Are You Leveraging the Power of the Case Study Effectively in Your Marketing Strategy?

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

Case studies are an excellent medium for building a story around your product or service. In this quick guide, we discuss:

  • What is a case study in marketing?
  • A five-step case study marketing plan
  • Examples of case studies from Google to inspire you

 

When it comes to purchasing a product or service, your customers are always looking for past reviews and proven outcomes before making a decision. ResearchOpens a new window suggests that consumers read an average of ten reviews before choosing to trust a local business. And for 91% of those aged between 18 and 34 years, online review content is almost as valuable as personal recommendations.

So how do you integrate the power of reviews into your marketing strategy? Is it possible to encapsulate and demonstrate your offerings’ impact using a 360-degree content experienceOpens a new window ? That’s where the case study comes in — in marketing, case studies can help drive home the benefits of your product and aid in conversions. Case studies are particularly effective for marketing to middle-of-the-funnel consumers who are interested in your product and actively engage in research.

Before we look at how to formulate a case study-driven marketing plan, let’s first understand what exactly this content format requires.

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What Is a Case Study in Marketing?

In marketing, a case study refers to any content that describes how your product or service has helped past customers in an attempt to convert leads into customers. Case studies are relevant for marketing B2B products, as you can gather data over time and outline how your product made a difference. While there’s no hard-and-fast rule in terms of the format of case studies in marketing, it should comprise the following key elements:

  • About the client: A synopsis of who the client is and their unique requirements will help you build a relationship with new customers. For example, a B2B product sold to a manufacturing brand executive is sure to resonate with other business leaders in the manufacturing sector.
     
  • Challenges/problem statement/opportunities: Here, you discuss the specific needs addressed by your product or service. It may be a problem that the client was looking to solve or an opportunity that you helped unlock.
     
  • The solution: Typically, this makes up the bulk of a case study in marketing. You can go into the specifics of your offerings, aligning every detail to the customer’s challenges. This is where you can differentiate your product/service from others in the market.
     
  • Outcomes: This is a highly critical element that requires special attention in your case study for marketing success. It’s ideal to mention measurable benefits such as “20% less network downtime” for a business internet package. This could be the final push users need to purchase your offering.

So how do you go about creating a case study and using it in your marketing plan? Let’s find out.

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Five Steps to Create a Case Study Marketing Plan

Remember, case studies are built on a strong foundation of data and a clear understanding of your customer’s business narrative. To get started with a case study marketing plan, begin by putting together a list of high-end customers you have catered to and by collecting customer reviews to extract data. Here’s a simple breakdown of this five-step process:

  1. Work together with the sales team to solicit feedback from customers. This should ideally include quantified outcomes with details of the problem and solution your product/service provides.
  1. Interview customers and follow a detailed questionnaire to understand their unique business context. This will follow a story-like narrative, covering the initial problem, its criticality to business, solution parameters they were looking for, and how your brand was able to help.
  1. Conduct research to complement the data gathered. You could mention competing products to suggest how your brand offers a better value proposition.
  1. Follow a template to create the document. This will include the four compulsory elements we discussed, along with visuals as well as an impactful title.
  1. Get approval from the customer before publishing the case study. In marketing, your customers are your biggest brand advocates, and their buy-in is essential for a successful case study marketing plan.
     

There’s no fixed length of a case study in digital marketing; this will entirely depend on your channel for dissemination. For example, a case study in marketing can be featured on your website where it appears as a short snippet of 100 words or less. You could also create detailed documents to convert into a video script.

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Types and Examples of Case Studies in Marketing

As a marketer, you can create two types of case studies: internal and external. An internal case study in marketing will share the details and outcomes of a marketing campaign that you’ve undertaken in the past, highlighting the solutions you used to reach your targets. These digital marketing case studies are useful when creating budgets and obtaining funds from senior leadership.

The next is an external case study in marketing that discusses how your product/service was used by your customers. These are meant for driving conversions at the middle-of-the-funnel.

Let’s look at two examples of case studies by Google, one that discusses marketing outcomes and the other that externally positions Google’s offerings.

  • Example of a case study in marketing #1Opens a new window : Johnson & Johnson used Google marketing tools to cut the costs required to gain a new user by 21%. Such case studies in digital marketing are particularly relevant for marketing consultants and agencies that need to drive home the impact of their strategies.
  • Example of a case study in marketing #2: Area 1 Security leveraged the Google Cloud platform to build its security service. This allowed users to analyze over 3 billion events every day and get answers to queries in 30-60 seconds. Such metrics-driven case studies are more effective in digital marketing when combined with graphics.
     

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Why You Need a Case Study Marketing Plan Today

The benefits of using case studies in digital marketing are crystal clear. Not only do they demonstrate the real-world applications of your offerings, but they also encourage customers to reach out via embedded call to actions (CTAs). In digital marketing, case studies can be converted into a host of different formats like pop-up ads, emailers, and videos for maximum reach.

And, a case study marketing plan is relatively low cost — all you need to do is collaborate with the sales team, talk to your customers, and create a story that truly resonates with your prospects. This is why case studies have continued to be a marketing favorite, with multiple possibilities on both online and offline platforms.

How do you plan to get started with case studies in digital marketing? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

Chiradeep BasuMallick
Chiradeep BasuMallick

Contributor, Ziff Davis B2B

Chiradeep is a content marketing professional with 8 Years+ experience in corporate communications, marketing content, brand management, and advertising. Over the course of his tenure, he’s worked on several big-ticket projects, led and trained a variety of teams, and been instrumental in driving delivery quality, timeline adherence, and talent harvesting.
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