When reading any kind of online material, one thing that people crave is actionable steps that will help them accomplish their goals. Case studies are the embodiment of that idea. They serve as step-by-step guides, taking someone from a problem to its resolution.
And they’re incredibly addicting to read, as long as they focus on the story rather than the product or service itself. It’s a form of guerrilla marketing that sells to people without their awareness, which also makes it a prime candidate for “going viral” » as well.
Case studies work great at any stage of the marketing funnel, but especially well in the middle or bottom stage. They’re not designed to introduce who you are as much as what your brand can do for someone.
For this reason, case studies don’t actually have to be that long. Where most forms of quality content need to be longer to keep eyeballs on the page, case studies can be a thousand words or less (depending on the situation). They’re highly branded, so you’ll receive traffic from that source, but they can also send referral traffic if you include them in an email automation sequence.
Ultimately though, case studies are all about the transformation of a company from point A to point B. The individual pain point is the starting block, the desired results are point B, and how your company helped them is the journey between those two points.
Don’t sugarcoat this process either; the more granular you can get with the details, the better. Be as specific as possible with the internal and external challenges a brand faces. Outline how the solution was implemented and what results were achieved.
With any luck, potential readers will see themselves in the story. It’ll serve as a ”this could be you » moment for future clients, resulting in leads. Since it’s personal, though, it could also become a huge source of traffic as it gets shared time and time again.
