How To Conduct An A+ Interview as a Freelance Writer

If you're a freelance writer creating original content, you'll likely find yourself conducting interviews. You might interview subject matter experts, customers, or your client's customers for journalistic assignments, case studies, a thought leadership piece, or customer research.

But what does it take to be a good interviewer? How do you know what questions to ask so you get A+ responses? We delve into some interviewing secrets and helpful tactics in this episode.

Do the interview—yourself

Email is fine for gathering simple quotes, but to write a thought leadership piece or a case study, you definitely need to do an interview. You often can’t write well about something you nothing about.

Clients may send you a list of stats and testimonial videos and expect you to put together a case study—and typically, that's not reasonable. Some companies share transcripts of previously conducted interviews, but you may find that at times these transcripts fail to cover the bases of everything the client wants included in the final piece or case study. This is why we say it’s a good idea to do the interview yourself.

“Try and get the client to allow you to do the interview because things can go sideways when they do it themselves.”

Going deeper into a subject is much harder if you're going back and forth over email, which also makes a case for interviewing in real time. Conducting the interview yourself allows you to get more natural language responses versus the kind of technical responses you could expect if the questions were sent over email.

Preparing for the interview

Before jumping in the interview, carefully consider what you want to ask the interviewee and prepare your questions.

Consider why you are doing the interview in the first place and the answers you hope to get from it. For instance, if you're interviewing for a case study, your questions might be structured so you get proof of results from a product or service. Conversely, if the purpose of the interview is for customer research, the questions need to be more open-ended.

What are the boxes you need to tick? Knowing what needs to be promoted, whether you need to collect specific stats or get quotes that point to a specific value-add of the product, can help you be prepared and conduct a more efficient interview.

“Go into interviews very prepared because you often only get one shot with the person and you want to make the most of it.”

Once you're ready with your go-to questions, it may be a good idea to share them with the person you’re interviewing. Knowing the questions beforehand, they can be prepared with stats, results, or other information to share during the interview call.

Conducting a successful interview

The 3 tier approach to conducting interviews is a good rule of thumb; one that many talented interviewers use.

Tier 1: Ask a ‘How’ question. For example, ‘How did you build that extra team?’
Tier 2: Dig deeper. What steps did you take to make that happen?
Tier 3: Make it personal. Can you share an example?

When doing technical interviews, you can also ask questions that get them to explain complex concepts in a really simple manner.

When watching professional interviews by newscasters, you can easily tell the good from the bad. The really good ones like Tim Ferris are very curious. Conducting such A+ interviews starts with a few ground rules.

Listen more, talk less

Ask the question, then let there be an awkward pause before you jump in. Let the person work through their thoughts, even if it can be uncomfortable or you're tempted to ask another clarifying question. A good listener can pick up on the good nuggets, facts, information and stats, and other resources they need from the interview to convert it into a great piece of writing.

Be 100% clear on the objectives

Be aware of tangents. It's easy to get very interested in something the interviewee is talking about that has nothing to do with the objectives. You need to get them back on track, interrupt them, and explain that you have many questions and limited time. Commit to getting back to the topic they want to speak more about towards the end of the interview if there's still time.

Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions

You can't go into an interview feeling intimidated. In a business context, the stakes are not emotional. It's important to ask difficult questions and push people to come up with answers without making them uncomfortable.

“Talking to powerful people can be intimidating but you have to learn how not to show it and conduct yourself with professionalism.”

Don't keep everything super safe in an interview; rather, dig deeper and see how their mind works. It could stir up some interesting responses and a unique point of view for your story.

Keep an open door

Leave an open door for the interviewee to follow up over email or add some nuance to their responses while giving a frame of reference regarding your deadline so they know when it's a hard stop. Also, let them know what the interview will be used for and ensure they have a chance to review it so they are comfortable with how they're being portrayed in a business context.

Don't forget to thank the interviewee for their time and inputs. Interviewing is an opportunity to build relationships and trust, letting someone get to know you versus just being a name on an email. Done well, interviewing can truly set you apart from other freelance writers.