Writing a Compelling Case Study
If you’re like most companies, especially those selling to another business, you probably rely on case studies in your sales process. But what makes a case study compelling? And how can they be produced in an efficient manner?
To answer these questions, I’ll draw from my experience writing case studies for companies such as: Google, YouTube, McDonald’s, The Trade Desk, Samsung, Modbar, Zendesk, Old Navy, Alteryx, and more.
Enjoy!
-Derek
The Outline
Before reaching out to customers, collecting data, or setting aside a place on your website for them, start by determining your case study outline.
When it comes to outlines, I see two main mistakes with case studies, portfolios, and success stories.
1/ Only showing the end product
These case studies are highly visual with many pictures/videos but few words or explanations. They only share the glossy final state and sometimes a few data points, but no explanation of the role they played, the process to get there, or the iterations in between.
2/ Overselling the outcome
Secondly, many companies try and take all the credit and would have us to believe they deserve a Nobel prize for their efforts. As a result, their stories follow this type of structure:
We did this...
We did this...
We did this...
And the world has never seen results like this before. All who saw it were blown away.
A Better Outline
As an alternative to both of the mistakes above, I think it's far more compelling to read a story that sounds like this:
This was the goal.
This stood in the way.
We explored these options.
Ultimately landed on this one, because...
So that's why we did this...
And this...
And this...
Here's what went well...
Here's what went poorly...
Here's what we learned along the way.
Once you have your outline in place, you’ll want to create a series of questions or prompts to ensure you gather all of the necessary information. More on this below.
The Collection
To move from idea to completed case study, you will need to execute on two steps:
Using the outline from above, create a series of questions or prompts, tailored to your business, that will ensure you get all the necessary information from your customers
Identify the right moments to ask customers if they’d be willing to be featured in a case study
Example - Modbar
I supported the Modbar team as a freelance strategic copywriter to assist them in upping their customer marketing efforts. Modbar sells commercial coffee and espresso equipment and when I surveyed their existing social channels, I found a lot of customers tagging Modbar in their cafe launch photos. (here’s a perfect example, posted just two days ago) The cafes were obviously excited to open, proud of their new Modbar equipment, and ready to drive awareness.
I saw this as an opportunity to respond to their social posts with an ask, “Congrats on the launch. We’d love to feature you on the Modbar blog. Would you be open to answering a few questions and sharing some photos with us?”
I would then send them this list of questions:
What made you want to open a cafe?
How would you describe the brand of your cafe?
Describe the location/demographics of the area where you opened. why did you choose this area?
What equipment are you using to make coffee? why did you choose this equipment?
Describe your bar or customer flow. break this down for us. how did the equipment influence the flow? or vice versa?
What's one thing that makes your cafe special?
Along with this explanation:
Thanks for being willing to share a bit of your story with us. We're trying to do a better job showcasing the uniqueness of the cafes using Modbar. Think of it like a mini case study, highlighting your thought process, brand, cafe experience, bar flow, equipment decisions, etc.
In no way do we want this to be a Modbar-focused story, but rather Modbar was one part of your bigger cafe strategy. We want to hear the whole story 😊
Answer as many of these questions as you can, and include some high-quality photos too. We'd love to see your bar, the space, the front door, all that good stuff!
Their answers were then edited, posted to the Modbar blog, and shared through both social channels and the email list. This not only led to some easy case study gathering, but the cafe would then often amplify the exposure by resharing the post, and because we got so technical in the questions, it helped other potential Modbar customers start to visualize how Modbar could help them with their vision.
Example 2 - Google & YouTube
Sometimes, as the writer, you don’t have direct access to the customer, and instead, you’re working through a company representative or salesperson. This was the case with Google and YouTube. They wanted my help to develop case studies that could be, “An inspiring proof point but also a formula to follow with best practices.”
Stories of transformation can be powerful for inspiration. So, with that goal in mind, I drafted up this questionnaire for them.
What is the primary benefit of [service name] you wish your audience understood?
What action do you want readers to take next?
What success was the customer hoping to achieve? What does success mean to them?
What were they using previously to try and achieve this success?
How did they decide to make the switch to [service name] and what role did the [service name] team play in this decision?
How did they go about realizing their goals? Were there any specific steps they took, best practices they followed?
Did they encounter or overcome any particular challenges along the way?
Do you have any client quotes we could include?
Any quantifiable metrics to share? How do these compare to previous metrics (so we can show a % change)?
Do they have any future plans to build on this success?
With these answers in hand, I was then able to draft a 2-page case study that both inspired and instructed as to best practices.
Feel free to steal either of these sets of questions and tailor them to your audience.
The Format and Design
The final piece of the compelling case study puzzle will be a thoughtful exploration of format and design. And to do this properly, you’ll need to consider a few things:
Distribution. Where will this be published and how will it get into the hands of customers?
Sales enablement. Technically included in the above, however worth calling out on its own. Will this assist in sales efforts? If so, how do they communicate with prospects? How will this fit into their workflow?
Frequency and quantity. How often will you make new case studies? And what quantity do you expect to produce?
Findability. Let’s say you plan to produce 20 in a year. And that you want a salesperson to be able to use them in the sales cycle. How will that salesperson sort through 20 case studies to find the most relevant one for the prospect? Or, even more challenging, how will a prospect self-filter through a library of them?
Here are a couple of filtering examples for you. One was built into the website, while the other was a lo-fi spreadsheet solution.
Multi-purpose? Once you create the case study, do you have plans to break it out into bite-sized pieces, or turn part of it into a video? How else can/will you leverage a single piece of content?
Your brand. This may be an obvious one, but what do your style guidelines have to say about it? How can you showcase your brand (look and feel, visual assets) while also telling a compelling story?
Answering these questions thoughtfully can be the difference between a case study movement that is internally championed across the organization and a case study movement that is resented because of the extra work it causes.
The extra bits
Because I’m the type of person who tends to monologue a bit once I get going, here are the extras that are coming to mind now that I’m reading back through all of this:
Alignment to purpose. All things must be aligned with the business purpose. Case studies are not immune. Tie the creation of these into actual business goals (as opposed to marketing pet projects detached from reality). How will these move the business forward?
Customer research. Can these be useful for customer and product research? Absolutely. You just need to ask better questions (as is so often the case for the problems we have). Why did you choose this? What other options were you considering? Where did you experience setbacks?
Don’ts. Don’t allow bias to creep in. Don’t worry about being the hero of the story. Don’t paint the customer as incompetent until you came along. Don’t skip the editing stage. Don’t fill it with jargon. Don’t lie or exaggerate the numbers.
LOOKING FOR A STRATEGIC COPYWRITER TO ASSIST YOUR TEAM? (SOME PEOPLE CALL THIS A CREATIVE OR ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR)
My name is Derek and I write all kinds of things for businesses of all sizes in many different industries. Do you have a writing or strategy need? This is what I love to do.
Landing pages, websites, wireframing
UX, in-app, onboarding, designing workflows
Customer and stakeholder interviews, research, SEO
Print, long-form, case studies, packaging, impact content
Creative direction, concepting, storytelling, presentations
Strategy, messaging, frameworks, voice and tone
Ad copy, email, scripts, copyediting, broad range of mediums
✉️ Start a conversation | derek@plain.run
Derek Gillette // Senior Copywriter // Freelance Since 2012