Go to any marketing-savvy business’s website, and I bet you they have a page (or several) chock-full of (hopefully) beautiful and compelling case studies.
That’s a good first step. Case studies let prospects see, in full detail, exactly how you help people like them. They can put themselves in the happy customer’s shoes and see themselves achieving that same success — all thanks to your skills.
But these businesses aren’t using case studies to their fullest potential.
Yes, case study pages are a good “home” for your case studies.
However, these little marketing assets are incredibly versatile. Put them in the right places, and they’ll be your 24/7 salesperson without any extra work (assuming you have some case studies to work with).
So let’s look at some of the best (and, honestly, easiest) places to put your case studies outside of your “case studies” gallery.
1. Your Home Page
Let’s start where plenty of customers will first find you — your homepage.
This one’s pretty easy. A good home page will logically progress a prospect from knowing you, to liking you, to trusting you.
The knowing part comes at the top, where you introduce a problem the prospect has, who you are, and how you solve it.
The liking part
So what about the trusting part?
Well…
That’s what case studies are for.
So you add a case studies section right before the very bottom of the homepage, where you might put a CTA.
Chances are you’ve seen other companies do this. That’s because it works. Once you’ve introduced yourself to the customer and demonstrated that you understand their problem, they just need some proof to justify buying from you.
Now, you want to make the case study section’s subheadline grab their attention with a benefit.
For example, if you’re a tax accounting firm for small businesses in a particular industry, you might say “see how we helped companies in ABC industry save $XYZ on their taxes on average” or “learn how we helped companies in ABC industry uncover $XYZ in tax deductions”.
Again, make sure you get specific. Saying “see how we helped other companies” doesn’t catch interest like cold, hard stats do.
Oh, and one last thing: you can put a CTA in this section pointing to your case studies page if you’d like.
However, a CTA to schedule a consultation/try a demo/whatever else it is also works. Sometimes, all a customer has to see is the little case study previews to go “oh, past clients are vouching for them, I trust them”.
Note: if you offer only one service, and your homepage is your services page, then follow the advice in the next tip.
2. Your Service Pages
When prospects are checking out your services, they’re interested.
But maybe they have an objection or two. They aren’t sure how your process works, what working with you looks like, etc. etc. etc.
So why not leverage some case studies on your service pages? Case studies supplement your service page copy quite nicely because your services go from abstract to concrete.
Now, if you have several distinct services, make sure you use a case study in which you performed the service on its respective service page.
So if you’re a marketing agency that does SEO and paid ads…
Don’t put a paid ads case study on the SEO page!
Also, keep in mind your customer personas. If you target two distinct types of customers with one service, place a case study on that page for each one. Sprinkle in a line or two of compelling copy, and you’re set.
As for where to place them…
Put ’em towards the bottom. Your service page copy should carry them down the page, then you can overcome objections and seal the deal with a few case studies that show everything they read in action.
Note: If you only have one customer persona for a service, get specific with the lead-in copy. Say “See how we helped ABC Company achieve XYZ desired results (with a specific stat)” or something along those lines. If you’re targeting multiple at once, maybe stick with a more general “See how we helped our clients do XYZ desired results.”
3. Your Lead Magnet
If you do email marketing (and you better, it’s among the best marketing channels in existence), then you’re gonna need a killer lead magnet to draw in subscribers.
Have you run dry of ideas for a lead magnet? I’ve got a solution for you.
Hint: it starts with case, and ends with study.
Picture this: someone’s poking around your website because they think you might be able to solve their problem.
Suddenly, up pops a window offering to show them how you helped someone just liked them achieve XYZ amazing results. All the prospect has to do is give you their email address, and they can download the case study.
This could turn into a mini funnel in and of itself. Put a CTA at the end of your case study — after reading an awesome story about how you solved a problem for someone just like them, you think they might want to contact you and learn more?
I think so.
Oh, speaking of emails…
4. Your Email Autoresponder
So you’ve captured some email addresses and you’re creating (or revamping) your welcome sequence.
You’ve got some great email ideas, too — but why not slot in a case study among those emails?
There are two ways to do this.
First, you could do the downloadable case study. This can work in some cases, but remember: the more steps it takes for a prospect to do something, the less likely they’ll do it.
So instead, maybe shrink down a full-on case study into one that can fit in a 300-400 word email.
If the case study fits the prospect, and the copy is compelling enough, then email length won’t matter too much. You’ll keep ’em reading to the end.
Oh yeah — don’t forget to put in your usual CTA as if it were any other sales email.
5. Paid Ads
Paid ads generally draw in cold traffic (people who haven’t interacted with your brand). Cold traffic is tougher to convert than warm traffic (people who HAVE interacted with your brand) for obvious reasons.
Well, you could thaw that traffic out and nudge them along your funnel by making your paid ad link to a case study, presell-page/advertorial style.
If you know your market well, the ad practically writes itself (assuming you follow any compliance guidelines… hi Facebook).
For example, maybe you’re advertising some business automation software on Facebook after determining that your target market lives there. Maybe they’re aware they have a problem — spending too much time on Task ABC — but don’t know how to solve it.
In other words, they’re problem aware (a topic for another time).
Maybe you have a case study where your automation software saved a client 20 hours a month on Task ABC. The Facebook ad copy could be something along the lines of “See how XYZ company saved 20 hours a month on Task ABC”.
Prospect clicks, lands on your case study, gets sucked in, and wants to buy from you. Rinse and repeat.
6. Your Sales Team
Ok, ok, your sales team isn’t a “place.” But that doesn’t matter because the humble case study is one of the most powerful tools for closing those “on-the-fence” clients and customers.
This one happened to me personally.
I was on the fence about investing in a coaching program for my copywriting endeavors that cost a pretty penny. I wanted to join, but I needed to justify the cost.
The team running the program sent me a couple of case studies of past students. These graduates of the program had many of the same goals and doubts as I did — but the case studies detailed how they joined the program anyways and are now killing it.
The same thing could work for you, and your offer doesn’t have to be a coaching program, either.
If you’re a B2B SaaS company, for example, your target customer may or may not understand how your software works, what with all the tech stuff. With the right case study, however, you can demonstrate the benefits in action and overcome any final objections.
NOTE: If you’re a small company, and you’re doing the selling, it works the exact same way. It might be even better since you can personalize the interaction.
Let Your Case Studies Loose
Case studies are too powerful to be locked up on a “case studies” page. Let them play a role in other parts of your marketing and sales processes.
Of course, these are only a few ways to use case studies. In the future, I might expand this list as I see fit.
Need help preparing some case studies? Don’t hesitate reach out! Contact me today.