Producing technical and strategic content is essential for creating valuable content that helps prospects and customers. One key to achieving this is capturing subject matter expert (SME) knowledge and expertise on paper.

This is where your subject matter experts (SMEs) help you.

Please find out how to document their knowledge and expertise.

As a marketer, your job is to ensure these SMEs develop content. They have tons of knowledge and experience in their brains. This content will better inform your prospects and customers about specific topics.

They have valuable, specialized, and technical knowledge. Their unique perspectives on a topic can intrigue potential customers and make them want to work with you.

SMEs knowledge and expertise on paper can make your content marketing more trustworthy and credible. They provide interesting insights on the latest products, services, and trends.

SMEs are busy people, and helping out with marketing is not one of their top priorities.

Many marketers find it challenging to extract their knowledge and experiences. They struggle to put them into an eBook, whitepaper, blog post, success story, or video.

These SMEs with scientific or engineering backgrounds often feel uncomfortable in marketing.

It’s your job as a marketer to work with these super bright people. Convert what’s in their brains into a piece of marketing content. Make it clear, helpful, and engaging.

Writing can be very challenging for an SME given just a blank piece of paper. Asking them to write a blog post or whitepaper on a specific topic adds to the challenge. It’s like pulling teeth at the dentist’s office.

It will not go well for you. The SMEs will find excuses to push it off and let it slip through the cracks.

How to get SME knowledge and expertise on paper

There are three main ways you can work with your SMEs. You can produce high-quality and compelling content. You can also get their knowledge and expertise on paper.

1. Interview the subject matter experts

The best way to start is by interviewing them on a conference call you can record. Pick a day and time for your SME and schedule 30 minutes.

Ahead of the interview, make sure you have one to three topics in mind that you want to talk about.

When you send them a meeting invite, include any background materials. Perhaps write up an abstract of what the content may cover.

Make sure you prepare potential questions ahead of the interview. If you have resources, you could invite a freelance writer or producer to write this content.

During the interview, start with easy, general questions so your SME gets comfortable with you.

Start with introductions and outline the content development process at your marketing organization.

For example, a good best practice would be to conduct an interview, draft an outline for their review, and then write the first draft again.

Once you finalize the copy, please send it to your graphic design team. They will mock up a nicely designed PDF or article.

Then, send it to them for their final approval, and then you can hit publish.

How to have a smooth interview

Back to the interview. Make sure you ask questions until you learn something new. Otherwise, your final product won’t be very compelling.

Ask them for use cases or examples of a concept they are discussing. Then ask clarification questions to understand what they are saying, such as when they use acronyms or technical jargon.

If you don’t understand it, your audience won’t understand it.

End your interview by saying thank you and asking if there are other people you should talk to.

If you can’t get an SME on a call with you, ask to join a call with a customer. Alternatively, you could join an internal presentation they give to the executive team or another department.

2. Research a topic and have them fill in the gaps

If your SMEs become super busy, and you don’t have time to interview them, you could do the research independently. Then send them a draft to review.

Do your homework on an interesting topic to your team, prospects, and customers.

When doing homework on a topic, find out what your competitors say about the subject. Also, Google your possible article headline and see what people are searching on Google.

If it is a blog post, your goal is to answer the most pressing questions of your prospects and customers. Focus on a specific topic and do so in the most comprehensive way.

The reason?

To show up on page 1 of Google.

Ask them to edit and comment using the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word. Then, ask them to fill in the gaps in areas you don’t feel comfortable.

You could ask them questions in the document to verify your thoughts on the topic.

3. Reuse existing content

You can listen to a webinar if you don’t have time for an interview or time to do your homework.

They might be participating in such a webinar. Alternatively, you can attend an industry conference where they present and take notes. You can develop content from their presentation.

Also, review the content you have already written. Explore a topic that they only briefly mentioned at a high level.

You could ask them for a slide deck they presented to a prospect or customer. Then, you could turn it into an article.

ALso, take content from a couple of whitepapers. Create a blog post or video using video maker tools like Lumen5.

You could also turn a whitepaper into a video or a video into a blog post.

The key is to get a lot of mileage out of existing content and repurpose it into different formats. Your SMEs are busy, so you must maximize every piece of content.

Bringing it all together

Your SMEs will become more comfortable producing content with you. The key is not to give them blank paper to start from.

The key is to grease the wheels and get them into the content state of mind.

Eventually, they will start enjoying working with the marketing team and give you unsolicited ideas.

At that point, you’ll know you have mastered getting what’s in their brain into a marketing piece.

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