According to the latest 'State of Content Marketing Global Report 2022' by SemRush, case studies and success stories are a key part of successful web marketing campaigns for businesses around the world, sitting just behind corporate blogs in the top influence rankings at 38% of the most-used formats. It's for good reason. Success, happiness and social proof are key influential factors for deciding to purchase whether it is B2C or B2B . Let's face it, there's nothing better for a potential customer than learning about another happy customer that they can relate to. Think about it. When you've discovered a new product, do you check reviews, ask people, look for proof of its value and ability to do 'what it says on the tin'?
Yet, not all B2B organisations are utilising this key tool to assist moving prospects through their sales funnels. In this blog, we look at the benefits for your traffic and lead generation and how to make the most of re-purposing case study content for maximum impact.
10 Ways Case Studies Help You Generate Leads AND Sell
Storytelling is powerful. Humans have used stories to communicate and understand their world since the beginning of time. In business, stories help put your product or service into a context that relates to the customer and how it solves their problem. We all want something that solves our problems, right? We also don't just want to take the sales person's word for it. Just like a teenager will turn to their peers rather than their parent for certainty that they are making the right decision, B2B buyers will look for their peers, either in their industry, or someone who has been experiencing the same problem. Quite simply a real world example of success is more powerful and influential than all the well-crafted words that describe your product on your beautiful website. So, let's summarise that power;
Case studies provide social proof that your product or service exists and your customers are happy.
Case studies help promote your USPs and how you are different to your competitors, particularly if you have won that client from a competitor and they are willing to say it.
It provides a great way to simply illustrate how you solve client problems, how long it takes and the kind of return on investment they can expect (remember ROI is important as your customer will be thinking £ signs until the value of how your product or service solves their problem becomes more important than price).
You can go into more detail (and in a more interesting way) about how you solve customer problems than is possible on a generic product page.
Your business can demonstrate its expertise in key target markets by writing case studies that relate specifically to those industries.
You can shout about your successes such as the customer saved 10 days a month, reduced recruitment costs, or was able to produce a new product more quickly (or whatever your benefits are). Let's face it, are you more likely to enquire with that kind of proof?
Writing case studies provide a great relationship-building opportunity with your client as you can provide them with promotional opportunities off the back of the case study. Remember, they want to look good to their clients too.
Your sales team can use your success stories to help them bring new business across the line either using them in conversation, digital sales tools or as hard copy collateral they can share with customers.
Optimise back-links and SEO. Case studies present useful and relevant success stories to the problems your target clients key into Google. The more case studies you have, the more problems you solve, upping your relevance. Remember, in this longer-form copy, you also have a greater opportunity to strategically employ your most important keywords. Last but not least, a good relationship with your client means you can also generate back-links which will boost your SEO still further driving that traffic that then delivers leads.
And there's more...see below!
Plus...6 Ways You Can Boost Your Marketing ROI for Case Studies
If your content writer or marketing team is investing the time to generate these case studies, it makes sense to make the most of how you use your business content. Here are six ideas to start you off.
Social Media - create graphics or graphic videos of key quotes or statistics from your client success story for use across your social media channels. You can mix these with short text stories to intro them as well and link them to your full case study post.
Email footers - use customer quotes or statistics on your email footers.
Create PR stories around these successes, particularly if it's a new initiative.
Video - if your customer has time and is willing, video case studies are also compelling as everyone consumes and remembers content in different ways (some like to read, some like to watch).
Reflect the statistics in your product and service pages, e.g. 'find out how you can save x time producing...' and link to your case studies (Google loves internal links but humans are also attracted by statistics and proof).
Create a white paper that collates your related case studies and how you can solve your client/industry problems and make it a download from your website to capture leads.
The benefits of case studies are huge for your B2B marketing and moving your potential clients through the sales funnel. While they can be time-intensive for smaller marketing teams, they are well worth the investment. At a minimum any business needs to be sharing statistic-driven testimonials on their website and social media, however just testimonials will miss out on the influential (and emotional) benefits of the stories shared by longer success stories. To make it simple, it's a great idea to set out a framework of questions, as well as your objectives of the piece before you begin. By doing this, you can make sure you ask the right questions to help you tell the best story. If you don't have the resources in-house, it's well-worth asking a B2B content writer to help who can manage the process for you; with experience of doing the research and client interviews they can help you create powerful case studies more quickly.
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Using case studies but not sure if you are maximising opportunities? Perhaps you'd like to know how your content marketing messages and content look like from the outside-in? Claim a free content marketing review by completing the form below and I will send you a short video with observations and tips and ideas to pack more of a punch in your content marketing.
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