Case studies are a strange marketing niche. Some companies adore them. They are well-presented and persuasive examples of what a company can achieve for its clients and customers. A robust case study, especially in the B2B market, can serve as a showcase for how successfully a company can operate and highlight your company’s online reputation.
Some people, on the other hand, do not give case studies and merit or weight. They believe a company is cherry-picking its most significant achievements and falsifying statistics to make itself look better. There’s also the fact that many case studies are so anonymous, so devoid of actual data, that they’re reduced to a line pointing up and a caption that says, “We can do it, trust me.”
A case study can help you create and manage your company’s reputation, but it must be well-designed. A case study that is thin, weak, or dull will not help you. So, how do you make a case study that’s both effective and interesting?
What Exactly Is a Case Study?
First and foremost, you must comprehend what a case study is and, more significantly, what it is not.
A case study is a self-contained narrative that chronicles the story of a successful firm. It’s a true story, not a made-up story. It shows how customers used your product or service to overcome their flaws or difficulties and achieve tremendous success than they could have without you.
Many of the characteristics of a piece of fiction or a narrative, in general, are present in a case study. It follows a plot arc that includes a beginning, a conflict, a solution, and a conclusion. It has a hero in the form of your customer. It has a goal and a path to reaching that goal, which is made more accessible by your product.
A case study is also relatable. A potential buyer should be able to read your case study and see themselves in the protagonist’s shoes, achieving the same achievement, facing the same (or similar) hurdles, and using the same tools as the protagonist.
What a case study isn’t is:
- A press release. Yes, case studies are meant to promote your brand, but they are not press releases. Customers, not intermediaries or broad marketing, are the target audience.
- A public service announcement. Case studies are used to demonstrate how your organization can successfully assist a customer, but they’re only helpful if they’re shared with the right people. It does not attract new potential clients; instead, it turns those interested into paying customers.
- An “About Us” page. It’s not about how you succeed, but about how you assist your customers in achieving. You are not the topic of a case study about yourself.
- Making a presentation. The most critical flaw in a case study is that it is tedious. An uninteresting case study is ineffective and not worth the time it takes to read.
Make no mistake: most online “case studies” are about the worst conceivable scenarios. Good case studies are intense, captivating, and challenging to find because they’re available as part of a customer journey rather than as part of broad marketing.
The good news is that writing a decent case study isn’t difficult as long as you have the necessary facts. It only takes a little planning, a well-chosen subject, and a talented storyteller. This is how you do it.
Choose A Goal for Your Case Study
It would be best if you first chose a goal before you begin writing a case study. Remember, a case study is your opportunity to persuade a potential buyer. What point are you attempting to make? Here are several examples:
- “We can assist you in lowering your operating costs.”
- “By using our product, you may boost your profit margins.”
- “By using our service, you will be able to create more leads.”
- “Joining forces with us will help you reach a new target market.”
- “By using our product, you may assist your company in becoming more environmentally friendly and sustainable.”
- “Our procedures assist you in adhering to government and industry laws.”
Your goal should be more explicit than “we assist your business succeed,” since what exactly is success? What do you consider to be a success, and how can you assist? And, once again, this isn’t something you accomplish; it’s something you help your consumers with.
A case study can be focused on a particular goal. Perhaps only 5% of your clients require the advantage you’re providing. That’s good; if you can attract more consumers that need that service, you’ll be able to grow that section of your audience. You can have numerous case studies with various objectives and highlight the most relevant ones to each consumer. PMC, for example, has an extensive archive of its case studies.
Make A List of Your Ideal Customers
Along with defining your goal, you must also determine the type of clients you intend to target with your case study. Remember that a case study is part of your marketing materials, not an advertisement.
You should, in theory, already have customer profiles. A customer profile should be a condensed representation of a specific consumer archetype that you serve. It’s a made-up scenario of a bunch of customers. Every firm has a target market of “people interested in this product,” but your customer profiles should be more specific. For example, a baby clothes store might have the following customer profiles:
- A young, first-time mother with no prior experience with child-rearing.
- An older couple expecting their third child, preparing for the inevitable.
- A gay couple who has adopted a child and needs to purchase child-related items.
Customer profiles are typically fairly thorough, containing pertinent demographics, interests, and other data. Customer profiles for archetypes of businesses and the people they target within those enterprises – the decision-makers – can be created by B2B companies.
You’ll need to make sure your goal and your customer are on the same page. A case study regarding audits and compliance will not be compelling for your customer archetype if they do not worry about government compliance. It could be wiser to do a case study on lead generation or a new target market.
Choose An Already Satisfied Customer to Match
After you’ve established a target client archetype and a goal, you’ll need to include real-world data. The first step is to locate a current customer who is:
- Be a relatable protagonist by being similar to the desired client profile.
- You were successful in employing your product/service to achieve the goal.
- The scale is similar enough to generate a convincing success narrative.
- If you don’t already have it in your records and analytics, you’ll be able to supply relevant data.
You could also hunt for consumers who have unique characteristics that would aid the story, such as:
- A well-known brand name. Brand awareness can boost the effectiveness of a case study by up to 24 times.
- Changing from a direct competitor “Moving from a competitor’s service to ours has actual benefits” is an effective marketing strategy.
After you’ve chosen a suitable candidate, you’ll need to talk to them about how you want to create your case study.
Present Your Case Study in A Variety of Media
You can use your case study for advertising yourself once you’ve finished it, but that’s not all. It can also be re-formatted for use with other types of media.
- To make an infographic, improve the graphics and reduce the text.
- To make a video, set the text and graphics to the narration.
- Write a script and enlist the help of a customer executive to rewrite your study as an interview.
Your goal is to have different versions of the content for diverse settings, media types, and people who learn in different ways. There is no single format that will appeal to everyone. So, there you have it, a tutorial on how to make a case study. You may then use this case study to combat a bad online reputation, demonstrate your value to customers, and gain media attention for your company. When you have subjects to show off, they’re fantastic tools.