Marketing with Case Studies: How to Write and Use Business Case Studies for Marketing

By Ciaran Nagle

Previously published as The Art of the Case Study this edition of Marketing with Case Studies is revised and updated.
Marketing with Case Studies sets out by describing why case studies are the power tools of marketing.
It then explains how to write and format your case study and, most importantly, how to put it into marketing effect across the internet, social media, in print and everywhere else.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ciaran Nagle
• Release date: Apr 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301676569

Ciaran Nagle

Currently a marketer but with a background as an IT salesman (GE, Siebel etc) I love to write. Newsletters, web copy, case studies, presentations, PQQs, tenders etc I'm a husband and father and love history, cooking and reading. Currently reading 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' by David Mitchell. I was born in Dublin and live in Buckinghamshire, UK. You can hire me for any type of business writing or marketing project.

Book preview

Marketing with Case Studies

How to Write and Use

Business Case Studies for Marketing

Ciaran Nagle

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Ciaran Nagle

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One - Why a Case Study is the Most Powerful Marketing Document a Business Can Have

The central role of case studies in marketing

Chapter Two - Why Your Case Study Will Sell

Why most case studies don’t sell and why yours will.

Chapter Three - How To Research It

Researching the facts for your case study.

Chapter Four - Case Study Structure

A format to attract humans and search robots.

Chapter Five - How To Write It – Quick Version

One page summary, for those in a hurry.

Chapter Six - How To Write It – The Full Works

Title, summary, background, supplier profile, customer profile, problem, solution, result, quotes, research date, researcher name, approver names, industry, activity.

Chapter Seven - Video, Images, Logos

The all important visuals.

Chapter Eight - Search Engine Optimisation – Making Your Case Study Visible On The Internet

SEO Title, SEO Description, keywords.

Chapter Nine - How To Use Your Case Study

Internet, email, staff, mail shots, word of mouth, newsletters, social media, presentations, print.

Chapter Ten - The Bashful Client

When your customer is publicity shy.

Terminology Used in this eBook

Meet the Talent

The brilliant people who helped me write this eBook

About the Author

This eBook is dedicated to Gill for her astonishing patience and that way she has of winking at you when she’s happy.

Chapter One - Why a Case Study is the Most Powerful Marketing Document a Business Can Have

Thank you for buying my eBook, I truly hope that it will set you on the road to a more rewarding career personally as well as a more prosperous future for your company.

Let me begin by setting out what a case study is, why I am so passionate about them and why I believe they have a central role to play in the future of both online and traditional marketing.

What is a Business Case Study?

A business case study is a selling document. It's a description of a successful piece of work that a business has done for one of its customers. It tells the story of the Problem that the customer had, the Solution that the business implemented and the beneficial Results enjoyed by the customer at the end.

It hooks the reader's hunger for answers with a tantalising starter, feeds her several courses of bite-sized information for mains and finally satisfies her need for proof with a fact-filled dessert.

A case study is a sales tool, it shows potential customers that the business has done a great job for one customer and that it can certainly do the same for others.

A case study can be used in online or traditional marketing. As I'll show you below there are at least 17 different ways that you can use a case study to win customers. These range from the passive, an optimised web page casually trawling the web for customers - to the highly active, such as being the content of a conference presentation and then printed on paper to be given as a handout to delegates. Case studies can be used in social media and in major contract proposals. They help partners to refer you and they help existing customers to buy again. They win you friends and they confound your competitors. Their value is limitless.

But they have to be well made.

Pioneer

My passion for case study marketing is no doubt connected with the fact that that’s what my company Case Study Global does all day. We see the excitement among our clients' staff when they read the approved draft, before it's been sent to a single customer. Often it's the first time they have confirmation that they've done something good, that they've improved other people's lives. They knew it before, but now it's the client telling them, candidly and openly.

Then there's the heated debates about how the study is going to be used. Ideas come tumbling out like summer rain and management find themselves struggling to impose order on enthusiastic staffers. It's great to be part of a growth industry.

Why a Case Study is Special

A business case study goes beyond what any ordinary online article or offline brochure can do. Those types of publication, though worthy in their own way, are mere assertions of a company’s capabilities. They carry no weight.

An assertion is a statement or claim that is unsupported by any evidence. When someone publishes a page on their website describing a service that they provide, it is normally an assertion. It is a claim that they can do something for their clients. But there is no reason why anyone should believe it. It’s a weak claim.

First Major Benefit - Strength

But a case study is different. Almost always, a case study is a description of your work that is backed up by your client. It is evidenced fact that you have improved your client’s situation to their satisfaction. It shows you know your stuff and implies strongly that you can do wonderful things for others.

By its very nature of being approved and signed off by your customer, who is often named and quoted within the text, a case study is levitated out of