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What is a Marketing Case Study And How to Write it

Gaining the trust of potential clients might be difficult. Before you can even start to hope to gain their business, you must demonstrate your capacity to fulfill the promises that have been made through your product or service. Besides, you could claim that you are excellent at XYZ or that you’re well ahead of your opponents in XYZ. However, we believe what you truly need to gain new customers is cold, hard evidence. A fascinating case study is one of the most acceptable methods to demonstrate your worth. In fact, case studies are the sixth most popular sort of content utilized by marketers. That said, you can continue reading below to learn how to write a marketing case study.

What is a Marketing Case Study?

A case study is a story describing how a real client used your services or products to resolve a problem. To put it into simple words, a case study is usually a web page or document that includes the following details:

  • Subject’s Description: Explains your client’s history
  • Subject’s Goal: Explain your customer’s goal to help your reader understand what they should expect.
  • Hypothesis Strategy: Illustrate to your reader what you expected when you implemented your strategy on your customer’s problem.
  • The Strategy: Tell your reader step by step how you implemented your solution to resolve your customer’s issue.
  • Results: Then, explain what happened or the results of your strategy in detail with a quote or feedback from your customers.
  • Conclusion: In the conclusion, explain how your case study can be helpful to your clients and readers.

Besides, good case studies are stories with a central character (your client) who has a challenge but ultimately wins. After all, marketers are fascinated with “storytelling”. But typically without really telling tales.

Moreover, you need to make sure that your reader is able to see themselves as the hero of their own tale by the end of a case study. They should be able to identify with your highlighted customer’s concerns and envision themselves reaching their own objectives by utilizing your product or service.

How to Write a Case Study – The Best Step-by-Step Guide

Why Do You Need to Write a Marketing Case Study?

Case studies might not be exciting to read or write. If so, you might have wondered why you need to write a marketing case study. Well, here are a few reasons that might help you understand the purpose of writing a case study.

  • Build customer loyalty: Besides, getting an opportunity to engage with your potential customer, case studies are one of the best methods to make sure why they should choose your services or product.
  • Earn Trust: Case studies are one of the best methods to help you convert your customer’s feedback or experience into valuable data to earn trust and get more customers. Besides, it is one of the most trusted types of content according to marketers.
  • Help in Sales: You can not only post case studies on your website but also share them with your potential customers to help them build confidence in your services.
  • Multi-Purpose Content: Case studies are one the best tools for marketers. Because they can be used for several purposes including posting them on your homepage as data snippets and quotes.

Marketing Case Study Format

When it comes to putting everything together, it feels overwhelming. You need to figure out what, and how you should include. Besides, you need to know where to start. Hence, we will learn the basic format of a marketing case study to help you with the process.

  • Title: Keep the title brief. Create a brief yet intriguing project name for your work with your subject.
  • Subtitle: Other than a title, you can also use a subtitle to briefly explain your accomplishments. 
  • Executive Summary: It is a 2 to 4-sentence long summary of your entire story. You can use bullets to explain your success.
  • About the Subject: It is an introduction to your customer that you served which you can get from their Linkedin profile too.
  • Challenges and Objectives: It is a 2 to 3 paragraphs long description of the problems that your customer faced before using your services or product. Besides, you can also add your customer’s objectives in this section.
  • How Your Product Saved the Day: In this section, you have to thoroughly explain how your services or product helped your customer achieve their objective or solve their problem in 2 to 3 paragraphs.
  • Results: Like the above section, it includes the results that you have to quantify here.
  • Quotes and Supporting Visuals: Add a couple of powerful quotes from your customer’s review alongside some visuals that should support your story.
  • Future Plans: A case study, indeed, is incomplete without a future plan. Hence, do not forget to add your plans for the future of your services and products.
  • CTA: A call to action is the last component of a case study. It may not be compulsory but adding one might help you encourage your reader to become your potential customers.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study

Step 1: Start With a Case Study Template

The first thing that you need to do to write a case study is to get your case study template. After all, you can not start writing a case study without knowing the layout of your case study. This may seem a super easy step. However, choosing a good case study template might take more time than you think.

You can use websites such as Freepik or Visme to find the perfect case study template for your marketing case study.

Step 2: Determine Your Case Study’s Objective

The second step of learning how to write a marketing case study is to figure out your objective. After all, the marketing case studies are intended to showcase the value of any business service. But they can be tailored to meet a variety of client goals.

When writing a case study, the first thing you need to do is to figure out the subject’s objective or goal. In other words, you need to tell your reader what will your potential client have achieved by the end. 

However, the objective you choose will depend on what you hope to demonstrate to your future customers as a result of your case study.

Nevertheless, we assume that your marketing case study can focus on one of the followings.

  • Lowering business or service costs
  • Generating more impressions and leads
  • Ensuring your sustainability
  • Generating more revenue
  • Getting more customers
  • Expanding your business
  • Becoming more profitable

Step 3: Select a Case Study Medium

Once you have selected your case study template, you have to choose your case study medium. In other words, you have to decide how are you going to tell this story.

Case studies do not have to be one-page affairs. Using various media in your case study enables you to advertise your final piece through various channels. While a written case study may only exist on your website. Or you can choose to post it on Facebook.

Similarly, you can share an infographic case study on platforms such as Pinterest and a video case study on your website or YouTube channel. 

Here are some of the most common medium types for a marketing case study.

Written Case Study

You can choose to write your marketing case study as an ebook or PDF that people can download and read. It is one of the best ways to make sure that you are generating more leads.

Video Case Study

You can choose to meet with your customer in person and conduct an interview. Because seeing your customer in person and hearing them speak about your product or services can help you gain the trust of your potential customers.

Infographics Case Study

Use an infographic’s long, vertical format to tell your success story from start to end. As you progress down to the end, highlight major KPIs with larger or bold text. Besides, you can also add charts that demonstrate your client’s success after working with you. 

Podcast Case Study

There is no doubt that podcasts provide a forum for you to have an open conversation with your customer. A podcast sounds to be more genuine and sentient to your audience. After all, you can let them know that your collaboration with your customer was a legitimate success.

How to Improve Your English with Podcasts

Step 4: Find the Right Candidate

In a marketing case study, writing about your previous projects entails more than just selecting a client and telling their story. You will require permission, quotes, and a strategy. To begin, here are a few things that you need to consider

Product Understanding

It is advantageous to choose a customer who is familiar with the logistics of your service or product. That way, they can easily communicate the value of your services to potential customers.

Remarkable Impacts

Clients who have used your product and seen good results will help you write the most compelling case studies. After all, they can convey the right enthusiasm that you want your potential customers to feel. 

With that said, get a client who has had unexpected success after using your services or products. Besides, results from your genuine clients can help you eliminate the doubts of your prospects.  

Brand Names

While choosing the right customer for your case study, we recommend that you should go for those who have bigger brand names. According to a study, 98% of people say that they will buy a product if a trusted influencer or brand recommends them.

Switchers

Other than a brand name, people who have already worked with your competitor can be beneficial too. Because they can help you highlight reasons why people should choose you over your competitor.

Step 5: Contact Your Candidat for Permission

To get a client for your marketing case study, you must first set the stage for clear communication between your client and you. This means that you need to openly discuss expectations from each of you and when you expect your marketing case study to come out.

However, the most important thing that you need to do is to get your customer’s approval. So, when you first contact your customer, you need to tell them about your goals and objectives regarding your case study.

Even before that, however, we recommend that you should put yourself in their shoes to understand what would they want from you as a candidate for your case study. After all, you are going to highlight their story in the case study. With that being said, you can offer the following benefits to your customer.

  • Brand Exposure: You can offer your client brand exposure and awareness not only in their market but also outside their market. It can be one of the best benefits that your customer can get because brand awareness outside one’s industry can be hard to get.
  • Employ Exposure: Besides, you can also offer your client to increase their employment exposure alongside their brands. This way the brand is not the only thing that gets the chance to expand but also their employees’ names get highlighted.
  • Service or Product Discount: You can also offer them discounts on your services or product if they choose to be the subject of your case study. This is, especially beneficial if they are your current customer.
  • Website Traffic or Backlink: If you choose to publish your case study on your website, you can offer to give them a backlink that can send traffic to their website.

Step 6: Ensure You Have All the Resources

Now that you know what you can offer to your customer, it is time to make sure that you have all the resources that you need to write a good marketing case study. There are mainly two things that you need to write a marketing case study.

Your Case Study Release Form

A case study release form is an approval form that a customer signs to grant permission to the organization or business. Its sole purpose is to give them permission that the organization can use their name and story in the case study.

However, it depends on a lot of factors such as the nature of your work, the size of your business, and the purpose of your case study. Nevertheless, remember to include the following details.

  • A vivid explanation of why you are creating your case study and how it will be used then.
  • Any statement that illustrates which details you want to include in your case study. It can be anything including names, job titles, logos, and pictures.
  • Things that you expect from your customer. For instance, if your customer is ready to share their feedback or become a reference for your company or business.

Success Story Letter

This document serves as an outline for your whole case study process. Aside from a brief explanation of how the client will profit by participating in your case study, the Success Story Letter should include all the steps you have taken or will take to achieve your and your client’s objectives.

Step 7: Create a Case Study Email Template

While you assembled your resources, your candidate gets enough time to read through the proposal. When your candidate has approved your case study, you can send them a release form.

A case study release form outlines what you will need from the subject of your case study, such as authorization to use the brand names and share their information publically. Begin this process with an email outlining exactly what they might expect from you as well as what you require from them. 

Furthermore, you can check out the following sample email to get an idea of what your email might look like. 

Hello _______,

We’re delighted to hear that you would like to be featured as one of our success stories! I am and I manage our case studies. It makes me immensely joyed to highlight all of our clients’ great inbound marketing and success stories.

Before beginning the case study process, kindly recheck the documents I have attached. To ensure that your company is on board with the project, we request you sign the case study release form before we begin writing. Moreover, we have outlined the entire process in the success story letter.

Once we hear back from you, the next step would be to share the case study questionnaire with you and your team. Besides, it will at least take a couple of weeks to complete the case study. Once completed and revised, we will share it with you. With that being said, we would like to aim for ________ (date). Let me know if you feel the date is manageable on your side too.

We are thrilled to start the process and learn more about your success story. Moreover, feel free to contact me for any queries.

Peace!

Step 8: Define Your Strategy

You must have a clear outline of your case research procedure with your client before you can start writing the case study. The following information is an example of an effective outline.

Acceptance

You must first obtain approval from your marketing team. Once the release form has been approved, make sure that you receive it on time. It is also a good time to set a timeline that takes into account both teams’ capabilities and requirements.

Questionnaire

To ensure an effective interview, which is one of the best methods for gathering information for your case study, ask your subject to complete a questionnaire prior to the interview. This will give your team the needed foundation to arrange and optimize the interview.

Interview

After completing the questionnaire, make sure that someone from your team should contact your customer to schedule a 40- to 60-minute interview. The interview should include a series of custom questions about your customer’s experience with your service. 

Draft Review

After you’ve finished writing the case study, make sure to send a proposal to your customer so they can provide feedback and edits.

Final Approval

Send a revised copy of your case study to the client for final approval once the necessary edits have been done.
Then, once you have published your case study either on your website or elsewhere, make sure to contact your customer.

Besides, provide them a link to the page of your case study. Moreover, do not be afraid to ask your clients to share these links with their own team. Because it demonstrates not only your ability to produce positive results but also impressive growth.

Step 9: Write Your Case Study

Now that you have taken all the necessary steps, it is time to actually start writing your marketing case study. While learning how to write a marketing case study, is indeed the longest step. However, we believe that you will not face any difficulty because you have already taken all the necessary steps that you require to make sure this step runs smoothly.

Step 10: Publish and Promote

When you have finished your case study, the last step of how to write a marketing case study is to publish and promote it. There are case study formats that have apparent promotional outlets, such as an infographic case study on Pinterest or a video case study on YouTube. 
However, there are additional ways to help you publish and promote your marketing case study. Here is a couple of them:

A Blog Post

As previously stated in this article, written case studies make excellent lead generators when converted into a downloadable format, such as a PDF. So, consider writing a blog post that tells a shortened story of your customer’s success.

Then, ask your readers to fill out a form with their name and email address if they want to read the rest of the story as a PDF. a

Next, using a Facebook post or a tweet, promote this blog post on social media.

A Website Page

As a young business, you may need to display your case study in plain sight to gain the trust of your target audience.

Rather than tying it to a landing page, you can choose to publish your case study on a separate page on your website. So that visitors to your website can easily gain access to your case study anywhere from your website.  

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