Selling through Case Study - List of "How To" Blog Posts
Posted by July 13th 09
Last week you were showered with many useful blogs from industry experts on how to create case study documents. In this second set, let us dig deeper on how to effectively use this powerful tool to sell your products or solutions. There are no hard and fast rules as to how to create the case study documents but there is one specific goal that we all want to achieve: Get the customers' attention. There are many things that contribute to achieve this - the document content, layout, distribution mechanism, ebooks & syndication on social media networks. Case study documents should grab the attention of the customer and sell the concept without you doing the sale.
B2B content marketing on social networks is emerging as a very dominating field that companies, no matter how big or small they are, cannot ignore. Case studies, just like white papers, play a very important role in building product and solution awareness. It is very key that organizations recognize the importance of these critical documents and publish their marketing material in the right locations on the Internet where their customers are. These documents highlight the core credibility of the product or solution that you are about to pitch to the customer. Here is a list of blog articles that help you sell your product or solutions through case studies and social media channels.
Kate Headen highlights in a post titled Case Study Basics – A Simple Formula for Sales Success an excellent starting point to draft case studies for sales and lead generation.
Case study documents add a lot of credibility to a sales cycle as they contain actual data from research and customer deployments. Casey Hibbard mentions in her article 5 Nuts and Bolts of Case Studies That Sell that "a case study provides evidence that the solution delivers what it promises, giving buyers the confidence to invest in a product or service." This article has very good information as to how to make a case study sell your product.
"Despite the current challenging times, Internet Marketing remains exciting, intellectually stimulating and in possession of a much brighter future than any other marketing channel I can think of." This quote is from Larry Chase’s article on 5 Reasons Why this Downturn is Good for Internet. While most businesses are going through intensive cost-cutting measures, social media provides a tremendous opportunity for companies to advertise and sell in a more cost effective manner.
It is very important to pinpoint which customer to use in your case studies' testimonials. The challenge here is that the customer to interview could have used a specific product. However, your document would be catering to multiple prospective customers who may or may not apply the solution mentioned in the document. How can we balance this situation? In How to Find the Right Customer to Use in Your Case Study, Sheldon Gladstein underlines 3 points:
- Ask your sales people
- Conduct an outside survey
- Contact marketing or PR representatives of likely candidates
Julie Szabo mentions that "a PR campaign can be an effective way to raise a company’s profile and attract customers." There are excellent pointers in that regards on Five Tips on Obtaining Customer Testimonials.
In this power tip blog, Diana Huff gives B2B Copywriting tips. She highlights the following: "Next time you write something, go back through the piece and search for the “there are” constructions and eliminate them, then reconstruct your sentences. I guarantee your copy will read 100% better."
Case Study or White Paper – What’s the difference is an article by Mike Stelzner that provides clear distinction as to when it is best to pick a case study instead of a white paper. Case studies focus on a very specific example or a customer problem and outcome, he emphasizes, while white papers tend to focus on discussing solutions, business benefits or product implementations.
I hope you have found this list useful. No list is by any means exhaustive so feel free to add your favorite resources in the comments.
posted in Tips and Techniques
July 2010
