Case studies represent an opportunity for companies to present potential customers with a real-world story of how their products and services helped an actual customer solve a common industry-wide problem.
Whether the customer’s positive outcome involved greater revenue, lower costs, or happier clinicians and patients, a case study enables companies to move beyond talk with prospects to action – as in, “If you take the same action as our customer did, you, too, can overcome the barriers that have been holding you back from accomplishing your objectives.”
Potential customers want to be reassured that they are hiring a vendor that has experience helping companies like them surmount obstacles like those that they currently face. A well-written case study will accomplish just that.
At its most basic level, a case study follows the familiar story arc of “problem – solution – results,” but there’s more to it than that. Here are three must-haves to build better case studies:
Quantified results: The surest way to kill the potential of a strong case study is to include unimpressive or vaguely worded results that fail to clearly illustrate the value of adopting a new solution. Solid case studies require data to demonstrate the improvement of key metrics. While some customers may be understandably reluctant to publicly share hard dollar amounts, many will be more comfortable stating percentage increases or decreases, such as, “reduced costs 10% in the first year of implementation.”
What’s next: It’s easy to remember that a case study highlights what a customer accomplished after adopting new technology, but one less obvious element to include involves next steps. Now that the customer has taken care of its most pressing issues, what are their plans for the future? While it may seem like a small point, including next steps can help potential customers envision a long-term strategy around your product.
The customer’s own words: A customer’s own description of a solution’s impact will always carry more weight than what a vendor says about its own products. Interview some end-users to obtain quotes and insights that detail the difference your product made for them – once again with an eye toward obtaining quantifiable measures.
Case studies can be effective tools for nudging prospects and customers along the next steps of the buyer journey. To maximize their value, be sure to include quantified results, what’s next, and the customer’s own words.