If you’re in business, chances are you’ve been asked to write a product case study. And if you haven’t, well, maybe now is the time! A product case study can be an extremely effective marketing tool. This blog post will teach you how to write a product case study that will grab attention and help boost your business.
How to Write a Product Case Study: A Complete Guide
A case study is a story that shows how a customer used your product or service to overcome their problem.
At the end of case studies, readers should feel like they can relate to the client featured in the case study. They should also be able to see how using your product can help them achieve their goals.
Learn how to write a product case study by following these steps:
1. Use Case Study Templates
It would help if you told customer success stories in a way that highlights their successes while subtly weaving in the fact that you helped them achieve those results.
If you’re looking to craft a compelling case study highlighting your client’s success, download case study templates. This will ensure your client’s success story is professional and that it’s as engaging as possible.
2. Figure out the objectives for your case study
Businesses often use case study reports to prove their value to potential customers. These can vary in purpose, however.
The first step to writing an effective case study is to figure out what your client wants to accomplish by its end. This should help you determine how you can best demonstrate how your services or products can help achieve that goal.
The objectives you will focus on for your client’s case studies depend on what you’d like to achieve.
The objective of this case is to study how a company was able to either comply with government regulations, lower their business cost, become more profitable, generate more sales, close on more clients, generate higher revenues, expand into a new marketplace, or become more eco-friendly.
3. Establish a medium.
Now, you’ll determine how you’ll tell the story. Will you write it, record it, or film it?
You don’t have to limit your case studies to a simple, single page. Use multiple forms of media, and your piece can be promoted on many different channels and platforms.
Posting your business case studies on different platforms is a great way to reach out to different people. For instance, you could post your written case study on your blog but make an infographic or video version to post to Pinterest or YouTube.
Here are some different ways that you can format your case study.
Writing a Case Study
Write this ebook and turn it into a PDF file.
Consider gating your case studies behind landing pages and forms. By collecting information from your lead, you can better tailor your pitch to them and increase your chances of converting them into a customer.
Video Case Study
Schedule an interview with your client. This will allow potential clients to see the service you provided to your subject and how it impacted them.
Infographic Case Study
Use an infographic to show a client’s success from bottom to top. As you move down the page, highlight your key performance indicators (KPIs) with larger text and charts that are more detailed.
Podcast Case Study
Podcasts allow you to connect with your audience members more personally. By sharing stories, tips, and advice, you can show that you’re more than just a company — you’re a person who cares.
4. Look for a case study candidate who is a good fit
Telling a story about your past work requires you to get permission from your client and get quotes from them. It would help if you also had a plan for the story.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when hiring a receptionist.
Product Knowledge
When hiring someone to make sales for you, make sure they know your product. This way, they can speak more intelligently to potential customers.
Impressive Results
Your best case study candidates have experienced the most success from using your service. If their businesses have experienced a lot of growth, they are more likely to be enthusiastic about telling others about it.
The next step is to find clients who experienced an unexpected benefit from your product.
By highlighting how you’ve helped customers from various industries, you can show your prospects that you can provide the same great results for them.
Recognizable Names
While smaller companies can have compelling stories to tell, larger or more well-known companies tend to have more credibility and help your business attract more customers.
89% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that they follow on social media than one they don’t.
5. Contact the candidate you’re writing about for permission
The most important thing is to ensure clear communication with your subjects when conducting case studies. This means that you should outline expectations, timelines, and deliverables from the start of the relationship.
Most importantly, you need to get your subject’s approval before moving forward. This is the key to ensuring a successful case study.
When contacting your prospect, let them know about the objectives of your business case studies and their format of them.
What benefits would your prospect get from participating in your study? Remember that your subjects are likely more interested in what they can gain than your company.
Here are 4 benefits you can offer a case study candidate.
Brand Exposure
Explain how you will promote this customer’s success story to their target market and how it can help their business gain recognition.
In the business-to-business (B2B) world, it can be hard for companies to build their brand outside of their markets, so using client testimonials and success stories can be a great way to build your brand.
Employee Exposure
Allowing your employees to be quoted with credit is a great way to get their names. This can also help your company’s brand expand.
Networking events can be a great way to expand your professional network. This is especially the case if you’ve never been to the event before.
Product Discount
Offering a tangible incentive to your interviewee is a great way to get them on board.
If the interviewee agrees to be your study’s subject matter, offer them a discount or a free trial of one of your other products as a thank you. This will show how much you appreciate their help in providing you with the information necessary to create an interesting and informative case study.
Website Traffic and backlinks
By publishing your business case studies and including a link back to the subject’s website, you can increase traffic to their website. This, in turn, helps them to rank more highly in search results and makes it easier for customers to find their business.
Backlinks from other websites increase your subject’s domain authority and improve their search engine rankings. This drives more organic traffic to their website and helps them collect more qualified visitors.
6. Make sure you have the materials you need for the next step once you get a response
Now that you’re ready to send your case study make sure you have the release form and the success story letter. Having these prepared ahead of time will ensure the Process goes smoothly if your prospect agrees.
Now, let’s break down these two.
Case Study Release Form
A Case Study Release Form is a document that gives a company or person permission to use your likeness and story in a case study. In return, you may receive compensation for your participation. The form should explain: -Why you are creating this -What you hope to achieve -What you will include -What you will ask the participant to do -What you will provide for compensation.
Success Story Letter
Other than explaining to the customer how participating in a case study will benefit them, you’ll also want to outline your steps in the success story letter.
7. Download an email template for the case study
While preparing your resources, your prospective client had time to read over your case studies. When your client agreed to your terms, it was time for you to send your final agreement.
A case study release form allows your subject to sign off on using their image and any brand names or products in your project.
Please start the process by sending your prospects an introductory email that outlines what you will be offering them and what they need to provide.
8. Explain the processes you’ll follow with the client throughout the project
Before starting the marketing case studies, you need an outline of the steps you’ll take with the client, including what information they’ll provide, what case study questions you’ll be asking, and what data you’ll need.
The Acceptance
You’ll need to get approval from your company’s marketing department before you can start making outbound sales. Once that’s done, you’ll need to sign and return a release form.
Both parties must agree on a timeframe that works best for them. This will ensure the project is completed in an efficient and timely manner.
The Questionnaire
To ensure that your interviewee provides useful information for the study, it’s helpful if they complete a pre-interview questionnaire.
That will give your sales team a solid foundation for organizing and conducting an interview.
The Interview
Once the interview is complete, you should reach out to the customer and schedule a 30- to 60-minute conversation with them. This discussion should address any questions about their overall experience with your company.
Draft Review
After writing your case study, could you send it to the customer for feedback? This gives them a chance to review the story and make necessary changes.
The Last Approval of Your Case Study
Please send it to them for approval once you have finished editing the first draft of the customer’s success story. This will ensure they are happy with the product and that no further revisions are needed.
Once the video is uploaded, it’s good to contact the customer with a link to the page.
Don’t forget to ask the participant to share the results with their networks, as it demonstrates your ability to produce outstanding outcomes and generate leads.
9. Make sure to ask the right case study questions
Before conducting an interview, make sure you prepare by drafting a list of questions. This will help you gather the information you need to write a strong, compelling case study.
Here are a few examples of how those might come across:
What are your goals? What challenges were you experiencing before purchasing our product or service? What made our product or service stand out against our competitors? What did your decision-making process look like? How have you benefited from using our product or service? (Where applicable, always ask for data.)
The Success Story Questionnaire is designed to help you better understand the type of questions to ask in an interview. When you reach the interview stage of your sales process, it’s important to ask open-ended questions that give the person you’re interviewing the opportunity to share as much detail as possible.
Asking open-ended questions is a simple way to start a conversation.
Start With the Client’s Business
What are the challenges the company is facing? How do they fit into their industry and market?
What are some of your latest achievements? What are your plans for the future? The company has employed a large number of people for many years. The goals of the marketing department are to increase productivity and increase efficiency. The company has enjoyed some success in the last few months but hopes to gain more in the next couple of years.
Mention the pain points
To sell effectively, you need to tell a story. That requires context, such as understanding your customer’s problem and how your Solution is the Solution.
Here are some sample questions to ask a prospect:
I was looking for a way to improve my productivity and organization. I had tried other methods, but they didn’t work out. I needed something to help me keep track of my tasks and priorities.
Explore the Decision making Process
Learning how your customers decided to work with you can help you better understand how to guide other potential customers through their decision-making processes.
What concerns or hesitations did you have, and how were they addressed? What other options did you consider? What made you ultimately choose to work with us? A few key factors guided the Decision to work with our company. First, we were referred by a trusted friend. Second, we were impressed by the professionalism of your team. And finally, we felt confident in your ability to deliver on your promises.
How was the Solution implemented?
This article focuses on the customer experience during the onboarding process. Questions to ask include:
Getting started is quick and easy. Just give us your name and an email address, and we’ll create an account for you. We’ll then send you an email with a link that you’ll need to click to activate it.
How does the Solution work?
This section is designed to help you better understand your customer’s experience with your product.
What specific tasks and processes are you using the product for? What features do you like the most?
Close With the Results
Here, you want to highlight the most impressive metrics you’ve achieved. Questions could include:
The Call Logic product has saved me time and increased my productivity. This has enabled me to increase my market share. I have improved my performance metrics by X.
10. Plan your format for the case study
When you’ve finished collecting all of your information, it can be easy to feel like you have too much. Where do you start?
What should you talk about? How do you go about structuring your call?
There is no single way to write a case study. Instead, it would help if you focused on presenting the information to make the most sense for your audience.
Images and videos are a huge part of social media marketing, and you’ll see that in some of the examples below.
While visual case studies are an effective way to present your findings, they should also include all of the relevant information that you’d find in a standard written report.
Whether it’s primarily a written or a visual case, we always recommend focusing on the following 7-step Process.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! We hope this case study has given you some insights into how to write a product case study that will grab attention and achieve great sales results. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.
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