What is a case study?
A marketing case study is a detailed analysis that illustrates how a company successfully addressed a particular client’s needs through its products or services. It’s a narrative that showcases the impact of the company’s solutions in solving real-world problems.
Typically, the format outlines the challenges faced by the client, the approaches employed by the company to tackle these issues, and the results of these efforts. They often highlight measurable outcomes such as increased revenue, improved efficiency, or enhanced customer satisfaction.
The case study is a valuable content format for building trust and credibility with potential clients, demonstrating expertise or capability, and illustrating the tangible benefits of the services or products provided.
Why do they work so well?
A case study provides an overview of a positive business transaction with a client. Unlike a testimonial, it’s not just a review or report from a customer who supports your business. It’s a success story. A detailed account of how you successfully solved a problem your client faced.
If you are targeting particular industries, writing case studies that resolve challenges unique or highly relevant to those industries, can help you gain the confidence of prospective clients. They’re often a key part of the content strategy for B2B products or services.
A good case study can be as helpful for your prospective clients as it is for your sales team! B2B buyers often need to put forward a business case for their purchase recommendation. Information about business outcomes in similar situations can help them to do that.
Case studies can attract new customers, build trust in your business, and make the work of your sales team a bit easier. They also provide evidence that you care about the problems your clients face and find solutions.
A good case study breaks down the process for potential clients, familiarising them with the steps they may go through when working with your business.
Case studies and the buyer journey
No matter what stage of the buyer journey potential clients are in, they can be drawn to the useful detail found in great case studies:
- Awareness Stage: How the client came upon your business and what sort of problems needed to be solved can resonate with readers facing similar situations.
- Consideration Stage: Details on your approach and any specific strategies you created for a client can appeal to potential customers with similar needs.
- Decision Stage: Reading how you overcome any challenges that occurred, or went above and beyond in providing your services, can increase buyer confidence and provide further evidence that your company would be a good choice.
- Good planning is the key to success
- The most compelling marketing case studies identify real clients and successful projects. Creating this type of content can be a significant exercise, but the following seven key steps will give you some structure around planning the content and dealing with stakeholders, which will make the writing phase much easier. We also have a free case study template below that you can download and use as you wish.
- Choosing clients and projects
- The first step in choosing the right clients, is to have a clear goal and purpose in mind. Are you building a broad cross-sector or cross-solution case study library? Or, is your goal to increase enquiries from a particular sector, promote a particular service, or to demonstrate your capability around larger projects? These strategic goals will help you identify the projects that are best suited. If you’re fortunate enough to have plenty of options, your next step is to choose the clients.
- Choose clients you have a good relationship with. You want the finished content to show off your strengths so pick clients who are enthusiastic about your company’s services. If your direct engagement with clients is limited, you may need to ask the account or project managers to suggest suitable clients.
- Stakeholder management
- If you’re overseeing the content development, you’ll need all your stakeholder management and diplomacy skills, and a good dose of patience. There are several factors to navigate. The first of these is gaining client permission to produce the content that highlights their project.
- In fact, you don’t merely want their permission – you want their enthusiastic cooperation. You also want their data that demonstrates outcomes, some of their time, and a fabulous quote that serves as a testimonial for your company. You might also want pictures (construction related projects) or screen shots (digital projects).
- Who you speak to will depend on the company size and structure. You may need to speak with someone on the marketing or PR team in the first instance. Either way, it’s important to ensure that the permission to proceed comes from the person with the authority to give it.
- Accept that some clients will decline. If your company was called in to fix a problem, the client might prefer not to advertise that the problem occurred. A case study might make your business look competent, but the client less so. There can also be less obvious factors at play, such as relationships with other companies that worked on the project, or with one of your competitors.
- It is possible to write a case study without mentioning a client’s name, but we don’t recommend doing it. Not only might it damage the relationship with your client if they haven’t given permission, but a case study without a client name is like an anonymous testimonial: largely worthless when it comes to establishing trust.
- With the green light in hand, it’s time to engage with other stakeholders before you begin the writing.
- Identify Key Stakeholders
- Identifying the right stakeholders (internally and externally) is crucial as they provide the foundational insights and data that shape the narrative. Key stakeholders typically include the client company’s C-suite executives, project leads, direct beneficiaries of the solution (like customers), and internal team members who were involved in the project. Recognize which stakeholders are critical for various aspects of the case study, such as providing testimonials, technical details, and outcome metrics.
- Understand Stakeholder Perspectives
- Each stakeholder has unique views and experiences related to the project that can enrich your case study. Identify their specific concerns, motivations, and the related challenges they faced before or during the project. Understanding these perspectives helps in crafting a compelling customer story that showcases the problem-solving capabilities of your service or product.
- Engage Stakeholders Early and Often
- Engagement should begin at the earliest stage of the case study planning process and continue throughout the writing and review stages. This helps ensure the accuracy of information, and is also a great opportunity to build relationships that could smooth the path for future case studies.
- Make it Easy!
- Make the participation process as easy as possible for stakeholders. Schedule interviews and discussions at their convenience, offer to send questions in advance, and be clear about the kind of input and commitment you need from them. If you require detailed technical data or specific project results, be straight-forward about what is needed and why it is essential for the case study. Your consideration and respect for their time makes their enthusiastic cooperation more likely.