It used to drive me bonkers.
I’d interview someone for a project.
10% of the interview ended up in the project.
90% never even saw the light of day.
And you know what made matters even worse? That 90% was valuable and useful content.
Imagine spending hours in the kitchen preparing a large, fancy dinner.
After serving your guests, you throw away the leftovers.
Sounds pretty crazy, huh?
But it happens all the time with interviews.
The truth
Most interviews contain useful information that can be used in a variety of different ways. It’s important to be consistent in repurposing content and equally important to reframe the interview (at least in your mind and perhaps in your interviewee’s) for more than one purpose in order to reap benefits you might otherwise miss out on.
What are the benefits of using leftovers?
You’ll have the ability to:
Generate more content from limited resources
Reach different audiences on different platforms
Connect with different types of learners
So why do we ditch unused portions from interviews?
We often ignore 90% of an interview because a specific project commands our full attention. We just don’t think of using the interview elsewhere; we’re simply looking for the quotes we need for the one project.
But what if you took that leftover 90% and turn it into valuable content for other marketing purposes?
How can you take leftovers and turn them into valuable content?
What can you do with one interview?
Let’s take a closer look . . .
5 products from 1 interview
1) Audio interviews
You can do two things with the recorded content after the interview:
Publish it in its entirety.
Edit it for a more polished product.
Either way, this interview forms the backbone for the remaining four products.
2) E-books
Creating an e-book from an interview (or several interviews) is easy:
Transcribe the audio file
Edit the questions and answers for flow and continuity
Add your branding elements
Publish the finished product as a PDF.
Have readers opt in (provide their email addresses) to receive a copy, or provide it as an immediate download without opting in.
3) Blog posts
Depending upon the length of the interview, you should be able to create at least one blog post. Select a few paragraphs that work together nicely and add an introduction, summary and call to action. Don’t forget to link to the audio interview or ebook for more content. If appropriate, add links pointing to your products and/or services.
4) Infographics
These are like cheat sheets: They visually communicate complex or dry information. Infographics are becoming so popular that Fast Company features interesting infographics almost every day. So why not take an interview (or several interviews) and create an infographic for your site?
5) Tweets
Searching for ideas to tweet about? Here’s an idea: Let’s say you have a transcript from a 45-minute interview. Chances are pretty good that you can pull out 10-20 quotes that can stand alone as thought-provoking tweets. Include a link in each tweet that points to your audio interview, blog post, e-book or other featured content. Don’t tweet all these in one or two days; spread them out over a week or two for maximum effect.
Won’t customers notice it’s the same content again and again?
Good question. Remember these two things:
Not everyone consumes information in the same way, and not all the information you provide is the same. After you use an interview for your main project, make it your goal to squeeze out any remaining valuable content and share it with your audience.
Customers use several platforms to access information, so have your content available in different formats. Some folks like audio and others prefer text.
Summary
Think beyond the notion that one interview equals one project. Instead, retrain yourself to think that one interview equals many projects.
Hey, you wouldn’t throw away your fancy dinner leftovers, right?
The same holds true for interviews. After using 10% of the interview for your main project, dig through the remaining 90% for any valuable content you can share with your audience.
Next step
Do you have an upcoming interview? See if you can squeeze more out of the interview than just a few quotes.
It’s your turn
Have you taken remaining content from interviews and repurposed it? If so, what strategies have you used?
Have you seen any cool examples of this idea being used?
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