How to create and use the interviews in your podcast to make yourself known to new audiences? Step by step guide 2022

An interview It is a conversation that takes place between two or more people regarding one or more topics.however, the selection process of the interviews, the formulation of the questions and other aspects that must be taken into account when making a podcast should not be taken lightly and you must know the steps to follow.

In this guide you will learn all the tricks and recommendations for create and develop the best interviews for your Podcast, what will make your project reach new audiences and can be much more attractive to the public that consumes your content.

Currently, interview podcasts are one of the formats with more reproductions in the marketso you should get the most out of your project if you include interviews with special guests.

Benefits of interviews for your podcast

Knowing the benefits that interviews can bring to your podcast is one of the first things you should know, and for this reason we will list them one by one below:

Get new followers

Adding interviews to your podcast builds a following of the guests you bring to the show can know your work and enjoy the other episodes you have and stay tuned for future podcast shows. If you talk about a specific topic with your interviewee, you can attract new people They are looking for information related to the topic you are developing in the interview, so this will be another reason for you to have new followers.

Stand out from the competition

In this digital market there are many people making formats similar to those of your podcast, so you must be very creative and innovative to make your project stand out from the rest, and this is where interviews can be that springboard you need for your content to go viral.

If you manage to interview influential people such as specialists in a subject, artists, athletes or any other celebritythis will make many people want to watch the episode and react to the content on social networks, which increases the probability that the project will have many reproductions and stand out from the competition.

more dynamic program

Interviews add value to your podcast, since when you get used to performing monologues in a program where a single person is the one who addresses the public, it can become repetitive and bore the audience. So adding interviews to your podcast will give it that different touch that will keep the audience entertained and enjoy a different format every so often.

How to choose the interviewees of my podcast?

The choice of guests for your podcast it’s extremely important since it will depend on him that the conversation is entertaining for the public. There are people who can extend too much in the questions and do not give the interviewer space for the conversation to flow, which It is an aspect that you must take into account. when choosing a guest.

If the guest is a controversial person, who has vulgar language or who talks about very sensitive issues for your audience, the interview may be a total disaster and your podcast’s reputation may be tarnished by the guest that it has nothing to do with the trajectory and all the production work that your project has, which is totally unfair but it is the price you have to pay for having taken a person with little emotional control and experience in interviews.

It is for this and many more reasons that You must choose a guest who you know will add their knowledge, projects and career to the conversation and the episode.. A person who complies with the basic rules of an interview, giving enough space for the people involved to speak and also responding at times where it is appropriate to do so.

Learn how to devise and develop an interview for your podcast

In the following points we will see how to devise and develop an interview for your podcast:

Choose an interviewee

Plan on a weekly or monthly basis the guests you will have on the podcast. For this you will have to know if you can count on the presence of that person, so you must call guest representatives in case it is a celebrity or you can contact the person directly as the case may be.

Research and plan your questions

Before asking your guest questions, you should investigate what you are going to ask. Whether they are questions related to a specific topic or about the professional or personal life of your guest, you should have a basic understanding of what you would askbecause if you don’t know what you are talking about, you may look ridiculous when you receive the answer to your questions and have no idea how to continue developing the topic or you may say wrong information and that may offend the interviewee or the public.

It’s recommended that when planning your questions, make sure you maintain a positive environment at all times and without seeking confrontation, since an interview where the guest is attacked or intimidated can compromise your professionalism, ethics and morals.

This does not mean that the questions have to be boring, far from it. you should ask questions that catch the audience’s attention and that generate curiosity but always complying with the respect that every person deserves. Try not to ask filler questions. take advantage of the limited time you have with your interviewee to make the most of their experiences, knowledge or skills so that your audience can learn from the person you are interviewing.

Create a structure

From start to finish, the interview should have a structure to avoid dead spaces or prolonged silences between one question or another. Design ahead of time what you will ask the interviewee and as the conversation flows, you will be able to advance and cross out each item of the structure made. In your structure you can add the conversation starter, where you can start with basic questions like: How are you? How you feel? Accompanied by a compliment: “It is a pleasure for us to have you as a guest on the podcast”.

After you have created a more pleasant environment and the interviewee is comfortable, you can ask questions regarding the topic that you want to develop in the episode or go directly to ask him about his personal or professional life that are entertaining for the audience listening to the episode. . Lastly, you must add closing questionswhich can be asking for a recommendation, giving a message to people or offering a farewell reflection.

for later publicly thank the interviewee for having accepted the invitation and then dismiss the episode or close the interview segment in case the program is going to continue but without the interviewee. All these questions with their respective times must be noted in your structure so that you can serve as a guide both for the person asking the questions and for the entire recording teamdirection and production.

Respect the interviewee’s time

When you conduct an interview, the important thing is that respect the participation time of the guest and do not interrupt him abruptly, as it could be considered impolite of you. It is estimated that, on average, the intervention of each participant should never last more than 3 minutes at a timeso as not to exhaust the moderator and the public. Respect this established time so that the guest does not feel attacked or intimidated for your interruptions.

It’s an interview, not a monologue

The interviewer must take into account that the podcast in this case is about interviews, but many times this seems to go unnoticed and it often happens that the moderator begins a monologue and does not allow the interviewee to say a single commentso the conversation becomes poor and It is a serious fault that every direction and production team must take into account when choosing the interviewer.

It can also happen that the interviewee extends with a question and as the minutes go by he continues speaking without giving the space that corresponds to the person who is interviewing him, so you have to choose to respectfully interrupt the person speaking in this case. How to do it?

Here are some recommendations:

• Warning from the start: Once the interviewee arrives at the studio or recording set, you should introduce yourself very politely to him and warn him that if he goes on too long answering some of the questions, he will be interrupted so that the conversation can be as fluid as possible. This will prevent the interviewee from taking your interruption by surprise and considering you to be uneducated.
• Evaluate how necessary the interruption is: It is important that the conversation with your interviewee is not so rigid and does not have to be strictly complied with as established in the script or rundown. When you interrupt the interviewee because you consider that the time established for each question has already been exceeded, you should first of all listen carefully and assess whether it is really necessary to change the question or interrupt the idea or information that the interviewee expresses, since it is It is possible that the public is very connected with what the person says and it may be that at that moment they are giving a very relevant message, such as a scoop, a curious fact or a personal confession, that is where the interviewer must have the ability to decide whether to make the interruption or extend it for a few more minutes.
• Use non-verbal language: Using your hands to indicate to the interviewee or recording equipment that you want to interrupt is a very respectful way of making the interviewee pay attention and know that you are going further than usual in your response.

Talk about relevant topics for your audience

For your interview to be attractive to your audience, it is important that they are asked what they want to talk about, if they want to know about the personal life of the guest, their preferences, hobbies or other specific topics. You can do this query on the social networks of the podcast before starting the conversation and if you are broadcasting the episode live you can create a chat where the public can interact directly with your guest and ask questions that the interviewer considers relevant.

Another recommendation so that the interview does not get out of hand and you maintain the dynamism and the attention of the public is that you should never drop the microphone and go outside the recording location while the interviewee is speaking, since this, in addition to being disrespectful, will make the guest feel intimidated by the situation and leave a dead space or an uncomfortable silence in the middle of the podcast.

Other strategies to stimulate the growth of your podcast

Below we will show other strategies so that you can stimulate the growth of your podcast:

Promote on social media

Any project or undertaking, in this case a podcast, You must have a presence on social mediasince it will depend on this that new audiences can learn about the type of content you offer and can follow you on the platforms where the podcast is available.

Create an account on the main social networks such as: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, constantly publishes in them part of the content that they can enjoy in the complete episodes of the project. This will certainly positively affect the growth of the podcast.

Use SEO tools

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the set of techniques and tools that can make your content go viral on the internet. It consists of you using specific words, tags and formats that will make your content have a greater reach and have more reproductions than usual. Take a basic SEO course or watch tutorial videos on YouTube to learn how to use these tools and get the most out of them.

Buy sponsored ad space

Advertising should always be seen as an investmentbecause despite the fact that you have to spend large sums of money so that your content or project is visible on different platforms and media, the truth is that this strategy will allow you to position yourself in the market quickly and makes your project be seen by the masses, which increases the chances of you getting new business alliances that make the income for the project improve considerably.

Create contests

All people love to win a prize, that is why giving something to your audience will always be positivenot only because you strengthen the link with the people who follow your content, but also it will serve for new people to participate and learn about the project. You should also see contests and promotions as an investment in the short and medium term, since you will gain new followers immediately.

Look for collaborations with other content creators

Although the podcast market is booming, it cannot be compared to the mass media, where the audience can easily exceed one million people. It is for that reason that podcasters can partner with each other to grow their communities and in this way they can strengthen their projects. This is a strategy that many brands often use when they are just starting out in the market.

Invite other podcasters or people who do something similar to what you do to your podcast and you can also attend other projects similar to yours to exchange ideas, opinions and create debates so that both initiatives benefit. Competition will always exist, but when there is a growing market like podcasts, it is necessary to create alliances so that both the community and the content creators grow exponentially.