Including case studies on your website serves a number of different purposes: adding credibility to your organisation’s claims; providing real-life testimonies; and demonstrating your expertise. It’s a little like taking that recommendation from a friend at the pub – there’s something more personal and more relatable in a case study than in lots of corporate marketing speak on a website.
Case studies, however, are often the bug-bear of marketing teams. Unless the process is embedded into the department, sourcing, writing, and signing off case studies can be one of those tasks that is at best, sporadic.
And then there are concerns about client privacy and whether by showcasing an individual or an individual business, that it might compromise data protection laws or simply infringe on their security or reputation, digitally or otherwise. There are also issues around timeliness and whether outdated case studies are worse than none at all, and finally the issue of authenticity – and whether curated content on an organisation’s website will be viewed through a rather sceptical lens.
All of the above is true to a greater or lesser extent depending on the industry and the copy itself. However, we would always err on the side of case studies being more help than hindrance, if they are executed well.
So if you need a good reason to get your case studies off the ground, here are seven:
Emotional connections
Case studies can be written in a much more emotive way than standard web copy and demonstrate not just a successful purchase, product or service but also how it made the recipient feel. People connect with people more than brands so helping make an emotional connection with your target audience is paramount.
Trust and credibility
You can say ‘leading’ or ‘award-winning’ until you’re blue in the face but you’ll also be ticking a big bullsh#it bingo box for many customers.
Your customers will of course know that any content that appears on your website has been through some sort of compliance process but they are also likely to assume that any content that mentions a third party, has also been signed off by them too. Therefore, although the copy may not entirely represent the warts-and-all story, by the very nature that the client has agreed to be included, shows that they are generally pleased with the service they’ve received. And this usually reflects more than just the product or service itself but the overall communication, the way their queries were handled, pricing, delivery etc. – the whole shebang.
Problem/solution narrative
Many core landing pages focus entirely on the product or service’s features or attributes without any context. However what customers really need to hear is the problem/solution narrative or the features and benefits story. This is how customers will really start to connect with your brand and understand how a product will benefit their own situation, particularly if challenges and road bumps are made clear.
SEO
Fresh content is vital for SEO, as is the ability to target a broad range of keywords.
Your website has presumably been optimised around your preferred choice of keywords but case studies give you a second bite of that cherry. Perhaps your industry is very competitive from an SEO perspective and therefore targeting some less competitive keywords is useful or, as is often the case, the best leads and conversions come from more informed or educated searches. Therefore having content that is highly relevant to these terms can be hugely beneficial.
Case studies also provide a great opportunity for internal linking which better helps users and search engines navigate your site.
Reusable content
A sound social media strategy will combine both evergreen content as well as more ad-hoc, reactive content that reflects the news agenda. Having a bank of case studies that can be shared regularly ensures plenty of content for social media channels and will help to refer people back to your website rather than passively scroll past your posts.
The same is true of newsletters and email marketing as case studies can be repurposed multiple times for different channels and different audiences.
Specific sectors/industries
If a product or service has multiple or niche applications then case studies are a great way to demonstrate that breadth without the need to have too many landing pages.
Geo-targeting
Similarly, if your product or service changes depending on the location, case studies can be a great way to showcase this regional nouse.
Case studies are all about making that connection with a real person or real business and so in our opinion, they are a must for any website. More to follow on the different types of case studies…
