Author: Stéphanie Thomson / Source: The Content Strategist
When I started working as a writer and editor, I thought Q&As were easy. Step one, find someone interesting and convince them to speak. Step two, speak to them. Step three, write it up. Simple.
My first interview, with a United Nations diplomat for a Swiss lifestyle magazine, proved me wrong. After a recording equipment malfunction, I was so flustered I didn’t push him to elaborate on any of his points. When I sat down to write it up, all I had was a bunch of platitudes. I’ve never included the final piece, which ended up reading like a press release, in my writing portfolio.
Conducting interviews gets easier with practice, though. Since that first disaster, I’ve been lucky enough to improve my skills on everyone from one of Google’s first employees to Elon Musk’s less well-known but equally accomplished brother. But for marketers who don’t have time to learn the hard way, there are a few tips for pulling off the perfect interview.
Do more homework
“My only true advice for anyone carrying out an interview is to embrace the Boy Scout’s motto: be prepared,” freelance writer Lawrence Grobel told me over email. This philosophy helped him land the famously private Marlon Brando for a set of interviews with Playboy Magazine in 1978. “If someone is reclusive or unresponsive, the more you show you’re prepared, the better your chances of getting them to open up,” he said.
Being prepared doesn’t mean scanning a Wikipedia page a few minutes before the interview. “You can’t make yourself an expert on everything, but you can try,” journalist David Marchese explained. Readers have shared his Quincy Jones interview for Vulture 600,000 times on Facebook since it was published in February. “First, I immerse myself in the subject … Second, I read as deeply and as widely around the subject as possible.”
Even lower-profile subjects will have some sort of online presence—perhaps a presentation they’ve uploaded to YouTube or an article they’ve written. How do you know when you’ve done enough research? “You get to a point in this process where you start to see information repeated,” Marchese says. “That’s a good sign you’ve done as much research as will be fruitful.”
Put your subject at ease
Regardless of whether your subject is well-known or not, the person answering questions is probably nervous. If you want them to open up, you have to put them at ease.
Start by getting your own nerves under control. “People mirror the interviewers’ behavior,” Marchese said. “If you’re nervous and uptight, there’s a good chance the other person will feel less comfortable. If you’re relaxed, open, upbeat and curious, the person you’re talking to will mirror that.”
Another way of making your subject comfortable is to share something relatable about yourself. “I always try to find a common bond with the person I’m interviewing,” Yesha Callahan, deputy managing editor for the Root, told me. She recently applied the technique in an interview…
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