A customer success story/case study is one of the most powerful ways to showcase the benefits of your product or service to prospective customers. According to a survey of more than 500 B2B technology buyers released in January 2014 by Eccolo Media, 56% of enterprise-level buyers used case studies to evaluate a purchase in the last six months, and 48% of those surveyed ranked case studies as a “very influential” content type in their buying process.
A great customer case study can help your company establish expertise, drive new sales, and showcase new products and services to current or past customers. The content in a single customer case study can be reused again and again in different ways. Here are ten suggestions:
Blogs
Post a teaser of your latest case study on your company blog, with a link leading back to the entire story. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website. Or if it’s a short case study, post the whole thing as a longform blog post.
Email newsletters
Send out case studies in your email newsletters to reach current customers and prospects
Social media
Use powerful customer quotes as Tweets/status updates, with a link back to the full case study on your website
Proposals
Include quotes from case studies in new business proposals for similar projects, to showcase your prior successes
Press releases
Use statistics from your case studies to add credibility to your company announcements
Sales and data sheets
Use relevant quotes from your case studies on your sales sheets and product data sheets. Your sales team can use the information in case studies to connect with prospects by telling stories about other satisfied customers
Product/service pages
In addition to having a separate case studies section on your company website, you can also link directly to case studies from the relevant product/service pages
Presentations
People love listening to stories, so liven up your presentations with real-world examples of happy customers from your case studies
Brochures and booklets
Include quotes and statistics from customer case studies in your company brochures, or create case study booklets that showcase several of your best customer success stories
Industry awards
Include customer case studies in your award applications to enhance your credibility. Nothing demonstrates that you have an award-winning product or service better than stories of satisfied customers.
