Is Case Study Marketing a part of your marketing mix? If yes, is it working for you?

Case Study Marketing is one of the most powerful lead generators in a marketer’s toolkit. Applies true for B2B marketers marketing complex and technical products and services. So, what goes wrong?

Before that, let us look why Case Study Marketing clicks in a big way:

1. Identification of a common pain point or a challenge.
2. Glimpse into what strategy the marketer used to solve a problem or a challenge.
3. The results are announced now and then. You know it worked for someone.
4. Case Studies get upward mobility and reach the decision makers if the cases happen to solve similar headaches.
5. Case Studies communicate that the company solved specific problems effectively and that the company can solve a similar problem for you.

Coming back to why case study marketing fails, here are the typical 5 mistakes committed by either your internal marketing team or your outsourced marketing partner:

     1. Entertaining Quotient:

Get out of the old mindset that case studies are hard-nosed business writing. Yes, agreed that in B2B marketing business tone is important. But business tone need not be dull and dry. Don’t lose your reader in the first paragraph. Now, go and read some of the case studies posted in your website and evaluate the ‘EQ’ – entertaining quotient for yourself.

2. It’s Results Stupid:

Tons and tons of plain English words will not make your case study marketing powerful. It is the structure and flow of information. Entice the reader with an identical challenge or a pain point. Take forward the momentum with generous dosage of content on your problem-solving strategy or tactic. Give credible and supporting evidences to prove your case. And finally, illustrate the result in terms of numbers - savings in dollars, time or manpower! Avoid concluding that, “the customer chose our solution and they are successful and happy.”

      3. Permission is Key:

You don’t have the right to publish your client’s challenges or the results achieved without written permission from them. There are no short cuts here. If you try to overstep this important rule, you might end up losing your customer and tarnishing your reputation.

      4. Right Permission:

Be sure you have got it from the right person in your customer’s organization. Corporate Communication holds responsibility for such requirements in big companies. In a SMB, ideally get it from one of top management executives.

      5. Don’t Surprise your customer:

Well, you got the permission to use your customer’s name and technical details in the case study. But ensure that your customer has a say in the case study in terms of quotes, technical inputs and results. If your customer is a public company, they may have valid and legal requirements for withholding a few sensitive data. So, get a written permission from the right person before you do case study syndication.