One of the most powerful marketing tools you can use to tell your brand story is a case study. It provides credibility by promoting your know-how and detailing results, and it creates the narrative for additional brand content.
Ultimately, you want to use a case study to introduce customers and prospects to your product or service solution and convince them that you are the ideal partner to provide it. Here’s how you can make that happen.
4 tips for creating a better marketing case study.
Choose the right topic.
Successful marketing doesn’t sell products; it demonstrates how those products deliver solutions and provide value for your customers. A well-constructed case study focuses on those needs or pain points. Start by doing your research. Ask your customers why they use your product or service, what they value most about it, and why they choose you as their provider.
Go back to your customer personas. Outline your customers’ needs and challenges along with the specific solutions you offer. Do keyword searches to learn more about what services your customers need, want, or use. Answers to these queries should give you a great list of case study topics. The next step is identifying and reaching out to your customers you’d like to feature.
Tell a story.
Your case study should make a relatable connection with your customer—one in which the reader can envision themself in your storyline, with their needs completely satisfied by your solution. You can do that by inviting them into a story.
Industry expert Neil Patel explains, “if you tell a story that shows how your product or service provider works and that helps customers visualize the results that they’ll get, you’ll most assuredly attract more sales.” Draw the reader in by using storytelling to take them on a journey from point A to point B, starting with the challenge and arriving at your brand as the answer.
Make it easy to read.
Adults today average an 8-second attention span, so making your content easy to read is critical. Use bold headlines and subheads, bulleted lists, quotations, infographics, photos, and videos to guide your reader through your story. The bonus to adding infographics or YouTube videos is that they are easy to share and repost, giving your brand even greater exposure.
Show tangible results.
Don’t bring your case study down the final stretch and let it lose steam. A strong finish requires real numbers and real proof. Be precise in outlining results like sales numbers, YOY market growth, attendance, etc. Making vague assertions without quantifiable outcomes can undermine your credibility.
How to use your case study as a marketing tool.
At Shamrock, we house our case studies in a few places-one on our portal for our employees to access as well as on the portfolio section of our website, making it easy for customers and prospects to access and download. Beyond storing them on your website, case studies can be used in email and social media campaigns, in blogs, and included in proposals and presentations to lend credibility to your capabilities.
Beyond their versatility, the actual exercise of developing a case study is invaluable. By focusing on your customers’ challenges, how you solve them, and the results you’ve achieved, you can sharpen and refine your marketing messaging to speak to those pain points or value propositions for stronger, more impactful branding.
