There’s two approaches to writing case study video interview questions: the videographer can do it for you, or they can review your questions.

When I’m working with Marketing and Communications Directors to produce either staff or client case study videos, one of the first questions they ask me is ‘who writes the interview questions?’

And whichever approach you go for, you’ll get my expertise as a former BBC journalist.

Either I can draft the questions and filming brief once I’ve got an understanding of your messaging from our pre-production meeting – which you can then review.

Or alternatively, if you know the interviewee really well, you can draft the questions, and I can input my knowledge on what else needs to be asked to give the video a really strong narrative.

Whichever approach you choose, we’ll be going into the case study video interview with a really strong set of questions to create a conversational and relaxed filming experience for your interviewee – which gets you stellar soundbites for your marketing strategy.

 

What makes great case study interview questions?

When you’re writing the interview questions yourself, it can be easy to overcomplicate it – you know so much about the story yourself.

But when I was at the BBC, I learned that you need to approach any story as if it’s the first time anyone has heard about it. Give them the basic overview before you go into the details. This might be the first piece of content someone has ever seen from your business.

When I was drafting questions for Klick Technology’s case study about their lab fit out for Cyprotex, there was loads of smaller details to go into – from the exact type of surface used, to how screens had been put in to prevent splash back. 

But most of that’s irrelevant if you don’t first know who the client was, what kind of work they’re involved in, and given an overview of the project as a whole. Start big picture, then hone in on the smaller messaging.

Also, you want to write the questions in a way which encourages the interviewee to be descriptive. I find ’tell’ ‘explain’ and ‘describe’ are fantastic verbs to start an interview question with to get you away from the standing yes / no responses!

 

Should I give the case study video interviewee the questions in advance?

I know this is something interviewees ask for when they get nervous – but it’s absolutely the wrong approach.

When you give people the questions in advance, they have a tendency to over prepare and rehearse, making the answers sound really wooden.

And worst case scenario, they might actually script answers out, which means they spend the whole interview trying to remember what they need to say – rather than engaging with the conversation.

I find the best approach is to do a verbal pre-interview with them ahead of the filming day. This gives them an idea of the topic of the interview, and you can gauge what their answers will be. So it puts them at ease without giving them a chance to do loads of homework!

 

Have you got a staff, stakeholder or customer story you want to tell? I partner with ambitious marketing teams to strengthen their in-house skillsets with case study video expertise.

Get in touch, and we can arrange a meeting to see if I’d be a good fit for your project.