What makes interviews so valuable for SEO content marketing?

If you are looking for a new way to spice up your content marketing, consider doing an interview with a well-known thought leader in your industry. An in-depth interview is a great alternative to the traditional blog post or article, giving your readers great information in a new format.

Here are 2 reasons why an interview with an industry thought leader can be so valuable for your content marketing efforts:

1. Leverage the authority of your subject.

When an industry authority is willing to be interviewed for your blog be sure you take advantage of that opportunity! Your subject is an industry thought leader for a reason. Maybe they’ve been around the longest or are always on the cutting edge of your industry, but one thing’s for certain—when they talk people listen. An interview with someone that respected and well-known in your niche is bound to attract attention from other industry thought leaders as well as your target audience.

Once your interview has gone live, be sure to promote it all over your social profiles and reach out to some of your social connections directly and invite them to read and share your interview. You’d be amazed at the kind of response a few reTweets or Facebook shares can generate when you have the “name” of a popular industry figure tied into your content. Interviews with industry thought leaders also tend to have a pretty long shelf life that works to your link building advantage. For instance, a recent interview I did with link building expert Eric Ward generated hundreds of social signals and thousands of visitors when it first went live, but even after a few weeks (which is forever in the social media realm) that interview is still getting social love, links and mentions across the web. One blog that linked to the interview sent over 700 visitors in one day, and I’m still seeing about 20 visitors a day from those links.

Also keep in mind that a respected authority figure in your industry is bound to have a strong and avid social network of their own. Even thought leaders need to keep their reputation going strong, and the interview on your blog is another way for them to self-promote. Chances are they’ll want to share the interview with their own social network, exposing your brand and blog to a very receptive audience in the process! Social love begets social love and a great interview has the potential to go viral.

Take advantage of the authority and prowess of your interviewee for your own social media, link building and content marketing efforts.

2. Give your readers a new and informed perspective.

Both you and your readers can learn something new from an interview with an industry thought leader. Whomever you interview has probably been around the block a few times and has seen, done and heard it all—they know what works, what doesn’t and what really matters in your industry. Anyone can put up a blog or website and call themselves an expert, but the real authority figures can give your reader advice and insights that they can’t get from anyone else. They know how to cut through the fluff and the clutter and deliver great advice. In theory you could interview anyone in your industry and probably come up with some decent content, but real authority figures and thought leaders have the knowledge and experience that makes them stand head and shoulders above the rest. This is the kind of information that takes your content marketing efforts to the next level.

People want to share and link to information that is truly useful and insightful, not just the same general ideas repeated time and time again. And keep in mind that a respected thought leader can probably take those general ideas, put a new spin on them and present them back to your audience in a way they’ve never seen before. Great advice is great advice, but sometime presenting it through an interview (as opposed to the standard blog post or article) can sometimes resonate better with your readers because it’s more of a conversation and less like a how-to guide. Every little nugget of knowledge, and an interview is bound to be chalk full of them, can connect with a different section of your target audience so everyone learns something of value for the interview.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to interview just anyone, but preferably someone in your industry that is on the same level as or better than you at what you do. You always want to be pushing your content marketing efforts forward, not settling for the easy win. While it might take a lot of effort to get that interview, it’ll be well worth it in the end!

photo thanks to cuttlefish (Lauren)

About the Author ~ Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis is the President of full service SEO firm, Brick Marketing.  With 13 years of experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by writing in the Brick Marketing Blog and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers. You can contact Nick via nick@brickmarketing.com. He can also be found on Twitter via @brickmarketing.