Get professional tips for writing a case study that drives business impact. Learn the best format and research method to use alongside examples & templates.
John McTale“I climbed Mount Everest and I did it all by myself.”
“Yeah mate, pics or it didn’t happen.”
The same logic applies to case studies. In business, it’s “case studies or it didn’t happen.” A well-written case study legitimizes your product or services. It proves the impact your actions have on the bottom line and is the single most important element of building trust amongst prospective clients.
But… How do you write a *perfect* case study? One that engages readers and makes them care about your offering and excited to work with you?
Create your case study Your browser does not support the video tag. Static PDF Your browser does not support the video tag. Interactive StorydocIn business, a case study , or customer success story, is a marketing tool that showcases how your product or service helped clients overcome business challenges. It uses statistics, quotes, and specific examples to convincingly highlight your ability to produce results.
The purpose of a case study, usually, is to provide your prospective clients with specific examples of how your products or services can help solve business problems they might be facing. Case studies legitimize your business activities allowing you to go beyond explaining what you do and focus on how well you do it.
(And, in case you were wondering just HOW important case studies are, here’s an item of data to ponder: according to a DemandGen report, 78% of B2B buyers want to review case studies before making a purchase decision. Another study by Uplift found that at the end of 2023, f or the third year in a row, marketers ranked case studies the #1 most effective marketing tactic to increase sales—ahead of general website content, SEO, blog posts, social media, paid ads and other tactics. ) There’s no magic behind it. Just a proven, simple formula I’m about to share with you. Spend the next 7 minutes reading this guide and you’ll learn how to write case studies better than any case study you’ve created in the past.
Important caveat: this article explains how to write a case study for business purposes. If you’re interested in writing research case studies for academia, refer to this excellent guide by University of Southern California.
If, in turn, you’re struggling with putting together a medical case study, here’s a fantastic 101 by the BMJ. I’m not going to pretend I know better than these guys do. For your reference, here’s an example of our very own case study, showing how, at Storydoc, we helped the Spot company boost some of their key metrics: Learn How Spot by NetApp boosted their conversion rates 2x.