Expert interviews give you an excellent opportunity to promote your small business because it’s the kind of content that spreads quickly. The reasons for their sharability stem from the fact that you have a trustworthy niche expert, and the same expert will have a greater interest in sharing.
Therefore, whether presented in a blog or a video, expert interviews create high volume traffic but require planning to ensure they make a difference.
Follow this guide to make sure your expert interviews become your most potent content strategy:
Finding Industry Experts
You can find experts for your industry in several places, but the most passionate will have exposure in newspapers and magazines, so scan their websites. Furthermore, professors and other university staff are other valuable resources, covering a great range of topics. Finally, if your small business requires more generic topics than those provided by an expert, look to popular bloggers to share their information.
Reach out to these experts by sending an email highlighting the deadline, but always avoid reaching out to the same ones used by your competitors.
Prepare The Interview
The first step in preparing for the interview is to define a clear goal of the questions and answers you want to address with the expert about your industry. Then, do your research, including from your competitors, and aim to get ideas and opinions that your target audience -both clients and potential ones – will find helpful.
Industry experts are usually willing to share their knowledge and views since it also gives them publicity, especially when they want to promote a book or new development.
Ask the Right Questions
Your approach for starting the interview will depend on the person and industry. First, find out beforehand how the expert wants you to introduce them to your audience. Then work on developing the right questions.
As a rule, you could start the interview by finding out more about the person by asking them about their back story, including how they got interested in the industry. Furthermore, you could ask about what they have learned, share significant events and give your audience some advice.
If the expert has written a book, make sure to have read a copy beforehand, and if they have a new program, get some facts before the interview. Keep notes on the points that your audience will find interesting, and you can plan to start the discussion with an engaging opening question that will immediately draw your audience and lead to a whole lot of other questions.
Basic journalism courses teach students to ask the “five w’s,” who, what, where, when, and why. You can also include “how.” These questions don’t restrict the interviewee to giving one-word responses but require them to elaborate.
Always avoid bias by keeping the questions broader. Avoid assuming things in your questions; let the expert give the correct data. Finally, always dig deeper with your questions when the opportunity presents itself to get the expert to share more insights with your audience.
Wrapping Up the Interview
Always leave some time for wrapping up the interview properly – about five minutes. Then, when completing the interview, you could ask the expert to share their greatest advice with your followers or to promote themselves by asking where people can find out more about them.
If you are uncertain what questions to ask, watch other interviews with the expert for ideas. Never use the questions precisely, but use them as a basis to create your own. Sometimes the expert can also help you by telling you which questions will allow them to offer the best insights.
When you have a popular expert, commit to a follow-up interview toward the end of the discussion, creating anticipation with your audience for the next time.
Create a Well-Oiled Interview Process
Create a catchy name that matches your brand if you plan to include a weekly or monthly interview.
Also, experts don’t all feel comfortable speaking, so look for ways to organize the discussions, depending on the expert. For example, an initial set-up call can help you iron out any issues if you are doing an on-air video interview. In cases where your interviewee prefers to send you the written answers, provide them with a shared Google Drive document where you add the questions and the expert answers.
Final Take
Expert interviews can give your small business a voice but remember not to overuse them because they are often overwhelming. Instead, provide your audiences with diversified content, and throw in a powerful interview now and then to keep your audiences informed.
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