Why good case studies are key to your marketing (and business) strategy

Earlier in my marketing career, I would call clients and coerce them into giving me a case study so I had a headline I could use for my marketing. It was a waste of my time, and more importantly, theirs. I was a fool.

This doesn't have to be the case. A curious discussion with your customers is worth its weight in gold. Not only will you get insights that form your marketing and business growth strategy, but also some great content to you can use to engage and convert prospects in their buying journey.

In this blog, I'll explain the steps I take to book a short 30 minute meeting with clients, the 10 tried and tested questions I use to get amazing competitive insights, and how you can make the most of each case study.

You can then use these insights to:

• Create a simple, accountable marketing (that can help drive your business strategy) that is based on your customers

• Craft buyer personas to help you increase your conversion rate with prospects

• Create compelling content that builds a competitive moat around your brand, and adds value to prospects

Here's some examples of the goodness you can get using this case study technique.

1. The original issue your customers had, in their own words, and what made them aware they needed to do something about it.

• This tells you how they describe the issue that you best solve, and how they knew it was impacting them enough to find a solution. This is the hook you can use to find others like them, with a message they will clearly understand - as it's in their words, rather than marketing spin.

2. Where they went to get information , and who they turned to for advice.

• This tells you where you need to be publishing and promoting your message. And also, who are the people that influence your customers thinking - this helps you identify who your customers respect, and who may help you become a 'trusted advisor'.

3. Who was on their shopping list and how they got there.

• This tells you who your competitors are in your customers eyes, as well as why they see them as a competitor to your business.

4. What they thought was important when reviewing the options.

• This tells you what actually mattered to them. Shocking as this may seem, it is likely very different to the features you commonly promote. If you take this on board, it can dramatically change how you present your business, and ensures you do it in a way that addresses your customers needs, rather than promote what you internally think is best.

5. What has been the impact to their business since.

• This tells you anecdotally what the ROI is of customers investing in your solution. It may be saving minutes in a key process or reducing risk or accelrating growth. This is how you can demonstrate your business positively creates value to other prospects, and why they should work with you, not your competitors.

So what steps do you need to follow to get a good customer case study?

Before we jump into this, worth a quick note that to grow your business, you really want to focus on getting more good customers, or Idea Customer Profiles. So when doing this, it goes without saying that you should spend a minute clarifying your ICP, if you haven't already, and focus your energy on them.

1. Call the customers that fit your ICP and ask if you can have 30mins to understand how they went about finding your business for a case study. Use a simple incentive if you need, but most customers are generous with their time if you have a good relationship.

2. Book in a meeting with the right contact. Explain you want to record so you can focus on the conversation and that the recording is for your internal purposes only. This is easier to do if you book the meeting online/virtually (e.g. Microsoft Teams/Zoom), or if you do face-to-face, suggest recording using a voice recorded on your mobile phone.

3. Go through the 10 questions below. Remember it is a curious conversation not an interrogation!

4. Make sure you start with the opening question - this is critical and full of gold! As you move through, you can divert where needed to follow the topics that are of interest. I would recommend coming back to the questions. I have explained why each question is relevant below to help.

5. Write up the conversation into a word document (hot tip - Otter.ai translates recordings into text with a free trial. It's not perfect, but does 80% of the heavy lifting).

6. Make a copy and edit it down to the key points for a case study. This is where you can remove anything that is just padding. In the ark of a good story, what you are trying to show is the initial challenge, how the story's hero went about finding solutions, importantly any miss-steps or issues along the way (the real-life elements add credibility to the outcome), and ultimately how the ended up finding an outcome that worked. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, a simple Q&A format is a good place to start, however a capable content writer would make easy work of doing the story justice.

What questions should you use for a good case study?

I have fine-tuned this list over many, many years. Add or update the questions as you see fit. If you have any ideas on how this list can be improved I'd love to hear them. I do try and keep it to 10 questions so they can be covered in a 30 minute call, so clients are more likely to accept. If you can spend more time in a client discussion, even better! Just make sure you don't focus on you, but continue to focus on them and their experience.

1. Opening question - Take me back to when you first decided you needed to solve this problem/achieve this goal and tell me what happened?

• (Need to ID the problem they had in their own words, why it had become a noticeable problem, and what were their first steps)

2. How did you find out about possible solutions?

• (Channels of information)

3. Who influenced the options you considered?

• (Trusted sources of influence)

4. Who did you consider/was on your shopping list?

• (Awareness/competitor ranking)

5. How did you work out who would be best suited to your business?

• (Buying process)

6. What were the most important things to you when finding the right solution?

• (Buying criteria)

7. Why did you pick the one you chose over the competitors?

• (Competitive advantage)

8. What was the onboarding process like?

• (Reality vs. sales pitch/support, and an indication on your buyer journey success)

9. What has been the impact to your business since?

• (Ideally quantify time spent on a typical day pre vs. post - this may take some coaxing but is well worth the effort)

• I have found it best to get them to work through a normal day/week/period prior to your solution being implemented. Identify the key steps that were the customer took and how long (approximately) each one took. Then get them to step through those same steps and explain the time since your solution was in place. This should help you identify where the improvements are, which is marketing gold!

10. What advice would you give to others who may be considering solutions?

• (Quotes/shared advice)

So how do you get the goodness out of a case study?

Here's my top three suggestions for make the most of your case study.

1. Translate the key points of the case study in an honest story of your customers journey.
   
   Now, ignore the links to reality TV shows overuse of journey, the best case studies in my opinion provide an honest insight into how customers identified they had an issue and found you to be the best solution.
   
   The reason honesty is key, is like when you review ratings. You are more likely to believe a 5 star rating if there is a 1 star rating there also. It acknowledges that everything can't be perfect, but on the things that matter, this is the best option.
   
   The more of your customers words you can include the better, as this is likely to be the type of thing prospective clients may search for in the future. Then send a draft to the client and tell them you are planning to publish on a set date (suggest a week or so) and ask if they have any feedback before you do. Otherwise you can get held up if you ask your customer for approval.

2. Once you have done a few case studies, collate the answers and include the demographics of the person.
   
   This will help you identify key trends from your customers, for example, is their a common way they explain their initial problem (or key words they use), or common channels they use to find information or criteria they use to select.
   
   In addition, summarising the contact demographics will help you build buyer personas. This ensures you tailor your buyer journey to the buyer needs - for example more focus on numbers and ROI for a financially focussed buyer, versus growth for a future focussed owner.

3. Review and update your buyer journey and sales presentations to incorporate the key common insights.
   
   For example, include the key concerns your clients raised when evaluating options, with how you can address these; promote the elements they found important when reviewing solutions; show the real-life impact your solution can have on businesses like theirs. This shows you know the reality of your customer's worlds, you speak their language and your solution matters where it counts for them.

I hope this helps you get the insights you need from your customers to help you grow. If you need help with the process, or even wanted an independent party to get this done for you (customers can actually be more honest and open when speaking with someone outside your business), get in touch with us and we'd be happy to help.

Enjoy the curious discussion with your customers!