Case studies for marketing. Here’s a quick article to suggest additional ways to use those valuable customer success stories. The first customer in a new market sector is an ideal candidate for a case study. Ideally your case study library will contain examples from every sector of your customer base. The stories can be anywhere from 200 to 1,000 words depending upon how they will be used, and where they will be published. The case study should be long enough to convey the key details, but short enough to be an easy read.
Some market sectors like long detailed stories while others prefer them to be short and punchy. At the moment, the trend is to allow for a shorter attention span, particularly online.
For a website, your case study needs to grab attention as a visitor skims your site. Most companies have a preferred style or template for their case studies and work to that.
Based on my experience with many clients, here is my list of ten ways to use a case study, starting with the most obvious then moving on to the less obvious:
Case studies for marketing
- Number one has to be Content Marketing – for leads generation. It is simple to display a brief version of the story on your website, and collect the email addresses of the visitors downloading the full story.
- Use the customer story in a PR campaign. Interesting stories about well-known organisations and forays into new technology are often suitable for news and features.
- Email marketing – refer to the customer story in an email message, and use a link to track “opens” and measure engagement. An automation system such as HubSpot streamlines this process.
- A new case study could be a great topic for a user group meeting.
- A ground-breaking case study is a brilliant topic for a conference presentation or, at the moment, a webinar.
- Present the story in other ways. Make a video or a podcast interview for posting and sharing.
- I have seen technical case studies being used very successfully for training sales people and channel partners.
- Why not enter a customer success story for an industry award?
- Add case studies to tender submissions to add credibility to a bid for a major contract.
- And when we get back to the office, why not use glossy photos of customers to create a display in reception and brighten up the walls for your non customer-facing team members. That can mean a lot to those employees who never get to go out on site.
Writing a case study isn’t quick. Sometimes the first step is a confidential interview with the customer, sometimes we can find the facts from other sources. If you might need a freelance writer to work with you, please contact me at anna.wood@technologypr.co.uk / phone 020 8275 9955.
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