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How to take the stress out of writing case studies
The document provides guidelines for creating stress-free marketing case studies, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in marketing to enhance engagement and persuasion. It outlines the components of effective case studies, the timing for drafting them, and their role in quality assurance throughout the project lifecycle. Additionally, the document highlights strategies for repurposing case studies to maximize their impact and value.
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How to take the stress out of writing case studies
- 1. 1 How to takethe stress out of writing case studies Friday July 9, 2021 David Minton | @DH_David @DesignHammer
- 2. Overview • Introduction • Who,When,Where? •What? • How? • Conclusion 2
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- 4. Overview • Google Analytics •Google Tag Manager • Common Google Tag Manager Patterns • Customization and Testing • Conclusion 4 Managing Partner @DH_David Over twenty years industry experience David Minton 4
- 5. Who am I? •Managing Partner at DesignHammer • Head business development and sales • Writing case studies over 20 years • Member of Drupal Community over 10 years 5
- 6. Learning Objectives • Takethe stress out of producing case studies • How to use case study process for QA 6
- 7. Assumptions • Marketing casestudies (mostly) • Custom software projects (e.g. Drupal) • B2B projects 7
- 8. Why bother with CaseStudies? Who,When,Where? 8
- 9. Who uses casestudies? 9
- 10. When to employcase studies? 10
- 11. “Everyone loves stories.Theyare easy to remember…and evoke emotions in one’s audience.…Reports on emotional marketing say that emotional content can improve marketing efficacy by 70%.” — How to create social proof through case studies business.com 11
- 12. Where to usecase studies? • Company website • Event collateral • Nurture campaigns • Proposals • d.o 12
- 13. Know your audience •Motivation • Technical understanding • Attention span 13
- 14. Attention span? • Proposal:~200 words • Website: ~600 words • d.o: ~1,200 words 14
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- 17. Power up #1 Harnessthe power of community 17
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- 21. What is a CaseStudy? Tightening our focus… 21
- 22. “In marketing, casestudies are used as social proof — to provide buyers with the context to determine whether they’re making a good choice.A marketing case study aims to persuade that a process, product, or service can solve a problem.” — unknown 22
- 23. What is nota case study? • Screen capture of home page • Summary of work performed 23
- 24. Minimum components • TheProblem • The Solution • The Results 24
- 25. Recommended Additions • Marketingsavvy Title • Client Overview (if relevant) • Visuals • Quotes (External and/or Internal) • Call to action 25
- 26. When to release? •Coincide with completion of project? • Short time after completion? • Once results are collected? 26
- 27. Types of Results •Objective vs. Subjective • Internal vs. External Analytics • Immediate vs. Over Time • Technical vs. Business Case 27
- 28. Not “Results” • Newwebsite • Attractive website 28
- 29. ~$3 billion estimatedvalue 29
- 30. $626.5 billion marketcap 30
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- 34. How we doit Time for the secret sauce… 34
- 35. When to start? •Whenever you get around to it? • Soon after the project is complete? • At the end of the project? • In the middle of the project? • At the start of the project? 35
- 36. Usual complaints • Toomuch effort • No time to do it • Competes with paying work 36
- 37. When to start? •During Discovery & Planning • Everything needed except actual results should be known 37
- 38. Too much effort? •Case study draft serves as Executive Summary for Specification 38
- 39. No time todo it? • Part of the Specification • Include in project estimate 39
- 40. Power up #2 Whois paying for all of this? 40
- 41. Competes with payingwork? • Case study is part of Specification • Case Study is QA step • Charge clients for the work! 41
- 42. Our process • PerformDiscovery & Planning • Draft Specification • Biz Dev/Marketing determine “sales angle” • PM meets with Content Writer 15–30 mins. 42
- 43. Case Study draftmeeting • Who is the client? • What are their goals? • What are their challenges? • What is the overview of our solution? • What are the desired results? • When will initial results be determined? 43
- 44. “How is thispart of QA? If the project manager can’t explain the project at a high level after conducting Planning & Discovery, and drafting the Specification, the project is off the rails.The project manager then has to explain to me why they can’t answer these questions.” — David Minton DesignHammer 44
- 45. Caveats • Challenge forpure Agile projects • Sometimes the client doesn’t provide everything we need to do the project right. • May need to push back on client or eject • Plans may change either during Specification review, or during the project • The “Executive Summary” version needs some editing to be a marketing case study 45
- 46. Power up #3 Getit in writing! 46
- 47. Include draft CaseStudy in spec • Client approves the case study included in Specification (before you start coding) • Possible it gets removed for legal review, etc. 47
- 48. Big win allaround • Reduces chance of internal/external miscommunication on project goals/results • Case study completed with minimal effort • Case study completed with the project • Client pays for the case study 48
- 49. Power up #4 Casestudies are a force multiplier… 49
- 50. Repurpose case studies •Write blog posts about case studies • Post case studies to social media • Include case studies in newsletters • Present case studies at conferences 50
- 51. Power up #5 Learnfrom failure as well as success 51
- 52. “Case studies offailure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall or recite them when something in a new design or design process is suggestive of what went wrong in the case study.” – Henry Petroski, Ph.D. specialist in failure analysis 52
- 53. Case for casesstudies of failure • Valuable lessons from failure • Document institutional knowledge • Keep them internal (of course) • For small organizations debrief may suffice • Formal case studies of failures for enterprise 53
- 54. Conclusion Let’s tie itall together 54
- 55. Why start atthe beginning? • Ready when you need it • Higher quality with less effort • Provides an additional QA step to process 55
- 56. Take aways • Casestudies are a valuable marketing tool • Both positive and negative case studies have value • Write case studies at the beginning not the end 56
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