Creating compelling case studies
Compelling case studies demonstrating your capability, proposition, and ability to deliver value for your clients are critical to marketing your business and winning new work.
Case studies can also be repurposed to promote your business in multiple ways; promotional content for your website and social media, support materials for your sales/business development team (if you have one), and - for businesses bidding for new work and contracts - will often be an essential requirement as part of a tendering process.
Yet many businesses struggle to find the time to capture the right information frequently, missing the opportunity to promote and evidence the great work they do for their clients.
Here is a short guide from the team at Stephen Alexander on how to approach creating compelling case studies.
Get a process in place
Not the most exciting of steps to start with - however, having a process in place will help you to embed the discipline needed to regularly capture the right case studies and to strategically select the best examples of the work you do. You don’t need to create an overly complicated process to do this. Some of the steps could include:
Start by creating a simple table (Excel can work well for this as you can search and add filters to the document) and include the headings that are important for your business to describe the work you do for clients and the value you deliver.
Build a step into your client servicing process to capture the wording to describe what you have done and at the same time request a quote from the client and, if appropriate, a copy of their logo.
Ensure someone in your business has responsibility for producing and publishing the case study (if it is one you want to actively promote) to add it to your website and social media channels.
Follow a structure in your write up
To help you in creating an efficient process to write your case studies it is important to follow a structure. Start by defining the headings that best describe what you do for clients. For example, typical headings might include:
Background on your client’s business
The opportunity/issues/pain points for them
What you did do to help your client overcome the issues
The outcome
A quote from the client
Tell the story
When writing a case study remember to include the story you want to tell. What were the barriers or the challenges to overcome? How did you help your client overcome them? To do this you can look at the typical components of any story which should have a beginning, middle, and end. It’s also important to profile your people here. Name them where you can and what their specialist skills and experience look like and how they helped your clients achieve what you delivered.
Be clear about the value you delivered and, where possible, include data and tangible results
A compelling case study demonstrates clearly where you add value to the situation, solve a problem, or overcome a challenge. The clearer you can be about the value you have delivered the stronger it will be. And where possible if you can back this up by quantifying the value you have created, or perhaps money you have saved a business, your case study will be all the better for it.
Select the case studies that align with your key areas for growth
Ultimately you want your case studies to provide evidence to prospective clients that you can solve their problems or help them to achieve their goals. There will of course be some case studies that easily jump out given the strength of your relationship with the client or the quality of the results your team has delivered. To help you select the right case studies, you may want to refer to your business plan or look at the areas you want to grow in as a business. Is there a particular sector you want to target and grow in? What type of work do you want to win? Have you already done this type of work in some or similar areas?
Need help with your case studies? Get in touch
We work with a range of different businesses to help them win new work, providing expert support and advice on bids, marketing, and business development.
If you need support in making the most of your marketing and developing your approach to your case studies, get in touch with our marketing and communications expert Alex Footman.