The importance of case studies, and how to create them.

Image created using Perplexity AI, if only to prove that there’s a) a lack of suitable images on the web and b) Gen AI for all its wonder is generally pretty poor

Case studies are a powerful part of the marketing and sales process, as they create real-world examples of how a business can solve its customers’ problems. 

From a PR perspective they are also critical, as they provide journalists with proof that your business can deliver (and therefore are deserving of their attention), create tangible examples that can help explain what your business does, and (if your customers are famous people or well-known brands) may provide a news angle.

The fact that the customer has been prepared to use their name to help you promote yours, is an important expression of deferred trust.

Case studies can be difficult to create, however, even if you've done a great job and the relationships are good.

Often in the throes of delivering a project, the focus is on keeping the client happy and getting the job done. Sometimes this means the last thing a service provider wants to do is ask the client for a 'favour'. The instinct might be to wait until the work is done, or the results have come through. 

Perhaps, due to the nature of the work, the client may have legitimate reasons for not wanting to draw attention to the fact they couldn't do the work in-house or that the work needed to be done at all. 

Other times, and this is particularly the case with large corporates, there are internal policies that forbid the publication of third party case studies. This was the case for me when I was at the BBC; having to tell disappointed vendors that a press release wasn't going to happen (partly due to state-aid legislation, partly due to resources & time, partly due to wanting to control the narrative).

But despite all this, it's worth having a focus on creating and publishing case studies because the upside is so huge. In 2019 I worked for a client who had delivered an eye-catching digital customer-service project for a a major UK telecoms brand - and despite being a triumph there was major resistance from the brand to a case study, particularly from its corporate press office and marketing team who even refused the client permission to mention the name on their website.

We worked around this by securing a speaker slot at a conference and briefing the press we knew would be in attendance - this put the work 'on the record' which enabled us to talk about the work from that point on.

That one case study that formed the backbone of that client’s PR for almost a year and, seven years later, it still features on the first page of a google news search for their brand.

Types of Client Story/ Case study

The first point to make is that I use the term ‘case study’ loosely. Really what I’m talking about here is how to achieve customer advocacy for use in sales, marketing and PR to help build trust in your company and there’s a number of different outcomes you can aim for.

Normally when I mention ‘case studies’ to clients (especially people in sales & marketing) they will tend to think of the ‘full fat’ case study below, and may often have been frustrated in trying to create these.

But there are shades of grey in between the dream ‘fully public’ case study and simply dropping a client’s name in a sales conversation. Before I get into how to get case studies done, below is a summary of the outcomes you could shoot for.

1. Full-Fat case study

This is the dream case study that includes metrics, quotes, images, problem/ solution and issues overcome.

It’s very hard to attain these, especially from larger brands, but if a company is struggling to stand out or sell its product it may be worth investing in doing the work for free in exchange for the case study - especially if the firm is an eye-catching brand and the vendor has a low brand profile and needs validation.

This can also a great calling-card for business development - it’s easier to get prospects to initially engage with an offer to provide value for free.

Finally, aiming for case studies like these can help with awards entries. Judges are bound by confidentiality, which can reassure a client, but help you obtain strong validation for your work without publishing any details.

2. USe of Logo

Simple permission to use the client’s logo on your website to signal that you have worked together in the past. For a former client, permission may not even be necessary depending on what the contract says: sometimes it’s easier to ‘beg forgiveness’ rather than ‘ask permission’ > this will depend on your own judgment as well.

3. testimonial without metrics

This is where a named spokesperson provides a little more context to the work that was done, a factual confirmation. These are not very useful in a PR context as journalists generally want direct access to the client and/ or fresh quotes and comment, but they are powerful in sales and marketing. Effectively the person is advocating the person/ product/ solution so this sends a strong signal even if it doesn’t confirm specifics about the work that was done.

The format could be a simple pull-quote, webpage or one-pager (used in a sales deck). It’s helpful in some markets (such as PR) where hard value-add metrics are difficult to come by and buyers tend to focus on softer attributes, such as attitude, style of work, values, advice, work-rate or creativity.

4. Anonymous with metrics

This kind of case study is useful in a sales & marketing context as it can show specifics on value and ROI without giving away any commercially sensitive information. Use may be limited in PR and marketing, but could be very effective later on in a sales process to help a customer assess whether the solution will work for them.

Like the logo, permission may not be required especially if the results are anonymised to the extent that it’s not possible for a third party to identify the company. For example a company supplying a “prominent smartphone manufacturer” that has multiple customers in the category could be talking about a number of brands whereas “a prominent smartphone manufacturer based in Cupertino” is obvious. Again, there’s a permission/ forgiveness judgement to make.

5. PR case study

A PR case study is when a customer is willing to speak to the media. Ideally this would be ‘on the record’ ie where the person is able to be named and quoted in an article - this is probably the most powerful PR asset (and route to coverage) a company can provide especially when they are a ‘vendor’ ie a company that sells into a target vertical.

For example, a technology business that sells its solution to (for example) the grocery sector will find it extremely difficult to earn coverage in a media title such as The Grocer: there is likely to be limited interest in that company’s ‘news’ or ‘thought leadership’ but a client such as the COOP or Morrisons talking on the record about how they solved a problem will generate wider interest.

Getting permission to speak on the record can be hard, but there are workarounds (such as conferences, as mentioned above).

Even ‘off the record’ comment may help in some PR contexts, if only to validate that a vendor’s claims.

Start with a client audit

The key is starting with the biggest brands, for whom you've done the most impactful work, and where the relationships are good. As a rule of thumb, the best-known the brand, the more traction and gravitas the case study will have but not always. For example it may be a great brand, but not a core service offering. Or a core service offering, but the results weren’t great or the relationship not strong.

Really, what is needed is third-party validation.

Sometimes a client may be willing to speak to a prospect in a sales context, even if the contract prohibits publishing details. Other times you may be able to reference the brand on the website, but offer little more detail. And if you anonymise the brand, but publish the metrics, this too can work in some sales and marketing contexts. And often, all you need for a PR case study, is a spokesperson from the brand who has permission to give exclusive and fresh quotes to the media (this is the main thing a journalist needs).

But before that, you need to know what you have to work with.

Your client audit should consider the criteria below.

🔥 1. HOW Topical?

Anything ‘of the moment’ gives you an angle to talk about hot topics in the news - these are more likely to interest journalists. Right now, stories around AI adoption are popular in the tech press. Or similarly, angles like a milestone or anniversary “it was twenty years ago today” can bring attention to a historic event and consider how things have changed.

📊 2. What’s Measurable?

Anything with numbers, demonstrating the before & after. Numbers help create an essential arc to the story. Without them it’s hard to show cause & effect. The number should also show some kind of value-add (like an ROI number in marketing) and be a real-world relatable number like time or money that relates to people, rather than an academic, engineering or physics number that reflects the performance of a machine. We scan content for numbers, and the absence of them impacts credibility.

💣 3. How Impactful?

Anything involving a bigger brand and/ or well-known people. These brands/ people will always have more media interest (and reach) than smaller ones.`For example a senior person who works for a smaller brand but has a high media profile, or a lower-profile person at a household-name brand. When the quoted client is a junior person at an unknown brand the case study has less impact.

📸 4. Do we have a Visual?

Anything that can give a journalist an excuse to carry an interesting image. No picture, no story! Good visuals are particularly important in services sectors, or areas like enterprise IT where the subject matter can be quite dry. From a sales perspective images bring the story to life: pictures of people, situations, graphics. Having a picture also shows confidence, intent, professionalism ie “this is important, so much so that we bothered to take a photo of it”.

🚡 5. what’s new, or Unusual?

Anything in the case studies that is new/ different/ weird. This is the ‘oh, that’s interesting’ element. A ‘first’ can add more weight to a news story. From a data perspective, while conforming to an existing narrative can attract attention (as it allows people to reinforce their position) offering an alternative point of view can attract more attention (as it both takes the story in a different direction, and tempts people to critique the position).

🤩 7. What can we say about the People?

Particularly with larger brands, getting numbers (and press office approval) for a written case study can be hard. But if you have a client/ customer eager for publicity they may be able to force it through (or help you develop a creative way of surfacing the work) without getting a written case study through official channels. People are interested in people - human stories - whether that’s someone notable or famous or a heartwarming story about a ‘normal’ person who has had an ‘extraordinary’ experience. Like a film, or a play, every story needs a cast.

The other huge people factor to consider is the status of the current relationship, and who owns that relationship. This will play into the timings. For example, a forthcoming contract review may be a perfect time to seek a case study (as it’s an opportunity to remind the customer of all the good work you’ve done and rebuild a relationship/ get vital feedback) or the worst time (as you may want to seem more focused on delivery for them). Much of this boils down to relationships.

⚔️ 8. Where is the Tension?

Every story, unfortunately, has tension. No tension, no story and the same is true for case studies. This might be a tension in ideas. If a case study suggests a new and better way of doing things, it means that that an old way is dying and if most people are doing the ‘old thing’ this is what will capture the imagination. It might also point to a tension in people and organisations, where one person is beating another.

This doesn’t mean a case study needs to ‘trash’ another idea, person, or organisation - but be mindful that this is where the story is for others and what makes it relatable.

Similarly, there will be some tension in your own story. Nothing worth doing is plain sailing and there will always be obstacles and highlighting these will add depth and colour to your own story as well as useful takeouts and learnings others. Being upfront about the challenges can also help proactively rebut elephants in the room.

prioritise and pitch

Give each client story a rough score, and then take a view on which outcome to aim for.

For example a client story with great metrics but a low-profile brand might be better anonymised, whereas as high-profile brand that can’t show metrics might work better if you just ask for a testimonial.

This will be a judgment call based on all the factors above. Some of this work can be done in house, but often using an external partner can help get a new take on what the customer actually values, or allow the customer to speak more freely and give constructive criticism they may not feel able to do in the course of regular business.