6 Tips to Turn Your Business Case Studies into Marketing Machines
If you’re helping customers solve their most painful problems, why not tell the world about it? There are many productive reasons to consider writing case studies to support your business’s marketing efforts. When done well, they’re among the most effective arrows in your content marketing quiver.
But some case studies are vastly more productive than others.
A wall of homogeneous text won’t do. The case study is your chance to bring your business to life for prospective customers. Here’s how to do it.
1 -Utilize a narrative structure
We love stories. We understand stories. We remember stories.
Adopting a narrative structure for your case study will ensure that it resonates with readers, and most narratives take a similar, effective shape:
Company or Customer X was enjoying success. -> But they were struggling with a specific problem that restricted their success. -> Frustrated and discouraged, they sought a solution to that problem. -> They explored other options but couldn’t find the appropriate fit; finding the Goldilocks solution seemed hopeless. -> Like a knight in shining armor, we presented our product or service to them. -> Our solution met their needs and eliminated the frustration. -> That solution unlocked previously unknown prosperity/security/comfort/etc.
You can walk a similar path with dry language and straightforward statements of fact, but detailing the customer journey in a way that evokes the emotions of each step will breathe life into the case study and leave a more lasting impact on readers.
2 - Make it reader-friendly
Nobody enjoys reading walls of text. They’re tiring, hard to skim, and unlikely to reach readers with your intended message. These realities ring true for all content, not just case studies.
We must pity the reader and make their journey towards the ultimate takeaway (that your business offers the perfect solution to their problems) as hassle-free as possible. Make it a pleasure for them to reach that destination. There are a few ways to do that:
Utilize headings and enlarged, bolded text for key points. If needed, a reader should be able to skim through your case study and absorb the key points simply by gravitating toward headings and uniquely formatted text. Headers break up the study into logical pieces, creating a digestible structure. Other key points can be enlarged, bolded, or otherwise adjusted to ensure they stand out on the page.
Avoid repetitive paragraph structure. A relentless onslaught of 5-7 sentence paragraphs will lull the reader to sleep, and many of those sentences will likely go undigested entirely. Use a variety of paragraph lengths, and don’t shy away from single-sentence paragraphs, particularly when those sentences include key takeaways or points you don’t want the reader to miss. Take care to invite the reader from one paragraph to the next.
Look for opportunities to employ bulleted or numbered lists. If you find yourself writing exhaustive lists of problems faced, solutions offered, or results achieved, consider shifting them into a bulleted or numbered list structure. The reader will more capably and easily digest them in this format rather than extracting them independently from a monolithic paragraph. Remember, these are portions of case studies that might be better described in a bulleted list:
Problems Faced
Solutions Offered
Results Achieved
See: isn’t that better than presenting them in a paragraph?
Include quotes and visuals. These are important not just for reader-friendliness but for other reasons as well. We’ll cover them separately in a moment.
3 - Include quotes and testimonials
Quotes can disrupt the monotony of other prose, offering a respite to the reader. However, their value in case studies is vastly more expansive.
Your business has helped an impressive array of clients, but don’t ask the reader to take your word for it. If the case study includes only the words and perspectives of your company, then the reader may wonder to what degree it’s all true. Was the customer really thrilled with your solution? Did it actually solve their problems? Did they truly see results?
Face it: we live in a world of skeptics. We might as well meet them where they are.
A direct quote from a verifiable customer answers all their questions, outflanking the skepticism. Let the customer share their experiences in their own words. Not only does it enliven the piece - one of our chief goals - but it strengthens the social proof of the case study. Remember: customers are more likely to purchase when they know others have done so and are happy with the decision. Including a statement to that effect straight from the customer provides the desired assurance.
Without it, the reader has little reason to trust the case study more than your other, general marketing copy.
4 - Be specific and leverage data
The case study is the antidote to more generalized marketing copy. It’s your opportunity to show rather than tell. Take that opportunity.
This is not the place to be general or vague. Don’t just say the client faced challenges with their existing email marketing platform. Say that their open rates plummeted 10%, composing email campaigns took 3 hours, and monthly subscription prices had increased 25% in the last two years.
Don’t just say that your product solved the client’s problems and alleviated their frustrations. Say that their open rates increased 15%, the time to compose and send a campaign dropped to one hour, and the client saved 15% annually relative to their costs incurred with a competitor.
Data is essential in a case study. It may not always be easy to ask clients for it or for them to produce it, but impactful data is the difference between an okay case study and one that convinces prospective clients that your solution is a no-brainer. Without it, it’s impossible to demonstrate the ROI on your product, whether that comes in revenue generated, cost savings, time savings, or all the above.
Data is precisely the tool for the biggest of jobs: demonstrating to prospects that your solution will be worth more to them than they’ll pay for it. Once they believe that, converting them from prospects to clients becomes much easier.
5 - Use visuals where applicable
Again, showing is better than telling.
As with quotes, visuals can have practical value beyond their important relief of reader fatigue. They can help you tell your story and amplify key takeaways in ways that simple text can’t. Visuals at your disposal include:
Graphs/Charts. Data is great, but it’s even better when it can be visualized. Illustrate the striking before & after results of using your product.
Infographics. If you find yourself explaining cumbersome processes facing the client or comparing them to the simplified process your solution offers, an infographic might articulate the same message with greater clarity.
Screenshots/Images. Depending on what type of services or products you offer, you may be able to point to specific visual evidence of your product’s benefits. This can apply to digital offerings as well - Webflow often includes screenshots of their clients’ beautiful web designs, created with Webflow, in its case studies. Including those visuals brings the case study out of the abstract and into the real world, where readers can better understand it.
6 - Include a call-to-action
Now that you’ve got the reader excited about your solutions to their problems, implore them to act - now.
Don’t hope they’ll navigate to the right place to express an interest or get in touch. Tell them exactly how to do so and make it easy. You might even direct them to a specific landing page or contact form specific to this case study to ensure you know what piqued their interest so you can serve them efficiently and effectively.
Getting in touch to do business may not be the only call to action you consider. If you think the lessons in your case study are broadly applicable, encourage the reader to share it with their network. You can include social icons that make sharing to different platforms simple.
Or perhaps this wasn’t quite the right case study for that particular reader. Point them toward other studies that illustrate different use cases for your product or your product at work in other industries. Just don’t let the end of this case study be the end of your journey with that reader.
Want to create case studies that turn your website into a lead-generating machine? ThoughtLede works with you to transform customer success stories into valuable marketing content, implementing all the tips you’ve just learned about. Get in touch today to get started.