DEEPENING YOUR CURRENT BUSINESS REALTIONSHIPS CONTENT MARETING & EXPERT INTERVIEWS

Conducting an interview with an industry expert is a strategic move for any company, which provides your customers with valuable content, and promotes your brand.

Interviewing experts of a particular industry is an effective way to add variety and validity to a company’s content marketing. For Law Firms, featuring clients and influencers on your website has great benefits. It sends trust signals for starters which is invaluable to any industry. As you engage your influencers and produce an interview that is push worthy, it encourages them to share your content to their social media channels, which furthers both your brands and in the process, deepens your relationship.

Expert interviews are a powerful relationship builder, a way to deliver critical information and effectively promote content to your desired audience. While, interviewing industry experts can be challenging when it comes to how do you find the right expert and getting the information your looking for, there are several important steps before, during, and after the interview to ensure that your work fun, informative and as interesting as possible. With the proper mix of research, preparation and promotion, your expert interview has the ability to take your company to a new level.

Selecting and engaging the right experts is a crucial first step. When searching for the right interview, keep in mind the persons knowledge, relevancy and authority. Networking can be helpful. Use your LinkedIn or other social media connections you have within your industry to reach out to people who may have insight on your topic. Ask people you have relationships with in the industry if they have any relevant connections related to your subject and take it from there.

Remember not all experts necessarily need to be from an outside source. There are many professionals who have valuable knowledge that can be found at your own company. Did someone within the firm just win a unique trial? Have that attorney interview his or her own client. Ask yourself, what is going on side the firm you can work with? Which of my fellow lawyers has a unique viewpoint?

Under the pressure of getting the perfect interview, it is easy to lose sight of your most effective tool; your audience. Customers undoubtedly have opinions about who they want to hear from as well as what they want to hear, so don’t forget to listen and base your interview on these valuable opinions. Use their preferences to ensure that your expert interview will have as significant of an impact as possible.

After you’ve found the right industry expert, make sure to thoroughly research their background and specialties before contacting them for an interview. Keep the email proposing the interview brief, stating your background and why they specifically are relevant to your audience. Sell them on why this interview will be valuable for their interests as well as yours, making sure to include that the interview will be available for their own personal use.

Once you’ve secured an interview with an expert, the next step is to brainstorm a variety of questions before the interview. People’s responses can vary based on interview style, so draft different types of questions to ensure you can get the answers you need.

Your questions will need to profile the expert in a way that they are comfortable and confident with, as well as in a way that will appeal to your audience. Open-ended questions allow interviewees to expound on each one. Narrow down the focus of the interview. The best interviews are highly focused.

After conducting and properly thanking the expert for the interview via call or email, it is time to promote your content. Don’t hesitate to be creative and utilize all approaches of promotion. Share the interview on all relevant social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. Consider writing and releasing a press release or adding photos to create a blog, podcast or Youtube video.

To find experts to interview is an involved process – but highly beneficial. It adds that “influential voice” to your branding efforts and with a solid social media presence; this form of content marketing is a no-brainer! The bottom line, Expert interviews are a way to develop deeper relationship. Remember, this is how the legal profession has grown their own business for hundreds of years, professional relationships is more seriously to building a book in the legal industry than perhaps any other profession we know of. Get going!


Elizabeth Lampert is President of ELPR a strategist, social media junkie, crisis communication go-to professional and can be reached at Lampert@elizabethlampertpr.com. Nicole Rideout is a public relations intern study at UO School of Journalism and Communications working at ELPR.