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How to Write a Case Study Brief
When creating a case study, a solid brief makes a world of difference. Whether you’re collaborating with writers and videographers on the project or DIY-ing things, a brief encourages you to carefully think through the context, priorities, and goals you have for the piece. But filling out a detailed case study brief can also be daunting. Especially if you’re not clear on how to use the brief to guide things. To help you understand what makes a brief brilliant, and...
How to Get Your Sales and CSM Teams to Help With Case Studies
How do you get your sales and customer success managers to help with case studies? “We need to get more case studies done, but the sales/accounts team is over-protective, unresponsive, and won’t help!” I often hear this complaint from marketing and customer marketing teams who are tasked with producing case studies at scale, but are getting stonewalled by other internal teams. If other internal teams won’t help with surfacing customer stories or helping with reference programs, it’s a huge problem:...
How to Avoid Common Case Study Mistakes
A quick survey of customer case studies that exist in the wild reveals that not all of them are created equal. Many of them don’t do justice to what was (undoubtedly) an amazing client success story. Sadly, the power of that success story is lost in the telling, which is a real shame—and a major lost opportunity. Where do these case studies go wrong? Often by committing one (or more) of four common case study mistakes. Here’s how to avoid...
How to Drive Curiosity—and Conversions—With Your Customer Case Study
We’re all surrounded by marketing content. It’s everywhere—in our social feeds, email inbox, Google searches, YouTube channels, etc. Within this deluge of advertising and information, how can you stand out and capture the eyeballs of your target audience? What will stop them in their tracks and spur them to connect with you? Often, the solution lies in a subtle marketing concept: the curiosity gap. What the heck is a curiosity gap? In marketing, a curiosity gap is a persuasion technique...
How to Use Case Studies for SEO
Customer case studies are the most versatile marketing asset you can have. And that versatility even extends to adding extra juice to your SEO. Because you can use case studies—and the inputs, outputs, and byproducts of the case study creation process (such as social media cards, video testimonials, audiograms)— to attract new eyeballs online through thoughtful SEO practices. (For more specifics on how to implement SEO strategies and practices, check out these resources from Moz.) Here are just some of...
How to Create Remote Video Testimonials and Avoid Common Pitfalls
Getting a great remote video testimonial takes a whole lot more than just firing up Zoom and pressing “record.” If only it were so easy! If you want a quality final product, here are just a few of the things you need to think about: Capture quality Lighting Framing Audio B-roll Tech troubleshooting Setting Captions and graphics Interview logistics Interviews 1. Capture quality Zoom (and most video platforms) will compress the heck out of everything they touch and make it...
How to Create Case Study Assets and Build a Winning Team
A deep, context-rich 1,500-word case study chalk full of customer quotes is GREAT…until it’s terrible. Because if you start rattling through that bad boy on a live call, your prospect is going to tune out. You’ve got the right idea, but you’ve chosen the wrong format. You need to deploy the right asset for the right situation. It’s the same in baseball. You can’t build a winning team with a roster that only includes left fielders, pitchers, or catchers. You need...
Who Should Conduct Case Study Interviews
A successful case study interview requires more than just a great question set. After all, you only have 30-60 minutes to capture a deep level of detail from the customer that will inform a strategic story. If you waste time rattling off questions like a robot, you’ll only get surface-level responses and miss the deeper story. Here’s what can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing: You can easily miss the deeper, more strategic story Your customer will hold...
How to Choose the Right Person for a Video Testimonial
You have a customer success story you’re ready to share with the world with a video testimonial, a written case study, and social media graphics. But first, you have to decide whom to interview. Sometimes the answer is straightforward. But when a project is complex, involving multiple teams and people, whom should you ask to participate? Should you go with the CEO? The head of the most relevant department? The head of the team? Someone involved in the hands-on implementation? Here...