4 Reasons A Case Study Should Be On Your Marketing Tools A-List!
When you think of your marketing strategy, what kinds of promotional formats come to mind?
An AD SPREAD in a trade journal?...
An EMAIL CAMPAIGN?...
A WHITE PAPER?...
And...what about CASE STUDY?...Often, the idea of spending time and resources on producing a high quality case study simply doesn't make the promotion strategies short list...To some people "case study" might bring to mind not a marketing tool, but a dull forensic report destined for a dusty file cabinet...
Here's a sample title for the kind of dull CASE STUDY I'm NOT talking about:
"Logistical Inefficiencies in our Customer Service Division: A Case Study of Internal Training Protocols & Implementation"
However, a strategically crafted MARKETING CASE STUDY can be PROMOTIONAL GOLD, and this is especially true in the B2B world and the nonprofit sector—for reasons I think will be obvious as your read on!
So what kind of CASE STUDY are we talking about?...
A typical CASE STUDY for promotional use is similar in style to a feature article in a newspaper, magazine, or trade journal. It features your company or nonprofit by documenting in story form—from beginning to end—a concrete, real-world example of how your product or service helped a client or helped solve a problem.
Like any good piece of journalism writing, a CASE STUDY typically has:
an angle or "hook"—usually centering on a sticky problem or challenge or on the power of some new product, service, or innovation)
storytelling elements to keep the reader on the page
direct quotes from people involved (people in your organization and people in the client organization)
a variety of eye-grabbing formatting —text boxes, a boxed or bold-face synopsis, pull quotes, photos, a headline, section headers...
4 REASONS A CASE STUDY SHOULD BE ON YOUR MARKETING TOOLS A-LIST
REASON # 1: Credibility
Establishing credibility is one of the Holy Grails of marketing...of all the marketing vehicles out there, a strategically crafted CASE STUDY can establish credibility like no other!
Imagine for a minute you are reading the NY Times.
You're looking at a news article on page 4.
On the next page you see what looks like another news article, but the word ADVERTISEMENT is printed across the top of the page.
Which "article" has more credibility with readers? Obviously the real news article conveys more credibility and objectivity…
It's kind of like that for a CASE STUDY in the world of promotional content...As a promotional tool I admit it is being written for an advertising purpose and depending on where it's placed or posted the purpose may obvious to readers and prospective clients...but that doesn't change the fact that, like a news article, it is an account of real people, real events—and in terms of targeted content—real business problems and the real solutions the marketer wants to highlight ...And what kind of content establishes credibility more effectively than a detailed and engaging account of real events?
A CASE STUDY is a credibility multiplier because it documents real events and experiences and reads like investigative journalism or a profile article in a magazine...with newspaper style photos, photo captions, and quotes with direct sources.
Now a white paper is "factual" too, one might argue...But a white paper makes a logical argument whereas a CASE STUDY provides documented proof of real solutions.
A CASE STUDY is REAL—it narrates something that happened at a specific point in time...involving real people, real problems to overcome, in real organizations...
And an even more powerful feature is that these real people experienced real solutions...benefits...savings…and customer satisfaction…So it has the power of something real along with the most effective components of powerful advertising!
REASON # 2: Certainty
Print ads, Web pages, and long form copywriting tools such as white papers can go a long way in helping a prospective client see product advantages and disadvantages, compare features and...well make an educated guess as to the probable outcomes and benefits of purchasing a product or service.
It's kind of like buying a stock—I can invest time in lots of due diligence to buy a stock I predict will go up in value, but I have to live with the fact that I can't yet know the outcome (I can't SEE the future result, I can only guess, predict, hope...).
A CASE STUDY has the unique quality of overcoming this kind of hopeful thinking—and the associated doubts—and establishes greater confidence and certainty when it comes to helping prospects make a purchasing decision. A CASE STUDY has a beginning, a middle, and, YES, an END…And, if it's a promotional CASE STUDY, it will be a HAPPY ENDING of course!
When a prospective client reads a product prospectus or white paper, they still have to connect the dots:
Will this product solve MY problem?
Will it work in our context?
What will the actual result be?
Will our company realize the promised benefits, outcomes, savings…?
What is the after-purchase customer support really like?
An effective CASE STUDY, on the other hand, has a power to instill certainty that's a bit unlike other copywriting formats...
First, like any story, a CASE STUDY allows the prospect to see herself or himself in it. When a prospective client reads an effective CASE STUDY, they should see a prospective client and problems and challenges they recognize...whose experiences, challenges, doubts, and goals are similar to theirs.
Secondly, A CASE STUDY also tells the whole story...even the end of the story...
Like a virtual crystal ball, a CASE STUDY offers your prospect a window into the future.
It replaces speculation and guesswork with certainty—by showing the prospect how his or her own story will likely turn out...
If I'm the prospect, the challenge or problem that drives the story mirrors my own challenges, doubts and needs...and there's also a middle story--with the ups and downs, difficult disruptions to the status quo and other realistic obstacles that look like the obstacles I worry about and deal with at work…Then, as I read the CASE STUDY further, these realistic details not only culminate in a positive outcome, but it’s clearly impressed upon me that the whole account is factual and concrete.
And it's the ending that gives me the sense of certainty I long for as a prospective client—as a team leader or department head, internal analyst, purchasing manager, district superintendent, executive director...
Any CASE STUDY with a happy ending and story elements transferable to other prospects, contexts, situations...well that's a marketing winner, because it provides something almost invaluable—the perception of reliable CERTAINTY as to the RESULTS that a product or service will actually deliver!
REASON #3: Taking Client Testimonials to the Next Level
Testimonials are a common marketing tool used to boost prospects' confidence and to help establish a baseline of credibility. Testimonials are short and snappy...usually wrapped in quotation marks and attributed to a former or present client of your organization. They can be quickly pulled and posted (on your company Website for example) or be formatted as pull quotes in larger font, in sidebars or in highlighted text boxes within a sales sheet or advertising display.
If testimonials have a limitation, it's simply that your prospects recognize they are taken out of context, curated by the marketing team, cherry picked so to speak...and they tend to be limited to one quote and to one or two sentences.
A properly crafted CASE STUDY will double or triple the power of ordinary testimonials!
Remember, a CASE STUDY is a long form marketing tool—there's ample space for numerous quotes that reveal the benefits that multiple players with different roles and vantage points in the client organization have enjoyed thanks to your company’s offering.
And there's more...
As we've already seen, the investigative style of the CASE STUDY adds credibility and realism to the quotes, turning them into very effective testimonials, so not only does a CASE STUDY provide space for more testimonials, the testimonials have more credibility-building power.
Since your CASE STUDY content strategist should, in principle, be working from notes with verbatim text of extended interviews gathered as the CASE STUDY is developed, your prospects will have the impression they are privy to the real and unfiltered comments of the featured client.
A well-crafted CASE STUDY is a unique opportunity to publicize extensive and compelling "testimonials" from the client team members, while also weaving in "testimonials" from team members in your own organization or company in a journalistic-style format that conveys added authenticity!
REASON # 4: Showcasing Intangibles
Imagine you work for a company we will call ACME Interface Solutions. The company is laser focused on providing software solutions for organizations who want to better connect with very large user/client/subscriber populations.
When prospective clients come to hear your pitch, they too are likely to be focused on assessing your product's features and gizmos so they can compare them to the bells and whistles of your competitors' offerings. In some cases, a company like ACME will have a break away innovation providing ample leverage to boost sales and business...Other times, a company like ACME might be struggling instead to break through the "noise" of a crowded and competitive field, having a solid product, but without any highly remarkable innovative edge.
In both of these scenarios, less tangible factors—like training support, ease of new system integration, upgrading costs and options, for example—can become relative deal makers or deal breakers. However, are these factors typically even visible to prospects…?
And, in the case of the second scenario, where there's less of a remarkable product edge, it can be difficult to devise a marketing format to highlight those intangibles in a way that's compelling and not distracting from your client's most urgent concerns and goals.
CASE STUDY to the rescue...
Because a CASE STUDY is an extended research-based article that examines all aspects of your working relationship over an extended time with a real world client, it provides a natural format for organically showcasing key product features and benefits while also HIGHLIGHTING LESS TANGIBLE ADVANTAGES experienced by a client and that truly exceeded the client’s expectations—such as your engineering team's problem solving expertise...or outstanding post-sale customer or technical support services...or unexpected savings calculated over time…
Or even more importantly, maybe one or more of these intangibles played a compelling role in making the transition, and the innovations in workplace systems it involved, easier and more successful than anticipated, or less challenging than feared…
A skilled copywriter will be on the look out for these intangibles—and for how they impact the larger story—when doing research and interviewing your team and your client's representatives to develop the CASE STUDY. Once these valuable "intangibles" are uncovered, the writer should be able to weave them seamlessly into the larger CASE STUDY narrative and reporting, showcasing them alongside the benefits and features of the primary product so the prospective clients "see" them in action!
If you're looking for ways to establish credibility, instill certainty, boost the power of testimonials, or highlight and showcase intangibles that make your enterprise standout in a crowded field...a professionally crafted and effectively formatted CASE STUDY might be the best marketing tool for the job!
