A Content Overview – All About Case Studies
By Annabelle Amery
Annabelle@allthiscontent.com
When thinking about investing in a service or product, what’s the first thing you do to find out if said product is the real deal? Ask friends? Look for reviews? Or better yet, case studies? With 9 out of 10 consumers reading online reviews to determine the quality of a business, it is clear that people want hard evidence – and with service-based businesses (and product-based ones too), a solid b2b content marketing case study is an easy, pointed way to get the job done. Potential clients want to know that the product or service they are looking into does what it says on the box, before laying down their money – and rightly so.
Case studies go far beyond reviews and simple testimonials. A case study evaluates a real-life example of how your company was able to benefit your customer’s needs. They are therefore an extremely valuable marketing tactic and asset when it comes to gaining potential customers’ trust, and new leads. They are a way of proving that what you are offering is both credible, and could be beneficial to potential customers in reaching their goals.
Best Practices for Using Case Studies:
With potential customers browsing your website’s case studies, you want to really harness their focus and reel them in. Here are some best practices to make your case studies shine above the rest, nailing those leads.
- Write about something your ideal customer can relate to – first thing’s first, you need to figure out who your ideal customer is. Once you’ve got that sorted, make sure to use case studies related to the type of customer you are looking for. This will make your ideal customer feel safe in the knowledge that you are comfortable in their industry, and already understand their specific needs. The case study will show that you are able to give their industry the results they are looking for.
- Include real numbers – results, results, results. A potential customer reading your case studies, is on a result finding mission. They want to know that your product or service can produce the results that they are looking for. Provide numbers and figures where you can. And going one step further than that, outline how these results were achieved.
- Easy to read formatting – it sounds simple enough but you’d be surprised how many fluff this one up. Most readers will be taken aback by huge blocks of writing. This is especially useless for those who like to skim-read. Like any good piece of content, case studies should be split up into headers, bold writing, paragraphs, bulleted points and images which we are just getting to…
- Include different forms of content – rather than just slurring words on a page, try inserting graphs, images, and even videos where possible. This will make sure to appeal to all different kinds of learners, while making your case study more readable.
- Tell it like a story – be sure to tell the client’s story from start to finish. From before they met you, until after. You could start off describing what the company itself does (so the reader can see if this relates to their industry), and then go onto listing the company’s goals and needs before using your product or service. Most importantly, you now need to mention how your company met these goals and of course the results.
- Follow up – to give your company even more credit, you could do a follow-up study six months to a year down the line, to highlight the long-term effects that your product or service has had on said company. This shows that your company is truly credible and will be helpful not only in the short-term, but also in the long-term.
- Include quotes – simple enough. Again, quotes will give your company more credibility.
Common Mistakes when Using Case Studies
- Not making them easy to find on your page – why bother going through the trouble of collecting all of the information necessary to compile a case study and write it up, if your potential customers cannot easily find them? This is a common mistake. Be sure to have separate, easy to find page, where all of your case studies can be compiled.
- Forgetting to brag about them – if you’ve got it, flaunt it! Post them in other areas of your website where you can subtly hint at them (providing a direct link to your case studies page). Post them in your social media, or in a new blog perhaps. Unleash them in your email marketing. Spray and pray!
Get Converting Case Studies of Your Own
Here at All This Content, we’ve got the entire case study process down to a fine art.
Simply tell us what you’d like a case study of, then let us do the rest: we’ll give you short and sweet questionnaire for you to send to your client or partner, and then use the answers they give to write up a solid case study for you.
Want your own awesome and converting case study? Contact us at All This Content today.
