Case Studies: Great for PR & Great for Response

Case studies are nothing new. Companies have been using them for years as a way to showcase their accomplishments and sell their products and services to prospective new customers. More objective than a testimonial, in which a person is quoted saying something positive about a company, and less cumbersome than a “white paper,” a technical document providing researchers with detailed information about products or services, case studies are the perfect vehicle through which to try to get your company some free publicity.

Lately, case studies are popping up all over the Internet and filling up needed newsletter content. (If you missed the tip from two weeks ago in which we offered our case studies by auto- responder, you can still receive them by sending a blank email to mailto:performance-webadvantagetips@nova.sparklist.com.) Case studies’ growing popularity is, in part because — lo and behold — people actually learn from them! As such, case studies tend to be more well read than just general articles, especially in these leaner times of Internet marketeering.

What does this mean to you? For starters, case studies are a great way for you to get your company in the news. The beautiful thing about case studies being published on the Internet is that they almost always include a link through to your web site, which means more traffic to you! Additionally, since case studies supply legitimate, successful results, they also tend to generate equally strong response rates. Case studies also have terrific “pass along” value, in that they get forwarded to colleagues and friends more often. Getting your case study published is pretty much a win-win all the way around.

So, for those of you not familiar with writing succinct, strong case studies, we thought a mini-course would do you good.

What Makes A Great Case Study?

Short & Simple
Case studies provide more facts, numbers and statistics than simple “success stories.” In my opinion, great case studies are not those that drone on interminably with too many numbers and statistics, but rather, just enough to get the point across to the reader and to make it’s case for being legitimate.

Define the Situation
Case studies usually begin by defining the situation or problem to overcome and the criteria within which the company had to work. That sets the “baseline” from which you will show your success.

Describe the Plan of Action
Here’s where you’re getting into the meat and potatoes of reader interest. You’ll want to describe just what you had planned and *why* you planned on doing it this way (did it target a new audience? employ a new tactic? save money? test a theory?).

Explain the Process
Next you’ll want to explain how you went about the implementation of your plan. This step is important to because the details you provide here are likely to help others in doing the same thing themselves, and make your case study more valuable to them.

Highlight the Results
The grande finale! Without strong results, you better not even be writing this case study. Be sure to put results in terms people can identify with: you saved X dollars, grew sales by Y%, generated Z more visitors, etc., etc.

As for all of you now chomping at the bit to see a case study live (and a site that does a *great* job publishing case studies, I might add) go to Consumer Marketing Business . One point of note: although the original case study provided far more detailed information, the published version was edited. Editing happens often, so as long as the publisher’s don’t screw up your facts, you should be prepared for some alterations of your original pieces.

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