How to Use Case Studies to Boost Your Marketing

Posted on November 29, 2018 in Marketing

Highlighting different success stories from your past allows prospects to visualize their own success with your company. One area where many companies fall short is effectively demonstrating the quality and value of their work. You can generate leads all day, have the catchiest tagline, and dazzle visitors with a beautiful website…but if you can’t prove you do amazing work, it’s not worth squat.

Great case studies show you have what it takes to follow up on your promises. Let’s talk some specific ideas for creating different types of case studies that you can use on your website, as sales collateral, or to share on social media.

Written Case Studies On Your Website

This is the classic example that most people think of when you talk case studies. Written case studies are a great way to dive into a success story in-depth and tell a comprehensive story.

Set the scene by describing where a client was at before working with your company, as well as what goals they wanted to achieve. Next, talk about your game plan for meeting these needs, describe your execution of this plan, and summarize with the results and client reaction. Include any relevant pictures or visual assets that shows customers the effectiveness of the project.

Whenever possible, include numbers that quantify your results. Case studies are all about credibility, and saying you helped a client gain 2,000 Instagram followers in two weeks is more credible and impressive than writing “we expanded their following.”

Written testimonials are great for customers who are ready to read more about your company, but it’s great to have something in your back pocket for more casual leads…which brings us to our next point.

Video Testimonials

It’s easy to boast about yourself, but it’s more believable when someone else does the boasting for you. Better yet, videos are often more engaging and grab people’s attention faster than a written case study.

Of course, the trick is getting a busy customer to agree to sit down for a video testimonial. Be as accommodating as possible by offering to meet at their office when they are available. When they agree to sit down for the video testimonial, have a list of questions prepared that will prompt them to talk about your services from a variety of different perspectives. This will assist in expediting the entire task and result in a better overall testimonial.

Lastly, shoot as much footage as you can and make sure you have a professional videographer on set – nothing will undercut a testimonial more than amateur camerawork or poor lighting. When you’ve got the video, share it far and wide and get creative to stretch for the footage for everything it’s worth. Post it on social media, your website, use it in email marketing, share it at sales meetings…use everywhere you can! Don’t be afraid to repost a snippet of the same video a few months later, either.

Written Testimonials

It’s hard to get customers to sit down for an interview on camera, but written testimonials are the next best thing. The whole process can be done over email, and you can even provide a sample to give customers an idea of what to write.

Getting reviews on social media platforms and Google is also huge. One easy way to get these reviews is by sending customers a link and instructions. For example, send instructions for posting reviews on Facebook along with a link to your Facebook page. This minimizes the effort and time required on behalf of your customers, which makes them more likely to actually do it.

Written testimonials can be included in your full-length case studies, shared on social media with a eye-catching image, and even just highlighted on your website. As with video testimonials, you’ll want to use these everywhere you can to make sure prospects see it.

Don’t Be Afraid to Share Bite-Sized Pieces of Your Work

Social media is great for sharing small snippets here and there of your portfolio. Logos, taglines, screenshots and more can be easily shared to social media to show the work you’re doing with current clients. It’s easy, requires a minimal time investment, and shows prospects a real-time snapshot of what you’re working on and who you’re working for, right now.

If you do great work, you owe it to yourself to show it off. Check out our portfolio today to see if there’s not something you can learn or borrow inspiration from in your own case studies.