December 10, 2025

If you asked me to tell you why Lionel Messi is the GOAT 🐐, you’d better pull a chair because we’re going to be here for a while. But if you asked me about personalizing email campaigns? I might stutter a little bit. As a SaaS content writer, I’ve written dozens of articles on topics I knew nothing about before starting the research. Email personalization, SMS marketing automation, and HR analytics software. The list goes on. How do I write articles on topics where I’m not the expert? Simple. I interview the people who are. I’ve conducted 15+ expert interviews this year for clients such as Zapier, HubSpot, and SimpleTexting. The articles consistently rank well, audiences love them, and experts often message me afterward to say how smooth the interview was. In this article, I’ll walk you through my exact process for conducting expert interviews that turn into content people want to read. Why I started interviewing experts I’ll be honest with you. Most of the articles I read in my niche sound the same. Brooklin Nash of Beam Content aptly captures how most of them read. They follow the same structure and talking points that have been bouncing around the internet for the past three years. And it’s not that B2B writers are lazy.  It’s because they’re all pulling from the same source: Google’s first page.  Here’s what typically happens. A content manager assigns an article on, say, customer retention strategies. The writer opens five top-ranking articles, collates the common points, adds a few extra tips, and hits publish.  While it’s not plagiarism, it’s not original either. I caught myself doing this early in my career. I was cranking out articles fast, hitting my deadlines, and checking all the SEO boxes. But when I looked back at my work, I couldn’t remember writing half of it. Nothing stood out. Readers notice it too.  They’re tired of reading yet another article that summarizes what’s already out there. They need someone to cut through the noise and tell them what works. Expert interviews do just that. They offer: Original insights you won’t find on page one of Google.  The subject matter expert shares what they’ve learned from experience, not what they read in another blog post.  These expert insights also help you demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) for Google and other search engines. Specific examples and real data Instead of “personalization increases engagement,” you get “we saw open rates jump from 18% to 31% when we added the recipient’s company name in the subject line.” Quotes that make your content feel alive Nothing beats a direct quote from someone who knows what they’re talking about. It adds authority and breaks up the monotony of a single voice throughout the article. Built-in credibility When you feature an expert, their reputation extends to your content. Readers trust the information more because it’s coming from someone with proven experience. What this means for content managers If you’re managing a content team, you’ve probably felt the pressure to produce more content, faster. The temptation is to scale by hiring more writers or churning out more articles. But volume doesn’t solve the problem if every article sounds like everyone else’s. Expert interviews give you a different competitive advantage. Instead of racing to publish the 50th article on “customer retention strategies,” you publish the one article that actually has something new to say. When you build expert interviews into your process, you can expect the following changes: Your content stands out Because of the unique insights shared, your article gets remembered and stands out in the sea of sameness. You build relationships with industry experts Every interview is a networking opportunity. The experts you feature become part of your network. They share your content, refer other experts, and sometimes become customers or partners. Your writers deliver better work When writers have access to experts, they learn from practitioners and produce content that reflects specialized knowledge and real expertise. You protect your investment Generic content has a short shelf life. It gets buried when competitors publish their version. Expert-backed content stays valuable longer because it contains insights that don’t exist anywhere else. Expert-led content should be in the mix if you plan to build a content program that drives pipeline and positions your company as a leader in 2026 and beyond. How do you go about creating such content? Glad you asked. Here’s my process. Finding the right expert to interview Who do you interview? How do you find potential experts? To find the ideal expert, I first consider the type of content I want to create. For example, for high-level strategy pieces, I look for executive-level experts or industry leaders with relevant experience. Matching the expert to the article type saves everyone time. Check for internal experts first Every company has people who know their stuff. Product managers, customer success leads, sales engineers, and technical specialists. These are excellent resources you can tap into. Internal subject matter experts are super valuable because they have deep knowledge of both the product and the audience. They can speak to real customer problems and how the product solves them. Plus, featuring internal experts positions your client’s team as thought leaders. I sometimes ask my point of contact: “Who on your team would be great to interview for this?” Most of the time, they know exactly who to connect me with. Tap into your existing network You’d be surprised how many subject matter experts are already in your network. Filter by company, job title, or industry to narrow it down. For example, when I was working on this piece on product differentiation, I reached out to product marketing managers in my network. You’ll notice how my message shares enough information for the expert to say yes. You don’t want to send a message like, “Hi Nathan, can I pick your brain about email marketing?” They’d be less likely to respond. Use Slack communities I’m in several Slack groups