Navigating the Challenges of Creating Marketing Case Studies

It’s easy to understand why case studies are such a valuable content format, but as many marketing managers know, the process of planning and writing case studies can be challenging!

If you haven’t had to produce this type of content before, or you simply find the process difficult, I hope the tips below will help.

The key to a good outcome is in the strategic choice of projects - and the planning.

Choosing projects and clients

The first step in choosing the right clients is to have a clear goal and purpose in mind. Are you building a broad cross-sector or cross-solution case study library? Or is your goal to increase enquiries from a particular sector, promote a particular service, or demonstrate your capability around larger projects?

These strategic goals will help you identify the most suitable projects. If you’re fortunate enough to have plenty of options, your next step is to choose the clients.

Choose clients you have a good relationship with. You want the finished content to show off your strengths, so pick clients who are enthusiastic about your company’s services.?If your direct engagement with clients is limited, you might need to ask the account or project managers to suggest suitable clients.

Getting client permission

If you’re overseeing the content development, you’ll sometimes need all your stakeholder management and diplomacy skills, and a good dose of patience to make things happen! The first thing to navigate is gaining client permission to produce the content that highlights their project.

In fact, you don’t merely want their permission – you want their enthusiastic cooperation. You also want their data that demonstrates outcomes, some of their time, and a fabulous quote that serves as a testimonial for your company. You might also want pictures (construction-related projects)?or screen shots (digital projects).

Who you speak to will depend on the company size and structure. You may need to speak with someone on the marketing or PR team in the first instance. The important thing to ensure is that the permission to proceed comes from a person with the authority to give it.

Accept that some clients will decline. If your company was called in to fix a problem, the client might prefer not to advertise that the problem occurred. A case study might make your business look competent, but the client less so. There can also be less obvious factors at play, such as relationships with other companies that worked on the project, or with one of your competitors.

With the green light in hand, it’s time to engage with other stakeholders before you begin the writing.

Identifying key stakeholders

Identifying the right stakeholders (internally and externally) is crucial as they provide the foundational insights and data that shape the narrative.

Key stakeholders might include the client company’s C-suite executives, project leads, direct beneficiaries of the solution (like customers), or internal team members who were involved in the project.

Recognise which stakeholders are critical for various aspects of the case study, such as providing testimonials, technical details and outcome metrics.

Understanding stakeholder perspectives

Each stakeholder has unique views and experiences related to the project that can enrich your case study. Identify their specific concerns, motivations, and the related challenges they faced before or during the project.

Understanding these perspectives helps in crafting a compelling customer story that showcases the problem-solving capabilities of your service or product.

Engage stakeholders early and often

Engagement should begin at the earliest stage of the case study planning process and continue throughout the writing and review stages.

This helps ensure the accuracy of information. It’s also a great opportunity to build relationships that could smooth the path for future case studies or other co-marketing collaborations.

Make the process easy for stakeholders

Make the participation process as easy as possible for stakeholders. Schedule interviews and discussions at their convenience, offer to send questions in advance, and be clear about the kind of input and commitment you need from them.

If you require detailed technical data or specific project results, be straight-forward about what is needed and why it is essential for the case study.

Your consideration and respect for their time makes their enthusiastic cooperation more likely. Nothing will slow down your progress as much as a disinterested stakeholder whose participation is crucial!

Gathering the information for the case study

Whether you’re planning to write a case study in-house or outsource to a?content agency, creating a process around gathering the information will be a time-saver for future projects. There are different ways to go about it.

Create a questionnaire

Create a questionnaire to send to clients who are willing to participate. Keep the questions simple and easy to understand, to ensure more people respond. Ask questions related to reasons they were in the market, challenges they were facing, and the results of working with your business.

Encourage subjects to provide tangible results if any are available. If your good work has increased the client’s revenue or profitability, you’ll want your case study readers to know.

Do keep in mind that clients often won’t want to reveal precise details like revenue figures or visitor numbers, but many will be happy to express relevant improvements as a percentage.

Allow space in the questionnaire for clients to express themselves – this can provide you with quotes to include in the case study.

Interviews

A common approach to writing case studies, is to have the content writers conduct interviews with the client representatives. This can be done in place of sending a questionnaire, or in addition to the questionnaire where more information or detail is needed.

An approach we like is to offer a choice – ask clients whether they would prefer to receive the questionnaire by email or have an interview with the writer. That’s because the key to gathering information is to make conveying the information as easy as possible.

Some clients will be reluctant to commit to an interview and prefer to complete a questionnaire in their own time; others balk at filling out documents, and the idea of an interview is more appealing. If you’re only offering one option and they’re reluctant, you’ll be less likely to get a quality response, or in some cases, any response at all.

Writing a case study

While the structure might be similar across case studies, each one should tell a story. A story of challenge and success that follows a clear narrative:

• Introduction: Outline the client’s industry, the challenges they faced, and the objectives of the project.
• Challenges: Detail the specific obstacles that the client encountered.
• Solutions: Describe the strategies and actions your company took to address these challenges.
• Results: Highlight the outcomes and benefits experienced by the client, supported by data and client testimonials.
• Conclusion: Sum up the case study and reflect on the broader implications for similar clients.

Don’t be shy about including any unexpected challenges that arose during the project – a bump or two along the way is authentic, and authenticity builds trust.

Give your case studies visual appeal

Once the writing is completed, add relevant photos. This is especially important if the work that your company completed resulted in visual changes or improvements.

Where projects are digital rather than physical, you may be able to use charts, graphs and screenshots to add visual appeal and back up information in your copy.

Polish and proofread

Typos, punctuation errors or inconsistent spacing can create a perception of carelessness – not a quality that is attractive to potential clients. You want your published case studies to shine in every way, so polish and proofread carefully before publication.

Get started!

Done well, case studies can be among the most effective pieces of content you create. They tell fabulous stories – stories that appeal because they’re situation-relevant, ‘real life’, and have the element of people overcoming obstacles to succeed.

The key to success is in the planning. Develop a streamlined process for identifying appropriate projects, getting permission, collecting information and images, and writing the case studies, and you’ll soon be able to turn out fresh ones regularly with minimum effort.

Other co-marketing opportunities

And why stop there? If you have clients who are enthusiastic about working with you, consider other forms of co-marketing. Pooling resources for other types of content creation can mean sharing the costs and amplifying reach and influence – think co-branded white papers, co-hosted webinars or even podcasts.

The original version of this article was first published on the Article Writers Australia blog.