The Value of the Interview for Home Business Owners

As I mentioned in the post, 7 Random Facts About Home Biz Notes & Mary Emma, I was a newspaper reporter at one stage of my life.  While working for this weekly newspaper, I often wrote about local businesses and interviewed the owners.  I particularly enjoyed learning about the home business owners, perhaps because I also often operated a business from our home.

Many business owners don’t realize the value of the interview and don’t think of it as a method of PR…and free PR, at that.  Those interviews I conducted for our local newspaper appeared, of course,  in the print media.  Nowadays, online interviews are very popular, usually conducted via e-mail.

The value of the interview:

*Free publicity for your business

*Bring out interesting information your customers may not know

*Gives your business a “human interest” touch

*Often are read more readily than a press release (which the saavy reader realizes was written by you or someone at your business).

*Often catches the eye of a reporter or editor of some other publication and leads to another interview…and more publicity

*Hopefully brings you new customers/clients as they learn about you.

(In a future post, I’ll give some tips on how to get interviewed.)