Putting together a case study - the right way

“If you wait until there is another case study in your industry, you will be too late!” - Seth Godin

Welcome back. Drew here.

So, last time, we discussed testimonials.

This time, we’ll be covering something a bit different: Case studies. Not only will they help you with potentially converting more leads but you can use them as a source of content for a variety of things, from your email campaigns to the ads you run.

Let’s get started.

“ Hold on. What’s the problem with just testimonials Drew? Why do I need a case study as well?”

Well, just like you don’t NEED testimonials, you don’t NEED a case study. However, these things make it easier to convince leads you’re the real deal, instead of having to put in more effort trying to convince them.

When it comes to case studies, they’re different from testimonials because they take a specific person that you’ve helped, and showcase a variety of things. Ideally, it’s the problem they had, the solution you provided them with, and the results.

Case studies are beneficial because they help a specific type of target audience to see the steps and strategies that were involved in helping resolve a problem, and get the results the client needed.

Think about it like this…

If you’re a digital marketing agency, you help people with their digital marketing. However, if you’ve recently helped a donut shop get good results, making a case study around them will go one step beyond testimonials, which is helping prospects trust you and believe you’re the real deal:

It’ll help donut shops (and potentially other food businesses) see that you can solve the problems they face with specific strategies, showing you understand their business and are capable enough.

So, where testimonials are a general type of social proof, case studies act like a specific type of social proof. 

However, the difference is that, where testimonials are mostly just text, case studies are deep dives into results, and specific strategies and include some sort of hard numbers to back your claims.

“Okay Drew. I guess you’ve made your point. How do I put together a case study then? Just a couple of screenshots into a PDF and I’m done?”

Well, it’s not exactly that simple. There’s a process to this.

1. First of all, you’re going to figure out your objective. Why do you even want (or need) a case study? That’ll help you decide which format you should use.
2. Then, pick your customer and get their approval to use their details.
3. Once you get the go-ahead, start collecting the relevant data you need.
4. After that’s done, put everything together and you’re done.

So, first of all, Why?

Why do you want a case study? Is it just so that you can add to your social proof? Is it because you just had a big win in a specific industry and you want to pivot? Figure out why you want one and how it’s going to help.

If it’s simply something you want to add to your ever-growing portfolio of resources…

You might want to focus on having a whitepaper. If it’s something to put on your website, a one-pager or an infographic could do the trick. Knowing the objective will help you figure out how much effort you need and what format you should use.

For example, if it’s simply for marketing use, then there’s no point working on a lengthy, detailed, in-depth whitepaper no one will read. A scannable, colorful, to-the-point one-pager would probably do better.

Once you’ve decided why you want it, pick who you’re going to feature.

Whichever client or customer you choose to base your study on, make sure they’re going to be highly relevant to who you want to target. If you want to attract other independent donut stores, doing one on a past donut brand is the best place to start.

But make sure you have their permission.

You’re going to be using everything from statistics and details to snapshots of the work you did with them. You might have a before and after section. You might even mention them by name. A good practice would be to make sure they’re okay with it.

And if, for any reason, you think they might hesitate... 

Have an incentive ready. For example, you mentioning them would mean free publicity. You could include a backlink if it’s a document. You could give them a discount for some time if they’re a current client.

Just make sure they’re okay with you using your details. 

Now, start gathering your data.

Suppose it’s about a donut brand that you helped increase organic and paid traffic to their online website, helping them increase orders as well as nearly double the monthly foot traffic to their brick-and-mortar stores. What’s the data that matters?

Well, it’s the specific problems. Why’d they need more traffic in the first place? How did they compare to the competition? What was the issue they faced when working with someone else? What were the roadblocks they faced when they tried to scale?

Things like these will give the reader a more accurate picture of what the problem was. From there, you can go into the solution, the outcome, the final results, and maybe a quote or two from the client.

But don’t just use text. Vary what you use.

While presenting the stats, maybe a bar chart could do a better job than simply numbers. Maybe using an overall graph to represent traffic increase would be easily understandable over a seven-line paragraph.

Use color, graphs, charts, and other things alongside the text to not just help make it scannable but easier to read and understand as well.

And then, put everything together.

So you’ve asked the questions.

You’ve got the results. The stats. The snapshots. The before and after details. The problems they were facing. The results of those problems. The strategies you used to help them. You’ve made note of the emotional ups and downs during their journey. You’ve got everything in one place.

You’ve figured out what you’re using.

You’ve got the content and text planned out. You’ve got the snapshots, the graphs, and the charts, all ready to be put together. You’ve got the answers to the questions.

Now, it’s the format.

One format you could use is an executive one-glance summary right below the headline. Then, you could go into the main topic, and discuss the challenges as well as the exact strategy or steps taken to get from the problem to the solution. Then, after the solution, you could have a results section, with a CTA, on your website, to book a call, or wherever you think is relevant.

Maybe you’d like to go the storytelling route and involve emotions. Your customer is the hero, and the problem is what’s stopping them from getting to their goal. Pose yourself as the person who helped them on their way, but they’re still the ones who did most of the heavy lifting and hard work. That way, you position them in a positive light.

You might want to include a quote from the customer here and there.

And...that’s it.

Things like avoiding jargon, keeping it simple and eye-catching, and editing it for clarity and simplicity, are the simple things.

Getting started, collecting data, and putting things together - This is the stuff that matters. 

Before you get worried about what questions you should ask, how you should ask them, or even how you should format your case study so that it’s as effective as possible, remember…

It’s a process. And as you do it, you’ll understand what to do, and what can be improved.

The key thing? Get started. That’s it.

I hope this was of help.

Remember, your case studies will help you get more clients more easily, as long as you do things the right way. However, if you’re still having problems, or have any queries, feel free to reach out and we’ll figure out something.

Let me know how things went! 

Till next time,

Drew