Case studies can help companies and brand owners gain better trust with customers. The type of content that case studies provide is highly informative and useful to be used.
In a lot of cases, case studies are used as references for best practices based on past experience.
This is very helpful and can be very targeted as well.
Making case studies work for your campaign
With case studies, marketers can bridge the gap between themselves and their customers closer.
The content that comes with case studies is very much similar to testimonials in which actual accounts from past customers are extremely helpful for the business to demonstrate their reliability.
Through case studies, organizations publish testimonials on how they have successfully helped some customers achieve their objectives. This can be, for instance, a customer who gives his account of how he successfully purchased the car at the price he could afford to pay using the platform provided by the organization.
Customized content in case studies
The type of content published in case studies can be very specific to a certain company. They usually provide very positive remarks from past customers about their experience.
Hence, case studies can be very customized. In some cases, they can also be tailor-made to be intended for a certain target audience group.
They are most suitable to be used at the bottom or middle part of your sales funnel, a tool that can influence the customer’s decision-making in the later stage.
In other words, case studies will help very much at the stage where you are trying to convert leads to potential purchases. Customers exposed to contents from case studies will then be highly likely to have a positive impression of your company which could then potentially influence their purchasing decision towards the end.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hWobNEmy08
The impact of case studies in your campaign
Case studies are used differently compared to the other forms of published material like whitepapers in marketing or copies in advertising. Case studies are more focused and definitely more niche as they report on a very specific area. Hence, using case studies for your marketing efforts will take careful planning and strategizing.
That said, when used correctly and effectively, case studies can be highly impactful. According to a recent survey, it was found that B2B businesses find case studies to be among the most influential among all other types of published material.
It must also be noted that case studies today come in other formats besides the usual PDF files. Some more innovative campaigns publish case studies on the company’s home page while others even use them in a video form and then published in their YouTube channel. When you have an audience or viewer who is interested in knowing something your customer enjoyed when using your product or service, you are able to generate interest that is strong enough for conversion in the near future.
Effective ways case studies are used in marketing
In any marketing campaign, visibility is always crucial. It is a constant struggle among marketers to maximize their marketing budget in garnering as many views as possible within the right target audience which will form the underlying basis of the actions implemented. With case studies, the challenge here is similar and they can be used effectively when they are:
- Showcased in prominent locations – The most obvious option here is your homepage. According to a recent survey, it was found that almost 60% of customers who read case studies or testimonials on the home page are more likely to end up buying from the platform. Since the homepage is the first page that visitors come to, it makes perfect sense to provide evidence from past customers on why your products are as good as you say.
- A dedicated page – The case study or testimonials on your home page would be the most compelling one you have in your library. You would most likely have a lot more in your collection. Dedicate a page on your website like ‘What our customers say’ or ‘Our Happy Customers’. This is where visitors will click in to read more about other case studies to reinforce their conviction to purchase from you.
- Video case studies – The common perception of case studies is that they are mostly text-based documents published either on the webpage or in PDF format. Start converting these conventional forms into videos as they are definitely more powerful and engaging. While you want to maintain certain case studies in their actual form, start with a few video case studies. This is because this content needs more effort in production like interviewing the customer, shooting the video, editing, and other features.
- Use it as a sales tool – Customer stories are very good sales material. Research has shown that sales teams enjoy an increase of 70% in closing ratio when they use customer case studies. As such, providing the case studies (whether as a stand-alone document or access to the site where the case study can be viewed) will be a powerful weapon for your sales team.
