3 Steps to Generating Quality Case Studies

The need for quality case studies has never been more important then it is right now. B2B companies everywhere are encountering more and more competition to earn the business and attention from their prospects and even current clients. The business they are pursuing are evaluating the products and services they're selling and making buying decisions based more and more on the research they have access to as well as the knowledge they can learn from others past successes.

To win prospects, you need to be able to show quality examples of how others use your product or service and not only have a good experience, but also see a significant return on investment. However, as much as this might seem obvious, we find that many companies don't have many of these case studies—or the ones they have are old and no longer relevant. Managers know this is a problem, and as much as they want these case studies or success stories, they either don't know where to start or don't know how to get the information needed.

Never fear! If you are delighting your customers, then you have the ability to generate case studies and success stories. 

Here are 3 steps you can take to make writing quality case studies easier.

1. Send out an email to your best clients asking them if they would be interested in being featured on your blog or your website as a company that is delivering tremendous results and seeing a great deal of success—because of, or as a result of, the product or service that your company delivers. 

2. Remember to thank every client that responds. Then, for those who agree to be featured, congratulate them on their success and ask them to fill out a very brief questionnaire about the success they are having and how your products or services are playing a role.

3. Select the few that you think are the best candidates and set a time to call them to conduct a phone interview. Make sure to have your questions prepared in advance and feel free to send them to your client ahead of the call so they can have some time to prepare their answers. The interview should give you everything you need to include in the case study. When designing your case study, we recommend that you use this format: The Problem, The Process, The Plan and The Performance. This sort of consistent approach will make it easy for the end user to consume the information. Be sure to show your clients the case studies in advance before you publish them on your blog or website. 

Using these three steps, you will start to produce case studies that are relevant. Using the consistent format will make updating these easier and allow for a larger success library to be formed.