86,552 Views of a Single Case Study
For those who doubt the draw of a customer case study online, here’s your proof.
One Microsoft case study, posted online just four months ago, has racked up 86,552 total views.
Listed among its most viewed case studies, the Outback Steakhouse case study describes how the restaurant chain used a Microsoft solution for a Facebook campaign.
Other cases in the "Most Viewed" tab have more than 50,000 views. (On each online case study, Microsoft actually lists the number of total views.)
That many eyeballs should be a clear case to companies that case studies and success stories shouldn’t just be online somewhere; but they should be prominently displayed and easy to find.
Here are a few tips for organizing your case studies online for maximum exposure:
Tease them on the home page
How-to stories about other companies’ success with your solution is a top draw for prospects.
Feature a case study somewhere on your home page or devote a space to scrolling teasers for several case studies.
Include them with product information
Anywhere that you talk about specific solutions, feature a case study right there that shows that product or service in action.
Make them easy to find!
Allow site visitors to search or browse case studies by industry, product or other categories that might matter to them, such as business need.
Check out Microsoft’s page for ideas.
Include a Retweet button
Make it easy to share your content on social networking sites like Twitter. Include a Retweet button or other social media sharing icons.
The most important rule: Don’t let valuable customer stories go to waste! Leverage that content anytime and anywhere that you talk about the value of your products and services.
Share your own examples of companies that organize their stories well online.
THIS is How to Organize Case Studies Online
In sales and marketing, it’s the ultimate question. How do you get the right information in front of a prospect at the right time?
It’s especially tricky now that customers self-direct their learning online.
As you grow your stable of customer case studies and success stories, organize them so that a prospect can find exactly the type of story of interest to him.
That usually means sorting – and enabling search of – your stories by industry, type of solution, product and maybe geographic location.
Here are a couple of examples.
Major software company SAS organizes its customer successes by industry, solution, technology, country, alphabetically, and with a "Search All" capability. If they have a particular case study, the searcher will find it with this thorough approach.
Oracle organizes theirs in a similar way, by applications, technology, services, industry and alphabetical.
Both companies also feature a few of their best stories on the search page for quicker access.
Such a search function may be too much for organizations with a handful of case studies. If so, create a list of your stories by headline and include a few descriptive words about industry, product, type of solution, location or anything else relevant to your audience.
Put yourself in the searcher’s chair and make it as easy as possible.
Have you seen any great examples of how companies organize their stories online?
Give Your Success Stories Their Own Website?
On most business websites, you have to dig to find a single story.
If you do find any, it’s usually after you’ve waded through levels of capabilities copy and promises.
So separate company sites that are dedicated solely to stories are refreshing. They get it.
Stories That Sell, the book, highlights companies like Toyota and Sage Software for their separate story websites. (The latter, created for a specific campaign, is no longer live.)
The latest to come to my attention is The Ford Story.
American car makers have had one of the roughest years ever. But Ford has been surprisingly successful ($997 million profit in JUST this past quarter) and is making sure it tells its best stories.
The online Ford Story website tells internal Ford stories, such as what’s going on in R&D. But it mostly showcases customer success stories.
- 15-second commercial spots featuring real drivers talking about what they like most about their cars
- A video story about how Ford Focus owners soup up their cars
- Articles on Ford’s current initiatives in areas such as energy efficiency
- A feature on how firefighters drive Ford trucks
- Interesting, self-submitted customer success stories with photos
- The latest posts in the company’s Twitter stream
A large "Submit Your Stories" box encourages customers to share written versions of their stories in under 500 words, and add photos and videos.
Ford also enables comments on all its content, encouraging interaction.
Why a unique niche site? Almost like an online magazine, it allows a company to separate the story from the product/service facts and promises. In doing so, that story stands out more.
That’s not to say that your main site shouldn’t include success stories. But niche sites help give extra attention to specific messages you want to reinforce.
Check it out. It’s an engaging site, even if you’re not in the market for a car.
What do you think about this separate site approach?
What Works in Customer Success Stories: The Online Intro Page
Content marketing is about giving audiences access to the TYPE of content they want to consume. For customer success stories and case studies, increasingly that means multiple formats – written (summaries and longer versions), audio and video.
How do you organize your success story content on your site?
I came across some paper recycling case studies created by the Paper Industry Association Council. They effectively created a "home page" for each case study.
They introduce the organization on a single page with a short overview. Then they give you the option of viewing a testimonial video (less than one minute), reading the written case study and looking at additional resources.
In particular, I like the attractive graphics that tie into the story on this intro page. It’s all very inviting.
Check out the intro page for the success story on Stanford University’s campus recycling program.
What do you think about this intro page, or home page concept for success stories?
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