Upsize is a magazine with a single mission: to help Minnesota's small-business owners build bigger and more profitable companies, and to connect CEOs with the people, products and ideas they need to grow.
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bb marketing by Marcia Jedd Four essentials make the case for strong case studies Experience and proof of performance are critical factors in today's competitive business environment. To this end, case studies provide customer success stories that tell how a product, service or solution addressed and solved a particular problem. Case studies act as powerful endorsements that go the extra mile for your sales, marketing and public relations functions. When professionally produced, case studies are one of the most credible ways to market your solutions. In fact, a 2012 survey by the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs polled more than 1,400 business-to-business firms and found case studies were named as the second most effective form of content marketing only behind in-person events like trade shows and seminars, beating out webinars and blogs. Draw on in-house resources, your customer—the key contributor—and other external sources to tell the story. For complicated projects in industries such as manufacturing, construction or industrial markets, additional sources from other firms such as vendors or collaborators may be in order. For example, a case study detailing a construction project may include quotes from contractors, engineers and architects. Though it's optional to quote your own company sources, leverage your in-house experts for the background and review processes. Case studies typically range from a few to several pages in an attractive layout with high quality, high-resolution photos and at-a-glance information in addition to the narrative text. Here are four essentials of case studies: 1. Quotable is notable. Like an Nuts and bolts article, use quotes to engage the A good case study includes background reader; don't just interview sources about the customer's organization and and type up your notes without tells the problems and challenges they attribution. Liberal use of customer faced before adopting your solutions. and other external-source quotes From there, the piece—packed with direct in the piece will make it shine with quotes and characterizing details—unpersonality. folds to demonstrate how your solution 2. Metrics matter. In addition to solved the problem, backed by quantifiable presenting the customer's problem results. and how your solution was applied, tips 12 don't forget to include specific results. Showcase the results with dollar savings, streamlined processes, time to achieve ROI and other statistics or data related to the "before" and "after" picture. Was paperwork reduced, time or labor saved? If the customer doesn't have precise figures, use estimates. 3. Layout, call-outs and sidebars. Don't get stuck in rigid formats or set lengths but do keep the design of your case studies consistent with your brand personality, logos and taglines. Use bullets or call-out sections up front to summarize key problems solved, the solution and results. For complex cases, you can even list the project team. In the text, use subheads to advance the narrative. Always include photos or other artwork such as renderings or flow charts. 4. Doing the paperwork. Factchecking and reviews are critical. Once your company has reviewed the draft of the case study prior to layout, route it to external sources for corrections and approvals in layout form. As appropriate, route to contributors' communication or public relations departments. 1 good case A 2 there, the From 3 hesitate Don't 4 on inDraw study includes background about the customer's organization and tells the problems and challenges they faced before adopting your solutions. piece—packed with direct quotes and characterizing details—unfolds to demonstrate how your solution solved the problem, backed by quantifiable results. to ask sources about any project challenges as they adopted or implemented the solution and how these hurdles were overcome. house resources, your customer and other external sources to tell the story. upsize december 2013 • january 2014 5 compliFor manufacturing, construction or industrial markets, additional sources from other firms such as vendors or collaborators may be in order. cated projects in industries such as www.upsizemag.com