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Copyright © SoftwareCEO Inc. Reprinted with permission.
We put these questions to two experts: seasoned software case study writer
Steve Slaunwhite
and Casey Hibbard, president of Compelling Cases, who focuses specifically on writing case studies.
They generously shared 22 tips on how to plan, write, and publish case studies for maximum impact.
"Dollar-for-dollar, case studies are the best marketing investment a company can make,"
says Slaunwhite. "I recommend them to 99 percent of the companies that I work with."
The power of case studies comes from three key facts:
they help prospects visualize using your software, they've got built-in credibility, and
they deliver high impact and high readership.
1. Helping prospects visualize using your software
"If you're buying a car, you can test-drive it," says Slaunwhite.
"If you're buying a piece of software-especially enterprise software-you can take a demo,
you can read the brochures, but you really can't experience what it's like to use it on a
day-to-day basis. A case study helps a prospect visualize what life is like with your software."
2. Built-in credibility
"It's one thing to have a piece of software that you're marketing," he says.
"But it's another to say, by the way, Mr. Prospect, it's working at ABC Company, XYZ Company,
this company, and that company in your industry."
And because a third party has gone on record for you, a case study instantly has more credibility
than any ad, brochure, or piece of product literature a vendor can produce.
3. High impact and high readership
"Case studies tend to break through the clutter," says Slaunwhite. "You can send brochures,
e-mail, newsletters, and those things often get ignored, but a case study gets noticed.
"People want to know what their colleagues in other companies are doing. They want to know
if they're doing something better and gaining a competitive advantage. So case studies tend to
have a very high readership. Nothing brings the benefits to life quite like a case study."
The following tips move in sequence from planning to research to writing to publishing
a case study to get the maximum ROI.
Don't expect one or two stories to do the job; plan to create fresh stories continuously.
But how many case studies is enough?
Some experts recommend that you create a case study for every market you target, every product
or service you offer, and every key objection you face.
Others use a rule of thumb: For a smaller software firm, four to six case studies a year is a
good target. A medium-size firm with a monthly newsletter or e-zine may need one fresh case study
every month.
And a big software firm with a wide product line across many vertical markets should have new
case studies popping out every couple of weeks.
"I really think a company should have a case study for every product and every application of
that product," says Slaunwhite. "You can't do enough case studies."
Hibbard agrees. "You need case studies to highlight different add-ons or upgrades,
and a couple that highlight your implementation services-if that's something you're trying to
sell-plus one that highlights your customer support," she says.
If you're selling around the world, plan to develop at least one success story for every country
where you do business-more as that market expands for you.
Also, think hard about translating your case studies before most other marketing materials;
after all, they're probably your most compelling content.
Don't try to write case studies in-house, unless you're really strapped for cash,
or you have a former journalist on staff.
"There's not a lot of copywriters who know how to do a full-blown case study, as far as
interviewing the customer professionally, asking the right questions, and being diplomatic,"
says Slaunwhite.
The ideal background for writing case studies is probably some combination of journalism and
business experience, with a fair understanding of technology thrown in.
How much should you spend? Our informal survey for this article showed that software case studies
start around $750 and can range up to $2,500, depending on the length and any special expertise
you need.
The typical length is 750 to 1,000 words: enough to produce a one or two-page printed story,
or three to four screens on the web. Customer stories intended for trade magazines are often twice
that long, or 1,500 to 2,000 words.
Don't scrimp on the writing cost: It's a pittance compared to the impact a good story can have.
How do you find suitable subjects for case studies?
One likely source of case study leads is your support team. Not everyone who calls in is a dummy;
sometimes your biggest fans and power users will call to learn how to use some obscure feature.
Ask your support team to capture names in this segment.
Your best source of case study subjects will likely be your sales force.
But how do you get their attention?
Just like you get their attention for anything else: cash.
"One software company I work with offers pretty good cash incentives, and they get a fair number
of ideas submitted," says Hibbard. "And then if the story winds up getting published,
the sales rep get $1,000."
She suggests choosing a few key opportunities to ask sales for case study leads, like around
sales meetings or during a traditionally slow quarter. That may work better than nagging them
all year round.
We know at least one software firm that offers a $1,000 discount on their license to any customer
who agrees to be featured in a case study.
Another approach is to appeal to the client's own need for promotion.
"People are busy, and you've got to sell the idea. Say, 'If you're willing to share your story,
you're going to be featured in all these places, and get a lot of exposure.'"
For a company at the right stage in their own growth, that kind of free publicity can be worthwhile.
Once you have a case study lead, handle it carefully.
Someone from marketing should call and tactfully confirm that they agreed to be interviewed.
Explain the process, and where you will likely want to publish the story. You may want to
pre-interview them to make sure they have a solid story to tell.
Whatever you do, keep their entire time commitment down to an hour or two.
What about approvals?
Hibbard recommends a simple approval form for subjects to sign.
"If you flesh out the process at the beginning, that can really help," she says.
"Ask, 'Who is going to approve this and sign off?' Talk to the legal team, and show them,
'This is the release form, this is a sample we did for another company, this is how it's going
to be used. '"
All that preparation can help when it comes time for the company to sign the release.
A case study without a customer name is about as believable as an urban myth that happened to
some "friend's roommate who knows this guy."
If you have plenty of leads and one won't agree to let you use their name, move on to the next.
"It significantly diminishes a case study's worth if you can't name the customer," says Hibbard.
"It's important to have a few big names to drop. But if you can't get them, go after the smaller
companies that you can name. A smaller company is more likely to say they want the exposure."
As far as structuring the story itself, the classic case study format is Problem and Solution.
Before and After. Then and Now.
Before, a terrible darkness had fallen over the land. Then, we found your wonderful software.
After, peace and prosperity once more flowed across the realm.
Sounds corny, but this is the underlying mythos of every case study.
Slaunwhite has a useful article at his site that lists eight key parts of a case study:
The customer
The challenge
The problem
The journey
The discovery
The solution
The implementation
The results
"This is a tried-and-true formula, a logical sequence that works very well," he says.
Slaunwhite points to the discovery and the implementation as the two elements most often overlooked
in case studies.
"The discovery is: How did the company find out about your software? Did they look at other software? What were the criteria they used to make the buying decision? That's very important and it's often skipped over.
"The implementation is important as well. If it's a large-scale enterprise software,
what was the training time like? How long was it before it was up and running 100 percent?
Was there any problem adapting the software to current business processes?
"Were there any support issues? There always are, and it's important to be honest about them."
From the point-of-view of your customer, the phone call from your writer counts as another contact
from your company.
Some customers use this call to gripe about unresolved issues, or offer suggestions for new features.
Don't lose this precious feedback. Ask your writer to capture and forward this to you,
even before they write the story.
"I sometimes find out there are certain issues that need to be resolved," says Slaunwhite.
"And when I inform my clients, they are usually very appreciative."
"When I call the customer, I always tell them I'm a consultant working with the company,
and for some reason they open up, perhaps a bit more than if it was the sales rep calling."
So, don't put the sales rep or marketing VP on the line for the call.
This will only make the customer feel outnumbered and more likely to clam up.
Trust your writer to dig out the whole story.
One key part of the story is how any problems were handled.
"There is no perfect implementation of any complex product like enterprise software,"
says Slaunwhite. "There is always some turbulence. I constantly ask, 'What problems developed?
How were they solved?'
"It's like getting your house renovated," he says. "It's never perfect.
But how are the issues resolved? Those are important ingredients of a successful case study
because they really make the story believable."
Of course, everyone wants to see the bottom line. But not all numbers are created equal.
"The customer may say, 'I cut shipment preparation time in our warehouse by 70 percent,
because this software does our shipping labels for us. And if a study hasn't been done,
I ask, 'How was that estimated?'" says Slaunwhite.
"Sometimes they'll say, 'Well, we used to have three full-time staff there, and now I only have one,
and the other two are on to something else.'
"So that makes it more concrete. I always try to nail them down. You may not always get analytical
results. But if you keep asking questions, you will usually get some specifics that make it
believable to someone reading it."
Slaunwhite says there are really only two types of case studies: full-blown and stripped-down.
"The best ones are journalistic, written like an article in a professional or trade magazine.
The other format is 'just the facts' with company, problem, solution, results.
Those are more like an outline for a case study-and they don't have a lot of mileage."
That's why he recommends writing the full-blown version first, and then stripping it down from there.
Sometimes a key result that emerges from a case study interview is that your software
makes someone look good.
"This is an important point in good B2B copywriting," says Slaunwhite. "There are business
benefits you have to talk about, but there are personal benefits as well.
Your software may cut costs 20 percent, but it also makes the CIO look like a hero."
He says personal benefits are sometimes ignored in case studies, but they shouldn't be.
"When it comes right down to it, it's individual people who make buying decisions-not groups,
not committees, not companies, but individual people," he says. "So you definitely have to
balance business benefits with personal benefits."
"You can get a lot of mileage out of a case study," says Hibbard. "But I rarely see anyone
really leveraging that investment."
"A lot of case studies are not utilized to their full benefit," echoes Slaunwhite.
"Because it's a success story-because everybody loves a good story-it should be used at
every opportunity."
Here are some of the many ways you can publish-and republish-a case study:
As an article submitted to a trade magazine
As a press release
As a mail-out to prospects or recent buyers
As a piece of product literature available to your sales force and channel partners
On your website, under a heading such as "Customers," "News," or even "Case Studies"
In your company newsletter or e-zine
As a free giveaway at trade shows
As a testimonial, by pulling out a few short snippets
On a CD as a leave-behind on sales calls
As an example in your next white paper
Converted to PowerPoint slides for speeches by your executives,
or presentations by your sales force.
If they're agreeable, you can also invite your case study customers to speak at your
user conference, to appear in a webinar, or to be interviewed in a podcast or video.
Of course, these versions will be more elaborate and costly than simply writing up their story
in print. But they will gain even more impact by featuring a live person in a richer medium.
The easiest sale is sometimes just rolling out your proven solution to another division
of the same company.
"It's very powerful to use a case study to sell further into an organization," says Hibbard.
"One company I work with has their software installed in one branch of a huge mortgage company with
lots of branches worldwide. It's been a very good success: This one branch was at the top in
terms of revenues and staff efficiency, so we did a case study on that.
"Now my client is taking it to the head office to try to convince them to roll out that software
to all the other branches."
What else could possibly give you such a clear inside track?
Of course, you want to alert your sales force or channel partners whenever you have a new case
study they can use.
You may want to offer a few different suggestions on how to use these, and beyond that,
let them find their own ways to use them.
"Sales is a fairly customized process, and everyone has their own way they do it," says Hibbard.
One rule of thumb: Case studies are most useful in the second half of the sales cycle,
when you have a qualified lead with a defined interest in your software.
Before that, when a prospect is still struggling to understand what your software can do for them,
white papers often work better.
You don't need any fancy knowledge management system. A sensible design for your website will do.
Let your structure mirror your plan for developing case studies. In other words,
organize them by product, by market, by sector, or by geography-or maybe by several alternatives-
so that any visitor to your site can quickly lock onto the stories that interest them the most.
"If you can search by industry, by company name, and by product and module used, then the
sales reps can find what they need," says Hibbard. "If you're going to the trouble of organizing
all your stories for your sales team, you may as well do that for the public as well."
The more work you do for an editor, the more likely they'll be to pick up your story.
"The editors of some niche or trade magazines will sometimes reprint a case study almost
in its entirely, because it's already written in article form," says Slaunwhite.
"If it's well-written, and it seems impartial, they may use every word of it."
OK, how do you best approach a trade magazine with your latest case study?
"The best way is very simple," he says. "Send a letter or e-mail, and enclose the case study
with a short cover letter stating, 'Here's a success story with our product, featuring this
kind of company, which had these kind of problems which were solved by this.'
"In your cover letter, tie in your story with possible themes, such as technology improving
productivity, reducing HR costs, streamlining payroll, or whatever some of the current themes are.
"If you can get the editorial calendar, you can send that letter at just the right time to
match up with a topic. That seems to work much better than just sending a press release
with the story."
"A case study still works like a charm as a free giveaway," says Slaunwhite.
"Case studies are very valuable in lead generation. I've written tons of e-mails promoting
a particular case study. They get a high click-through rate, and do very, very well.
"If someone is interested enough in a product to download a case study, that qualifies them
as a pretty good prospect that should be followed up."
He has strong advice on how to pitch a case study to prospects.
"If you're writing an e-mail to promote a case study, a webinar, or a white paper,
focus on the offer, not on the software.
"The offer is the case study, so focus on the benefits of the case study.
What does the case study reveal? What is the inside information you're going to get from reading it?
Why should you read it now? Why is it important?
"Focus on those things, not the software featured in the case study. A lot of software companies
write a lead-generation e-mail, or letter, or postcard that focuses on themselves or the product,
and not the offer."
In other words: Sell the offer, and let the case study sell your software.
That's what it's there for.
With so much riding on your case studies, don't forget your manners.
There are lots of ways to say "thank you" to a client who agrees to do a case study for you.
Here's are some suggestions from Hibbard:
Mail a handwritten note
Have the account manager or sales rep call to thank them personally
Send them some company promo items: a mug, T-shirt, cap, or whatever,
along with your thank-you note
Order them a more elaborate promotional item, like a gift basket.
When the story is done, always send your client a couple of color hard copies.
Consider framing or laminating one so they can hang it in their cubicles and feel like a hero.
"People really like reading stories. If you can make it an interesting story-as opposed to all
this other sales material-if you can impress someone with a really compelling story,
it will really help sell your software," says Hibbard.
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