Good Case Studies Mean Business

I was interviewed today for a podcast focused on case studies and how they fit into a marketing program (when the podcast is available, I’ll post the link here so you can hear my lovely voice). This type of collateral has become very popular in all business sectors over the past few years, and, like other collateral types, there are a lot of really badly written pieces floating around out there.

 

Badly written case studies do absolutely nothing for a company—no, that’s wrong. Badly written case studies can create a negative return on investment, and I don’t need to point out how undesirable that is.

 

Well written case studies, on the other hand, can make a measurable difference in marketing and sales results. Used in different formats at multiple points in a marketing program, case studies are positive influencers that help bring awareness of a company’s products, services, and capabilities to its markets and help shorten the distance to a closed deal.

 

I covered several aspects of a case study initiative in today’s interview. Here are some highlights:

• Case study preparation can be resource-intensive, so find as many uses for the information as possible. Create several versions of the study—for example, long version, short version, abstract, bullet points—so that it can be used on the web sites, in proposals, in presentations, for press releases and media kits, and any other place that it makes sense.
• Ideally, have a trusted third party research and prepare the case study. This provider needs to be a skilled interviewer and a really good copy writer with business savvy. Have the appropriate subject matter experts and business development staff interviewed so that their knowledge serves as the “clay” from which to mold the study, but avoid having these people do the actual writing—they are too close to the knitting (so to speak) to write a study that speaks effectively to the prospect/reader.
• Likewise, be careful about having marketing staff do the writing. Unless they can distance themselves enough from their jobs, the studies they write are likely to end up too much about the company itself and now about the client that it provided solutions to.
• Very often, the subject matter that a case study covers can be dry, dry, dry—or it can be so similar to competitors’ studies that it’s hardly worth doing. The best case studies tell a story using the “technology of fiction” to weave a tale that is interesting to the reader. This kind of case study will stand out from the crowd, and therefore is worth the time and energy spent to craft it effectively.
• The hardest part of case study preparation is gathering the resource information upon which to base the piece. This is where that interview skill comes in to play—interview the business development people to understand the audience for the study and what their issues/challenges are, and interview the delivery people to get all the details about the client and the solution that the study will showcase. The better this front end task gets executed, the better the case study will be.

There was a little bit more to the interview, but I want to leave something new for you to listen to!