Consider the humble case study

Upfront confession: there are few marketing things I enjoy more than writing a customer case study. I like speaking with the customers, figuring out the angle, writing the story. Not quite writing a short story, but good case studies do have a narrative arc. And for prospects, reading a good, meaty case study can make the intangible tangible. Suddenly, they get what you’re talking about in a way that may not come through in web copy, a brochure, data sheet, or white paper. We all want our prospects to be able to identify with our products. Case studies help that cause along.

What’s in a case study? No big literary whoop, just:

• Something about the company that you’re studying
• Something about the group within the company that you’re working with
• The challenges the industry/company/group faces
• What they’re doing (or trying to do) that made them feel they needed your product
• Why they picked you over all the other possibilities out there
• How they’re actually using your product
• How life has changed since they started using it
• What they really, truly love about your product

Keep it simple (what in fiction’s called a short-short) - so no more than 2 pages, unless you’re doing a real in depth study that’s more or less a white paper. As in fiction, the case study should be a mix of narrative and quotes. Details, details, details: sure it’s nice if they say “Acme’s new Wonderama is excellent. Our workerbees have found it very helpful” But isn’t it a lot more interesting if they say, “Acme’s Wonderama has been a godsend for our workerbees. Before we began using Wonderama, they typically devoted 3-5 days a month tracking down the information they needed to pollinate their monthly reports. The new info-gather feature has cut that time by 90%. With this time savings, our workerbees have been able to build one new hive per week. This has translated into an increase in revenue of 25%.” Yes, you may have to put words in their mouth, but so what: you’re the writer.

A customer case study should start with a customer interview, one that follows a set of canned questions - but one which can take you anywhere. You don’t need to set up the interview specifically because you want a case study. You should be speaking with your customers regularly, anyway. One company I’m working with is always speaking with their users, getting them to talk about how they’re using the product, what benefits they get from it, and what they’d like to see changed in the product or the process that surrounds it (sales, marketing, billing, customer support). In the course of these regular conversations, if we see a good case study possibility, we’ll ask then and there.

Yes, everyone has to get permission from someone higher up in order to do a case study. But here’s an approach we’re using that works pretty well. We tell the customer that we’d like to do a case study, that we’ll be writing one up, and sending them a draft to put through they’re approval process. Yes, sometimes we still get turned down, but I must say that this approach is more likely to yield an approved case study in less time than getting permission up front, before you’ve spoken with the customer.

A note on the interview. It’s not essential, but it’s certainly preferable to have a conversation, as opposed to having someone fill out a questionnaire. You’re much more likely to get detailed, colorful information - the telling anecdote, the interesting tid-bit - through a conversation than you if someone’s just filling in the blanks for you. Follow on questions that may come up when you’re writing the first draft and kick yourself for not having probed deeper in some area can be easily conveyed via e-mail, however.

When you create the final version, make sure to have some call outs or bulleted areas (Cliff Notes, as it were), so that someone who doesn’t have time to read the full story can get the gist.

What gets called out? Capsule info on the situation, the challenges, the solution, the results.

Don’t forget the company’s logo. Free artwork!

And now, because I’ve always wanted use this quote somewhere:

A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. (Franz Kafka)

Okay, okay. Old Franz was talking about the way in which a great, well-written book can truly reach someone in a profound and meaningful way.

As for the humble case study, before I go into some strained metaphor about ice-picks breaking the cellophane covering the B2B technology buyer, let’s just leave it as: the case study is a useful sales tool, one which can provide good, solid information to the prospect - the type of information that may actually get them to envision how they’d use your product.

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