In Part 1, we touched upon how thought leader-led content caters to EEAT’s growing tastes, as well as the difference between working with internal and external experts. Below, we’ll elaborate on how to work with these experts!
Working with internal experts
If you decide to go the homegrown route and opt to utilise the talent you already work with, you’ll need to consider how you approach them. Their insight and expertise aren’t something so simple as to be utilised over a Monday morning chat at the coffee machine, and it comes with its own weight and responsibility. After all, to truly showcase EEAT and ensure your project is enriched with truly authentic expertise, you’ll be asking your client or colleagues to put their insights on record, with name and face (and likely an extensive bio) out in the open.
That is to say, they need to be happy with their identity being wholly associated with your brand, company, and campaign.
With that in mind, you’ll have to have a plan in mind for how to comfortably collaborate, even with your own client or colleagues.
1. Decide which expertise you need
First things first (as it usually is), it’s wise to consider what type of expertise you’ll need. You can start from several places; have you created a new list of articles about one topic that would benefit from an expert’s insights? Are you creating new service pages that each need niche experience?
Once you know the scope of what expertise you need (which will inevitably start to bring some names to mind), then you can start looking for those who can supply it.
2. Shortlist valuable voices
Speak to your client contact (or if it’s your own team, explore your directory) about who would be insightful enough to contribute to your content. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t mean the best brand ambassadors; when people want trustworthy advice, they’ll trust that advice a lot less if it comes with a sales pitch for their own product. So, this could mean Team and Department Leads, or even high-ranking executives who know the business inside and out.
3. Polite requests
After you’ve got your tailored list of talent, it’s time to actually let them know that you’re eager to work with them. Depending on your level of familiarity or your presence within the client account or company, this can vary in how daunting or odd this step will feel. But, ultimately, you should simply speak to them clearly and explain the project you’re working on.
Whether it’s via email, over a call, or arranging a meeting specifically for this request, you’ll want to communicate to them that you believe they’re a trusted, relevant voice in the industry. And, that by contributing a little bit of their time to share their experience, it would be incredibly beneficial to ongoing SEO-led content requirements.
4. Explain the project
You don’t have to go into full detail if you don’t want to, but as long as they understand the whole coffee analogy I rambled on about in Part 1, you should be able to adequately explain the value their insights would bring to your project.
It’s worth noting that they may wonder how this proposal would benefit them, which is more than fair. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask, especially when considering they’ll likely be busy with their own work, or they might be uncomfortable becoming a ‘face of the company’.
This is when you’ll need to consider what could incentivise them to help out, whether it’s supporting them with their projects or highlighting the importance of their contribution to a common goal. So long as you make it plain to see why you’d like some of their time and explain how it would benefit not only your project but your client account or company as a whole, then you’ll have done all you can. Remember, if they say they can’t help, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe you could keep the possibility open for future projects when they’re less busy, or you could simply ask others on your shortlist.
5. Prep your questions
Naturally, you’ll need to determine what insights you’ll actually be seeking from your specialists, and so special care should be taken to hone your questions. Luckily, this doesn’t (usually) require extensive research, as you can usually gather good questions by considering the following:
- What content is this expert contributing to?: If it’s an already formed or planned article, consider the information your reader would want to know.
It could even be as simple as boiling down which H2s/H3s you’re already targeting with an article! If it’s Digital PR-led, consider what insights you’d want to support your campaign! - What made you want to speak to this particular expert?: When researching experts to work with, you would have surely had a clear reason for wanting to speak to this person in particular.
Are they working on a project that piqued your interest? Have they contributed to similar topics like your content in the past? Are they virtually synonymous with the industry you’re trying to explore? Think of talking points that’ll touch on these factors, and that’ll get the conversation flowing. - What is the purpose of this content?: Whether it’s informative-led and focused on a specific topic or it’s more akin to promotional material looking to discuss a specific product or service, you’ll naturally have talking points to start from. It’s just a case of honing them into organic questions that your expert will be able to answer with their experience.
6. Gather expertise
When you’ve got the support of your internal experts down in the books and your questions lined up, it’s time to properly gather their expertise. There are a handful of ways to do this, but it ultimately boils down to how you can ask them the right questions to get the most relevant, insight-rich answers.
You can opt to go full journalist mode and conduct a comprehensive interview, preparing questions that are pertinent to your project and taking the time to go through them one by one. Naturally, this will require some conversational and improvisational skills, as you could opt to go off-track a little and discuss something related to your questions if the discussion wades into interesting waters. This option is the best choice more often than not, as you’ll often get fascinating anecdotes, excellent context, and even answers to questions you didn’t know were essential to ask. Simply jump on a conference call, hit record (with their permission, of course), and have a notepad ready. You can even make life simpler by having a recording transcribed so you can parse through the answers easily at a later date.
However, if time’s a little tight and schedules are too packed, you can opt for a softer touch by compiling questions and sending them over for the expert to answer at their leisure. This will certainly be more of a flexible approach for people’s time and not require any face-to-face communication, but you’ll risk losing the magic and spontaneity you can get from a more thorough interview.
Whichever approach you decide to take, you’ll need to come to the table with the right questions. And, like in any interview, you should enter the conversation with an open mind; there’s no use bringing pre-conceived notions or a concrete idea for what answers you want. After all, that’s exactly the experience you’re looking for, and that the likes of Google are looking for in your content.
7. Add their experience to your content
Speaking of what Google’s looking for, once you have your interviews transcribed and your notes in a somewhat coherent manner, it’s time to infuse your content with your internal experts' insights. It’s important to ensure that these insights have the space they deserve, and that your readers can instantly glean the respect these experts have in their field. That’s why you should (subtly) signpost your expert’s insights and experience whenever it’s added.
For example, there’s nothing more impactful than a first impression, so you should ensure that your introduction provides your readers with a great one of your expert. Introduce them with their credentials, highlight why they’re a strong voice to include in the topic you’re covering, and make it clear how they’ll be contributing.
Then it’s a case of combining their insights with your well-crafted content. Of course, if you’re presenting the content as a one-to-one interview, you’ll simply need to frame the interview with copy that tees up their answers and provides context to the reader. However, if you’re opting for a lighter, more organic touch, you’ll need to sprinkle in the expert’s insights throughout your content.
You can introduce these as direct quotes, used when discussing a relevant point or raising a specific topic, and tie them into the copy with their own, standalone quote box. “For example, giving their expertise figurative room to breathe (and literal line breaks on the page) ensures their insights will stand out.” - Tom Simpkins
There’s also a method of threading their quotes into the copy, almost like punctuation. If their insights are more bite-sized, you can weave them into your copy whenever relevant to a topic. It’s almost like answering a question raised in your content, but instead of bringing it up rhetorically, you’re actually allowing another to answer it. For example, Tom Simpkins added, just like this
Working with external experts
In a rather large nutshell, that’s how you can infuse a trusted voice into your content. Luckily, working with external experts is a similar style of nut, albeit with a few extra twists. Let’s examine the prior process for working with internal experts and see how it varies when looking outside your own organisation.
1. Define your project
Just like with internal experts, you’ll need to focus on what your project is. Consider the following:
- Who’s the audience?: This can vary from working with your own talent, as different kinds of external experts can potentially widen the net with whom your content is targeting.
External talent can come in many forms, ranging from niche influencers to brand ambassadors, with each serving a different potential audience. - What’s the project focusing on?: Are you looking for comprehensive interviews with experts, or would you rather they simply contribute to some content with a few words? They could even write an entire think-piece themselves!
Knowing what content you’re aiming for can help tailor which kind of expert you’ll want to consider. - What type of content are you creating?: Editorial articles, PR campaigns, social media collabs; each have their own distinct requirements, and thus, their own type of expert that’s right for the job.
Another point to consider is your budget. Whilst it’s unlikely that internal experts will expect anything more than your gratitude, and perhaps a coffee sometime, reaching out to external experts will often require some thought on compensating them for their time. Naturally, a good place to start is to figure out if you have a budget for these collabs. Believe it or not, most folk will respond more positively to an incentive, like being paid.
If you have no budget, think about what you can bring to the table (such as a trade of expertise, offering promotion for their own projects, leveraging your own site’s high DA/DR, etc.).
2. Research your potential experts
Next up, like screening potential internal experts, it’s time to ascertain who in the industry would be a good fit for your project. As aforementioned, it’s hard to deny that high-ranking industry juggernauts would be an absolute jackpot of knowledge, but it’s often worth considering those that have more relevant experience for your brand and project.
A great way to find developing talent, as well as lesser-known experts, is to check industry awards and who has won them. 30-under-30s, 40-under-40s, up-and-coming account managers; you’ll often find some great talent who have literal award-winning expertise worth considering (and that’s not just included because of Croud’s pedigree!)
Research industry expertise at different levels: academic experts, specialist influencers, well-respected bloggers, etc. There are likely all kinds of authorities to consider out there for your project. Look into recommendations from Reddit, check LinkedIn for relevant players and companies in the industry, and even read article contributions in newspapers; you’ll inevitably find some insightful voices worth reaching out to.
Usually, having some Digital PR expertise on hand is great for sourcing potential names. This is another aspect that budget can support: working with independent PR specialists. Those who can research who's who in an industry and find out whether they’re open to collaboration are usually worth their fees in gold.
One final consideration when looking into experts is one of the golden rules of collaborating on behalf of a client or brand: remember to avoid aiming for potential competitors. Though their experience is just as valuable as others in the industry, it’s unlikely they’ll be willing to contribute to any projects of yours (and even less likely that your client or brand will want to work with them!)
3. Reach out like a human being
We’ve all had cold call-style LinkedIn messages and emails that make you feel like nothing but one line in someone’s spreadsheet. And, with the advent of AI being, well, everywhere, it’s even less likely that you’ll be approached by an actual person.
Set yourself apart from the chaff by speaking like, you know, a person speaking to another person. While there are more PR-led tools available than stars in the sky who can send out emails en masse (with replaceable fields that try, and often fail, to insert a recipient’s name with little more than an email address), you’ll almost always find more success in reaching out to people on an individual level.
Sure, if you have a list of hundreds of people, this might take a while. But there lies the importance of your focus: defining maybe 10 experts out of 100 who would be a great fit for your project. If these 10 don’t respond, move on to the next. Either way, by actually sending a message to someone as if you want to talk to them and not just anyone like them, you’ll be much more likely to hear back from them.
Tips for this include doing some research on them, referencing work of theirs that brought them to your attention, or congratulating them on a recent professional success. You know, things you’d be chuffed to see someone else recognise and approach you about!
4. Gather their insights
As you’ll have likely noticed whilst reading this, you should generally be approaching experts as if you’re two people talking to each other as actual people. Thanks to this, you can opt for roughly the same approach to this section as steps 5, 6, and 7 with internal experts!
5. Ensure they’re compensated
The one factor that may be different for external experts, once you’ve worked their magic into your content, is to ensure that you’ve dotted all the ‘i’s and crossed all the ‘t’s. That is to say, if you’ve offered compensation for their time, you actually ensure they’re compensated.
Every company, account, and project has their own way of handling finances, so there’ll be countless ways to complete this part of the process. However, it is vital that it is completed, and that you, as the one responsible for enlisting the expert’s help, do everything in your power to make sure it’s completed as swiftly and soundly as possible.
Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also helps to maintain a professional relationship. After all, you’ve worked hard to speak to your experts about their experience; why not start planning on ways to work with them again?
What kind of results can I expect/hope for when working with experts?
There are many results you can expect to enjoy when working with experts, both internal and external. One of the most important reasons for enlisting expertise is to fulfil EEAT; both as a measurement of trust for your audience, and in the eyes of search engines.
However, on a more granular level, you can expect:
- An increase in DA/DR: Both in quantity and quality, high-value content will often see an increase in keyword rankings. By providing content that adds context to these keywords, this adds more information and expertise to those keywords, and this naturally contributes to an increase in domain authority.
This is what we’ve seen with some of our clients when we’ve woven expert-led content in with new content updates, helping them climb up in the hard-to-ascend 70+ range. - Increased AIO mentions: Just like extra context makes keywords more likely to be identified organically, it’s also exactly what LLMs look for when trying to answer people’s questions. By offering a solid connection between proven expertise and the information a user wants, you make it much more likely that LLMs will be able to pick this content as one of their sources.
We’ve identified this when our clients have seen increases in their AI citations, especially with Google and Gemini. - Higher click-through rates: This is especially clear when working with incredibly niche topics. Whether you work with said topics or you’ve had a client that appeals to a very specific audience, you’ll know how even the best content might take time to gain traction and results.
However, by presenting an expert giving these niche insights on these topics (making it clear they do so via the likes of metadata), we’ve seen a substantial increase in click-through rates for some of our clients. - Greater customer/audience confidence: Something harder to nail down with anything short of a sentiment analysis (though here at Croud, we have our own tools for these), but having real people address real confidence issues (i.e. an audience believing a brand’s approach to educating them on certain topics is too vague) can go a long way to changing negative brand sentiments.
- Requests to be included in academic papers: Yes, this happened with one of our clients.
Ultimately, with all the ongoing developments with how search engines prioritise content and the dawn of more human-focused, non-AI expertise becoming more valuable, you’ll find more and more that having an expert’s insights weighing in on your content will provide context and credentials that your readers can trust.
In the end, when it comes to creating valuable content that should really be everyone’s cup of tea, or their cup of coffee.
