As a business owner, you know your product or service better than anyone. You have many success stories (hopefully!) but don’t know the best way to share them with your audience. In today’s blog, we are diving into why case studies are a powerful marketing tool that you should add to your digital marketing.
What Do You Mean by “Case Study?”
Simply put, a case study is a real-world example of how your product or service was beneficial to a customer. While there are many styles of writing for case studies, most will include a clear objective, general descriptions of the client, their goals, and the actions taken to solve the problem, and the results.
Why Case Studies are a Powerful Marketing Tool
Case Studies Make it Personal
Sometimes it is hard for potential customers or clients to see how your product or service would actually work for their business. Case studies offer real-world examples of customers that trusted you to solve a problem for them, the steps taken to solve their problem, and the good results they had. Potential customers can often relate to either who your customer was or the problem your customer had. Connection happens. The thought enters “If their problem was solved and I have the same problem then perhaps I will have the same positive results.” Case studies can personalize your business on a level that clever content wording and other marketing may lack.
Case Studies Position You As an Expert
Case studies not only allow your potential customers to connect on a personal level with your business, but they also position you as an expert in your field and give confidence to the buyer. Sharing case study data may seem a bit like sharing your secret formula but look at it more as if you are confidently sharing what it is you do because you know you do it well. Customers will see that you know what you are talking about and that will be an incentive to do business with you.
Case Studies Show Consistency
Whenever your business can highlight consistent, repeatable results that is a win-win for your marketing. Business owners are committed and they want to do business with others that are equally as committed and also dependable. Case studies display a history of consistent results and emphasize the fact that you are a serious business that is worth working with!
How Do I Implement Case Studies in Digital Marketing?
So now that you understand why case studies are a powerful marketing tool, where and how do you begin using them in your digital marketing? The first step is to research your client database and highlight possible candidates for case studies. They don’t have to be your biggest high-dollar clients (they can be!) but the study needs to include a very real and relatable problem and how a solution was found. You also need to be able to easily recognize the goal of the work you did with that client. Be able to say concisely “This problem needed to be solved…” or “This was the goal of working with us was to…” Do you have measurable data or results to confirm your solution? Those always strengthen the power of a case study’s influence but may not be applicable to every business field.
Once you have identified possible clients for your case study, begin compiling data and steps your business (or your product) took to solve their problem. Photos are always helpful (helps potential clients connect!)
Finally, organize your data into a case study. Styles of case studies vary from formal and scientific to more relaxed in an interview style. The core of all studies includes the following topics: a description of the client (please ask permission if you are naming a client!), a description of their problem or the objective of the work you were hired to do, goals set by your business to attain for the client, the action steps taken by your business or the way the customer put your product to use, the results, and the client/customer response to your work.
Do a little research into case study styles and decide which style your business would best be represented by. Write up your case study and share it as a blog post on your website, create a dedicated page with links to organize all your case studies, and have printed copies for your sales team to share. That is exactly what we did with our most recent case study titled: Case Study: Targeted Digital Marketing. Share the case studies on social media and be familiar with the ones you have created so you can match the appropriate ones with potential clients.
Dogwood is Here to Help
We hope we have made our “case” on why case studies are a powerful marketing tool! (pun intended of course!) If you need help implementing case studies, creating pages on your website to showcase them, or any other digital marketing efforts, Dogwood is here to help! Reach out and let’s get a conversation started!
