Case study: ”A documented study of a specific real-life situation or imagined scenario, used as a training tool in business schools and firms.”

From the outside looking in, case studies are far from glamorous or sexy. Heck, they sound downright boring.

But if you dismiss case studies, you’re making a mistake, particularly for startups looking to attract new users.

Why is that?

The biggest reason is case studies (aka success stories) bridge the gap between what your product does and how people actually use it. This is an important gap to close between it lets customers take three steps:

1. Understand what your product does and how it works.

2. See how it could benefit them.

3. Buy your product.

One of the biggest challenges in making this happen (aka the sales funnel) is potential customers need to not only grasp how your product works and the benefits it delivers but they have to get how they can successfully embrace it to do their jobs better, differently, more efficiently, etc.

This is where case studies can play a critical role. By creating case studies that highlight how different people are successfully using your product, it provides potential customers with a better idea of how the product works in the wild.

In other words, case studies let you put the spotlight on how the product is being used as opposed to what it looks and feels like on paper.

So how should start approach case studies?

To get going, it is important to think about case studies as stories rather than a “documented study of a specific real-life situation or imagined scenario”. To get people to read a case study, it needs to be engaging, educational or even entertaining.

Next, think about the different kinds of customers who are having success with your product. This gives you the opportunity to provide a variety of stories that could resonate with potential customers based on the idea your product meets the needs of different users in different ways.

Then, you want to interview customers to get their stories. Some of the questions include:

1. How did you learn about our product?

2. How do you use the product?

3. What are the biggest benefits? Can you provide an example of how it worked for you?

4. Have you discovered new or different users for the product, compared with original expectations?

5. Does the product deliver good value?

Another key question is how the product isn’t working, or how it could be improved. It is always difficult to hear criticism but it’s invaluable to hear this kind of feedback. And you would be surprised by how customers like it when you ask for their opinion because it shows you value their contributions.

Bottom line: If case studies are leveraged opportunities to tell a story about your product AND customers, they can be effective marketing and sales vehicles.

Tagged case studies, Marketing, startups |