3 reasons you should be publishing customer case studies
Back in 2016, I interviewed a San Jose State University engineering student named Karel Bachand. As a college student, Bachand had reversed engineered a $200,000 Swiss watch, building a version of it from scratch, and the video he made about the watch went viral within the watch enthusiast community. It was so well received that the company that manufactured the replicated watch reached out to Bachand and flew him to Switzerland to meet with them.
I ended up writing a 1,500-word profile of Bachand. But it wasn’t on behalf of a magazine or newspaper. Instead, I was hired by the 3D printing and manufacturing company that had fabricated the parts for him. They had identified Bachand as a unique customer with an amazing story, and they asked me to leverage my journalism skills to write a case study of sorts.
As a content marketer, it’s pretty common for companies to approach me about writing case studies about their best customers, and it’s something I think organizations should do more often. Here’s why:
Case studies are a form of marketing
When told well, case studies can make for really great content. The key is to find customers that can tell captivating stories and/or provide meaningful insights. This means identifying customers that are using your product or services in a unique way that can be replicated by others within their industry.
Let’s say you run an email marketing platform. There are thousands of businesses that are looking for ways to better leverage their email marketing, so they’ll be receptive to a case study for how one of your customer utilized your platform in a way that drove engagement and sales.
They can be used by your sales team
It’s pretty common for case studies I write to be incorporated into sales presentations. A salesperson’s job becomes much easier if they can cite specific examples for how other customers use a product or service, and a case study can act as an effective closing tool for a customer who’s on the edge about whether to purchase.
They allow you to forge better relationships with your best customers
Whenever I interview a customer for a case study, it’s not uncommon for the company that hired me to join the phone call. The case study provides an opportunity for the company and its customer to form a stronger connection that will hopefully further endear that customer to the product or service. A big focus for many companies is client retention, and getting one-on-one time with your best customers is a great way to engender product loyalty.
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Simon Owens is a tech and media journalist living in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Email him at simonowens@gmail.com. For a full bio, go here.
