How To Write Interview Questions For Corporate Videos

If you want your next marketing or corporate video to tell a compelling story, then you should consider incorporating talking head interviews. Interviews are a common component of promotional videos, marketing films, customer testimonials, event video highlights and can even be used in training videos to support learning and education. But if you haven’t ever conducted interviews on camera before, how do you know who to interview, what to ask or how to get the best answers? Well, we have broken it down for you and put together a few things we think you should consider. Read on to find out how to write interview questions for marketing or corporate videos.

Planning

Think about who you want to interview based on what you’re trying to achieve and who your audience is. For example:

• If you want to tell your employees or customers about a big change in the company, exciting news or recent successes, then you might want to interview senior employees or maybe even the CEO from within the business.
• If you want to promote your company culture, engage existing staff members or attract new recruits you might interview an employee.
• If you wanted to show that your company is trusted and respected within the industry, you could interview an expert in the field or a credible well-known person.
• If you wanted to show potential customers that you are trustworthy and reliable you could interview another customer for a case study-style video.

Writing

When writing your questions, here are a few things to think about:

• The key to getting great answers to your questions is to encourage natural conversation between the interviewer and interviewee.
• Try to keep your questions open-ended, otherwise you will just get a “yes” or “no” answer. You should focus on asking questions that ask “why” or “how” which will give you more meaningful and extensive responses.
• Try to phrase your questions in a positive way. For example; instead of asking “what happens if you don’t” try asking “what happens if you do”.
• Don’t script the answers. You can give the interviewee the questions in advance so that they can prepare, but ask them not to write down their answers. This way they don’t have to learn or remember what they have written, keeping the answers more conversational and providing real answers.

Filming

When it comes to the day of filming the interview, it can help to consider the following points:

• Your subject needs to feel comfortable. That could mean limiting the number of people in the room.
• Ask the interviewee to include the question at the beginning of their answer. This is because usually, in the final video, the audience will not hear the interviewer as it will likely be edited out.
• Let the interviewee do most of the talking and try to ask questions that guide the interview.
• Be prepared to ask reactive questions based on previous answers. This will help the interviewee to expand on any points that aren’t clear.
• Offer opportunities for the interviewee to provide anything they think they might have missed.

Ready to get started?

We’ve filmed thousands of interviews across a wide variety of industries and sectors with people of all backgrounds. We can write and ask the interview questions on your behalf or just be there to operate the camera on the day. Whatever you need to make your interview and video a success, we’re here to make it happen. So why not get in touch with us?

If you would like to take a look at some examples of interviews in our work, you can view our interview portfolio here.