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Writing a Good Case Study

If you’re in B2B marketing, you know all about case studies–why they’re important as leave-behinds, how they help your sales team continue the conversation, and how they advertise not only what you do well but who trusts you to do what you do (which means a lot, especially if the companies that do so are fortune 1000 companies). But writing them and formatting them are just a few of the steps you need to follow religiously if you’re going to write good, compelling, strong case studies to back up your products or services.

Here are some tips to writing good case studies.

1. Make sure you’re writing about something your customers and prospects care about. Sure, sounds easy, but it’s definitely something you don’t want to mess up. Keep up on your industry’s latest trends and technology, and see what everyone’s talking about. If you’re selling something everyone wants, or providing a service and doing it better, make sure you’re ahead of your competition in terms of being the thought leader in your case studies as well as in the rest of your business activities.

2. Write a good story. Your audience is obviously key here, because a good story is relative to the audience. If you’re case study is targeting business decision makers in the technology space, a very precise and accurate, technical case study (which to a lot of other audiences may seem like block text) will likely be more effective than a fluffy, sales-oriented case study. Write for your audience.

3. Structure is important. Make sure your case studies all follow a relatively similar formate. You’ll likely want to use (or have your version of) a ‘Challenge,’ a ‘Solution’ (which will likely be your product or service and company) that describes how the challenge was overcome, and a ‘Result’ (which should obviously be a positive one).

4. Be specific. If you want your case studies to be effective, be very, very specific as to all three items listed above. Using percentages is a great way to overcome lack of numbers if you’re short on examples. Dollar amounts are great as well.

5. Quotes. Customer quotes are a great way to get some validity and ‘proof’ behind the claims you’re making in your case studies. If your customers have had a good experience, they’ll normally be willing to sign off on a quote (or provide you one if you ask for it).

6. Get permission. Don’t quote anyone or use customer names without them giving you permission to use their name or their company name.

The last thing you want to do is lose a good customer because you didn’t want to shoot them an email or make a quick phone call.

In general, case studies can be quick and easy to write up, and they’re a great way to generate interest in what you do. A good case study will be passed along to other business decision makers within a company looking for your product or service–so make sure you’re putting out quality. Good luck.

Level2wo has experience case study writers, so feel free to send an email if you have any questions.

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