The Case Study Ask: Five Things Your Customer Needs to Know
The more facts you give someone, the better armed they are to make a decision – like when you ask a customer to be featured in a case study or success story.
Typically, a sales or account manager asks the main customer contact if they would be willing to do a case study.
If it’s a solid relationship, the customer will likely say yes.
But in most cases, there’s a lot more that follows the simple ask.
How do you set up the request for success?
Start by giving them the facts. When your contact expresses interest, follow up with an email with the details.
Include these key points:
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The benefits of this joint marketing opportunity for all parties
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What’s involved – who and how much time is required for the interviews and review phase
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How the story will be used – website, one-on-one sales, PR, newsletters, etc.
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If they will need to sign a release form
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One or two samples of your other customer stories
Document this in an email so that your contacts can easily forward it on to others.
Customer at risk of saying no?
If you’re concerned at all about the customer declining your request, deliver these facts on a call or in a face-to-face meeting instead and include key decision-makers (likely those beyond your main contact).
Giving customers all the details also helps prevent surprises later on. Everyone already knows what to expect.
What other facts have you found help customers make the decision?
Creating Case Studies? The Math You Have to Master
I have a confession. I’m bad at math.
Writers and marketers out there, I know some of you are with me. We were the spelling bee champions, the honors English students and the school newspaper editors.
But algebra was not our thing. Sure, there were some kids talented at both, at which I’m always amazed.
After elementary school, my attitude become one of, "I’ll never use this stuff. I’m going to be a writer!"
Well, here I am in a career mostly about writing and I’m Googling my math questions, or instant messaging a quick story problem to my computer science/math husband.
If you are a mathlete, then stop reading here, or forward this to your "word" friends.
Persnickety Percentages
Customer case studies are about documenting results, showing that actual customers experienced the benefits that marketing and sales promised.
Whether you’re a marketer, business owner or writer producing case studies, there are likely times when you have to do the math on your own. It’s fairly rare that featured customers come ready with all their numbers worked out about how your solution made a difference.
So what do you need to know? Percentages!
In case studies, it’s all about the before and after. How much did the customer reduce costs? How much time are they saving? By what percent did their sales grow?
Percents are sometimes the fallback approach when you can’t name actual dollar figures. Customers will let you mention percentages instead, so you have to know how to calculate them.
Percentages can be easy if you’re going one direction with them, but not other directions.
Fortunately, I found a handy guide for the math-challenged among us. This page gives you a simple formula no matter which number you’re missing and how to do your calculations. There are even problems to test yourself.
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Love it. It’s easier than Mrs. Swafford’s approach in 6th grade. (They probably learn this in 3rd grade now.)
Bookmark the page. I know I have. You simply have to do the math in this job sometimes.
Just today, I needed to determine what percent 1752 is of 1,807,125. Can you?
Podcast: Case Studies to Build Trust and Sales
How do you make the most of a customer’s success story? What if you can’t name a customer? How do new FTC rules affect case studies?
Get answers to these questions and others on a 25-minute podcast where RainToday.com interviewed Casey Hibbard, "Using Case Studies to Build Trust and Facilitate Sales."
- Ways to use your customer case studies
- How many and how often to create case studies
- What makes a successful case study
- What if you can’t name customers?
- Examples of professional services firms using case studies successfully
- Why you shouldn’t make people register to access cases
- How to ease customer permissions and approvals
- What the new FTC rules mean for endorsements
Listen here. It’s only available to non-members of RainToday.com until Feb. 24.
Customer Stories…Make a Tractor Interesting?
Most of us – for better or worse – have had a fast-food hamburger. It usually arrives in paper, often drippy and with an already soggy bun. The burger gets the job done, but not memorably.
Compare that to eating the hamburger at an upscale restaurant. The menu talks about "grass-fed" beef, "artisanal" bread and maybe a house-made aioli mayonnaise. Then, someone slides it gingerly in front of you on a modern square plate with toppings on the side that look fresh from the farmer’s market.
They’re completely different experiences – and all in the presentation.
Customer case studies and success stories are just as subject to packaging and presentation. You can lay out just the facts, or you can tell a STORY.
Volvo Construction Equipment gets it. They know they’re not just selling construction equipment. In the story below, they’re selling better, cheaper road maintenance.
The packaging: an intriguing, well-written customer success story. Volvo tells the tale of a rural Alabama county’s plight after receiving 12 inches of rain in a single day.
What does Volvo do right?
Feature-story format – The tale takes the form of an engaging feature story like you’d see in a magazine. It doesn’t go traditional by blocking text into Challenge-Solution-Results sections.
Strong writing – The writing is specific and sets the scene about the toll of the heavy rain.
Authentic quotes – The quotes sound genuinely spoken by the guys in the field using the equipment, which adds authenticity with the audience.
Clear results – Volvo highlights measurable and anecdotal results.
If Volvo can make a tractor sound interesting, then there’s hope for whatever your product or service is.
Whatever you’re selling, you can wrap your customer’s story in cheap paper or present it elegantly.
Writers: How to Referee Style Rules
During the NFL playoffs, referees’ calls can ultimately decide a win or loss.
Their job is to know the rules and make sure that players follow them. But sometimes their calls inspire boos from the coaches, players and fans.
Freelance copwriters are not unlike referees.
On a project, writers are often in the role of referee – enforcing STYLE rules.
Depending on the types of projects you work on, anywhere from two to maybe 8 people may be reviewing your thoughtfully written copy.
There’s at least one marketing manager, if not more, and perhaps a PR or sales person. Then there’s maybe a product manager.
If you work on customer case studies, an additional three to four people at the customer’s organization may review your story.
Chances are, there will be differences of opinion about whether "website" is one word or two, whether titles should be capitalized or whether a comma goes before the last "and."
To solve these differences – and maintain consistency across all communications – you need a set of rules.
And if you’re the writer, be the editorial style referee.
But how do you do so diplomatically?
Throw the book at ‘em
Newspapers and magazines have long followed style guidelines, whether Associated Press style, Chicago Manual of Style or their own versions. Companies need such guidelines as well for all their communications.
Freelance writers should usually follow the style of the companies they write for, unless those companies have no specific style guidelines.
If the organization doesn’t have its own editorial guidelines, bring your own style. When you send first drafts to your contacts, let them know that you follow style X.
When questions come up during the editing process, simply refer to the specific style guidelines as your reasoning for doing something like leaving out that extra comma before the last "and" in a sentence.
Company-created style
Several companies I’ve written for over the years have had their own style guidelines. They set down in writing exactly how they want certain aspects of their copy to go.
In many cases, their style is a hyrbrid. They mostly follow a standard style guide but have modifications for their communications.
Learn and follow those guidelines closely.
Earn your stripes
As you merge edits from multiple reviewers, make sure that the copy follows the established style. If someone makes changes that conflict with those rules, just let them know you follow company style.
It’s like saying, these are the rules we play by on our turf.
It can be hard to be a ref, but it’s part of the writer’s job.
Have you ever been boo-ed for refereeing edits?
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