Tell a Story with Marketing Case Studies

Most of us have read at least one case study in our lives, and I'll bet it was most likely a medical trial report or an academic paper. It's for this reason, the term "case study" gets ball-and-chained with the identifying words like "clinical" or "didactic." But marketing case studies are different. Effective marketing case studies - the ones that move prospective clients down the sales funnel - should tell a story.

Marketing Case Studies and Story Structure

My earliest memory of story writing was in and around fifth grade when I really got into character development and plot. I remember writing pages and pages about the sorted histories of the characters in my "books" and twisting plot outlines just as long. But you can't do anything for a story without the foundation of a beginning, middle and end. Marketing case studies are no different. Make sure they start somewhere, have somewhere to go and wrap up nice and neat at the end - even if the end ends with a big fat question mark.

Get Emotional and be the Hero

Leave the stilted language at the door, and go instead for the emotional jugular. Case study readers need to connect with a story on a level they may not even be aware of. Readers should be able to empathize with and feel the pain, panic and terror of the damsel in distress, so when the hero (aka your company, your product or you) is introduced and slays the dragon (otherwise known as your reader's problem), they also feel the relief, the gratitude and the loyalty of the damsel.

Let the Stinky Feet and Glass Slippers Do the Work

Things didn't go as planned in your case study? Had a few bumps along the way? Don't leave the messy parts out! Prince Charming still had to try that glass slipper on every stinky foot in the kingdom. Had he just met Cinderella at the ball, married her and run off to make babies, we could have just had Barbie and Ken story full of cute clothes and lots of accessories. With the glass slipper plot twist, the reader is able to vicariously experience struggle and anxiety then hope and victory and the joy of a happily-ever-after. That is more effective, emotive, inspiring story. And applied to a marketing case study, it's the kind of story that stays with a reader.

A good marketing case study will sell itself, so leave the advertising out. A little link won't hurt a thing, but if you've done it right, a purposeful, well-built, emotional story will do volumes more for moving your prospects through the sales cycle than a glossy but sterile graphic and a bossy call to action.

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Learn How: Marketing Prof's Marketing Writing Bootcamp has a great course by Gail Martin about writing marketing case studies - highly recommended.