Case studies or “success stories” are an exceptionally effective content marketing tool that will help your software business build credibility with its target audience and demonstrate the specific ways you’ve made a difference for your clients.
They also:
- Lessen the perceived risk of doing business with you
- Showcase real results
- Translate the features and capabilities of your application into operational efficiency, productivity, and/or revenue-generating/cost saving improvements that you want prospective clients to understand
- Enable prospects to imagine themselves already using your solution.
What’s so Challenging about Writing a B2B Case Study?
After all, you have clients who are successfully using your application. You know they’ve realized measurable benefits. Many are willing to talk about their successes. And case studies prove you can deliver on your promises. What gives?
Success stories are challenging because they require a unique combination of skills to create, and they are just time consuming enough, that it’s easy to put them off. You understand they’re important, but you have a ton of other tasks to finish. When will you carve out the time?
Benefits of Using a Consultant
By using an experienced consultant, you can accelerate the content development cycle. You can leverage the professional’s expertise to produce a better finished product. In many cases, your clients will share feedback with a third party that they wouldn’t tell your staff members.
B2B Case Study Examples
To see examples of my previous work, click here.
B2B Case Study Process
Here’s my process for developing a professional, persuasive, B2B software case study that you can use to engage your target audience.
1. Select a Client
If you have a client you’d like me to work with, excellent! If not, we can brainstorm together to pick a great candidate.
It works best if you reach out to the company’s contact and ask the person to participate. Let your contact know we’ll be conducting a 30-45 min. phone interview. Before we release the case study, the company will be able to make any changes they see fit. We won’t use the document without first obtaining their signoff.
If you prefer, I can contact your client.
2. Call with Your Team
We’ll schedule a call/Skype meeting to discuss your marketing goals for the case study, how you helped the client, and what ideas you want the document to focus on. Have specific questions you want me to ask the client? We’ll document those too.
3. Client Phone Interview
Conducting an engaging phone interview is key to gathering useful feedback, relevant quotes, and actionable customer insights. This is an area I can really serve your business.
I’m skilled at getting people talking, and I ask questions that uncover honest feedback and even unknown results. I’ll translate your client’s experiences into a message that supports your sales and marketing efforts.
I will record the call and share an audio copy with you.
4. First Draft + Edits
Following the interview, you’ll receive a first draft–usually 3-4 pages–of the customer success story in Microsoft Word or Google Docs format. You’ll be able to review the document, add your comments, and suggest changes.
I’ll incorporate your feedback, make changes, and resubmit the case study. Once we have a finished, professional document that you’re excited about, I’ll send it to the client for approval.
5. Signoff
After your client and you have both approved the work, I’ll send you a final document and the audio file. It’s yours to use any way you’d like.
B2B Case Study Pricing
For first-time clients, I offer a low-risk discount so you can experience the quality of my work. Click here to learn more.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your project, please contact me.
Thank you!
Todd