Turbocharge Your Project Profiles
Build Trust and Engage Prospects with Case Studies
A new marketing study shows that customers value trusting relationships now more than ever. Use case studies to demonstrate how you’ve successfully collaborated with your customers and earned their trust.
When preparing content, go beyond project profiles that often focus on the technical aspects of a project and highlighting achievements. Pull back the curtain and tell the story of a client's challenges, your solution and their successful project outcome.
Consider case studies as project profiles on steroids. Yes, they can include project outcomes. And sure, they’ll have engaging client testimonials. But the beauty of case studies is that they tell a memorable story in the standard challenge – solution – results format or a variation.
You’ll explain how the happy customer, faced with a challenge, turned to your organization for an answer. The focus is on them, not you. However, the reader will know that the trusting relationship you’ve formed with your customer made all the difference. And through your efforts, your organization successfully defeated their personal dragon.
Value of Trusted Partnerships Increases
The latest CMO study supports the value of trusted relationships. The special edition, entitled Covid-19 and the State of Marketing, was produced in June 2020 with the American Marketing Association (AMA) as one of the sponsors. The study “offers forward-looking insights regarding customer behavior, economic forecasts, and managing growth during these uncertain times.”
Study results show that in February 2009, 19.9 percent of the customers ranked trusting partnerships as their top priority. In June 2020, that ranking jumped to 29.3 percent, just under the top priority of low price.
At a recent webinar, Coming Out of Covid: A Marketer’s Guide to Content, Branding & Sales, the Midwest AMA Chapters in Iowa, Madison and Milwaukee addressed future marketing and sales challenges.
Laura Gallagher of Creative Company, Madison, emphasized that third-party endorsements are more important than ever. They reveal "promises fulfilled, expectations met and values lived.”
More Than a Testimonial
Organizations already use third-party endorsements to help build trust with prospects and clients alike. Testimonials often are used in websites to demonstrate how a firm achieved a client’s goals. Another approach is to create short “success stories” that highlight a noteworthy project.
Case studies typically go into more detail and focus on complex solutions with high price tags. Potential buyers of expensive products and services want more information before making a purchase or seeking proposals from companies.
With a case study, a prospect learns how your organization solved the problem without contacting a reference. That’s good news for organizations because references sometimes aren’t available to talk with prospects or they may not share significant elements of the solution.
How do you prepare a case study?
If you want to investigate the creation of a case study for your organization, check out a winning formula developed by Casey Hibbard. She's a nationally known customer success story expert who founded Compelling Cases, Inc.
Her seven-part process outlines critical steps for developing a successful case study that promotes your brand.
Step One – Strategic Story Planning
Hibbard suggests tying customer stories to your current goals. Ask for input from sales and business development teams. They also can identify how and why customers selected your organization to achieve their goals. It may be useful to create a “wish list” of potential customer success stories.
Step Two – Securing Customer Permission
You’ve identified a happy customer with a great story to tell. The person with the best relationship with the customer should seek their involvement. In their discussions, they should note that the customer also can use the case study to promote their firm.
Before getting too far along, make sure your customer’s managers agree to participate. You don’t want to spend time and effort interviewing the customer and writing the story only to discover that management doesn’t want to proceed for some reason. In some cases, it may be necessary to use an anonymous case study to protect the customer's identity.
Step Three – Intelligence Gathering
Your writer, either internal or a freelancer, will need to obtain relevant information regarding the featured product or service and research the customer’s organization. Before the interview, create open-ended questions. You may wish to share them with the interviewee.
General questions will highlight the need for a solution, the decision process, implementation and measurable results. In some cases, clients will share general benefits as opposed to specific metrics that reflect improvements.
During this stage, ask the happy customer if they will share photos, graphics and videos to add value to the case study. You'll want an excellent portrait of your customer. (Check out these examples.) Your story also will be enhanced by quality photos showing your product or the results of your services.
Step Four – Creating Compelling Stories
When writing case studies, keep in mind that the happy customer is the hero of the story. Your organization plays a supporting, but critical role. You can use the challenge – solution – results, feature story or other formats. The same elements will be there, but perhaps in a different order.
Step Five – Story Signoff
Decide who needs to grant final approval for the case study. The organization typically reviews the draft first. Then it's sent to the customer for comment. It's best for all parties if you set review timelines at the start of the process, so everyone's on the same page. Some case studies may require legal release forms.
Step Six – Managing Design
Develop case study templates that reflect your organization's standard design with approved brand colors and fonts. After you finalize the draft, send it to the internal or external graphic designer. The last stage calls for a final review of the designed document.
Step Seven – Using Customer Case Studies in Sales and Marketing
During the planning stages, consider how the completed case study can help promote your brand. Maximize its use in a variety of channels. Transform key quotes into testimonials on your website or tell the same story in blog posts, newsletters or proposals. Sales staff can distribute case studies to prospects or conference attendees and use a summary in presentations.
Engage the Reader with a Good Story
The CMO study reveals that after spending months dealing with the pandemic's disruptions, customers prioritize dealing with people they trust. Engaging case studies show how your organization works with customers to make their lives better. And as a bonus, they build internal pride in your organization and provide the basis for many types of promotional content.
Leslie Blaize, the owner of Blaize Communications, is a certified case study specialist. She crafts B2B content with a focus on the Architectural/Engineering/Construction industry.