Date: Friday 4 September 2020
Speaker: Matt Wright
Company: Nobleword
Topic: 5 steps to writing effective Case Studies
In my experience, Case Studies are the single most effective piece of marketing – they are unique, compelling and have longevity.
Unfortunately, the Powerpoint presentation is too large to upload here (click on this link here to access it via the Nobleword website), so here are the edited highlights:
1. Preparation
- Interview your client first…then interview your customer
- Know the message/USP for each Case Study and stick to it!
- Remember the 5 W’s – Who, What, Where, When, Why
2. Interviewing
- Ask open questions – you’re looking for the customer to be creative and emotive in order to create memorable content, e.g.
How did the product/service you received make you feel?
What 3 words would you use to describe the product/service
What challenge was your business facing…which the product/service helped you to overcome?
3. Write-up
- Catchy titles – think like a newspaper/magazine and draw your readers in
- Pull-out quotes: break-up the text and help to isolate key USPs
- Testimonial quotes: scatter these liberally!
4. Approval
Note that getting hold of the customer to approve the Case Study can be the most time-consuming part of the process…but it’s absolutely essential that they are comfortable with what is being sent out in their name.
The advantages of this stage of the process are:
- Polish quotes: tell them you’ve reworded certain sections/quotes to make it flow better – as long as people know, they are almost always content to sound good
- Time to rethink: often the customer gets off the phone with you and suddenly realises something they’ve left out, or a quote they’d like to add – this is the ideal time for a ‘second bite of the cherry’.
- Sign off: you want the customer to agree that they’re happy with the Case Study, so that you’ve got an audit trail and a reference point if there are any issues further down the line (very unlikely, but I have known it!)
5. Design
A professional pdf is something to be proud of…so don’t skimp on your Case Study at this stage – make it look fantastic!
Nobleword uses InDesign and graphic designers to create both online and hard print Case Studies.
Conclusion
For any more information, please contact Matt Wright at [email protected].