A Writer’s 6-Step Guide To Cooking Up Delightful Content From Raw Transcripts
Riviera Lev-Aviv | January 10, 2023
The #1 piece of advice I wish I’d received when I was a newbie content marketer is this: You don’t have to be an expert at cybersecurity, sales enablement, or whatever software category your company sells. I wish someone older and wiser had told me: Throw that unattainable goal right into the trash and instead focus on two skills.
One, learn how to work with subject matter experts (SMEs) in that niche to get interesting raw materials.
And two, learn how to cook up these raw materials from your interview transcript into something enticing. (If you’ve done your job interviewing well, this will be an infinitely easier task.)
Years of trial and error—and dozens of interviews—have allowed me to stumble my way into cultivating these two skill sets. Over time, I developed my own approach that lets me confidently enter situations where my knowledge is limited and still produce impactful content. I’ve already shared everything I’ve learned about interviewing, and today I’m going to share the six steps I always take to transform transcripts into the best content it can possibly be.
Note: While I’ve written this piece assuming you conducted the interview yourself, this approach also works if you’re writing based on someone else’s interview (or a podcast, webinar, or live event talk transcript).
Step 1: Get clear on your strategy
Looking at a transcript without knowing what you're looking for is like going to a grocery store hangry and without a list—you will end up dazed, confused, and covered in Cheeto dust. Having a clear vision of what you want to create will help you decide which quotes should make it into the piece, and which would be best left on the cutting room floor.
Before I dive into a transcript, I always ask myself (or the person who owns the content strategy) three questions:
As a writer (and an editor, for that matter), your most important job is to advocate for your reader. Knowing the persona you’re writing for will help you avoid a common trap: picking out what’s interesting to you as an individual instead of what’s interesting to your reader.
“While your company may speak to a wide variety of personas, it’s important to get clear on the one persona you’re most interested in speaking to for a given piece.”
I always start by clarifying the audience’s job function, level of seniority, and industry. I might jot down: “chief financial officers at mid-market consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies,” or “junior SEO marketers at tech companies.” While your company may speak to a wide variety of personas, it’s important to get clear on the one persona you’re most interested in speaking to for a given piece. (Because trying to speak to multiple at the same time—while a noble intention—usually means your writing won’t resonate with any.)
Having a sense of your audience’s level of knowledge is also essential so you’ll know when to forgo explanations of things that are obvious to folks in a given role or industry and when to break down things your readers feel like they should know but are too embarrassed to ask. For example, don’t waste space explaining FP&A to a CFO, but know that many marketers feel sheepish about their lack of understanding of AI and would appreciate a review of the basics.
As a content marketer, you’re always trying to advance prospects to the next stage of the buying journey. Knowing their current stage helps you find ways to guide them to the next stage—and pick the sections of your transcript that serve this goal. For example, if you’re writing a middle-of-funnel piece, addressing buying objections about a software category would be excellent material to include. Whereas if you’re writing a top-of-funnel piece, you’re better off focusing more on telling captivating stories that illustrate the problems your software solves.
The channel your content is intended for will have a huge effect on what transcript material is likely to engage readers. If you intend for a piece to be found through organic search, your audience will have already demonstrated intent by performing the search, so they’ll likely appreciate a more literal headline and a quick jump into the material. But if you’re writing a piece for social media, you’ll need to do more as a writer to hook your reader. In this case, it’s worth digging deep to come up with a punny title and a spicy opening anecdote.
Step 2: Mark up the transcript
Next, it’s time to read the transcript in its entirety and mark it up. When I’m reviewing a transcript, I often imagine I’m grocery shopping—I’m gathering as many high-quality, raw ingredients as I can. Then when it’s time to write, I’m using techniques and literary spice to elevate that material into something appealing.
It can be useful to have a mental “shopping list” as you read through your transcript to help you gather the necessary components.
I like to use Google Doc comments to label which “ingredients” I have to work with as I’m reviewing. So when I see a story that would make a great introductory anecdote, I’ll highlight it and comment “Intro angle?” If I come across a witty alliterative phrase, I’ll highlight it and comment “Use in title?” I also label interesting sections of the transcript with the type of info they are—for example, I tend to use labels like “tip,” “story,” “advantage/disadvantage,” or “example.”
This will help you in step 3 when you’re picking the format that most suits your material. If the ingredients are mostly all tips—and the examples and stories all support the tips—then it’s a clear listicle. Or if you have five pros and six cons, then that’s your structure. (More on this in step 3.)
How do you identify the most worthwhile material to include in your article? In addition to keeping your strategy in mind, always look out for anything that resonates on an emotional level. For example, when I hear a marketer's pained expression recounting times they had to manually fix hundreds of rows of bad data in a spreadsheet. Or when I hear the relief of a marketing ops person who used Zapier to automate a very manual process that was draining their team’s energy. These blips on the emotional radar indicate material that’s likely to resonate with readers.
If you’re working with a transcript that isn’t from an interview you conducted, I’d highly recommend listening to the audio or watching the video of the interview. You might be tempted to read it to save time (since many of us content folks are speedy readers), but I’ve found that I miss so much of what’s important—usually revealed through tone of voice—with a transcript alone. I’ve also noticed that little inaccuracies or missed words from your transcription service can hamper your understanding more than you might think.
“Not every moment in your transcript needs to be represented in your article. Your allegiance is to the reader and your task is to give them the best possible reading experience.”
It’s worth mentioning that not every moment in your transcript needs to be represented in your article. Your allegiance is to the reader and your task is to give them the best possible reading experience. If the interviewee rambled for the first five points and rehashed industry clichés without adding much of their unique take … then no need to waste precious real estate rehashing their rehash.
It’s common for SMEs, especially those not used to being featured in content, to hit their stride two-thirds of the way into an interview. If this is the case, you can absolutely center the whole article on those last three points. I’ve often written entire articles using only 10 minutes of a 30-minute transcript. I firmly believe I’ve done readers a service by only giving them what’s worth their time.
Step 3: Pick the format that makes your material shine
After you’ve taken stock of the ingredients your interviewee has given you, it’s time to decide on a format for the body of your article. Just like there’s no “best thing to make for dinner tonight,” there’s no “best blog post format.” If you’ve got an abundance of fresh vegetables, make a stir-fry. If you’ve got a bunch of sad-looking vegetables, make soup. Here are a few of my go-to formats, and the ideal situation(s) for each.
(I’ll briefly note that I usually like to write the body of the piece first, then write the introduction and conclusion last. That way, I can let themes emerge naturally, then come back and use them to frame the piece—more on this later!)
This style of article consists of questions followed by direct quotes. It works best when your interviewee is quick, quippy, and thinks in witticisms. Interviewees like this are rare, but they do exist. Much like a scotch connoisseur wouldn’t add ice cubes to a fine scotch, these are best served neat. If your interviewee is renowned in their niche and their name alone might be worthy of clicks, this format makes a strong choice.
This format also tends to be the lightest lift, so it can be a real time saver in a pinch. But always clean up a transcript, and don’t be afraid to edit heavily. Remove redundancies, clarify language, and replace dull words with livelier ones. This isn’t academic writing or journalism, where veracity is essential (and part of the ethical code of the discipline). In content marketing, we’re helping professionals tell their stories, so as long as you have their permission, it’s absolutely okay to lend them words to help them better articulate their ideas.
This format is ideal for when your best material can be cleanly sectioned into a list of tips, stories, or examples. For instance, when a RevOps person lists off the things they'd do to clean up a CRM upon joining a new company, or when a startup founder shares their top lessons about entrepreneurship.
I’ve even used this format when interviewees don’t actually explicitly give tips. Instead, I supply the lessons that are implied by the story and use those as a heading to ground the piece in tangible lessons readers will find valuable.
Remember that you’ll almost never use all the interview material in your final article. Say you mark up your transcript and find two stories, an industry prediction, and seven tips (but half of them are a little cliché and obvious). You could use the stronger of the two stories as the intro, the four strongest tips as the body, and the industry prediction as a conclusion.
This format is often familiar to folks since it’s usually how news is written. It consists of a story that is narrated by the writer, while also weaving in quotes from an SME. It can be broken into subsections or flow as one long story, but either way, it relies on narration throughout.
A narrative-style tends to be the heaviest lift, but it can be super compelling to read since it gives you the most control over how you shape the story. It can also be the smoothest approach if you end up with a transcript that’s threadbare or so full of buzzwords and jargon that it’s hard to pick out original ideas.
This format allows you to say what the speaker really meant, while adding the occasional quote for flavor. Again, don’t be afraid to massage quotes (just always run a draft by the person whose quotes you’ve edited before you publish). But 99.99% of the time nobody will take issue with you making them sound like a more articulate version of themselves. To date, nobody has ever emailed me and asked me to restore their “likes” and “umms.”
If the “ingredients” you identified in step 2 fall into a few different categories, I often find it works best to structure the piece as a grab bag. This format consists of a handful of sections, which each have subsections. This format manages to share a lot of disparate information, while also keeping a clear structure. By putting all the related tips together, the pros/cons together, and then an illustrative case study in its own section, you can explore a topic thoroughly, while still making it easy to follow.
For example, I recently wrote a blog post for a client where the structure was three common myths, five caveats, and four tips. This format is common for SEO articles, but it can also make a nice structure for other types of pieces.
Step 4: Write the thing!
Now you’re equipped with a solid strategy, a collection of your most interesting raw materials, and a plan for how to format your piece, it’s time to weave them together and write an ugly first draft. (You can always edit to perfection later.)
As you’re writing, have your reader’s back by adding context and validation. Imagine you’re hosting a party and someone wanders into a conversation midway through. Instead of letting them awkwardly nod and smile along, be a good host and say, “Hey, we were just chatting about the White Lotus finale” and recap the joke everyone else is laughing at. This is the art of effective contextualization—making readers feel at ease, like they belong.
I find interview transcripts often need a heavy dose of contextualization to make insights and stories interesting and easy to understand. Often in a conversation, when you see someone gets your point, you trail off and stop explaining. While this is effective communication for two folks talking (say, on a podcast interview, or webinar conversation), it’s extremely unclear to readers. Zoom out and provide the frame that makes the point land.
It’s also a good idea to back up your interviewee’s claims with links to citations. If someone references a well-known statistic in your industry, find and link the source. For example, in martech, folks often reference the fact that B2B buyers spend very little of their buying process talking to vendors directly. Instead of letting the quote remain vague, do a bit of research so you can change it to, “According to a Gartner study, buyers only spend 17% of their time talking to sales during their buying journey.” This is a win-win: You make your interviewee look great, while also providing your audience with the clearest information.
Step 5: Ask your SME for more details or clarification
As you are writing the body of your piece, you’ll probably identify moments of the transcript that are unclear or good points that don’t have quite enough meat on them. I recommend emailing your SME to clarify these bits or ask for more details.
There may be a lot of reasons you’re tempted to skip this step—including but not limited to: I don’t want to bug them, It’s not that important, and I don’t want to confirm my lifelong suspicion that I am, in fact, an imposter. Trust me, I hear you, but, going deeper with your SME is one of the most powerful things you can do to make your content stronger. Plus, in my experience, SMEs are usually happy to answer your questions. They're often nervous about how they came across in the interview and pleased to have another opportunity to make the final product better. If there’s a lot to clarify, and your SME is generous with their time, you can even do a second interview.
As a content marketer, you’re not the SME. Your skill is more like being a journalist or a researcher. But how effective of a journalist would you be if you guessed what your sources probably meant? Or a researcher who didn’t want to bug their guinea pigs because they’re probably really busy this quarter. If you want to earn your readers’ trust, you often have to go deeper than the resources you’re initially provided with.
Step 6: Write the introduction and conclusion
I’m fond of writing introductions and conclusions because it’s often the insights I gain from the writing process that allows me to frame a piece thoughtfully. Notice how a lot of my analogies so far have been related to grocery shopping and cooking? This was a natural theme that started to emerge as I was writing. After I’d finished writing the body, it seemed like an obvious choice for the title and visual theme of the piece. But I couldn’t have arrived at this without going through the writing process first.
I typically mark a few options for intro material in step 2, but it’s only after I’ve written the body that I decide which is most aligned with how the piece turned out. Sometimes, this means bidding farewell to the funny story that actually doesn’t have much of a logical connection to the main point of the piece. Other times, it means digging deep into my interpretive skills to pull insight out of the story so it actually does connect to the main point.
Whatever intro material you choose, always make sure your introduction reflects the core emotions you want your reader to feel when reading the piece. For example, this could be aspiration (to emulate the career of an inspiring leader), frustration (trying to avoid inefficient workflows), or satisfaction (learning to confidently master a skill). When your intro is aligned with the emotions of the piece, the body is far more likely to “click” into place and resonate with readers. Another way to help identify the core emotions behind the story is to ask yourself: “So what?” or in other words, why should your busy reader care about your take on this topic?
Your reader, waiting for you to razzle dazzle them.
I often like to end my introductions with a promise of the value. While you don’t want to be too cryptic, it’s often effective to create a curiosity gap where you allude to—but don’t reveal—things that will be explored in the body of the article. For example, "In this article, we’ll share the RevOps tool that [interviewee] strongly believes is overrated, how to distinguish between necessary integrations and ones that add unnecessary complexity, plus one secret to achieving excellent data quality that’s hiding in plain sight.”
I always write this promise of value after I’ve written the article. Because in the early stages of writing, I often have no idea what the best bits will end up being. If you have the luxury of a good editor, you can always ask them to comment on what they found to be the most interesting. Sometimes you get desensitized to your own material and stop seeing its uniqueness, but fresh eyes can instantly tell you what’s novel.
If intros are all about enticing readers to read your piece, endings are all about getting readers to remember your piece after they’ve finished it—and ideally, take whatever action is next in the buying journey. If your reader has gotten to your conclusion without getting sucked into a Slack conversation, scrolling Instagram, or walking over to the fridge to check if good snacks suddenly appeared since the last time they opened it, that’s a big deal! You can pat yourself on the back. But your work isn’t done quite yet. You’ve still got to bring this puppy home.
There are myriad ways to end a piece. Here are a few of my go-to’s:
Whatever method you choose, make sure it echoes (or otherwise connects to) the same emotion in your introduction. If your piece centers on avoiding a thorny problem, consider ending on a rhetorical question about how bad it’ll get if you don’t manage it today. If your piece draws on the readers’ curiosity about successful professionals like them, consider ending with a funny quote that embodies the interviewee’s unique voice and perspective.
Mastering interviewing + transforming transcripts = the ultimate antidote to imposter syndrome
Ultimately, mastering the twin skills of interviewing and transforming transcripts can be one of the most powerful antidotes to imposter syndrome. Often we writers fall into the trap of thinking we need to know it all. Of course, this isn’t the case—we need access to experts to write anything remotely convincing.
I often explain to my interviewees that, while I have a decent working knowledge of their domain, my area of expertise is not SaaS partnerships, inventory management, enterprise resource planning, or any of the other umpteen things I find myself writing about in any given week. Rather, my area of expertise is working with subject matter experts to source fine ingredients and elevate them into irresistible content. By owning what I don’t know as clearly as I own what I do know, it creates relief for both myself and the SME I’m working with—since they no longer feel like the onus is on them to perfectly organize their thoughts.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see if any treats have materialized in my fridge since last check.
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