fan of her show that could provide value to her audience.