How to Interview your Way to Amazing Content

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Ben:
Welcome back to another episode of content amplified today i'm joined by Allison. Allison welcome to the show.

Allison Bondi:
Hi, thanks for having me.

Ben:
Allison, I'm excited for this conversation. It is actually something I can learn from in real time. And you'll, we'll know what we're talking about in just a second. But Allison, before we dive in, let us get to know you, who you are, what you love about content. Let's quickly get to know you for a second and then dive in.

Allison Bondi:
Sure. So my background is in B2B, SaaS, kind of high tech, cybersecurity space, content marketing. And it's been a very interesting and rewarding industry to be in. Lots of problems, solution focused challenges, learning how to talk to difficult audiences or audiences that don't want to be marketed to.

People who are looking for authenticity. And that kind of is what has brought about our topic today is how to speak to people so that they will listen. And I don't want to steal your thunder, but it's really, I feel like a very strong staple in that and being able to reach your audience is through interviews and bringing in that peer authenticity, authority, and sense of trust from somebody who's looking at you eye to eye.

Ben: 

Allison, thank you for the introduction. Super excited about the conversation. So today we're going to focus on how to create amazing content from interviews. So there's so many questions to unpack with this one.

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But Allison, first and foremost, why should we focus on interviews? What's important about interviews?

How Important are Marketing Content Interviews?

Allison Bondi:
It's a great way to gain immediate credibility with your audience. It also brings fresh perspective. A lot of us as marketers are trying to speak to targeted audiences, but at the end of the day, we are not web developers or CIOs or managing directors of this and that. So.

Having someone who actually has that lived experience just really helps you be that much more targeted in the content you're creating. It just gives you that inside look. So it's, I think, one of the most important places to get inspiration from, at the very least, and to build your authority in a space.

Finding the Right Interviewee

Ben:
I love it. So let's walk through the different steps to have a highly productive and good interview. Number one is how do you find the right person for the interview and how do you do outreach? Are you looking purely at internal resources, external resources? What are some thoughts and advice about sourcing interview candidates?

Allison Bondi:
It's always best to find somebody who is familiar with your company, your product. I mean, that's the easiest, shortest route. So you can work with a CSM, a customer success manager, maybe someone who's brought back a very high NPS score. Occasionally companies will have programs where they offer a discount on renewal if you're willing to be in a case study or give a testimonial or a

quote, these are often good resources. Also look to and lean on your internal team in your company. If I want to interview an IT director, I might reach out to my IT director and say, who do you know who is in the space that you follow and you love what they're doing and they're kind of breaking waves. So.

That's always the easiest approach is to start from inside and work your way out. That way you can rely on other people's connection points.

Conducting the Interview

Ben:
I love it. So you found the right person. You can network into it. You found the right person. Now when it comes to the interview, what should we do to actually interview people? How should we ask the right questions? What format do we record? What are your thoughts in general about how we get and really host a really good interview?

Allison Bondi:
Right. So I do usually put together a list of general questions. I try to make them open-ended. I find that putting together a list of questions ahead of time helps put the interviewee at ease. Often, we do not stick to the questions. There's usually a tangent or something that really resonates with them. And we'll just kind of dive deeper into that.

But having those questions are helpful for both the interviewer and the interviewee. You can always go back to them. And it gives them things to prepare about. It allows them to reflect on their role, their challenges. They faced ideas. They have what they'd like to see in an ideal world, utopian world for an IT director, let's say. If you could be making your own products, what?

What are the gaps there? So just starting the brain juice with these kind of open-ended questions that aren't, how many years have you done this? What's your name? Like, do you have a dog? So the more thought-provoking, the better, I would say.

Ben:
I love that. I love that. That's super cool. The open-ended thought-provoking and then it sounds like you take those things and maybe dig a little deeper as you kind of follow those pathways and it sounds like it's an organic situation, right? So it sounds like you kind of let the conversation go where it's supposed to go. Is that true?

Allison Bondi:
Absolutely. The only thing that I really stick hard and fast to is like the expected duration because I want to be respectful of their time and I want them to have in mind like, okay, this will be 30 minutes, this will be 15 minutes, whatever the case is. But other than that, I just try to be an active listener. I really think providing the space for them to...

give their response and their feedback and understanding that interviews are not like a normal conversation where you see your neighbor at the grocery store and you share a similar anecdote. Like it's not a 50-50 balance. It's really for you to learn. And I think the interviews can make you a wonderful listener, especially after the first few and you're listening back and you realize like, like I'm listening to myself talking.

And that's not the goal. Don't be hard on yourself. It's a learning process and you'll get better as you go. But just making them feel comfortable in the space and allowing them to go in the direction that they want to go in is really important to giving them those cues that what they're saying matters. So.

That's, I would say, the number one for interview etiquette, active listening. We talked about open-ended questions and how important those are to keep topics flowing. And also, you know, following up on things that are interesting to you. It's not a problem to guide the conversation. And sometimes that's needed.

How to Make Content from a Marketing Interview?

Ben:
I love that. That's cool. So you've taken the time. You found the right person to interview. You had a good meeting with them. Really good questions. Let the conversation organically go where it went and what they're passionate about. And now you've got this interview, you know, whether it's recording or your notes or whatever it may be.

Allison Bondi:
Mm.

Ben:
How do you turn that into amazing content and share that interview and its insights with your audience and let people really gain value from it?

Allison Bondi:
So this is, I guess, a little bit controversial as far as, do you record, do you not record? And then furthermore, the most controversial part that I'm about to say is, do you let them see your interview? The standard rules for journalism are no, like why would you ever let your sources see what you're writing? I feel, I would say eight out of 10 times,

I do not regret sharing my almost final version with the source because while they could want to make themselves look better or they may want to remove something, I find the majority of the time it just brings additional clarity. Maybe they'll expand upon something that you're writing about or I mean, there could even be like.

something that you've misrepresented unintentionally. So I think that's important. I always record because even though I do like to take my fresh feelings after the interview, kind of write out my general, you know, like feeling,

how I want to structure this, going back into that transcription and being able to just pick up on little gems. Yeah, he said it this way or these are the exact, you know, blue zones that they referenced for health to live over 100, whatever the specifics are, it makes it much easier. It also allows you to have eye contact with your interviewee if you're in person or not, if you're busy scribbling and writing down. It's not going to necessarily make them uncomfortable, but you are breaking off your connection.

Ben:
That's it. That was my next question. Do I take notes? Do I not take notes? I think that's super cool to just have the conversation, be present, be an active listener. I think that's really great advice. It's something I need to learn about because I'm an active, like I've got my pencil in my hand right now. I'm an active note taker. So I think that that's really cool to just be in the moment and have that conversation. That's really cool.

Allison Bondi:
I think when you're in this kind of setting, online interviews where you're taking notes, I think it's not as much of a ruffle in things as it might be if you're in a coffee shop sitting across from each other. And there's something about the physicality where you're more aware of the interactions with everybody.

And I do prefer at least video or in person. I just don't think you can understand over a phone call. Really, is that sarcasm? What did he mean by that? Like to be able to pair their face with what they're saying reveals so much more about the content that you're getting.

How to Publish the Interview

Ben:
I think that's cool. So once you've got the interview, what formats are you typically publishing in? Are you doing video formats? Are you writing content? Is it a mixture? How do you typically like to get the interview out there?

Allison Bondi:
I love to do a mix. I usually won't publish the full interview on a video. I'll do, I'll try to grab something from it that's impactful, almost like a proverb or something powerful that they've said. And then getting your graphics team or just using Canva to be able to kind of visually mirror the impact of that little clip that you got. I think that's great for social sharing, it's great for emails, it's great for newsletters. I find that the most powerful piece of content I create after the fact is usually the actual interview. Sometimes I will not even put my questions in if it just flows in a way that I love. I try to remove myself as much as possible from the process. So it can almost look like a first person thought leadership piece on a topic. Sometimes you have to have the questions in there and it makes sense to have the questions and just show a little bit of that interplay. But I always tend to err on like less of me, more of them as much as possible. Other assets that you can pull from the interview of course, with the permission of your interviewee, quotes that can be used on maybe white papers about similar topics. Like if you're interviewing a Salesforce admin and you're doing a white paper on higher education data collection, maybe you'll want to use a quote about productivity or efficiency and time management. You know, there's a lot of different ways that you can pull your asset apart. A terminology we use in marketing is big rock, little rock content. I tend to view interviews as the gift that keeps on giving where you can create lots of little pieces around it, especially blog posts. The interview might have talked about something. And I'm talking about my specific industry here when I say data governance. What can I do with data governance? So I can pull that apart and maybe do a blog post on data ethics, a blog post on visibility, maybe another blog post on compliance regulations. So finding the little bits that you didn't get and bringing those in to strengthen and amplify your interview as kind of like the hub and then the spokes of your content for that month or that quarter.

Ben:
I love that, I love that. Well, as promised, these episodes go by super quick. And I love the actionable insights and the information about how we can really perform better interviews and how to use them and how to share them and get people involved. I think this is so impactful. Allison, though, if anyone wants to continue the conversation and connect with you online, how can they find you and reach out?

Allison Bondi:
Absolutely. My LinkedIn handle is Allison Harper, Bondi, B-O-N-D-I. I'm on there. I love brainstorming about content strategy, new ideas, favorite tools I use. I'd love to hear from you and see what's working for you as well. So please do reach out and connect.

Ben:
I love it. I love it. Well, Allison, again, thanks for your time today.

Allison Bondi:
Of course, thank you so much, Ben. Thanks for having me on the show.

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