Most of us look at customer reviews before trying something new. For example, my favorite pancake recipe, Good Old-Fashioned Pancakes, has 15,254 reviews and a rating of 4.6/5 stars on allrecipes.com. I picked it over the “competitor” pancake recipes because thousands of other home cooks love it.
What fellow consumers say about products is a huge part of the purchasing decision.
However, ratings and reviews don’t necessarily work as a selling tool for B2B companies, especially those marketing complex products with high price points.
This is where case studies come in handy. Case studies showcase the worth of your product from a customer’s point of view. When done well, they are relatable, engaging, and illustrate your product’s benefits without sounding overly promotional. Case studies help customers see how your product will solve their needs.
Although case studies are valuable, they are not always used to their full advantage. Publishing a case study is just the first step in making the most of its selling power.
Case studies convert leads
Top-of-funnel content like evergreen blogs and other pieces created to build your company’s topical authority help people discover your product or service. However, when a prospect is ready to make a buying decision, they will likely look for real ways your product or service has benefited others in a similar position.
Case studies can be powerful purchase-informing tools within a content marketing strategy. They can also provide a more natural format for explaining the benefits and intricacies of a product over traditional web copy. The story format lends itself well to helping customers see themselves in the story of your product.
Marketing expert Neil Patel has found case studies generate results—he’s seen a 70% increase in the deal-closing ratio in emails containing case studies and a 185% increase in sales by publishing case studies on his website. In a recent B2B Content Marketing Institute survey, 73% of the most successful content marketers used case studies (compared with 61% of general respondents).
Overcoming objections to using case studies
Case studies have a negative reputation for being fabricated. This misconception is a good reason not to avoid publishing case studies but to avoid using generalizations and broad, sweeping claims. Choosing several points to make and writing with specificity will increase the case study’s believability and (in extension) your company’s integrity.
Many of our clients can’t use customers’ names in case studies. We’ve been able to work around this by using generic names (like “Company B”) for the company and offering non-identifiable yet relevant descriptions of the company (like “global beauty manufacturer”). Prospective customers in the B2B space will understand the need for anonymity in case studies.
Anatomy of a case study
All case studies contain a common structure: the challenge faced by the customer, the company’s solution, and the impact it had on the customer’s business. How this information is presented varies by company and need, however.
Case studies can be short-form or long-form pieces presented as videos, infographics, one-pagers, eBooks, or blogs. I’ve written case studies as short as four paragraphs and as long as several pages. The following table shows the benefits of each case study format.
| Case study format | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Video | Engaging, easy to share, familiar storytelling format |
| Infographic | Visually appealing, can be incorporated into other formats |
| One-pager | Easy to skim, more details than video or infographic |
| Blog | A more narrative format allows for more details but is still short enough to read quickly |
| eBook | Space to tell the story fully and can still contain visual elements such as infographics or short videos |
An important part of case studies is using quotes from either your team or your client’s team (if possible). Direct quotes increase the reliability of the story in the reader’s eyes and enliven the story.
Remember to run quotes past interviewees so they are okay with how their words appear. In almost all the case studies I’ve written, interviewees have wanted to change at least one or two words in their quotes because what is said aloud can look unnatural on paper.
Making the most of your case study
Case studies are incredibly valuable assets. Choosing a single format to present the information doesn’t do the content justice. Instead, anchoring the case study on your website in either an eBook or blog and then creating alternate versions in video form, posts for social media, or infographics help the story reach a wider audience for greater impact.
Another way to optimize your case study is to reference it in other relevant content. Linking in a top-of-funnel piece allows a prospect to travel further toward the purchasing decision without navigating to a new page. One of our clients does an amazing job of linking case studies in their blogs and white papers.
Since case studies are so close to the purchasing decision, including a clear call-to-action in the piece is essential. Make it easy for the customer to say yes to a free demo or a call with a sales team member.
Case studies are a powerful way to convert leads into customers. Being brave to create them (even if they have to be anonymized) and then repurposing and reformatting the pieces to fit different channels will improve how well you communicate the benefits of your product to your audience.
Interested in creating compelling case studies from your customers’ stories? We’d love to help—let’s chat.
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