A customer case study can play an essential part of any B2B marketing strategy. Case studies provide social proof and provide buyers with the context to determine whether they’re making a good investment or purchasing decision.
In this article, we look at different ways a business can promote its client case studies, and how it all begins with the building of one and an engaging external communications strategy.
Why customer case studies are a powerful tool
Having an effectively written case study can be a powerful tool for bringing in new business in your B2B marketing campaigns. Here is a brief overview of the ways that this can happen when written and utilised properly:
- They provide social proof of your product/services value
- They demonstrate success
- They build trust with your brand
- They position your company as an expert in the field
- They support customer acquisition
What makes a good customer case study
A case study is essentially a story and it should take the reader on a journey from learning about your customer’s problem before outlining how you helped them overcome it and the results you delivered. Readers of the case study will want to see this full picture in order to make a judgement on whether you can help their business overcome similar challenges.
There are different ways that your business can communicate your customers’ case study, and depending on the channel you decide, how you format it will vary. That being said, there are a number of key elements to include in a ‘good’ customer case study.
Outlining the challenge
Providing context on the challenge you helped your client overcome is critical when establishing relevancy from your audience and encouraging them to read on.
Showcasing results
Showcasing the results you achieved in the form of tangible statistics can provide an effective way of communicating value and is more substantial than just words.
Testimonials
Finally, including a written quote or testimonial from your customer/client can provide an additional layer of validation and build trust in your company’s product/service.
How to maximize impact from customer case studies
Once you have created a quality customer case study for your desired channel, the next step is putting together an engaging strategy to communicate this externally.
Content Marketing
A common and effective strategy to leverage customer case studies is by sharing them on your website.
You can either showcase your case studies on a designated landing page, or on your company’s homepage and there are pros and cons to both options. By creating a designated landing page for case studies, you are creating a ‘home’ which makes it easy for users and search engines to find this page and navigate through it. On the other hand, by choosing to showcase your case studies on your home page you are still boosting your company’s credibility and customers can see testimonials straight away. Whichever approach you take it is important to centre the case study around the customer challenge to avoid the content sounding too sales focused.
For any content marketing strategy, you will need well-structured and relevant content, optimised meta titles and meta descriptions using targeted keywords to ensure that your content will rank well as well as improving your CTR. Finally, make sure to use internal links to other case studies, relevant articles, or your product/service pages to ensure readers remain on your site for longer.
Social Media
Your company’s social channels are a great place to share testimonials, key results, and snippets from your case studies to engage your audience. Companies that share authentic, user-generated content build more trust and credibility with their social audience.
Depending on which channel your audience utilises most frequently, there are different ways you can do this. You can do so by creating a graphic showcasing either a testimonial or key results, or a short video either in the form of an interview with someone internally or an animation that takes viewers through the case study. Using a catchy caption focusing on relevant and trending hashtags can help boost impressions with your relevant audience. Finally, make sure to link to the case study at the end of the caption for a call to action so customers can be redirected to your website.
PR
Customer case studies are perfect for PR as they provide real-life examples of the value your company can add. Journalists regularly publish case studies as they add more engagement to an article with opinion and examples of your company’s product or service in action.
There are different ways to do this, but essentially your goal is for your specific customer’s case study to be featured in media outlets that are relevant to your target audiences. When planning your press release, you need to decide which case study to use and where to use it.
You want to use a case study that is recent and newsworthy. Does it pass the ‘so what’ test? Make sure that the case study you’re using is different from the others and stands out.
Who is the client? The client should be someone that is recognizable in the media outlet you are targeting and these media outlets should also be relevant for your company’s target audience demographic. When presenting this case study for an interview or article, include the key results and quotes that you want to be featured. Journalists care about real results that are measurable.
Finally, also be sure to include quality images. More times than not, a good case study goes to waste because the pictures are low quality or uninteresting. Don’t let a bad image stop your case study from being optimised.
If you’d be interested in discussing how a PR or Digital campaign could help support your company’s growth, get in touch with our award-winning team today.