Why churn out more marketing content? 12 reasons case studies make a difference:

In marketing, I recommend small businesses do produce content regularly, to help potential customers understand what they do and how it will help them. BUT – sometimes it feels like there’s way too much marketing content already out here!

Time is an issue. There is only time for us to read that which will help us achieve our goals – or if it is fun. If you want other businesses to notice your content, it’s essential to prove how you can help achieve their goals. You can continue to churn out topical blogs, email newsletters, and press releases – but it makes more sense to focus on the truth about your business – as told by your customers.

Case studies take time to prepare and you will need stories which suit your ideal audience. The description of the results is key to capturing attention – yet you will need your customer’s approval to include detail about their business. Above all, you must make it easy for your customers to participate in producing your case study.

So, with the effort involved, why will case studies make such a difference to your marketing?

1. Maintain contact: in business to business relationships, it’s good to stay in touch regularly. Preparing a case study is a great reason to call.
2. Frank feedback from your customers: when you call to write a case study, the conversation gives insight into how your services and process really work. You can use that feedback internally to tweak your service delivery.
3. Achieve clarity on ‘what’ you offer: writing the case study forces you to focus on describing what you offer succinctly. If your services are project-led and benefits are unique to each customer, a case study will help you explain these more clearly.
4. Fresh perspective to promote what you do: case studies will highlight how you work and what results potential customers can expect. Instead of boring people with your product/services’ benefits on social media, you can wrap them into a story.
5. Internet searches: including key words in a case study gives you fresh content for search engine optimisation. But beware - writing for SEO can make your text too repetitive, if you force those phrases in!
6. Blog content: once you have a few case studies on a similar theme or for an industry, you can summarise key points into an informative blog post, using client feedback as evidence for your key messages.
7. Wider reach on social media: if happy to participate, your client can help you share the story with your combined networks, and engage other companies. Twitter helps you drive traffic to a case study, whereas Facebook is a great place to answer questions, and do encourage clients to write Google reviews. Of course, on LinkedIn, your client can post a recommendation on your personal profile.
8. Sharing images: if your client responds positively to a case study request, then they often like to influence which images to use. Your client’s photos will often make a more positive impact.
9. Video marketing: case studies can form engaging video content, if the client is happy to be recorded. There is YouTube material on almost every topic out there, so it’s worth planning your headlines and tags, to ensure you are answering potential customers’ questions.
10. Joint publicity: if a case study is newsworthy, the client may benefit from coverage in trade or local press – as well as your name reaching a wider audience.
11. Printed collateral or PDF: once written, a case study can be a great hand out at meetings, or events, or to attach to business development emails. (But only if it's relevant to the industry or problem your prospect is facing!)
12. Potential referrals: talking with clients about a case study means they stay familiar with what your business can do – and they may help spread the word.

It’s common for small businesses to run out of time to follow up case studies, however, it’s worth keeping a note of your ideal stories – and hire professional copywriter locally - or through your PR agent, to follow them up. They offer huge potential to boost your marketing and talk to more of the right potential customers. If you're writing your next one, here's a great guide on hubspot for producing them in-house...

My top tip before you do: have you read a case study recently, that made you feel differently about a business?

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