When it comes to using any kind of service or buying any kind ofproduct that costs money, no one (ideally) wants to take the risk thatthey are wasting their money. When deciding whether to buy, a potentialcustomer will use a variety of different variables to evaluate how muchrisk is involved in the purchase. This may include analysing the branditself, recalling known reviews, researching new reviews, comments frompeers, past and present advertising, pricing and countless others. Oneway for you to help reduce the level of risk is to provide evidence ofexisting and happy customers that the potential customer can relate to.For smaller, less considered purchases, you should consider publishingpositive feedback, for example https://www.heartinternet.uk/web-hosting/heart-internet-reviews.html.These are fine for lower value products, but for products that charge ahigher price, and therefore carry greater risk, it may be necessary toprovide more in depth information. This is where case studies come in.

A case study provides you with these benefits:

• Offers first hand evidence of a satisfied customer

• Clearly demonstrates who your target audience are

• Provides downloadable information for prospects to keep and share

• Gives you control over the feedback/ review

The structure of a case study

A case study is more than just a description of what a customer hasbought from you. Case studies should be written in such a way that thereader follows a journey from the identification of the problem, to howit was solved (with you) and then through to the positive impact of thischange. The amount of information to provide in each case study willdepend on your product and target audience, however, a general structureto follow is to divide it in to these parts….

• Customer: Who is the case study about, what do they do, how big are they etc

• Challenge: What was happening within their business/ industry?

• Problem: Why did something need to change or be bought?

• Journey: What research did they do, how did they hear about you etc?

• Discovery: What made them go with you?

• Solution: What did they buy from you and why?

• Implementation: How was this integrated in to their business?

• Results: What positive impact did you have on their business?

Who to approach?

When a brand or product develops a core group of advocates these peopleare worth their weight in gold. They spread positive word of mouthamongst their peers, become actively involved in your social mediaactivities (blog, twitter etc) and more often than not buy exclusivelyfrom you. If you are lucky enough to have brand advocates, these areyour first port of call for a case study. If you are unsure who theyare, a more systematic approach may be needed. List your top customersby revenue, length of time as a customer and number of items bought. Thecustomers at the top of these lists are your power users and the onesmost likely to be happy enough with you to go on record.

How to approach them?

This obviously depends on your existing relationship with them. If youhave regular face to face or telephone contact, asking them asking themis pretty straight forward. If your services are all managed online withminimal or no contact then you’ll have to introduce yourself first.Send a simple email explaining who you are, what you want from them plusthe benefits to them of taking part (incoming link, exposure to yoursite visitors etc). That last part is important, the marketer in themwill see an opportunity to advertise themselves to your customer base aswell as helping out a trusted brand (that’s you).

More than just a case study

Once you have all this fantastic information you should also look at howyou can use it in other formats. For example you could adapt the casestudy in to press releases, direct mail pieces, in newsletters,developed in to a leaflet/ hand out for trade shows and used inpresentations.