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Create content in a silo. Keep your wins to yourself. Promote nothing. This is marketing’s mantra, right? Not even close. Today’s marketers have a full-time job creating content, generating leads, driving traffic, collaborating across channels, and staying in the know when it comes to understanding the ins and outs of their ideal customer—and a case study can display your success.
Though the type of marketing material can vary from infographics to blogs to videos to e-books, the case study is a piece of content that should be in every organization’s front pocket. It is a valuable tool everywhere from the website to the sales floor. Here are three reasons that case studies are a must-have in your marketing arsenal:
1. Boost Your Industry Credibility
Whether you work across industries or you are specialized within a particular niche, experience must be shared. A case study is a perfect avenue to promote your industry know-how. After all, birds of a feather flock together. Showcasing your achievement through a case study within a specific industry will boost your credibility while delivering proof points that may attract similar clients.
2. Show Your Success
You have customer wins. Flaunt them. Unlike traditional marketing materials, a case study delivers validation from your customers of your good work. It takes words to a different level by showing the journey from point A to point B in a narrative format, while being authentic enough to share where you were challenged and transparent enough to share your secrets—all while delivering the data to back it.
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3. Repurpose the Content
A case study gives an in-depth look at your problem-solving skills. With this content in hand, it is easy to create blogs or videos—or let your public relations team use the case study as a talking point with the media. If you repurpose the case study content across formats and channels, you will give your success wings.
The sales team is always looking for documentation to prove your worth. The case study is not only the perfect content to arm the team with data-driven points, but it is also a document that serves as a testimony from those outside of your organization. After all, you ask your family and friends to recommend their favorite businesses, you read reviews before booking your vacation hotel, and you see the movies that have won the most awards. It’s natural to want to surround yourself with products, services, and companies that have the blessing of those that have gone before you. And that, in a nutshell, is what the case study is.
The case study will give you credibility, flaunt your customer wins, and give you a narrative for additional content. You’ve taken the time to understand your customers. Your products, services, or tactics have blown through their obstacles and there is data to prove your strategies work—now it’s your turn to make a case study work for you.