You’ve seen how the interview method can be used to generate leads, establish relationships and leverage those relationships into sales, success and status. Now let’s take a look at a variation on this method that can be used simultaneously with Method A to generate additional leads and produce even more spectacular results.
Your business has, or should have, a specific suite of products and services that play to your talents and strengths as a marketer. These strengths or talents are your particular niche in the marketing world. This niche can be anything. The other marketers in your niche are an invaluable resource for your business. They have knowledge you may not have. They have experience in areas you may not have considered or encountered. They have an established audience different from yours. These factors have a collective power to boost your business to a new level.

Lead Generation Interview Method B: Interview Other Marketers

With Method B, instead of interviewing business owners, you interview other marketers in your niche. The interview can be conducted live, as a webinar, to an audience of invited attendees who have provided contact information in exchange for this invitation. Alternatively, the interview can be recorded and then sent to an audience who has provided contact information in exchange for a copy of this recording. Either way, this method will build your online presence in a number of important ways. This increased presence, in turn, provides you with a number of indirect benefits that allow you, in the long run, to effectively generate more leads, make more money and increase your online presence yet again. Let’s take a look at the specifics of how this all works and the benefits you gain as a result.

Process of Interviewing Other Marketers

The first thing you need to implement this method is a website dedicated to your online presence. Because of this, you need to find a good domain.  Just remember to choose a domain name that describes you, your brand or the services you provide. For example, {yourname}.com works as the best possible brand, since you, your style and personality are your brand. Additionally, {yourtagline}.com or {yourservices}.com conveys the essence of your business philosophy or the quality of your product to the audience and your leads.
Here is a quick video of how The Interview – Method A works.

Next, as you learned earlier in the section on The Interview – Method A, you will have to build out your website and add content. The steps listed above, in the earlier section, for doing both of these things are applicable here. The only difference is that the content you place on your site will reflect you, your outlook and what it is that you do in your business. Keep in mind that this website is your primary place of business on the internet for this particular business model. Don’t forget to let your audience know the products and services that you offer and what you charge for them.
Once you have your site up and running and have your content loaded, you can begin scheduling interviews. Get involved in social media groups that specialize in your niche. Participate in discussions and ask questions. The more you participate, the higher your online profile becomes. Be yourself and you’ll soon find that others are attracted to your particular style and viewpoints. Also, don’t be afraid to contact other marketers, even if you are new to this particular niche. Smart marketers will immediately be able to see the value in conducting an interview with you.
When someone agrees to be interviewed, make sure that you follow through and set a firm date and time for the interview. Also decide ahead of time whether the interview will be conducted live, in front of an audience, or will be pre-recorded and distributed later. Remember that you can also combine both these approaches by doing a live interview and later distributing a recording to everyone who has signed up to be an attendee.
If you decide to use a webinar format for the interview, there are a number of sites that provide webinar hosting for a fee. Take a look at GoToWebinar, MeetingBurner or AnyMeeting and find a webinar plan that suits your needs. If you have also decided to record your live, webinar-style interview for distribution later, all of these sites allow you to easily record and download the interview. Alternatively, you can transform a Google hangout into a private and monetized webinar by using one of the many software plug-ins that have been developed for this purpose. Just Google “Google hangout webinar” and take a look at your choices.
If you decide to pre-record the interview for distribution later, there are a number of iPhone and Android apps that allow you to clearly and professionally record a phone call. Go to the app store of your choice, search “record phone conversation” and pick one that seems right for you. You then simply conduct your interview over the phone using the app you’ve chosen. You can then download this recording from your phone to your computer and distribute the result as an mp3 file to the people who’ve signed up for a copy.
Next you’re going to have to set up a squeeze page in order to collect the contact information from people who want to attend the webinar and/or receive a copy of the recorded interview. The squeeze page can be set up as a separate page on your main website or you can use a service such as LeadPages which provides an all-in-one solution for a monthly fee.
Finally, you’re going to need an auto responder to collect and organize all the warm leads you’re going to generate using this strategy. The three main auto responders used by almost all marketers are Aweber (my favorite), Mailchimp and GetResponse. They all offer different plans for different needs. Take a look and choose one that fits your current business model.
Once you decide on the date, time and format of the interview, as well as have your squeeze page and auto responder set up, you need to begin publicizing the interview. To do this, you will send out e-mails, Skype posts, Facebook posts and Tweets all describing the interview. Each of these will contain a link to your squeeze page. Interested parties will click on this link, be directed to your squeeze page where they will provide contact information in exchange for an invitation to the webinar, a copy of a recording of the interview or both. This contact information represents your leads and they are solid gold to you, since they represent people who are active, involved and interested in the niche where you do business.
When you publicize the interview, remember to utilize your social media contacts within your niche to get the word out. The marketer you are interviewing should also be more than willing to publicize the interview within their circle of contacts. Remember, this is your gig to generate leads. So, don’t be afraid to beat your own drum!
Once the interview is over, remember to follow up by sending a copy of the recoding of the interview to every lead, along with an e-mail thanking them for their interest. Remember to include links back to your main site in the e-mail and don’t forget to tell each lead that if they have any further questions to contact you. Also, congratulations! You’ve just taken another step towards making your business more profitable.

Benefits of Interviewing Your Niche Marketers

The benefits of using this interview method are tremendous. First, the interview itself is valuable content for your site. As you do more interviews, you keep building your stock of this Grade A content. As you already know, content in king when it comes to online presence. This leads us to the second benefit.
The content on your site, the publicity and new contacts surrounding the interviews and the fact that you are the one conducting the interviews all raise you online presence. People begin to recognize your name and associate that name with what you do. This, in turn, establishes you as an authority within your niche. Never underestimate the value of this reputation in other people’s eyes. People gravitate to authority. People trust authority. People buy from authority.
Another benefit of the interview method is that you are introduced to each interviewee’s audience every time you conduct an interview. These are people you likely would never have met but for the interview. They not only become familiar with you and begin to see you as an authority; they also comprise your growing pool of leads. They are now a part of your circle of influence. When you send them a well-timed e-mail offer regarding a product or service you provide these facts work to transform them from leads into paying customers.
Finally, the marketers you interview also become familiar with you. They begin to see that you’re a decent business person who follows through on projects. This, in turn, develops trust. When you have a new product or service for sale, these marketers will be much more likely to become your sales affiliates and send your offer to their customer lists. This results in even more money in your pocket and, since you’re in the business of making money, this is a good thing.

Takeaways for Interview Method B

• The Process;
  • Choose a business niche that plays to your strengths and talents;
  • Choose a relevant, on-point, domain name that describes your brand;
  • Build an attractive website around that brand;
  • Fill this website with quality content, again built around your brand;
  • Get involved in your business niche through social media and networking;
  • Schedule interviews with fellow marketers in your niche;
  • Decide on an interview format;
  • Set up a squeeze page and an auto responder to gather the leads you generate;
  • Conduct the interview and distribute the results.
• The Benefits;
  • You build a stockpile of quality content for your website;
  • You establish yourself as an authority in your niche;
  • You are introduced to new audiences and gain their trust;
  • You are introduced to new marketers and gain their trust;
  • All of the above increases your bottom line.

I’ll continue to cover additional lead generating methods in my next post about Leading with Content.