As a business owner, it’s important to continuously generate content that uplifts your brand, products and services.
There are different ways you can showcase your customer’s experience, either by leveraging your customer reviews or by using case studies. Unlike customer reviews where content is typically created by the customer, case studies are facilitated and conducted internally, either by your marketing team or a partnered content agency.
Case studies are in-depth customer stories. These stories explain how your business resolved key pain points of a customer and why they decided to choose your brand instead of your competitors.
What is a Case Study?
Case studies are similar to testimonials in that they give an account of a customer’s experience with the brand.
While testimonials are basic interviews that function as positive reviews, case studies are more in-depth and illustrate the entire customer experience from beginning to end.
By illustrating the buyer journey and how your business met the customer’s needs, it allows for an element of storytelling that’s much more engaging and informative.
Case studies also include quantitative data and infographics to compare the difference before and after the customer started using your products and services.
A great case study engages prospective clients and builds trust in your brand. It boosts confidence and educates prospective customers on how to solve their problems, with your help.
5 Reasons Your Brand Needs Case Studies
There’s no stronger marketing material than social proof.
And social proof in the form of case studies lets small businesses showcase their brand in a way that’s comprehensive, relatable and quantifiable to prospective customers.
If you’re still not convinced, here are five reasons your brand should use case studies:
1. Case Studies are Niche-specific Content
Case studies are considered niche-specific content because they discuss your brand exclusively.
Depending on what you want to highlight, each case study hones in on a specific goal you’re offering. It’s going to resonate with your target audience because you’re tapping into their pain points by presenting what existing customers have gone through.
Case studies are a strong, persuasive tool that shows prospective customers why they should work with you, straight from another customer.
Case studies clearly show the value proposition of the products and services you offer and also demonstrate how each client benefited.
Hubspot highlights 28 case study examples from companies ranging from furniture goods to video gaming companies that showcase how these companies have helped clients achieve success.
2. Case Studies Allow You to Generate Authentic, Positive Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where we see behaviour as more correct if others are doing it. In situations where we are uncertain about what to do, we would usually mimic the behaviours of people around us.
Social proof was popularised way before the internet but has now become more empowered by today’s digital connection. Over 93% of online shoppers rely on customer reviews when researching online retailers before making a purchase.
Popular forms of social proof include testimonials, reviews and ratings. Case studies are also a form of social proof but go much further in-depth into a customer’s experience.
Online marketing requires short, attention-grabbing snippets of footage, so you can repurpose sections of your case study into different types of content. These snippets can be used on social media, as quote cards or short video clips featuring customers and soundbites from an interview.
Social proof is always authentic as they’re generated by the customer. They’re always positive since they showcase the success of a customer’s experience after using your services.
Case studies are authentic since the customer is greatly involved in the telling of their experience. Your marketing team or partnered content agency creates the end result to add flair and infographics to really bring the story to life.
3. Case Studies Explain How your Brand Solves Customer Pain Points
Because case studies highlight the entire customer journey, they give potential customers a clear understanding of how your business provides solutions to specific problems.
Case studies discuss the whole process of how your products and services work, and how the customers benefited from them.
Learning from the personal experiences of existing customers informs a potential customer’s decision in purchasing your product or service.
By using statistics and quantitative data, success can be charted in both the short and long term.
So, you don’t get just general statements, like ‘This company helped us a lot!’ You see actual change through numbers and figures and see a trajectory.
Showing the success a client has received, provides a better picture for potential customers on how they can get the same results for the same pain points that they’re experiencing.
4. Case Studies Strengthen Customer Relationships
Creating case studies is a good opportunity to reconnect and strengthen relationships with your existing customers. They’re the hero of the case study and will be greatly involved in the production process of the content.
You have the chance to catch up with your customers and get to know how they’re doing. This can further build customer loyalty and trust while keeping your business front of mind.
Creating several case studies about different clients will not only showcase the varying products and services you have to offer but also allows you to build a brand community.
A brand community consists of loyal customers that follow your online presence, particularly on your social media platforms.
Brand communities promote your business by doing things such as liking, commenting, or hashtagging your business.
5. Case Studies Position You as an Industry Expert
Case studies allow you to highlight the unique strengths of your business through the accounts of your existing customers.
Using data and statistics to support your claims will further strengthen your brand credibility and trustworthiness.
Businesses can position themselves as industry experts by showing concrete evidence and examples of how they’ve solved customer pain points.
Having your brand community will also help position your business as an industry expert, as loyal customers may share their case studies on online forums or social media.
70% of marketers have used brand communities to advertise their products and participants also rated brand communities a nine out of 10 in importance for digital marketing campaigns.
Case studies are essentially success stories of how your business is able to help and add value to a client.
These stories are in-depth, engaging and data-based and showcase your products and services in action. This is a great endorsement of your brand and a testament to what you have to offer.
As a league of experienced storytellers, we can help you create impactful case studies. Contact us and we’ll help you through the creation process.
