4 Ways to Leverage Case Studies in Your B2B Marketing

4 Ways to Leverage Case Studies in Your B2B Marketing:from Business 2 Community by Brianne Dawson

One of the biggest challenges for B2B marketers is that we are often selling services, rather than products. Services can be tougher to sell than products because potential customers can’t physically see and touch a service before purchasing it. Thus, the value and benefits of a service are simply harder to see. Fortunately, we B2B marketers have been given the gift of the case study, which lends itself perfectly to demonstrating the value of your firm’s solutions.
I love case studies because they are (or should be) short, simple, and most importantly – benefit oriented. The ideal case study paints a picture of a business challenge faced by a client, the solution you devised to tackle that problem, and a summary of the results backed up with solid facts. To learn more about the steps for writing an effective case study, visit our blog post on the topic.
So, what’s a B2B marketer to do once they’ve created awesome case study content? Share it, of course! The great thing about case studies is that they lend themselves to so many different formats. The natural first step is to add the case study to your Web site, but don’t stop there! Here are four more ways that you can repurpose a case study to demonstrate your business’ value in a clear and engaging manner.

1. Blog about it. While a blog post may not have the allure of video or other multi-media formats for sharing your case studies, it is a quick and easy standby. Blogging about a case study is great for quick turnaround. Upon completion of a project, you can share your valuable story within hours and easily spread the word on social media.

Our clients often get stumped on what to blog about and our common response is, “Write about what you know.” Writing about and reflecting on your own success in helping clients reach their goals leads to content that is both interesting to your prospects and easy to write.

1. Consider direct mail. Case studies can make great direct mail pieces, whether it is an over-sized post card or folded self-mailer. If you have a case study that highlights a particular service or solution that you offer- or appeals to a particular market segment- this is a great opportunity to do a targeted mailing. Pull a list of your target prospects for this service/market from your CRM or purchase one from InfoUSA, and you’ve got your audience. Depending on the nature of the project or solution, a direct mail piece can also lend itself to sharing pictures or charts of the results you helped obtain.

1.  Let your clients do the talking. While case studies can easily be written, they can also make for really interesting videos, especially if you let your clients do the talking. Consider using tools like SocialCam to record quick video testimonials of your clients after you’ve completed a project. Be sure to have them explain their initial problem, the solution you presented, and how/why they appreciated the results.

Allowing actual clients to share their success stories can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool for your company. When your video is complete, you’ve got great content that can easily be shared on your Web site and on social media. (If you’re not sure how to use video for business purposes, our video marketing guide might answer a lot of your questions.)

1. Get automated. You’ve heard me sing the praises of using awesome presentation tools like SlideRocket and Prezi in blogging, and they are just as useful in case studies. Creating an automated multi-media presentation about your case study is a great way to make the content engaging. Using this format, you will have text, images, photos, charts and even video (mentioned above) on your side to communicate your story. Best of all, tools like SlideRocket allow you to generate a URL link to your presentation, so you can easily share it on social media or email it to prospects. As you build a library of your case studies, you can begin to send links of helpful case studies that demonstrate your talents to prospects after you meet with them.

These are just a few ideas for leveraging your case studies, but the opportunities to repurpose your content are only limited by your own imagination. I’d love to know, what are you favorite ways to leverage your own case studies?