Winning the trust of potential customers is no easy task. How can you prove that your products will deliver and persuade them to buy? Simply claiming your products are the best won’t suffice. You need solid and clear evidence to outshine your competitors. One of the most effective ways to demonstrate your value is through a case study, which ranks among the top types of marketing content for companies and organizations.
In this article, we will share the concept of a case study and its role in digital marketing strategies. We’ll also guide you on how to write, format, and share a marketing case study across various digital marketing channels.
What is a Case Study?
A case study details a challenge faced by a company or organization and the specific solution chosen to overcome that challenge. Case studies can vary in length and approach, and they can be presented in various formats such as videos, eBooks, blog articles, and more.
Why Do You Need to Write a Marketing Case Study?
Writing a marketing case study is a significant undertaking that requires effort and time from your entire team. However, it is also a powerful marketing tool that highlights the value of your products or services to potential customers using real-world data and examples. Here are the key benefits of a case study:
1. Explaining Complex Topics
One of the advantages of a case study for organizations is that it allows you to analyze complex concepts, ideas, and strategies, and demonstrate how they are applied in practice.
When writing a marketing case study, you can use the story of a past or current customer and employ storytelling to explain how your product solved a problem they faced, and how it can help more customers in similar situations.
2. A Platform to Showcase Your Expertise
Writing a marketing case study is an excellent way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in a particular subject or industry. It’s an opportunity to highlight your problem-solving skills and share success stories from your previous clients.
3. Building Trust and Credibility
Creating a marketing case study for your business lays a solid foundation for building credibility. Case studies are often rich in data and meticulously written, showing readers that you’ve put effort into them. This makes it clear that they can trust the solutions you provided, as they can see a detailed explanation of the problem and how it was resolved step by step.
4. Creating Social Proof
Beyond the previous benefits, using testimonials from your past clients in case studies establishes social proof for your business. People are more likely to choose your brand if they know there are satisfied customers who have benefited from your services.
Read more: Your Guide to Defining E-Marketing Objectives
How to Write a Case Study
The length of case studies typically ranges from 500 to 1500 words. Regardless of the length, your case study should primarily aim to clearly convey key points and findings. This can be achieved through formatting that optimizes the use of main and subheadings, charts, illustrations, and even video clips.
Here are the steps to write a marketing case study:
1. Choosing a Case Study Template
Narrating your client’s story is an incredibly precise process, where you’ll need to focus on their successes and seamlessly integrate your brand’s values to naturally emerge within the narrative. There are several case study templates to choose from, including:
- General Case Study Template: Often featuring a satisfied client’s story, starting from their background, reasons for engaging with you, and concluding with the results they achieved.
- Data-Driven Case Study Template: A great solution for organizations seeking objective and digital solutions, focusing on key performance metrics tested by the client with your product or service.
- Product Case Study Template: Do you have a product or service you want to sell, but lack sufficient success stories and data? You can utilize a marketing case study template based on the benefits of the product and the experience it provides to the customer.
2. Defining the Case Study Objective
While all marketing case studies are designed to showcase the value of your products, you can also focus on other objectives to achieve.
The first step in writing a case study is defining the purpose or goal of the topic you will present; in other words, what will the client do after reviewing this case study?
For example, your case study could focus on:
- Boosting sales.
- Generating more leads.
- Expanding into a new market.
- Improving energy efficiency.
- Selecting Content Formats for the Case Study
After determining the case study template and objective, you need to decide how you’ll tell the story. Don’t settle for just writing a case study on a page or two; utilizing diverse media can help you promote your study across different channels.
For example, you can design the case study in an infographic format and share it on social media, produce it as a video clip and share it on YouTube, or turn it into a podcast episode.
Read more: How to Easily Boost Brand Awareness?
3. Researching and Reaching Out to Candidates
Writing about your past projects involves more than just selecting a client and telling their story; you need to obtain their consent and review. When searching for candidates, focus on:
- Their familiarity with your products or services.
- Positive results they’ve achieved.
- The reputation of the client you’ve worked with, whether a well-known company or individual.
- The client’s experience with a competing brand.
Once you’ve identified a client or group of clients to enrich your case study, reach out to them to obtain their consent. Explain the purpose and format of the case study, and if the client agrees, schedule interviews or send them a specially crafted questionnaire.
4. Asking the Right Question
Before conducting an interview or sending out a client survey, ensure you’re asking the right questions. If you want to gather detailed information and data, it’s best to avoid yes-or-no questions.
Here are some examples of clear and concise question formulations:
- What challenges did you face before purchasing our product?
- What made our product stand out compared to our competitors?
- How did you hear about our product?
- How did you make your purchase decision?
- What is the most important factor influencing your decisions?
- How have you benefited from using our product?
5. Structuring a Case Study
This stage might seem a bit overwhelming, as it’s time to take all the data you’ve gathered and turn it into a clear and compelling marketing case study. But where do you start? Do you need to include everything? What’s the best way to organize it?
First, there’s no one-size-fits-all template for structuring case studies. As mentioned earlier, they can come in various formats such as written content, videos, and images.
Regardless of the format you choose, you can begin by dividing the case study into the following ten sections:
- Title:Keep it short, catchy, and indicative of the study’s topic.
- Subtitle:Briefly explain the ultimate outcome, which the study will detail.
- About the Subject: Introduce the client, whether an individual or a company.
- Challenges and Objectives: A few paragraphs describing the challenges the client faced before using your product or service, and their goals.
- How the Product/Service Helped:This section’s paragraphs describe how your product or service provided a solution to the client’s challenges.
- Results: A testimonial in paragraphs, supported by numbers, demonstrating that your product was beneficial and helped the client achieve their goals.
- Supporting Content: Quotes from customer reviews add credibility to the case study and can include visual content.
- Future Plans: Conclude the case study with a forward-looking comment related to the subject, whether the plans pertain to you or not.
- Call to Action (CTA): While not every marketing case study needs a CTA, you can use it to encourage readers to visit your website, learn more about your business, or follow you on social media.
6. Publishing and Sharing the Case Study
It’s time to publish and promote your case study. If the case study is in the form of a video or infographic, the channels for sharing it are quite straightforward. However, there are more unique ways to publish and promote your case study.
For instance, you can share a brief article about your client’s success story on your website and ask readers to fill out a form with their name and email address if they want to receive the full case study as a PDF.
This method is also excellent for collecting email addresses of potential customers and enhancing email marketing campaigns. Additionally, you can share the blog link on social media to increase reach and engagement.
Are you looking to create a marketing case study that highlights the advantages of your products or services and integrates them into your upcoming digital marketing strategies? If so, request comprehensive marketing services from UFUQ. Our specialized teams are ready to answer any questions about our services and what your business needs to stay ahead. Contact us today!