How to Get Answers: Steal This Journalist’s Strategy for Better Interviews
If you’ve jumped on the bandwagon of adding interviews to your company blog, then you might have realized an inconvenient truth—interviewing takes skill.
Here’s the bad news: most marketers don’t know how to interview.
These writers don’t research enough background information and when the interview starts, they fumble with basic questions without getting the answers they want.
A bad interview is a waste of everyone’s time. Do you really want your source wondering: “Why did I agree to this in the first place?”.
Remember why you’re doing this in the first place. A botched interview won’t help your content strategy or improve your SEO metrics. If you want to reap the rewards from good content, you need to put in the work.
But don’t worry: you can learn interview skills. Once you do, you’ll turn conversations into an effective tool in your writing arsenal.
In my 20+ year journalism career, I’ve perfected an easily reproducible process for effectively interviewing people and turning their answers into compelling stories.
Stop awkward, unproductive interviews and get great answers by learning how to:
Ask the right questions to prompt detailed answers
Leverage the power of silence
Close out an interview by tying up loose ends.
Why Do Interview Skills Matter?
To get a proper ROI on your content marketing, you need to invest into all the pieces of a good interview.
Basic interview techniques are essential for writing.
Whether you are telling the story of your startup’s founder or asking subject matter experts to provide their spin on a topic, your interview skills can make or break the final piece.
As a journalist, I’ve interviewed Nobel Prize winners, business entrepreneurs and innovators. I’ve also spoken with refugees, parents grieving the loss of a child, and a delightful WWII veteran who jumped out of a plane on D-Day.
The personalities and experiences of the people I speak with may be different, yet the interview technique is always the same.
The key to a great interview is simple:
Warm up with basic questions
Build on initial answers with open-ended prompts.
This way, you can tease out the natural storyteller lurking within even the most reluctant introverts.
And when someone finally opens up you can gather the facts, details, and emotions you’ll need for a compelling story.
Help The Interviewee Get Comfortable by Setting the Tone
Ease Into The Interview
Help your source become comfortable with interviewing.
It’s your job to make your source comfortable. Remember, most people are not used to a stranger asking them questions. Help them relax by chatting about some simple and light topics first.
Once your source is comfortable, let them know you’ll be recording the interview for accuracy. I’ve never had anyone object to recording, but it’s good practice to have a notebook and pen just in case.
Next, explain that the interview is a collaboration: it’s their story and you’re here to help tell it.
Explain that if they don’t want to answer a question, they are under no obligation to answer. If they don’t want something published, they’re free to say it’s off the record.
Start With The Basics
Ask for background information first.
Start by asking basic questions. Ask your subject how to spell their full name, and their pronouns. If relevant to your story, ask their age, where they are from and where they live now.
Asking biographical questions first starts the conversation. And you’ll avoid getting to the end of the interview and realizing you don’t know the spelling of someone’s name.
Ask Simple Questions For Best Answers
Open-ended questions encourage in-depth answers.
If you’re new to interviewing, you may make one of these common mistakes:
Assume that your pre-prepared questions are enough.
Ask questions that get “yes” or “no” answers without elaboration from your source.
“An interview should be a conversation with a purpose,” advises journalism instructor Rachel Coker.
By asking open-ended questions and use conversation prompts, you’re helping your source tell you the facts in their own words.
Here are the questions that I ask during every interview:
What happened?
What happened next?
What was that like?
What do you remember about…?
How did that affect you?
How did you react?
Why is that important?
Discover Rich Details with Conversation Prompts
Conversation prompts help you dig deeper to understand someone’s experience.
Facts alone won’t make for an engaging piece of content. To compel readers you’ll need details.
“The secret to good reporting is details, details, details,” said Anthony Borrelli, an experienced criminal justice journalist.
Details are what makes each person’s story unique and will add depth, color and texture to your final story. And with those details you have a chance at actually impacting your readers and standing out in Google Search results.
These are the conversation prompts that I use for discovering those details:
Tell me about that moment…
Describe the scene for me…
Tell me what you saw…
Tell me what it sounded like…
Tell me what it smelled like…
Describe how you felt when it was happening…
You can use this line of questioning in other contexts too! If you’re talking through internal decisions with your team, you could use prompts similar to this graphic from the developer marketplace Lemon.io:
Graphic with questions & suggestions for incorporating details into your branding. Shared by Lisa Dziuba for Lemon.io.
Whether you’re interviewing a subject-matter expert (SME) for marketing content or talking through internal branding decisions, incorporate all five senses.
You can use my questions or Lemon.io’s graphic to prompt more descriptive answers in your interviews and conversations. When you prompt people to reveal details like sound, feel, color, word choice, texture…. you can refine your voice and craft “non-boring” marketing materials.
Be A Deep Listener
Show You’re Listening With Follow Up Questions
Deep, active listening leads to thoughtful questions.
Asking questions is only the first part part of becoming a skilled interviewer. To discover opportunities for in-depth insights, you need to become a great listener.
“Listen and ask questions based on the answers you get,” said journalist Jim Reith.
By hearing and actively processing what people are saying, you’ll make connections and notice opportunities for following up.
Here are the questions I ask when someone tells me about a dramatic event:
How did your body react?
What did you think then?
Describe how that made you feel…
Tell me how this changed you…
What would you do differently now?
Leverage Silence and Pauses
Silence is powerful. Use it to your advantage.
When your subject pauses, you may be tempted to jump straight to the next question. Resist that urge.
A pause in conversation will encourage your subject to reveal more. Nod and use eye contact to let them know you’re interested and what to know more.
“Get comfortable with uncomfortable silences,” said Coker. “Ask a question and be willing to wait until your source answers it.”
By not immediately jumping to the next question, you’re making space for them to express a thought or feeling that is right beneath the surface.
Wrap Up the Interview
Clarify Any Points of Confusion
If you’re confused during the interview, you’ll be confused when you write.
As you’re finishing up the interview, ask yourself if you understand the story. If you need clarification, ask your subject to explain more or repeat what they said.
Refer to your notes and the list of questions you planned to ask. Make sure you didn’t miss anything before ending that Zoom meeting.
If you need clarification, ask your subject to elaborate or repeat themselves. People are happy to have the opportunity to express themselves more clearly.
Finish Strong with a Concluding Question
One final question is often the best question.
Now that the hard part is over, you can make the interview even more successful by asking one final question.
This simple question can do a lot for you:
Reiterate your interest
Remind the subject of what you discussed
Elicit an answer which sums up the entire story.
Before you leave you end the interview ask “Is there anything else you want people to know?”
Start Telling Better Stories
You nailed the interview and are set to tell a great story
You now have all the skills you need to conduct an amazing interview.
Go into the world and try my journalism trade tools— open-ended prompts, active listening and a final question. Use these professional secrets to tap into details and tell scroll-stopping stories that will get your content the attention it deserves.
One day you might even find interviewing is fun. I know I do.
If you want to go deeper and learn how to write up the interview into a compelling piece, take a look at my guide on that topic.
