How To Write an Interview Article: Tips and Tricks

You could be the best writer in the world, but without the skill of asking great questions, crafting an engaging interview article can be tricky.

While you don’t have to achieve Oprah Winfrey or Drew Barrymore standards — giving out free cars or sitting only a few inches away from your interview subject (although this works for some) — you do have to make the person you’re chatting with comfortable and relaxed to get the best responses.

Why does this matter? Interview articles can be extremely impactful content types to post for your brand, pulling at people’s heartstrings and sharing insights your target audience will eat up. However, this is only true when they’re well-written, which takes a strategic approach beginning from the actual interview and continuing throughout the writing phase.

Curious about how to write an interview article that will excite readers? Continue reading to learn what makes great interview questions and how to build an article that delivers.

Bad vs. Good vs. Great Interview Questions

When you hear ‘interview article,’ you might picture a newspaper story. In reality, it’s a type of blog that features insights from one or multiple experts, celebrities or relevant figures. These articles are a powerful way to engage readers, drawing them in and keeping them interested from start to finish. They also help your target audience gain a deeper understanding of a topic, brand or product.

Just like an employer interviewing a job candidate, a writer interviewing for an article needs solid questions. If you believe all questions are on a level playing field, think again. Generally speaking, you want to ask people things that will lead to strong quotes you can put in your article, filling out the piece and bringing it to life.

So, how can you build your list of questions for amazing results? The trick is to think about what types of answers you want to receive and go from there. Let’s look at some examples of bad, good and great questions so you understand what I mean.

Bad Questions

When interviewing someone, you want responses that will boost your story. To conduct a good interview, ask engaging, thoughtful and open-ended questions that encourage meaningful responses instead of boring, vague questions without any follow-up.

Here are some examples of questions to steer clear of:

Yes and No Questions Without Follow-Up

These limit responses and don’t encourage storytelling or detailed insights.

Did you enjoy working on this project?
Was it difficult to start your business?
Do you think the industry will continue to grow?

Overly Broad or Vague Questions

These make it hard for the interviewee to know where to start or what to focus on.

Tell me about your career.
What’s your opinion on marketing?
How do you stay productive?

Leading Questions

These push the interviewee toward a specific answer and can bias their response.

Wouldn’t you say your competitors are failing compared to you?
Aren’t your customers always satisfied with your product?
Would you agree that AI is the future of business?

Overly Complex or Multi-Party Questions

These overwhelm the interviewee and make it hard to provide a clear response.

What inspired you to start your business? What challenges did you face in the first year, and how did you get funding?
What’s your opinion on sustainability in business? How do you implement it, and do customers respond well to it?

Personal or Inappropriate Questions

These invade privacy or veer off-topic.

How much money do you make?
Why don’t you have kids yet?
Have you ever been fired from a job?

Questions That Assume Incorrect Information

These can make the interviewee feel defensive or confused.

Since your company is struggling, what’s your plan to recover?
Did you switch careers because you hated your previous job?
With all the negative press about your industry, how do you manage to stay in business?

Generic or Cliché Questions

These don’t encourage unique insights or in-depth discussion.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
What’s your biggest weakness?
What would you do if you won the lottery?

Good Questions

While these are a step above bad questions, good questions can still be a bit too open-ended. Here are some examples of good questions that begin to extract more meaningful responses:

What inspired you to start a career in marketing?
Can you tell us about your role?
What are the biggest challenges in your industry right now?
What trends do you see shaping the future of marketing?
What advice would you give to someone starting in your field?
What skills do you think are essential for success in your industry?
What do you hope to achieve in the next year?
How do you measure success in your work?

Great Questions

To nail your interview process, you want to prepare questions that are thought-provoking, personal (but not too personal) and story-driven. Let’s go over a few to inspire you. Pay attention to how these sound compared to the previous examples:

Was there a defining moment or experience that led you to pursue this career, and how did it shape your path?
What’s something about your role that people might not realize, and how does it impact the bigger picture?
What’s a challenge in your industry that people don’t talk about enough, and how are you tackling it?
If you could predict one major shift in marketing in the next year, what would it be and why?
What’s one mistake you made early in your career that turned into a valuable lesson?
What’s a skill you didn’t think would be important when you started, but has become crucial to your success?
If you could accomplish just one thing in your field that would leave a lasting impact, what would it be?
What’s a moment in your career that made you step back and say, “This is why I do what I do?”

Completing the Puzzle: Putting Your Interview Article Together

You’ve created a stellar list of questions, gone through the interview, received perfect direct quotes and now it’s time to write. It’s good to have a story idea in your head and a bunch of quotes, but actually sitting down and putting your thoughts together can be daunting.

Need some help getting everything out on paper — or a Google Doc? Here’s an easy workflow to follow:

Step 1: Find Your Edge Pieces

When putting together a puzzle, you typically find your edge pieces first, so it’s easy to fill in the rest. The same goes for writing your interview article. Your edge pieces — or the main points you want to make — will structure your post, ensuring you check the necessary boxes. This could include writing your headlines, putting in the critical components like the introduction and conclusion and coming up with the story angle you want to take. This is your chance to find your narrative and structure the piece with purpose.

Step 2: Start Filling in the Middle Pieces

Now, the quotes are the best part of any interview paper, but they can’t stand alone. You need to have solid content for the quotes to lean on. It can be tempting to spell out what the interview subject was feeling or expressing during the interview in your own words, but don’t. You state the facts — let the quotes speak about the interviewee’s feelings and experiences. This makes the finished product that much more impactful.

For example, rather than writing:

Jane Doe had a lovely experience working with Brafton, getting everything she wanted done right on time.

Instead, write:

Jane Doe worked with the Brafton team for her most recent project, which was a smashing success. “I had such a lovely time working with Brafton,” she said. “They delivered everything I needed exactly when I needed it.”

Step 3: Lay Down the Key Pieces

You know when you put together a puzzle and it doesn’t look like much until… bam! You put down the piece with an important part of the picture and the whole thing starts to come together. That’s what your quotes are in an interview paper. They bring color and detail into the piece, giving it the intrigue and emotion that was missing. You can start by placing the quotes where you feel they’ll fit best and fill in the rest as you go.

Step 4: Stick Your Final Pieces Into Place

As you get to the end of the writing process, there’s only one last thing to do: Make sure all the quotes blend seamlessly with the rest of the content. Read the piece out loud and see if anything reads a bit clunky. If so, you might need to write a few sentences here and there queuing up the quotes and making each paragraph flow into the next. Once you’ve fit in those last puzzle pieces, your work is complete.

How To Make Your Interview Article Fun and Engaging

Need some best practices to round out your interview article and ensure it’s up to snuff with your brand’s tone and audience’s expectations? Your wish is our command:

Start with a hook: Grab your reader’s attention from the first line with an intriguing question, quote or surprising fact.
Use a conversational tone: Keep it natural and engaging while staying true to your brand’s voice.
Sprinkle in personality: Let both your writing and the interviewee’s unique character shine through with humor, anecdotes and authentic storytelling.

Unlike an actual puzzle you have to take apart and put back in the box (unless you opt for gluing it together and hanging it up), an interview article will live on your site forever, driving engagement and organic traffic for years to come.

Now, if only we could stop losing that pesky last puzzle piece, all would be right in the world.

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Breaking

4/13/2025