Making the Case for Case Studies

Case studies are one of the most powerful tools available to B2B marketers. They provide an opportunity to boost company credibility and trust through third-party endorsements while showing your solutions being used in real-world applications to the customer’s advantage. 

According to a HubSpot survey, marketers cite case studies as the fifth most popular type of content, preceded only by video, blogs, infographics, and eBooks.

While creating effective case studies requires careful planning and effort, they can be well worth the time. Following are four quick #protips for successful case-study development: 

1. Get Permission. One of the most difficult aspects of case-study creation is getting customers to say yes. Oftentimes, this isn’t because they don’t love your offering—it’s because of legal concerns or someone at the top not being on board, especially if they don’t see a direct benefit to participation. This is why some companies discuss the potential for a case study with their customer from the relationship’s beginning, even putting clauses into contracts that offer an incentive if they agree to take part.
2. Nameless Is Better Than None. While some organizations will never agree to let you use their name and brand, they may be more willing to be a “blind” case study participant. This approach can work especially if the customer is an industry leader or standout in their field.
3. Make It Readable. For the most part, gone are the days when case studies are pages-long tomes. In our current busy world, succinct, high-level case studies tend to get more attention, as does clear (read: not overly complex) language. The use of shorter paragraphs, bullet points, images, and callouts make case studies inherently more readable.
4. Avoid Ambiguity. Include specific metrics as it makes a stronger case to quantify your claims. For example, stating that a product helped an organization save 30 percent on operational costs or reduced delivery times from eight weeks to four is more believable and compelling than saying “product XYZ helped us work smarter.” Numbers enhance credibility by telling others exactly how substantial the benefits can be—much more so than just saying something saves time or money or is faster.

Case Studies Have Multiple Uses

While case studies are an expected resource for having on your website, their usefulness shouldn’t stop there. Pitch them to industry verticals as feature stories, fashion them into blog posts, and develop printed slicks to use as sales handouts at in-person events, for example. 

Even better, bypass written content altogether to create a video case study—remember what we said above about video being the top type of marketing content? Such videos can be embedded on landing pages, run in a loop at trade-show booths, or be edited into short, impactful snippets for use in social posts.  

The Case Study As Storyteller

For case studies to be effective, it’s essential to work with customers that have achieved real, measurable results using your solution. It’s also important that your case studies be within your target industries and/or geographies.

Select the stories you’ll tell by talking with your customers about what challenges they faced and how your solution helped overcome them. Remember that, stripped to their core, case studies are built on a problem > resolution > benefits model. The best ones tell engaging stories that enable the reader to envision their organization overcoming similar challenges and reaping benefits by choosing you. 

You can read some of our agency’s case studies here.  

Does your organization need compelling use cases to build or enhance its market position? Our team of professional writers and videographers regularly develop case studies for a range of uses. We can also help market your case studies too! Contact us today.