Nowadays, if you’re on the hunt for interesting stories and discussions, your curiosity won’t be met with too many obstacles. All you need is the courage to reach out to the person and explore their story together. You’ll most likely hear more yeses than nos. And in the first case, our podcast interviewing tips will surely come in handy.
Interviewing is an art form on its own, and when it comes to mastering it simply asking a question and waiting for an answer won’t do the job. But with a little bit of practice and the handiest podcast recording platform at your disposal, your audience can expect engaging podcast interviews on the regular.
If you’re not interested, no one else is
It will be quite a challenge to spark your audience’s interest in someone that you don’t find interesting. If you feel bored and disengaged during the interview, expect the same from your listeners.
And if somehow you end up interviewing a guest you didn’t pick, researching them should help. “Another person” means “another unique perspective” and you’ll come across an interesting story if you dig deep enough; which brings us to the next piece of advice.
Know your guest
It’s best to prepare your key podcast interview questions in advance. A lot of the magic that happens during interviews is improvised, yet it’s best to have a structure to go back to every once in a while. And to come up with one, research your guest’s life and undertakings, then pick the topics you’d like to discuss with them.
If you don’t mind going the extra mile, decide on the order of those topics and think of segues from one question to another. While it’s not possible to fully predict your guest’s answer, with a pre-decided structure your conversation will flow more effortlessly. Your audience and your guests will appreciate the preparation and the absence of clumsy abrupt transitions.
A well-recorded podcast is like music to one’s ears
Poor audio quality will make you sound like an amateur. And even if you are one, that’s probably not the impression you want to make. When it comes to podcast interviews, if you aren’t providing your audience with visuals, then you need to put more work into making your sound as engaging and entertaining as possible.
The latter can be done through intro and outro music, sound effects, but one thing that’s an absolute must is clean noise-free audio. Luckily, podcast editing software evolves day by day allowing their users to work wonders in post-production.
Be flexible
An audio content creation platform is a remote interviewer’s best friend. Especially with interview-based podcasts, where online interview recording isn’t a one-time thing, equip yourself with solid podcast audio editing software.
There’s not much in your control when it comes to disruptions on the other end. But when you’ve got the tools to fix it, your guest is free to join the podcast interview from anywhere. With our remote interview feature, you’ll be able to edit and enhance each guest’s audio track separately, removing all the background noise with the Magic Dust tool and getting the best out of each track.
Give it a fresh spin
If your guest is interviewed often, identify the topics about which they’re often questioned on. This is another reason why research brings you not just one, but many steps closer to recording an engaging podcast interview. This, however, doesn’t mean skipping over the questions that will first and foremost arise in your listeners’ heads.
Don’t steal the spotlight
There are few things as frustrating as a host that won’t stop talking about themselves. Stealing the spotlight from your guest is the easiest way to scare off both your listeners and your potential guests.
Feel free to add in any relevant experiences or opinions of yours, yet don’t forget that your guest is the star of today’s interview, so make them feel like one.
Keep on learning
There’s a lot more to being a good interviewer than it might seem, huh? Take it from the best. Find an interviewer whose skills you admire and try to break down what makes them so good. Following up with your guests and hearing about their experience with you is another great way to improve.
Apart from master interviewers, you can always learn from yourself. To record better podcast interviews try to detect and reflect upon your mistakes in the previous ones.
With so much advice and instructions, it might be hard not to overthink it, but try not to. Your listeners will be coming back to your podcast for YOU, so let your voice shine through. And with Podcastle’s editing tools, you can make it shine even brighter.
