Case studies are very popular at the moment. They provide a win-win situation for you and the customer you are writing about and give you the opportunity to show what your company can do for your customers. Apart from giving you the opportunity to exude authority in your field, you also give potential customers a look behind the scenes, and they can help your sales department as well. But how do you make a good case study? I will explain this in 5 simple steps!
Step 1: Who do you want to reach with your case study?
We often talk about it, but thinking about who your target group is beforehand is also important when making a case study. This blog about personas explains how best to define this target group. Who you want to reach with your narrative – the end-user or the management of a company, for example – makes quite a difference, so keep that in mind before you start. As soon as you know who you are going to write for, you can get to work!
Step 2: What kind of content are you going to produce?
A case study is an ideal moment to vary the type of content you publish on your website and social media. You can choose to publish the text as a page on your website, but it is also relatively easy to post an interview in video form. Variety in the ways you publish content increases engagement with your target group and can ensure that you attract even more attention with your content.
Step 3: What questions do you want to ask?
It is good to prepare a list of questions in advance that you can use when conducting the interview. Of course, you don’t need to ask all the questions literally, but it is good to have some kind of guideline when interviewing. Certain questions may also trigger more response from the interviewee than others, so creating a bit of a foothold by means of a questionnaire can make a difference to spontaneity!
Step 4: How do you develop the content?
As I described in step 2, you can produce your case study in a variety of ways. If you opt for a written version, it is important to make sure that your target group stays captivated by the content. A page with only text on it will quickly lead to many dropouts. Try to avoid that by adding pictures, graphics and other interesting content in between. This ensures that people stay on the page for longer and keep reading. When creating a video, it is important that you also think about a transcript or subtitles so that the video also grabs attention with the sound off and that people have the option to read the text later or follow along with the text.
Step 5: Where and when do you publish a case study?
Once you have finished producing your video or page, you want to make sure that as many people as possible see your narrative. It makes sense to create a separate section on your website where people can view multiple case studies (once you have them) and get inspiration from them. This could include links to other interesting content on your website, which can help the customer/prospect further. You could also promote your case study enthusiastically via social media and invite your target group to interact with you, as this will, in turn, increase your reach!
Hopefully, this will give you an idea of how to make a good case study. If you still have questions or need more help, let us know!
