Case studies are one of the best types of content to engage people with. Why? Because it breaks the bad B2B marketing habit of making everything about you. A well-written case study is about the customer, their issues, and how they solved a problem.
Case studies are one of the best types of content to engage people with. Why? Because it breaks the bad B2B marketing habit of making everything about you. A well-written case study is about the customer, their issues, and how they solved a problem.
In another article I wrote, Answer These 10 Questions To Reach Your Top Line Growth Goals, I asked the question:
Are you using content, like case studies and testimonials, to attract and engage prospects in person and online?
If the answer is no, then you should be. And I’m not the only person who thinks you so. You can check out this post to see what some of the industries leading experts (and me) think about case studies; you’ll also find some other great sales tips as well.
So why are case studies so important to reaching your 2019 top-line growth goals?
A big part of the answer is relevancy. Case studies, because they are about your prospects and customers, are relevant to your reader. And being relevant to your customers and leads is crucially important. Remember the following stat and step from this post, 5 Key Stats & 5 Critical Steps To Hit Your Top Line Targets:
Stat 2: 74% of buyers choose the company that is first to add value as they are defining their buying vision.
Step 2: Provide your B2B prospects with solution-based content like application stories, case studies, and white papers that help them do their jobs better.
Case studies add value and establish your relevancy. Case studies are also a versatile form of content. You can always get customer quotes as testimonials from any case study you create. These are great to add to your website, add to your email signature, and drop in other marketing materials.
And best of all, if you’re worried about creating a case study, a good case study need not be complicated. To create a case study you can follow this straightforward outline.
- What was the situation and problem?
- What was the solution provided?
- What were the results, the value received, how was the situation improved, and/or where did the customer get better?
OK, now you have a good case study what next?
Promote it! There are many ways to promote a good case study. Most notably, since, “social media is the number one activity on the internet,” case studies give you a great source of content, quotes, and inspiration for your social media accounts.
Here are a few promotion ideas:
- Blog it
- Tweet it
- Pin it
- Highlight it in an email/newsletter
- Add to LinkedIn updates for all of your employees
- Use it to pitch a story to an editor of an influential publication
- Share it with your sales team so they can use it as a lead in to open a door at a target prospect
- Give it to your inside sales team so they can share it the next time a similar prospect calls in
- Ask your CEO to email it to 5 peers as a way to ask for referrals
Think about it; a case study is just documenting the great work you are doing every day. If you train yourself to ask for them and build the expectation from your customers that you will be asking for them, then you will be on your way to creating great content that will help you achieve your 2019 top line revenue growth goals.
Topics: Marketing
