How to Use Case Studies to Build Credibility, Grow Trust and Close Sales

by Lori Creighton
Owner, Homestead Media, LLC

I was shopping for a shower curtain online recently, and although my purchase totaled less than $15, I didn’t click “buy” until I had read the reviews. This isn’t unusual behavior. As consumers, we place high value on the experiences of others to give us confidence that we’re making a good decision. Reading reviews is a normal step that many people take before clicking “buy”. Even Google understands the importance we place on online reviews, using them as a ranking factor when deciding which website to place on a search engine results page. 

​We don’t behave like this only in our consumer lives. Our practice of seeking out proof that the product or service we want to buy will do what we want it to do crosses over into our professional lives, too. We use this same consumer behavior with our business purchase decisions. It doesn’t matter if we’re buying IT support, a software tool, or the expertise of a consultant; we actively look for stories of other people’s experiences to help us confidently move forward. That’s why every business should be publishing client stories.

Stories Influence Us More Than We Realize

When I was shopping around for my shower curtain, I didn’t even consider products that had zero reviews. As I think about this, I’m surprised at myself. Surely I could take a chance on something that cost $15 and would ship for free. I could - but I didn’t want to. Now imagine that you’re in your professional role, and you’re shopping for something with a much higher price tag. There’s more at stake when you're talking about success or failure. When you have your short list, which company are you going to trust more? Which company is going to appear more credible? The one with several case studies or the one without?

The truth is that we are more influenced than we like to believe when it comes to hearing other people’s stories. There are several reasons for this. One is that companies are not that great at communicating their value and we only really understand what they do when it’s presented in a story. Another reason is that as we’re searching for the products and services that we think might solve our problems, we want to envision ourselves with a successful outcome. Case studies can do both; communicate value and paint a picture of success..

Why Every Business Should Be Gathering and Publishing Case Studies

These Are the Stories Only You Can Tell

Most businesses are operating in a competitive landscape. Your business, of course, is unique but you could unknowingly be presenting yourself as a commodity. Publishing your client stories is an effective way to personalize your company and differentiate yourself from your competition. Think of it as a way to magnify who you are. You’re not just telling; you’re showing your prospects how you can help them.

Stories Connect People

When case studies are written in a storytelling format that activates empathy, they have the potential to connect with people in an emotional way. That leads to feelings of trust and guides people to action. When you think about marketing as a relationship builder, connecting with people is what it’s all about.

​Neuroscience has proven that stories that follow universal story structure elicit rich brain activity that makes the listener feel like they are a participant in the story. The result is that your message is understood, remembered, and people are more open to taking an action.

Pull Sales and Marketing Together with Case Studies

As our buying behavior has changed with the growing influence of electronic devices and digital methods of communication, the line between sales and marketing has blurred. It used to be that the handoff from the one-to-many process of marketing, to the one-to-one process of sales was clear cut. Now people are doing more of their homework online, and they could be as far 60% to 80% down the road to their decision before talking to sales.
 
Certainly, the content that buyers are looking for includes more than case studies, but getting into the habit of talking to clients and gathering their stories will help your business become more in tune with your buyers' problems, how they talk about their problems, and what kind of information they’re looking for to help them make decisions.

Insights to Improve Your Company and Motivate Employees

​Most people think solely of marketing when they think about case studies, but staying in touch with clients by gathering the stories of their experience with you provides valuable insights for your company. Sometimes the insights validate something you’re already doing, and sometimes they punch you between the eyes with something you didn’t think of.
 
When you’re in the habit of having open-ended conversations with your customers, you can learn about other ways that you can serve them; be that with support and training, or new products and services. Marketing today is focusing more and more on customer care and experience so it makes sense to be proactively talking with the people you serve. Approaching clients with the intent to listen to their story is how you amplify the voice of your client throughout your organization. 

 

Case Studies, Client Stories and Testimonials – What’s the Difference?

Is a case study the same as a testimonial? What’s the difference between a case study and a client story? Let’s cover testimonials first.
 
A testimonial is a statement or comment by a customer that describes their experience with you. Online reviews are testimonials. They can be voluntarily created or you can also solicit them. Whether volunteered or solicited, the customer usually composes the testimonial themselves. That leads to the biggest problem with testimonials: they are composed by the customer.

Testimonials can be very shallow. “We had a great experience.” “Customer service was great.” “They were very organized and responsive.” You certainly wouldn’t want to reject a positive testimonial, but their downfall is that they don’t take the reader up and over the dramatic arc to elicit empathy and trust. However, sprinkled throughout your website, testimonials can be used to give bite-sized pieces of proof that you’ll do what you say you will do. You can use them as a teaser for you client stories, with a call-to-action to read the full client story.

You Say Case Study, and I Say Client Story

I use the terms “case studies” and “client stories” interchangeably. I actually like “client stories” better but Google Trends tells me that more people put the term “case study” in Google search so I try to use both words to capture the search terms that most people use. Client stories and testimonials both have a place in your marketing strategy.

Harvesting Rich Testimonials from Case Studies and Interviews

​If you are doing case study interviews, you have the opportunity to glean short testimonial statements. What I have found is that people are actually happy to have your help in organizing their thoughts. When we talk, our words don’t always come out the way that makes the most sense. You can pull out quotes from your case studies to use as testimonials, and more than likely there are comments that you didn’t use in the story that will make good testimonials.

You can interview for the sole purpose of collecting testimonials, too. When you spend a little time reorganizing the person’s thoughts you can usually come up with a few different combinations of comments. As long as you are just reorganizing their thoughts, and not putting words in their mouths, the client is usually super happy that you helped them to express themselves in a way that makes sense (and makes them sound smart). Of course, get and document their approval for what you ultimately publish.

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Developing a Case Study Process

Developing a process makes it easier for you to successfully gather, publish and share your case studies. Here are the main sections you should include:

Case Study Process
1.  Gather story ideas
2.  Gather background information
3.  Approach the client
4.  Obtain permission and releases
5.  Schedule the interviews
6.  Conduct the interviews
7.  Draft the story
8.  Review, revise and approve
9.  Publish
10. Promote

Gathering Story Ideas

Some companies are paranoid about having marketing talk to current clients to get the story of their experience with their company. While it’s not a great idea to approach clients who are obviously struggling in their relationship with you for a case study, you might be cutting out all your choices if you only interview the ecstatic customers. Hopefully, you’re talking with your less than satisfied customers to figure out the source of the disconnect and how to turn the situation around.

Look at Sources Where You’re Already Getting Feedback

How are you already gathering feedback? Do you send out customer satisfaction surveys that have names attached? Select people to follow up with a request for an interview. Often someone in the company will receive a verbal compliment from a customer. Internal staff can be great gatherers of stories when they recognize the seeds of a story.

Train People to Pick Up on Potential Story Ideas

Account managers, project managers and customer service staff can be trained to pick up on potential stories through their interactions with clients. For example, when a project finishes, follow it up with a request for an interview. In fact, you could put a clause in your project process that at a certain point after completion, you’ll contact them for an interview.
 
Have a client story champion. This is the person that won't let your organization drop the client story ball. The way the champion works can be structured or informal. Championing could simply consist of making the rounds to talk to co-workers about their recent client experiences and observations. On the other end of the spectrum, it could consist of training and campaigns that equip and inspire employees to share stories.
 
Customer facing employees are not the only people that have stories to tell. Don’t forget your behind-the-scenes people, from management to junior level. Assume that everyone has a story. You just have to uncover it. You might not always come up with an idea for a case study, but making a habit of listening, is the first step to developing a storytelling culture.

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Uncovering the Story with Interviews

Overcoming Difficulties in Getting Clients to Talk

I have scheduled enough client interviews to know that even if someone is very eager to participate, it isn’t the top of his or her to-do list. A client interview should only take about 20 – 30 minutes if you know how to guide the conversation. Let your participants know the time commitment and then stick to it as well as share with them an overview of your process.
 
Some clients have concerns about confidentiality or have fears that your story will make them look bad. In my experience, the best thing to do is to provide clients with examples of previous stories so that they can have a better idea of what the end-product is going to look like. Can you spin your client story into a win-win for them? Depending on where you publish, you might be able to do some co-marketing, especially if you can talk about your relationship as a business partner.

Obtain the permissions and release documents that your company requires. Keep these simple but as complete as possible. Presenting a long document will create a hurdle in your process. Consult your attorney as needed. ​

Be Prepared and Be Surprised by Client Interviews

Before you conduct your client interview, you will want to gather some background information. Talk to the people who worked with the client. This could be the account or project manager or someone else who was on the front lines. Background information will help you to build context but the story that comes from your internal team is not necessarily the story that you’re going to get from your client.
 
For example, in preparation for a case study for an IT support company, my interview with the internal folks pointed to a project that they had completed that gave the company remote access to equipment that increased efficiency and decreased risks. This certainly has some business objectives and results tied to it, but it wasn’t the story that came out in my interview with the customer. The customer was actually more eager to tell the story of a disaster that happened when they chose the wrong company previous to this one. You never know what you’re going to find out when you talk with clients.

Video Interviews in the Client Story Process

I do not recommend plopping a client in front of a video camera and telling them to start talking. What I have found to be effective is to do the interview first and write the story. This is usually less intimidating for the client and easier to get agreement to participate. Use your written story to guide the video production process. You can be a lot more succinct with the video interview, saving everyone’s time. And since the client knows where you’re going with the story, you could set them up for a more comfortable experience.
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Writing Client Stories

Client Success Stories are Not About You

I’m sure you’ve read a lot of client success stories on websites as you are researching products and services. Some are better than others at capturing your attention. The reason why some case studies fall flat is because they’re … flat. It’s the stories that take you up and over the dramatic arc that stimulate empathy. It’s empathy that connects people and nurtures trust, persuades them to make a decision and guides them to act.

I’m not saying that your case study needs to avoid talking about the technical aspects of what you did for your client. People need a certain amount of that information, too. Unless you talk about the problem or the distress that was the trigger for the search for a solution, you’re not going to hit that emotional hot button. Think of taking your prospect up and over the dramatic arc in three parts.

​Three-Part Case Study Format

The situation – This is where you provide context for the story and introduce the trigger that started the search for a solution. Weave into the context something about the goals and challenges of the main character – your client – and paint a picture of the distress or obstacle that they were facing.

The solution – It’s really easy to start talking about your company and what you did here. This part is about how your client used your product or service to solve their problem. You are not the hero, here; your client is. As you talk about your solution, try to use the language that your client uses and avoid jargon. Jargon will make you sound more generic and is probably not as important to your buyers as you think.

The outcome – Guess what? This is still not about you. This is about the successful outcome that your client realized because they solved their problem. Go ahead and quantify results with statistics, but also include statements that paint a picture of how your client was able to meet their goals and challenges.

Publishing and Promoting Your Case Studies

Case studies section of your website
Publish your case studies where it’s easy for prospects to find them on your website, ideally in a dedicated case study section. Case studies can be optimized for SEO just like any other piece of web content.
 
Guide website visitors to your stories
Use calls-to-action to guide your website visitors to your client stories from other places in your website such as your product or service pages.

Automation delivers case studies at the right time
If you have automation that enables you to deliver content based on your website visitors’ behavior, put case studies in the “Decision” phase of their buying journey.

Email lead nurtures and newsletters
Your case study might be just as appropriate in your customer enews as it is in your prospect-targeted material. Lead nurtures that are designed to lead prospects down their buying journey are definitely the right place to share your success stories.
 
Printed leave-behinds and downloadable pdfs
Create printed leave-behinds for your sales reps or let your website visitors download a pdf. We read differently when we’re reading from print. We move fast online, scanning and skimming. Print gives us time to linger. Print pieces can also travel as they are passed along.

Social media sharing
Promote your stories on social media and get some attention for the client who is the subject of the case study. Write your posts to summarize the story by using a three-act structure. Here’s an example:
 
Michelle didn’t want to hire an assistant when the marketing tasks started to pile up on her back burner. She hired Lori knowing that she could ramp up immediately. Now she’s not just caught up, she’s getting better results.

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Deliver Your Client Stories in All of Your Marketing Channels:

• Monthly email or print newsletter
• Make printed copies for marketing events
• Give printed handouts to sales as leave-behinds
• Include printed copies or online links with your proposals
• Pull out testimonials from interview quotes
• Put a link in your email signature
• Republish on your LinkedIn profile
• Include a printed copy in your “Introduction” packet
• Share with selected vendors who could be referral sources
• Solicit industry publications for reprinting
• Springboard to a video version

Impact and Insight from Client Stories

Whenever you use a storytelling approach to gathering and publishing your case studies, you can expect two things to happen. I call these Impact and Insight.
 
First the Impact. You can expect people to connect with you in an emotional way and to nurture their trust. This is the main objective that we’re going for because it helps guide people towards a decision.
 
Now the Insight. This is something that your organization will learn about yourself. Insights can be surprising or validating. Insights help you improve your business.

Ready to hit your goals?

Use case studies to build credibility, grow trust and close sales!