The skill of conducting compelling interviews is vital for content marketers. What five key things should we remember?
Content marketing is the process of engaging an audience in your business or product. And when it comes to driving engagement, a human face may well be the most effective means.
Whether speaking to a subject on camera for video, on mic for audio, or simply writing up a conversation, the skill in coaxing an engaging interview is often overlooked – and rarely taught.
A B2B video, for example, simply won’t be successful if it seems stale or overly formal. In this case, it is useful to look outside the corporate world for inspiration.
Start off slowly
The author Shel Israel, writing for Forbes, draws on thousands of hours of experience spent interviewing people with his advice for a good interview.
According to Israel, an interview should start “slow, safe and personal”. A gentle beginning helps the interviewee relax into the conversation.
In a B2B environment, the answer to this question may well not end up being used, but you can bet the second (more relevant) question will be answered better by the now-relaxed interviewee.
Which brings us on to…
Check your equipment
If your subject is even the slightest bit nervous, fiddling with microphones or cameras for 15 minutes will exacerbate the problem, as well as projecting a lack of professionalism on your part.
The golden rule is simple: know your equipment inside out and test it all thoroughly beforehand. Which settings to use; how to adjust the levels; how to troubleshoot. And bring spare cables too.
On a slightly different note, avoid leather jackets and sofas or run the risk of an irritating, and impossible to remove, squeaking noise.
Be aware of any fidgety finger tapping or scratching – especially likely if the subject isn’t used to being interviewed. The sound level check is also vital. Don’t just ask for a simple ‘one, two’ – you need more than just a few words. Ask them to describe their breakfast or their journey to the location.
When it comes to post-production and the technicalities, you will need to trust the experts. Anyone can record audio or video in a reasonably proficient way, but it takes a professional to understand the intricacies.
Don’t over-prepare
Even within the corporate confines of a business interview, interviewer and interviewee knowing each other’s questions and answers makes for an excruciatingly dull exchange. Don’t send over the exact questions in advance if at all possible. Instead, supply subjects and topics to keep things fresher, and mix up the order.
It’s vital to avoid the sense of reeling off a prepared statement. To digress from the business world, podcast pioneer and conversationalist Marc Maron has espoused the value of not preparing too much for interviews – instead bringing in a page of vague topics to aim for during the conversation.
Listen
The most obvious point of all, but perhaps the most important.
An interviewer who goes over something already covered previously in the interview immediately loses the trust of the subject. Along with the advice to not over-prepare, avoiding sticking rigidly to a list of questions will allow you to listen and engage properly with your subject. And if you’re engaged, so will the audience be.
Also under the bracket of ‘listen’ is the importance of keeping quiet. In normal conversation we punctuate pauses with all sorts of “uh huhs” and “hmms” – but that will quickly grate on the ear of a listener or viewer.
It’s a tough technique to avoid making noise, but it’s vitally important. Make do with nodding and smiling instead (although too much of that is likely to be equally distracting for the interviewee).
Kill your darlings
As is so often the case when it comes to creating content, less is more. Editing is therefore essential.
It is a sad fact that there will be things you love which have to be chopped. If you’re doing video interviews, be sure to film some B-roll (supplemental shots and cutaway footage) to help mask the breaks.
Whittling down content to the bare essentials is a difficult task, but the finished product will live or die on how well it has been edited.
It’s a vague guideline to work by, but very often if your gut instinct is to shorten/cut something, but then you talk yourself into keeping it…you should probably get rid of it.
Content Cloud is a great place to find talented content creators, and is used by leading brands to work with a range of specialist video producers.
And for a bit more inspiration, you could take a look at this highlights reel from Sir Clive Woodward speaking at a Business Leaders event in December, hosted by REED Global and supported by the team at Progressive Content.
