How to write a case study that actually works your professional services firm

Be honest, marketers: are you wasting your time on case study creation? B2B and professional services marketers agree almost unanimously that case studies are effective. But unfortunately, most companies fail to give their case studies the care and attention they need to be truly great. As a result, they end up with supremely yawn-worthy pieces that lose the reader before the first paragraph and fail to produce meaningful bottom line business results. It’s time to learn how to write a case study that moves the needle. [bctt tweet=”Most companies fail to give their #casestudies the care and attention they need to be truly great.” username=”prosperstrat”]

Effective case studies:

Tell a compelling story about how you helped a client
Make it easy for your prospects envision the same success for themselves
Build credibility for your services
Demystify complex work
Drive leads and help skeptical clients move down your sales funnel
Have a measurable impact on your sales process and outcomes

If your case studies fall short in any one of these areas, you have some work to do. But fear not, because we’re here to help.

Here’s how to write a case study that actually works for your professional services firm:

Map your goals

Don’t put forth the effort to create a case study until you know what you want it to achieve. Are you looking for more leads for a specific service offering that is currently flying under the radar? Do you want industry media coverage for a particularly successful client engagement? Are you hoping to get clients who are already considering working with you to feel confident moving forward? Once you have your specific goal in mind, you can decide which of your clients’ success stories is the right focus for your aim.

Select a story and discuss it with the subject

Your case study should focus on a client with a clear and compelling success story, preferably with strong data to back it up.

You’ll get a few bonus points for success stories that focus on a recognizable brand, and a few more for success stories in which your client was previously working with a competitor, but came to your firm for a better solution to their problem.

But before you do anything, make sure the client is enthusiastic and willing to participate in the case study development process. If they need a little encouragement to get on board, assure them that the feature will present them as innovative and forward-thinking, and that your case study promotion will give them additional exposure.

Once they’ve bought in, it’s time to interview them about your work together. Ask them how they felt about your engagement and about the difference your work made in their business.

Of course, you’ll already be familiar with much of this information due to your work on the project. But the goal of any case study interview is to get quotes that let the client tell the story. Their comments are so much more powerful than your own narrative, and the questions you ask can make a huge difference in the quality and effectiveness of quotes you receive. Download our list of 20 questions to ask in your next case study interview here. [bctt tweet=”The goal of any #casestudy interview is to get quotes that let the client tell the story.” username=”prosperstrat”]

Identify the problem, solution and clear results

After your interview, you should be crystal clear on the three buckets of information we always tell our clients to focus on when they ask us how to write a case study that works:

The problem: What was your client struggling with before you started working with them? Why did this problem matter? What would happen if they failed to solve it?

The solution: What did your firm do to help your client overcome that problem? How does that solution speak to your firm’s strengths, processes or way of thinking?

Results: What measurable outcomes did your client experience as a result of implementing your solution? What numbers can you share to back up those results?

Take notes about the key points you want to emphasize within each of those three buckets, as well as the quotes, examples and supporting data you might use to strengthen your narrative.

Choose your format

If this is the first time you’ve truly explored how to write a case study that gets results, you probably have questions about format. Should your case studies be standalone pages on your website? Downloadable PDFs? Printed pieces? Some combination of the three?

The short answer? It depends on your audience and your goals.

Many of the most compelling case studies we’ve worked on take a multi-media approach, with an engaging, interactive web version prospects can discover themselves accompanied by a visually appealing PDF or print version that can be emailed or shared with other collateral during a sales meeting.

The “Problem → Solution → Results” narrative should work its way into your case study in some way, but don’t feel constrained by that format. You might find that brief snapshots of data or a journalistic style works best for your story and your audience, so feel free to explore. Just keep in mind that the most effective case studies feature a variety of media like photos, videos, interactive graphics and charts and use an intuitive flow to keep the audience moving through the piece.

Tell your story

It’s finally time to write.

Emotion and relatability are key for keeping your audience engaged with your case study. Through every part of the story––the beginning, middle and end––be sure you’re making a connection with your audience. And because you’re reading this blog, it’s fair to assume you’re driving meaningful change and making an impact that extends beyond the bottom line. Make sure that impact is apparent through every part of your story.

Beginning

Introduce the subject company and discuss what makes them special or interesting. Like any good story, your case study should feature compelling characters. Don’t overlook the importance of helping the audience get to know the leaders and staff at the company featured in your case study. Then, touch on their challenges and goals and frame them in a way that seems familiar to the reader. If they relate to the problem, you’ll hold them through the piece.

Middle

This is where your firm comes in. Use your client’s quotes as well as supporting data and examples to illustrate how you solved their problems or helped them achieve their goals. Make it clear why you were the best firm for the job.

End

Now, talk about the results. Hard numbers are the best way to demonstrate your impact because they’re indisputable and easy to digest. They can also serve as the basis for powerful visuals that pull readers through your case study. How much money did you help your client save? How much waste did you help them eliminate? How much did their revenue grow as a result of your work? Your case study should prominently feature numbers that answer questions like these.

Make sure to tie the narrative back to how your client felt as a result of your services. Data is crucial, but emotion is still king. And finally, when you close out your case study, make sure you and drive home the point that your firm can help the reader realize the same sorts of results in their business. [bctt tweet=”Emotion and relatability are key for keeping your audience engaged with your #casestudy” username=”prosperstrat”]

And that’s it. That’s how to write a case study.

Get your story out there

You probably started reading this post because you wanted to learn how to write a case study, but learning how to promote one is just as important. Even the most artfully crafted case studies will have little impact if you fail to get them in front of the right audience.

One effective method for sharing your case study is a “bite, snack, meal” format. Give your audience a taste of the case study to entice them with an e-blast or a social post. Then deliver the snack: a long-form email or a blog post previewing the story and ending with a cliffhanger that makes the audience want to keep reading. Then, they’ll be ready for the main course: the case study itself. [bctt tweet=”Try the bite-snack-meal format for sharing your #casestudy.” username=”@prosperstrat”]

You might also work with content partners to get your case study in front of a larger audience. Are there websites, magazines or other media outlets that your target case study audience frequents? Consider partnering with them to distribute your case study to a segment of their database via a dedicated e-blast. For example, an HR firm might partner with sites like HR Dive or SHRM, while a law firm might partner with sites like Above the Law and The Lawyerist.

If you plan to simply share your case study with your existing contacts, it might make sense to make it publicly available for all to download. But if you want to use your case study as a lead generation tool and invest in content partnerships, it likely makes sense to gate it behind a form wall so that those who want to read it have to enter their contact information to gain access. Once you have a few case studies completed, you should also consider creating a library on your website so stakeholders can easily access all of them in one place.

Track your results

Now that you’ve put in all of this work, make sure you have the tools in place for tracking your case study’s performance. Use Google Analytics (see site content > content drill down) to monitor metrics like pageviews and time spent on the page.

You can also monitor the sources of case study views and downloads by creating unique Google tracking links for each potential source. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot and Pardot can help you go even deeper. They make it easy to understand not only where your case study views come from, but also which sources are most likely to contribute case study visitors that eventually convert into viable leads and opportunities for your firm.

Learning how to write a case study is a futile process if you don’t know how to measure its results.

During every step in this process, ask yourself: “If I were in my audience’s shoes, would I care?” You might have a case study that’s well-written, rich with quotes and data and effectively tracked through Google Analytics and marketing automation, but unless you’ve found a way to truly resonate with your stakeholders, nothing else matters. Of all the tips we’ve provided on how to write a case study that gets results, nothing is more important than getting qualified prospects to care enough to contact your firm. [bctt tweet=”Nothing is more important than getting qualified prospects to care enough to contact your firm.” username=”Prosperstrat”]