Top Tips for Conducting the Perfect Interview for a UGC

What Is A UGC?

UGC stands for ‘User Generated Content’ and it’s pretty much what it says on the tin; it’s content that is created by people rather than the brand.

As consumers of the media, we love nothing more than watching, reading or listening to real-life stories that we can resonate with on some level. 

Therefore, as marketers, we know the UGC tactic drives strong results because if it’s what readers want, it’s what journalists want too, maximising the chance of landing your client in top tier publications.

In digital PR, this tactic can work for all types of brands. Got a jewellery client? Why not find a couple who planned their wedding on a budget? Or, sharing the story of an employee who quit their job to travel the world would make a great piece for your travel client. There are so many opportunities to find compelling stories that align with a brand’s vision and ethos through this tactic.

Therefore, UGCs are a solid tactic to incorporate into digital PR strategies and are a sure-fire way to drive results, but only if you conduct a stellar interview that’s going to give you the gripping story journalists will lap up!

So, how do you craft the perfect interview to create a newsworthy article?

1. Ask Demographic-Related Questions to Help with Your Outreach Strategy

For great storytelling, you need to set the scene and introduce your main ‘character’, and to do this with a UGC, you need to ensure you find out the demographic details of the person you are interviewing.

For example, finding out a person’s age, occupation and hometown helps readers to connect with the person you are interviewing and can give you filler sections for the article. It can also help to direct your outreach strategy which, in turn, can maximise link building opportunities. 

e.g. if you find out the person you are interviewing is a mum-of-three who lives in Gloucester, you can target parenting titles, whose readers will relate to the real-life story of a mum, as well as targeting regional publications within Gloucester. This will help to broaden your outreach and target new publications, helping to build a strong backlink profile for your client.

2. Always Have Headlines in Mind 

When thinking of questions for your interview, always think of what headlines could come from the answers. 

For instance, if for your interior client you're interviewing a homeowner who has recently undergone a huge home renovation, ask for details and a breakdown on how much it all cost. Think along the lines of questions like ‘how much in total did you spend on the renovation?’ and ‘can you provide a detailed breakdown of how much each room cost to renovate?’. 

This will enable you to create some click bait headlines such as, ‘I renovated my whole house for only £200’, which we know readers love to click through to and read more about.

A great tip to help understand the type of headlines you want to be thinking about for a UGC article is to research some recent real-life stories before writing up your interview questions. You can simply look through the real-life sections of national newspapers and magazines to see what headlines they’ve been using for their stories to gain inspiration. 

3. Ask Open Ended Questions 

You’re not going to get the next big scoop with simple yes or no questions. Open-ended questions are a must when conducting interviews. They allow the interviewee to elaborate and give plenty of detail which, in turn, will give you enough content to find the press-worthy angle you need to see the links roll in. 

A top tip here is to remember that open ended questions tend to start with ‘how’, ‘why’ and ‘what’, to allow for a deeper exploration in the answer, so make sure you include them in your interview. 

4. Ask Follow Up Questions

Don’t be afraid to go off script when you're interviewing someone. Sticking to a strict set of questions can be limiting and mean you might miss an opportunity to explore some new angles that might crop up in the answers you receive. 

For instance, there may be other elements that are mentioned in the responses that you feel could bring a new angle to your story. 

Therefore, ensure to ask follow up questions as you go to get as much content as possible. It’s always best to have too much content that you can edit later, than to have too little to even draft a single paragraph!

For more digital PR tips, head over to our knowledge hub to explore more ways to strengthen your PR strategies, including new ideation techniques to try and how to use link relevance to supercharge your strategies.