If you own a house with a garage you probably never use your front door. When my wife and I first got married we had a nice house in the suburbs with a 2 car garage. When we came home we pulled the car into the garage and walked in through the side door.
The front door was reserved for invited guests or complete strangers. When we invited people over, we made sure we were ready to greet them at the front door. Whenever a stranger knocked on our door, we'd ignore them until they left.
It's similar in business too. Most influencers know they must insulate themselves from all the noise online. Traditional ads and Social Media outreach are like using the front door. If you're not an an invited guests, you'll be treated as a complete stranger. If we want to make it impossible to ignore us, we need to come in through the side door.
In this article you'll see how you can get interviews with influencers by using the side door.
Here's what we'll cover:
- Where do we find the Influencer side door?
- You can't just walk in.
- Why this works
Where do we find the Influencer Side Door?
While it may seem impossible to cut through the noise and get an influencers attention. It's a whole lot easier than we think. Instead of ringing the doorbell and hoping they answer, we have to find the side door.
Over the years I've discovered a side door that almost always works. It's going to seem too simple, but I assure you every influencer has one. I've used this side door technique to connect with some pretty influential people in my market.
Almost all influencers have something for sale. It could be a book, product, or course. This is the side door to getting their attention. First thing we need to do is buy their product.
This accomplishes two things:
- When we buy products, we usually get a receipt. The receipt is eMailed to us. Take note of the eMail address the receipt came from, because we'll be using this later.
- When we buy products from our favorite influencers we're showing them we support their work. In his famous book, “Influence” best selling author Robert Cialdini talks about the Law of Reciprocity. Essentially, when you do something good for someone, they'll want to do something good for you. We'll talk more about this in a bit.
Now that we've located the side door it's time to talk about how to get a gracious welcome when we come knocking.
You can't just walk into the side door, you have to be invited
I'm from Florida. If you try to walk into someone's house without being invited you're liable to get shot. That's why you can't just walk in. Being invited is easier than you think once you've found the side door. Here's how you do it:
- After you've purchased the product, use it.
- Document your results.
- Use the contact eMail from the receipt to share your favorable results.
- Most times the Influencer will reach back out to thank you.
- You now have a direct line to the Influencer you want to interview.
In 2012 I used this method to book an interview with one of my favorite copywriters. His name is Ben Settle and he is known as the master of the 1 eMail workday. He is ferociously protective of his time, but he couldn't resist me.
I bought one of his eMail trainings. Used it to make $1,100 in one week. Then I wrote to tell him about my success. Not only did he agree to the interview, but he also featured my story in his eMail newsletter.
Before we move on, let's talk about why this works.
First, you've supported the Influencers work when you bought their product. Second, most people buy products and never use them. As a product creator this is frustrating, because we want people to get results when they invest into us. Third, you've validated their work be reporting favorable results. In essence you've given them a testimonial they can use to sell more of their work. Now let's talk about how to use the side door to book interviews.
Remember The Law Of Reciprocity?
You've found the side door to your favorite Influencer. Now you've established a direct line of communication with them. Their work has been validated and you've given them a testimonial.
All that's left to do is thank them and offer to share the story with your audience via an interview on your podcast. When you've followed all the steps in this article The Law of Reciprocity will be working in your favor. Your favorite influencer won't be able to resist your request for an interview.
Next Steps
We talked about Robert Cialdini in this article. There's lots of hype on how it works. For a contrarian look at the Law of Reciprocity and why it might be a total crock, listen to this episode of Daddy's Working Podcast https://thepodcastfactory.com/dwp-025/
When you're ready to create your own powerful podcast, let's talk. We can show you how to plug our system into your business so you're the influencer everyone wants to connect with. Book your 30 minute call at https://thepodcastfactory.com/start/
