We’ve all been there – stuck in a conversation at a party or a conference who a bore who can only tell you how important they are and how great they are at their job. And we all react the same way, making a polite excuse to get away and then doing everything we can do avoid them in the future.
Does your case study solve a problem?
So why would your case studies be any different?
If your case studies are little more than a lists of project specs or outlines of what a great job your company did, then they’re probably not doing the job you want them to. People won’t be reading them.
As with all case studies, they need to give the reader or viewer information that’s relevant to them.
What to do?
The answer is a problem, in this case quite literally.
Have a closer look at your case studies. You’ll find that in many of them you solved a problem for the client – be it a technical problem, a sales problem, a financial problem.
Odds are, that client isn’t alone in having that problem. Other readers will have also seen it in their own businesses or something similar. So in your next case study, appeal to those people.
First up, put the problem in the headline and offer a solution. For example, “How we cut XYZ’s data storage costs in half”.
Now for the actual copy. Start with the problem itself. Explain what was going on. To continue with the fictional IT example from above, XYZ might be a fast-growing company whose IT infrastructure wasn’t keeping up with storing its customer data. If you outline that problem, you’ll grab the attention of other companies which are going through similar issues.
Next the solution. Outline in as much detail as you can how you solved the problem and why you chose the approach you did, and finish up with the result. This is your chance to really demonstrate you expertise in a much more compelling way than just saying you did a great job.
You can also finish off the case study with a question, asking others with similar experience for their comments.
And don’t forget the call to action. Here’s mine:
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