How to write a great case study [+ Case Study Template]

What’s the purpose of a case study?

Let’s start with what it isn’t - to make a sale. Why not? Because you don’t sell consultancy without having an in-depth discussion with your prospect. This initial consultation is for you to understand the client and what they need, and to determine whether it’s something your firm can help with, and whether you want to (this is your bid qualification process).

So the purpose of your case study is to help convince a prospect to have an initial consultation with you – whether they instigate it (inbound), or you do (outbound).

Some consultancies choose to include case studies in their proposals. This suggests that case studies can be used to help you to make a sale. However, by the time you get to a proposal, your client should already be convinced that you have the capabilities and experience. Offering client references is more appropriate at the proposal stage if they are yet to be convinced.

In this article I'll dive deep into what makes a great case study and how you can create one. You can either read through this article top to bottom, or use the Table of Contents below to jump to the area of most interest.

Why most consultancy case studies are boring!

Case studies written with a selling mentality are obvious because they’re usually very boring! Their focus is on the consultancy, not the reader - your prospect.

One of the ways in which case studies mistakenly focus on the consultancy is when too much attention is given to describing your delivery methodology. The ‘how’ of what you did, rather than the ‘why’, and the ‘what now’ for your client.

Your job – or at least the job of your case study – is to make your reader (the prospect) believe that they can overcome the challenges they face. Your case study helps them to understand they’re not alone or unique in those challenges. And, when reading your case study, you want your prospect to be nodding their head and thinking to themself, “Yes, yes! That’s me they’re talking about!”.

Oh, and it’s about subtly showing them - through example of the outcomes that you’ve provided to others - that you can help them overcome their challenges.

Who should write the case study?

One of the reasons consultancy case studies tend to major on the middle bit – the how – is because a consultant has been tasked with writing it. Consultants are rightly very proud of what they do. They’ve spent a long time working on being good at it, and so they like to tell people! This is what I call the middle bit of a case study (more on structure shortly). However, your case study is not the place to deep dive into your delivery methodology.

Instead, you can do that in your Marketing by providing a free downloadable guide and making it available on your website. Or you could write a series of blog articles, or create an email course, or on-demand webinar, etc.

You could also delve into the depths of methodology in the sales process by writing a detailed proposal (although I don’t recommend this approach – your proposals should be brief and to the point!).

By the time your prospect gets to your case studies, they should already have a good idea of what it is that you do and how you do it. As I’ve said, the case study needs to convince them to speak with you, not to buy from you.

Another challenge in getting consultants to write case studies is that they’re too close to the detail, and often, oddly perhaps, too removed from the outcomes. And they’ve probably long forgotten the situation the client was in before they engaged you, or they may not even have been involved in the sales process and so don’t have that deep an understanding.

Add to this the fact that case studies are written in an entirely different way to a consultant’s report, you can see how you’d be setting your consultant up to fail!

How are they written differently? Well, in a case study you write to an individual, using first-person terms, and ideally including emotive language. In a consulting report the style is formal, and your audience is normally multiple people amongst whom you need to create consensus. Whereas in marketing copy (‘copy’ being marketing parlance for writing) I’m very happy to repel people! In fact, I may even want to so that I can be sure to attract the right prospects.

With that said, dull case studies aren’t only caused by getting consultants to write them. There are many marketers in consulting firms who, perhaps under duress from the senior leaders, also make the mistake of mostly talking about themselves, or their firm at least, in their case studies. This is obvious when a case study headline starts with: “Our company helped…” as if it isn’t obvious because it’s on their website!

Unless you’re a solopreneur, I generally recommend that case studies are written by your marketing team, or outsourced to a specialist. The lead consultant should still contribute, however, and provide review and critique.

How many parts are in a case study?

Your case study should tell a story. When telling stories, screenwriters use the 3-Act Structure, introduced by Syd Field in his 1978 book, Screenplay. The three acts are titled: Setup, Confrontation, and Resolution.

Act One sets up the world, characters, the character’s goal, as well as the conflicts or obstacles that are preventing them from achieving their goal. Act Two raises the stakes for the character to achieve the goal, escalating the conflict. Act Three resolves the story with either an achievement of that goal or a failure.

The most important takeaway of the 3-Act Structure is understanding that one event must lead to another and then to another. This unifies actions and meaning, and creates the semblance of a story.

Source: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/three-act-structure/

To apply this model to writing case studies we must simplify it even further - a case study needs a beginning (act 1), a middle (act 2), and an end (act 3). I like to refer to these as ‘the before’, ‘the during’, and ‘the after’.

As I mentioned earlier, most people get stuck in the middle bit – ‘the during’ – where they spend far too long going into way too much detail on the least engaging element. You can write much better case studies by initially focusing in-depth on ‘the before’. Getting crystal clear on the challenges that your clients were facing. How they felt about them - their frustrations and fears. What they wanted to achieve – their wants and aspirations.

Your case study should touch briefly on the middle bit (‘the during’), before majoring on the ending (‘the after’). This is where you get to go deep on the outcomes - from the client’s perspective, not yours! Think about those things that the client can now do, and the impact this has both now and in the future on the various stakeholders (more about this later).

How do I ask a client for a case study, and when should I ask?

These are two common questions. My answer to the latter is that you should ask your client for permission to create a case study as early as possible. Often, before the sale!

What I do in my standard terms and conditions is to state that I will reference the client in marketing materials. This way, permission is assumed unless they specifically request otherwise. This doesn’t mean I always get my own way, especially when it comes to dealing with large corporates, but it does gives me leverage in negotiations.

Being able to reference a client organisation adds huge value to my marketing and sales. If I can’t do it, I might add a premium to the cost of a project of, say, 5%-10%. Or I might flip the approach and offer a 5% discount for being guaranteed a case study as part of the engagement.

Of course, even though I state it in my T&C’s, if a client later objects, the likelihood is that I’ll abide by their request. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as they say!

Speaking of expressions, many times I’ve heard people say:

It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

I don’t recommend this approach when it comes to case studies. You risk upsetting clients and even causing damage internally within your clients to the person who may have contributed. Always be sure you have permission before writing about your clients.

Even if you have included a statement on your T&C’s, I’d still raise with the client early on. Tell them how important the engagement is to them, and to be working with them as a client. State that is your intention to create a case study and how you’d really appreciate their support and involvement.

When should I create the case study?

Gaining permission to create a case study doesn’t mean that you will create it at the same time – especially when you’ve gotten permission up-front! The best time to create a case study is as your project nears its end. It’s a time when your client should be experiencing a level of euphoria and possibly even relief!

Your lead consultant has probably mentally moved on anyway – they have their next engagement to worry about. Interest in past projects is fleeting for consultants, and the goodwill from clients can soon wane as their interests are focused on their next challenges. So, strike whilst the iron is hot!

I recommend adding requesting a case study as a mandatory step within your end-of-project review meetings with clients.

How do I increase the value of a case study?

Now that you understand the purpose of a case study, how to ask for one and when to produce it, you now need to create it.

Your case study should be an exciting and enticing story. The hero of your case study should be your client! This is how we get prospects to see themselves in the case study, and to desire the same – or similar - outcomes.

To add the most value to your case study, you will name your client organisation, the person contributing, and their role in the client’s organisation.

This is where we can hit our first obstacle. Not every client will allow you to name them in a case study. And as much as many so-called coaches and business gurus might profess that you only sell to the C-suite and that they have the power to do whatever they want, the truth is you don’t always sell to someone in the C suite, and even if you do, they’re unlikely to waste their time going into battle for you to overturn decisions aimed at protecting their brand.

That said, not being able to reference the client doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bother with a case study, it just means that its marketing value to your firm is more limited.

What if I can’t reference the client - The anonymous case study

If you can’t reference the client you can still produce an anonymous case study. Of course, it’s nowhere near as powerful as the alternatives, but sometimes it’s still worth creating.

I approach an anonymous case study in the same way as any other. If the client will support it, I’ll still undertake an interview and simply use unattributed quotations. Anonymous case studies are only really useful if you’ve no other option. For example, when you have a new service that you need to promote, and the only experience thus far is with a client unwilling to be named.

Naming the client contact

You can increase the value of your case study by naming your prospect and adding their job title, whilst leaving the company name out. Of course, anyone with a little nous can find people on Linkedin and work out the client, so this could mean skirting on the edges of what is acceptable in the client’s eyes. Tread carefully.

Adding a job role and a name helps bring your case study to life, especially when they are direct client quotations. Remember, you want your prospect to think that it is they who you are talking about. And if they share the same or similar job title as your referenced client, then you’re getting closer!

Naming the client organisation

The maximum value of a case study is achieved when you can name your client’s organisation. This helps your prospect to understand if the types of clients you deal with are like them.

A warning here: ego often gets in the way! Let me explain. We all fall into the habit of wanting to name our largest clients. It gives us a great sense of pride. And we hope to give the impression that, “If we’re good enough for them, then we must be good enough for you.”

There’s some truth in this. We essentially inherit brand value from those large organisations. However, your case studies should reference clients that are the most similar to who you engaging with.

Let me share an example from my own business. One of my clients generates just shy of £2bn in annual revenue. I’ve been consulting to this client for over 15 years. The fact is though, they’re an outlier. The vast majority of my clients have revenues of under £10m. Some less than £1m. So my big client has no relevance. (And actually, even if it did, I’m prohibited from referencing them anyway!).

In what formats can I create a case study?

Case studies can be provided in many formats. The most common are:

• Written Case Study: My preferred format because it’s the most versatile and quickest to produce.
• Video case study: These bring your stories and your clients to life, but they are much more costly to produce, take a lot more time, and clients can be less willing to get involved (many are camera-shy!).
• Case Study Presentation: An alternative method that grabs attention much more easily and is well suited to promotion via social media (more on case study promotion later).

Regardless of the chosen format, I always recommend creating a written one. The reasons for this are twofold:

1. Writing a case study helps to structure your thoughts (the three-acts) and can be the basis for any other format
2. A written case study is the most common and can be used in multiple different ways

Before you engage your client in a case study interview, you’ll want to decide upon your preferred format. If it’s a video case study, you’ll obviously need to get the client’s commitment first.

The Written Case Study

As I said, the written case study is my preferred default. I can easily host it on my website and use on-page SEO for long-term promotion. I can easily create a PDF version to send to prospects. And I can take snippets of text to use in other marketing and sales materials. The written case study format is, therefore, the most versatile.

The Video Case Study

Video case studies are my favourite for bringing a case study to life. Although, as previously mentioned, I still always create a written one.

The first video case study I did for a client I attempted to do the videography myself – I thought, “How hard can it be?!”. Turns out it’s actually very hard! There are so many things you need to take into consideration when creating videos, for instance:

• Your B roll
• Camera angle
• Lighting
• Editing, including having scene changes every 7 seconds (watch any TV soap and you’ll see what I mean)
• Captioning
• And much, much more.

If you want to get an idea, here’s that first effort of a video case study I did for a client.

And here’s the difference when I got a professional team of videographers involved.

These case studies were created by my firm, The B2B Marketer, on behalf of our client, CRM Insights. In both instances, notice how little I get the interviewees to talk about my client, CRM Insights. As much as they chose to mention them a few times, it’s obvious to the viewer (hopefully prospects) who it was who helped the subjects of the videos because the case studies are on my client’s website.

Also notice how they both still have written versions. Notice too that both videos are captioned. Videos should always be captioned as roughly 90% are watched without sound! And they should also work as audio-only in case they’re only listened to.

The Case Study Presentation

Whenever we create content, we’re asking for valuable time from prospects to consume it. What I like about the presentation format is that you’re not making huge demands on your prospect’s time. They can flick through the slides at their own pace, and the amount of reading required is minimal.

You can create your presentation using an appropriate page scale (A4 doesn’t work well on social media); share it on social media; and host it on both your own website and SlideShare.net.

Note that some social platforms don’t include the ability to share presentations, such as Facebook. What I do in this instance is to create slides in PowerPoint, configure automatic slide transitions with a wait time between transition, then export the presentation as an MPEG file. This means you can then share it as a video.

You’ll have to experiment to determine the required wait time between slides. This is often best done by getting someone else to read it whilst you time them between manual slide transitions.

How do I conduct a client case study interview?

Now that you’re clear on why you want to create a case study, how to ask for one, and the format in which you are going to create, you’re ready to engage with your client and undertake the case study interview.

If you’re writing the case study on behalf of someone else, your first action should be to read the proposal. Your second action is to interview the lead consultant.

Your conversation with the lead consult will be mostly the same as the one you have with the client, only you’ll be seeking additional information about the client, and specifically the person who you’ll speaking to from the client organisation.

Getting time in the diary of busy people like your clients is always going to be difficult. If you’re planning a video case study, there are much more involved logistics. For standard case studies where I’m just interviewing someone over Zoom, I have a dedicated Calendly link for case study interviews. This way when I ask the client, I can get it scheduled in straight away and avoid back and forth emails.

When I’m writing case studies on behalf of clients, I give my client the same link, and when they engage with their clients, they book the session on their client’s behalf. This makes the whole process as frictionless as possible.

Once on the call I always set them to record. I do this for two reasons: 

1. Paranoia that I’ll lose my notes and have the embarrassment of having to go back to the client!
2. So that I can extract direct client quotations that I’ll use in the case study and possibly for testimonial statements too.

Interview Questions

If you do a quick Google search for case study interview questions, you’ll come up with a huge list of questions that you could ask. However, you don’t want the client to feel like they’re being interrogated! I prefer to engage them in conversation and have a list of questions that I tick off in my mind as we go, rather than directly firing questions at people.

That said, here are the questions that I ask when undertaking a case study interview:

Act 1: The Before

• Explain to me what your organisation does?
• Explain to me what your role is in the organisation?
• What was the situation that you were in?
  • Describe the challenges faced – problems and opportunities.
  • How did they come about?
  • What made you aware of them? Were they a shock or expected?
  • The frustrations. What was their impact – immediately and in the future? What was stopping you from overcoming them?
  • The fears. What would have happened to you/your team/the business/its customers if you had not tackled them?
  • Would you have been able to tackle it for yourself? If yes, why didn’t you?

Act 2: The During

• How did you come across us/our firm?
• What made you choose us?
• What did we do together? Describe the journey.
• Aspirations: What were you looking to achieve?
• What new and unexpected challenges arose along the way?

Act 3: The After

• The needs: Now that the challenges have been overcome, what can you now do that you couldn’t before?
• How have things changed? What’s different now? What has been the impact on:
• The customers and clients of your business?
• Your business?
• Your team or function within the business?
• The role within the business? i.e. have you or are you more likely to be promoted or receive a bonus? Has you profile positively increased within your business? (You might not choose to use all of these more sensitive questions, and they may not be appropriate to ask at all. You will need to be the judge of this, and of what to include in your case study).

Closing Questions

I’ll also ask some closing questions which can be valuable to your future marketing and sales efforts, as follows:

• Thinking back to when you chose us, were we competing against anyone else for the work? If so, what stood out as potentially very good in their offering? What did you prefer in their offering over ours? (I’m more interested to know how competitors are better than me, rather than asking questions about why I was the best – the latter is still important but offers less improvement opportunities!)
• Would you be willing to act as a refer for us/my client?
• Can you think of anyone you know that could benefit from the same outcomes, and if so, do you think it would be helpful to them to make an introduction to us/my client?
• Would you be prepared to provide us with a recommendation on Linkedin? (Offer to write it for them too and suggest that they can edit or discard at will)

How do I write a case study?

Now that you’ve completed your client interview (and the lead consultant interview if you’re writing the case study on someone else’s behalf) you should have a robust set of notes and a recording. Download the Case Study template at the end of this article to help form your notes into your structured case study.

The production process I follow is: 

1.  Write the case study in word.
2. Review, edit and approve it internally.
3. Publish it on your website but don’t promote it just yet. Instead, invite the client to review it and set a deadline of, say, 1 week before you’ll begin promoting it. The reason I recommend publishing it first is that a case study will never be a client’s priority. I don’t want them to be a bottle neck in the process. It’s more a point of courtesy rather than formal approval – I’m giving them an opportunity to request edits, not give approval.
4. Make any client requested changes.
5. Promote the case study.

What style of writing should my case study be in?

Remember that case studies are a marketing asset. They’re not a consulting report, so the style of writing will be much freer. Use first-person terms, including emotive language, talk about individuals (positively, of course!), and make it exciting and enticing.

How do I write the headline?

Your headline is the most important line of your whole case study. It is often said that the purpose of the headline is to grab attention and convince the person to read the first line. This is why it’s so disappointing to see so many case study headlines that start with, “Our company helped…”.

I don’t personally use a specific formula for a headline as I tend to decide it on the merits of each case study. I don’t, however, start with the headline. It tends to come to me once I’m writing the case study. Once defined, I may then go through and edit the case study to ensure it aligns well with the headline.

Here are some examples of case study headlines that I’ve used along with an explanation of why I wrote them as I did:

Heading: Accountancy practice brings systems and processes in line with business growth

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I am calling out firms with the dual challenges of systems and process not keeping pace with business growth. An accountancy is an example of a professional services firm, so if your PS firm is experiencing these problems, you’ll be intrigued to read it.

Heading: Growth constraints lifted as Excel spreadsheets replaced with a tailored CRM

Name me a business that doesn’t find itself with core processes being managed in Excel! And, many of these businesses want to grow but Excel has become the constraint. In this heading I’ve called them and offered CRM as a solution. Someone experiencing these problems and either considering CRM or even unaware of CRM would be enticed to read on.

Heading: EV manufacturer reduces quote turnaround time from 1 day+ to less than 1hr

This headline offers an outcome that many sales directors would dream of. It calls out manufacturers but I wouldn’t expect that sector to be the exclusive reader.

Heading: Implementation of a CRM system enables membership organisation to grow by 300%

300% growth due to a software system? Doesn’t sound believable, which means there’s intrigue. (oh, and it’s also very true! – never lie in a case study).

Heading: Better business intelligence enables professional body to increase client retention

This headline details a problem for membership organisations – retention – and offers a solution and intrigue – improved business intelligence. I want the reader thinking, “Yes, I want that, but how?” which will hopefully lead them to reading the case study.

Heading: Dependence on rock star salespeople removed

Another common problem – those pesky sales rockstars. You know the ones – they never share information, but they’re also damn good at what they do! this headline offers a solution, but you’ll need to read on to find out more. It’s a risk, but hopefully the heavy intrigue is enough.

When it comes to headlines, have fun. Try different ones out. If you have the time, you can always A/B test them too. This would make for an interesting study and optimisation opportunity.

How long should my case study be?

Case studies really don’t need to be long. In fact, I’d say they shouldn’t be long. Five hundred words should do the trick. And if you limit yourself to this target, it avoids you dribbling words all over the page that add no value whatsoever. You’re less likely to dwell on that boring middle bit!

I’m sure plenty of people will have alternative views here, and I’ve seen case studies that are five or six pages long. Whilst I’m not a believer in the adage that people don’t read long form content anymore, I’m also not convinced that they’re interested in reading in deep detail about someone else’s business. Remember, the case study is to convince them to join you in a consultation – it’s not to make a sale.

How do I promote a Case Study?

Creating content, in all its forms, is around 20% of the effort in production, and 80% in promotion.

Too often a consultancy goes to the effort of creating a piece of content and considers the job done once that content is published. I’m afraid that’s just not good enough! Here’s my playbook of activities for promoting a case study:

1. Publish on the website:
   • On-page SEO optimise.
   • Ensure social share icons are included on the page.
   • Include a ‘bookmark’ capability on the page.
   • Create interlinks with your existing relevant content e.g. link to the case study from a blog article on the same topic.
   • If you have hub pages on your website (and you should), include the case study in the relevant hub
   • Use website push notifications to make subscribers aware.
2. Tell people about in the newsletter.
3. Post about it on social media – always add some narrative – never just post a link on social media as it seldom gets any engagement.
   • Post on company pages on Linkedin and other platforms.
   • Post on personal profiles of the lead consultant and any others in the firm with a decent level of following.
4. Make everyone internally aware of its availability and ask that they promote it.
5. Send an email to any of your other clients who might find it useful.
6. Share it with relevant prospects who might currently be in your sales pipeline:
   • Email it to them as a PDF or the hyperlink
   • Include it in a proposal (if that’s your strategy)
7. [Optional] Run paid ads on social media to present the case study to people who have consumed your other relevant content.

Should I gate case studies?

Gating content refers to requiring contact details in return for providing access. I have seen one particular marketer who takes this approach. Personally, it’s not an approach I would adopt as I believe case studies serve as the final convincer for the prospect. The chances are the prospect has already consumed some of your gated content. I don’t want to further get in their way and add friction by gating content.

Case studies should be easy to access. In terms of generating leads, I always like to include a call-to-action at the bottom to schedule a call with one your experts.

Return to top

What happens next? (the call-to-action)

In the model of marketing that I recommend, your case studies help your prospect to build trust in you. They also enable your prospects to better understand their challenges, and what they might also be able to achieve (ideally with your help!). 

Now, I'm a firm believer in that your marketing should never take your prospect to a dead-end. So, at the end of your case study you need to consider what you want them to do next.

It might be that your case  study is all the prospect needs to be convinced to jump on a call with you. This is why I like to finish off case studies with a simple call-to-action that provides them with the ability to schedule a call with one of your experts. 

However, just in case they're not ready yet, I also recommend providing links to any other relevant content on your website. You can do this manually, or more efficiently with careful use of tags and categories in WordPress. 

Case Study FAQs

What else can I do with a case study?

Case studies do take time and effort to produce. Therefore, I like to maximise how much value I can get from them. One of the most obvious ways is to create client testimonials. You can extract something valuable that they’ve said to you and turn it into a testimonial statement. These can then be used on your website homepage, in other marketing assets such as services brochures, and even in proposals.

How can I reduce the cost of a video case study?

A good, professionally produced video case study usually costs anywhere from £2,000 and up. There is no upper limit as the only real limit is your and your videographer’s creativity.

One way that you can reduce the cost is to find a way to share it. For example, the case study that I referenced earlier was for my client – CRM Insights. They had implemented a CRM product called Workbooks CRM for their client. Therefore, we engaged with the product vendor to see if they might also be interested in funding a case study with the same client.

As a result, I actually created two versions of this case study. One version for CRM Insights, and the other version for Workbooks. This enabled both organisations to achieve a lower cost outcome.

The lowest cost video case study is to simply record a Zoom session. Here’s an example of where I did that for my client, CRM Insights. The quality isn’t as good, but it’s a cost effective approach.

Should I remove case studies when the company profiled is no longer a client?

I hear this concern a lot. Especially with clients who expertise is in a software product that a client may have chosen to move on from. In my view, a case study is a point in time snapshot. The relevance is your ability to solve the specific challenges your prospects face at that time, and with prospects that are now faced with similar challenges. What happens afterwards is largely irrelevant.

So only remove a case study in the following circumstances:

1. It no longer reflects what you do or who you work with
2. The relationship with the client has since turned sour
3. It has become very old. How old very much depends on what you do. As a general rule, if you’re referencing something from 5 years or more ago, it’s probably a bit old now.

Download Case Study Template

So, now you know all there is know about writing a great case study! Are you ready to put all of this learning into practice? If so, click on the image below to download our free case study template (no contact details required).