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Case studies are true stories, and true stories communicate credibility. They help readers understand how a product or service works in a real setting. Case studies validate solutions by going into specifics and providing details about a customer’s experience. When you write a case study, you tell a story that helps people imagine scenarios-and they are moved to act as a result.
We humans love to hear about other people, and we often look to others to help us decide what to do. Narratives are most powerful when we read about people like us. Stories can build trust, increase sales, and shorten the sales cycle.
Take the example of a company in Singapore that develops business software for managing human resources, customer relationships, and accounting. Its customers frequently asked for customizations, so it decided to build an application with ready-made modules that could be customized by anyone. It hosted the application in the cloud in a way that was reliable, highly available, and scaled on demand. Other software vendors in the same market space will want to know how the Singaporean company solved its challenge. A case study can provide the answers.
In another cloud success story, an online ticketing company needed to ramp up its technology to be able to sell 150,000 tickets in a few hours in order to handle traffic for a large music festival for a marquee customer. Before, its best record was selling 2,000 tickets in two hours, so it had a long way to go. It implemented a cloud solution that used sharding technology to distribute the ticketing data across multiple database servers-and sold 150,000 tickets in 10 seconds. The CTO described the technology as a “windfall” for the company. That’s a pretty compelling result and an example of how a product or service can completely alter a business model. Readers will want to know the details of the story.
The structure of a case study gives you an excellent framework for capturing the elements of a customer’s story. The three main sections are designed to contain the classic narrative arc and tell the age-old story of the hero: People meet with challenges to overcome, find solutions, and ultimately triumph.
- Challenge. Describe the customer’s circumstances. Every customer has challenges to address, or it wouldn’t be shopping around for solutions. For example, a customer might be looking to lower costs, bolster data security, or expand revenue opportunities. It’s especially important to start the narrative in this section. This is where you draw the reader into the story. Use details and revealing quotes. Keep in mind that although people work in a variety of organizations, they are ultimately seeking the same kinds of things-like innovation, profit, competitive differentiation, and success.
- Implementation. Provide information on how the customer met its challenges by using a product or service. This section is the heart of the case study, and can be the most exacting to write. Every customer uses a product or service in a different way and it’s your job to record the specifics of the solution, including any custom deployment details or workarounds. Keep in mind that the customer—and not the solution—is the hero of the story. Avoid constructions such as, “The product made it possible for Company A to sell 150,000 tickets in 10 seconds.” Instead, write, “Company A used the product’s sharding capabilities to scale beyond what a single database could provide.”
- Results. Summarize the advantages that the customer gained by using the product or service. Start with a summary of all results and provide a compelling general quote that speaks to the solution’s overall value. Then give each individual benefit a heading and describe the proof points for each result. This is where you can use metrics related to results, such as productivity improvements, cost savings, improved profits, or increased revenue opportunities.
When writing a case study, keep in mind that your job is to make abstract concepts—such as how a product or service works—concrete and comprehensible. To build credibility, rely on a high level of detail, which helps make prose more convincing. To get readers engaged in an emotional way, provide specifics. Think of case study writing as one step away from journalism. You are the storyteller with a human interest piece to write, and that story is true. It’s honest labor, and it’s fun.
Excellent description of the components of a memorable customer story, Molly. I couldn’t agree more on the importance of metrics in making case studies come to life.
Great blog Molly! Thought about metrics – would they be as compelling if they were expressed in word form? “Company A sold one hundred and fifty thousand tickets in ten seconds” Is there something about a number within a text that draws our eye and makes it compelling, even before we’ve put it in context? If so, how important is context? Could we just put quotes/ metrics out there for potential customers to read? That is actually something that is suggested, so not a purely provocative question. Thanks!
Hey David, When you ask that question, I think about the top ten list on Letterman and magazine covers. I used to work in magazines and it’s well known that covers that include numbers (“Top 25 Weekend Getaways in the Pacific Northwest”) sell more at the newsstand. I don’t think you’ll find too many numbers expressed in word form because most style guides have you spell out one through nine, ten, or twelve–and then use the digits for all the rest. Case studies are designed to have information that can be easily adapted for standalone use. These elements include the headline, sidebar information, introductory summary, and pull quotes. Thanks for asking!
Hey Molly. This is a great Case-Study 101 for writers, with plenty of insights for other participants in the case-study production process (project managers, clients, account managers, etc).
RE David’s comment, I think it makes a great deal of sense to pack case studies with the kinds of metrics and quotes (especially metrics IN quotes!) that can be easily used in shorter formats. But I have to agree with one of your central points: backing up those quotes and metrics with carefully layered detail and personal experience is what gives case studies credibility and applicability, the most valuable coins of the customer-evidence realm.
And of course as a writer I want to defend the notion that good stories are usually more (and more effective) than the sum of their high-lights. It’s one thing to know that the CIO at A Corp says he trimmed $100,000 from his IT budget with Solution X. It certainly gets my attention. But how does his company and situation compare to mine? It worked for him, but will Solution X fit my needs? Good case studies provide the answers.
Thanks Ramon! I think that is key – customers really want to read about situations that are similar to theirs, so it is all about context.
I can imagine a situation where metrics might start a conversation, but the next stage would be “Excellent – can you share a case study with me that’s closer to my situation?” or “Can you connect me with a CIO in my industry AND region with an existing implementation?”.
Metrics grab attention and start conversations – context furthers the conversation and closes the deal.
That’s why I think our idea of ‘case study kits’ is a great one – you get the full information of the case study, but also find it repurposed in collateral that is appropriate to different stages of the sales cycle.