High-quality content is vital for brands that want to stand out and engage their target audiences. In the years following the pandemic, interview content has emerged as a powerful format to achieve these goals. According to a 2023 survey of marketers, 25% of brands are experimenting with expert interviews in their content strategy and seeing great results.
This shift is largely due to increased demand for authenticity, as audiences crave genuine connections and insights in an era where they are inundated with information.
An expert interview adds credibility to your content and aligns with Google's E-E-A-T framework (expertise, experience, authority, trustworthiness). These qualities not only make your article content more likely to rank well on Google, expert opinions also make your marketing messages more memorable and more likely to be shared and commented on by like-minded industry thought leaders.
With that in mind, here is our comprehensive guide to conducting interviews to create authentic, impactful articles. Read on to learn more.
When choosing interviewees for your content marketing strategy, the goal is to find individuals who can provide genuine social proof and demonstrate the true value of your product or service in ways that may not be evident in customer reviews, surveys, or informative blog posts.
Look for people with relevant industry experience and a proven track record of solving problems similar to your target audience's, as 84% of consumers trust the opinions of their peers.
That said, your ideal interviewee should also offer nuanced opinions—even if they're not always positive. Painting a realistic picture of your subject matter helps you establish authority and build trust with your audience.
Once you have made a list of potential interviewees, create a tailored outreach email outlining the goal of the interview content and the advantages of participating for both parties. For instance, highlight how your article could increase their online visibility and give them the chance to share their valuable insights with a relevant audience.
Before the interview, take the time to thoroughly research your interviewee's background. Highlight their industry experience, education, and previous accomplishments. This exercise will help demonstrate their authority and lend weight to their opinions and insights.
Additionally, conduct extensive research on your subject. This preparation allows you to skip over basic information your audience may already know and delve into your topic's more complex or unexplored areas, setting your article content apart from your competitors.
Send your questions to the interviewee beforehand to give them time to reflect, gather relevant information and prepare thoughtful responses. This exercise can help you elicit more in-depth answers, including concrete statistics on things like ROI, to provide credibility to your final article.
Additionally, when submitting your questions, clearly communicate the purpose of the interview content and how their responses will be used. This transparency builds trust in your interviewee and can lead to a more open and honest dialogue. However, be careful not to lead the interviewee to a specific viewpoint. Instead, help them understand how their insights might benefit readers.
During the interview, create a comfortable environment that encourages them to share their experiences and honest opinions. Engage in active listening, and be prepared to ask follow-up questions and explore new tangents that may come up in your conversation.
While you must also be mindful of respecting their time, let the interview take interesting turns where relevant so your audience can understand more about how they reached their opinions and consider other perspectives they may or may not have considered before.
Also, capture the interviewee's unique tone of voice, as it serves as a linguistic bridge to your audience. Preserving their authentic vocabulary and speech patterns creates content that resonates more deeply with readers, making complex topics more relatable and digestible.
Once your final write-up is complete, allow the interviewee to review your article content before it's published to ensure they're happy with how their points of view are conveyed.
This will help you establish trust with both the interviewee and the reader. Plus, if they like what they see, allow them to publish the story on their social media profiles or use their quotes for their own personally branded content, which will help get their opinions shared more widely.
Consider repurposing the interview content in multiple formats. For example, use video, so you can incorporate the recording into a podcast or webinar.
Alternatively, convert the full-length conversation into episodic snippets to capture your audience's attention on short-form social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok.
You can also convert their key points into infographics or illustrated posts to capture the interviewee's ideas and turn them into conversation-starters to boost engagement.
We hope you found our expert interview tips valuable for enhancing your content strategy. Incorporating expert interviews allows you to genuinely inform and engage your audience while expanding your reach to a wider demographic.
CopyHouse applies strategic content marketing to tech-led B2B clients, both domestically and internationally. Find out more about how we can help optimise your use of LinkedIn and align it with your campaigns and content activity — contact us at marketing@copyhouse.io.
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