The Email I Use To Land Top Interviews
At the end of a talk that I gave at Wordcamp LA about video blogging, I told the audience that I’d show them the email I use to get all the great interviews on Mixergy.com. Here it is with a few notes.
The 3-part layout I use
Line 1: A single sentence that clearly asks what I want.
Line 2: A sentence or two explaining what I do and what this interview is about.
Line 3: A link to a past interview so they can see a sample of my work.
A sample of the email
Hi Seth Godin:
Can I interview you via video Skype on Tuesday, Sept 1 @ 11 AM Pacific?
This is for Mixergy.com, where I interview entrepreneurs about how they launch and grow their businesses. I’d like to interview you about how you built Squidoo.com.
You can see a sample of my work in this interview with Gregg Spiridellis:
https://mixergy.com/jibjab-history-gregg-spiridellis
Andrew Warner
Founder, Mixergy.com
Who you should start interviewing
– Your first interviews should be with people you know and have been curious to learn more about. They’re more likely to agree to an interview and more likely to understand when things go wrong.
– Your next set of interviews should be with people who speak at local events. Look for speakers who are getting their careers going and are looking to raise their profiles and get more speaking opportunities.
– When you’re ready to move on to celebrities in your space, aim for the ones who are known for doing interviews with new people. If you’ve been reading blogs in your space, you’ll see them interviewed there.
Tips for making your email work
– I keep it short. You’re going to want to say more about your work and why you want this interview. Don’t. Long emails are a burden. Let your site’s about page speak on your behalf.
– Have a well-written about page on your site. I’ve found that most interviewees read mine before they do the interview.
– Don’t offer to give them anything in return. Don’t offer to help them sell tons of books, drive more traffic to their sites, or make them into celebrities. You probably don’t have enough sway to do any of those things. Trust that people will want to do interviews with you because they believe in your work and/or like to help people and/or want the Google hit that your interview will give them.
What equipment you need
Don’t stress over the equipment. Really. At first, you could probably just make a call, take good notes, and write up a blog post based on your conversation.
Having said that, since you probably want to know what I use, here’s my list.
Skype to call my interviewee
ecamm to record the conversation
ScreenFlow to record a backup of the conversation and to edit the video
Blue Snowball mic to eliminate the hum and background noise from my audio
iSight (built into my computer) to capture my video
CamTwist
Give me your feedback
– I’m constantly improving. If you see something I can do better, tell me.
– What else would you like to know? Based on your comments, I’ll add details to this and post it on Mixergy.com
– Who are you planning to interview?