After interviewing a happy client/customer (and hopefully sending that recording off to a transcription service) for your case study, you’ll have a treasure trove of quotes to play with.
When you use these quotes right, they go with your own words like peanut butter and jelly.
Or steak and lobster. Sorry, I have expensive taste.
But where do you use the quotes in your case study, exactly? How do you weave in your customer’s words to create flowing marketing prose that closes a sale or 20?
Yeah, you probably use them in the body copy…
But do they fit anywhere else?
Well, let’s look at how often to use quotes in that body copy, then cover some other places to put your customer’s words.
First: Quote Frequency
Customer words are among the most powerful marketing assets in your arsenal. After all, customers trust other customers more than they trust you in many cases (that’s not a bad thing, that’s just nature).
Yet, I read a lot of case studies (hey, don’t be surprised: I’m a copywriter) lacking in quotes.
Case studies are indeed social proof-ish, but they’re still written by you. You want a wealth of customer quotes in there.
That said, it’s possible (but less common) to go overboard on the quotes.
You don’t need one in every sentence. Even if you get tons of gold during the case study interview, you have to pick which pieces of gold are most valuable and use them in the right places.
See, overdoing the quotes can get the reader off track. Remember, you have limited room in the case study. It can’t be too long. You’ve got to keep your reader’s attention and cover all the important parts.
As with many things, the ideal lies somewhere in the middle. It is contextual — brand voice, case study length, case study design/format, and much more affect how many quotes make sense in a study.
So you basically want more than one quote but fewer than the total number of sentences in your case study.
Really, you should aim for at least one in each section’s body copy.
But even that is context-specific.
That’s why I’m going to share some key places to sprinkle quotes throughout your case study that aren’t the text. Getting at least one for each of these could be a good bare minimum.
Anyways…
Use Quotes In These Places Throughout Your Case Study
At the Very Top
What better way to start a case study than with the happy customer’s words?
Well, start with a compelling title, of course.
But putting a quote right after the title is a good idea. Ideally, that quote should play off the title and offer a powerful summary of the overall case study.
So, for example, if your title is “How ABC Company increased revenue by 10% with XYZ automation,” you’d pull a quote from your interview where the customer mentions how much more revenue or profit their earning.
You could also use a quote with a relevant benefit that isn’t an exact match. In the above example, maybe that’s a quote regarding the time that ABC Company saved with XYZ automation.
However, I like the first idea better since your quote will better encompass the overall case study. The second one would be handy if, for some reason, you didn’t have a quote that followed the first idea.
Below Subheadings
Here’s a good idea: Each section of the case study should — below the subheading — lead with a quote relevant to that section.
I did this with a client to great success. We had “The Problem” as a subheading, followed by “We didn’t know what we didn’t know…” (actual quote from my client’s customer). As in, they knew they had problems and could make improvements, but they didn’t have the time or energy to define those problems because they were so busy running their business.
Based on the type of service my client offers and the problem they solve, that quote would hit home with more of my client’s target market. Trust me. The client’s customer truly came into the engagement not knowing what they didn’t know — my client taught their customer these things, then helped them fix them.
I’ve seen some people use quotes as subheadings. That can work in some cases, but it is, admittedly, a bit more unconventional.
If you want to play it safe, try sticking relevant quotes right under the subheadings as I described.
But, depending on the brand, I’d actually go this route. Especially in B2C. Make it more of a “success story” angle than a case study.
At the Very End/Sidebar
Lastly, there should be a more full-length testimonial (instead of just a quote) either somewhere on the side or at the very end, depending on design.
This testimonial would be the entire case study in a nutshell, from the customer’s view. It would start with the “before” state and finish with the “looking forward to the future” portion.
You may be able to use 2 testimonials, too. One could go at the end and be the type I just explained. The other might zoom in and talk about the process of working with you.
Either way, strategically placing full-length testimonials drives the point home.
Quotes: Apply Liberally, But Not Too Much
Quotes deserve more than just going into your case study body copy. You can use them under your title and subheadings and throw in a full-length testimonial or two at the end or on the side of the study.
Hey, you can even use them as subheadings.
Just don’t use them too much. Instead, they should add to your case study, like salt and pepper to a steak.
Can you tell I like steak?
Anyways,
If you want help writing a case study and using customer quotes in it, reach out to me. I have a nice, lengthy interview with your client full of follow-up questions to dig out the real gold. Happy to talk more about it with you!