What is a case study?

You know you have an exceptional product or service that can benefit your target audience, but convincing potential customers of your value can be difficult. One study found that 96% of consumers don't trust ads at all. To build credibility, many companies find great success with case studies. 

When ads make vague claims, it's hard to stand out from the competition and convince customers that you can really deliver the solutions they're looking for. Since competition is already fierce, lacking distinctive, trustworthy claims that show how you can resolve consumer pain points can put you at a disadvantage. 

Case studies, however, can help you demonstrate in clear, concise ways exactly how your business has benefited clients. 

By the end of this guide, you'll understand what is a case study, and you'll learn 7 tips about how to write a compelling one.

Case Study: Definition & How to Write

1. What is a case study?

A case study is a research methodology, often seen in life and social sciences as well as in marketing, where a comprehensive investigation is performed on a subject such as an event, unit, person, or group of people. It's also been referred to as a systematic study where phenomena are examined in their natural setting to uncover insights. 

When using the case study approach to research a subject, you start with a broad topic and then focus on a specific case. In doing so, you can identify manageable questions at the outset that enable you to collect both quantitative and qualitative data relating to multiple variables. That data can uncover causes, patterns, and behavior motivators related to the subject that help to give you answers to your initial question(s). 

When executed objectively, the takeaways from one case study can be used to better understand similar cases. However, oftentimes, case studies are very subjective, making it difficult to apply the results on a broader scale. It's best if you can perform several case studies aiming to answer the same question in order to gain a more accurate view that can be generalized for the subject at large. When multiple similar case studies are performed, they are grouped together in what's called a quintain. 

Case studies are used in a variety of industries from medicine and education to social work, psychology, and political science. They can be a useful tool for gaining a better understanding of a subject on a macro scale by looking at micro examples. When writing one, you'll use a similar format as you would in other psychology writing types, meaning the rules of APA format apply.

2. Benefits of using case studies for your marketing

Case studies can be powerful marketing tools for businesses in all industries. There's plenty of data to back this up, including the following from a variety of studies:

• 13% of marketers named case studies as a primary form of content used in their content strategies

• Case studies are the third most influential content marketing media type when it came to leading purchases for both small and large businesses

• 66% of B2B marketers surveyed claimed that case studies were "very effective" at driving results

• 55% of B2B marketers claimed that case studies were the "single most effective content format" at driving conversions

There are a large number of benefits that make case studies so popular and effective, including the following:

• They show you can deliver what you promise. Many businesses make big promises about what their products or services do, but showing that you can actually deliver on those promises can be a game-changer for customers. You can explain exactly what you can offer and the results that clients may see, which is about as concrete as it gets.

• They’re powerful selling tools. Case studies are inherently convincing when it comes to driving sales. Customers feel assured when they know what to expect and know that other customers have found success and positive results through what you offer. 

• They can increase backlinks and SEO. Additional content always presents additional opportunities to rank for new keywords in search engines like Google. And since you’re writing high-quality, original content that features unique data, this increases the likelihood of people referencing your case study and linking back to it. Link building is an essential part of increasing your site’s domain authority and boosting your SEO ranking potential. Your domain authority is a score that tells you what your ranking potential is. Established sites with plenty of backlinks will have higher domain authority than brand new sites, making it easier for them to rank for competitive keywords in search engines. 

• They can contribute to thought leadership. Want to build up your reputation as a true expert in your industry? The practice of creating content to establish yourself as an expert is called "thought leadership." Creating original research and publishing it in a case study helps position you as an expert on the topic, especially once other brands start linking back to it. 

• They differentiate you from the competition. Most of your competition may be making generic claims, like “Save money with our deal-tracking app,” but if you say “Our customers save an average of 34% on online orders,” it’s easier to stand out from both direct and indirect competitors.

• They can act as client testimonials. If you’re featuring an individual customer or client (with their permission, of course), it’s already working as a client testimonial for your business. The client may also be excited to share the case study with their own network once it’s been published, which can expand your reach and help you attract new customers. 

3. Data collection methods

There are two key types of research methods that can be used when creating case studies for your business: qualitative research and quantitative research. 

Qualitative data collection method

Qualitative research is text-heavy as it’s expressed through words to best understand concepts, experiences, or thoughts. You’ll typically use research methods like accumulating and analyzing submitted reviews, conducting interviews that ask open-ended questions and observing trends. 

Quantitative data collection method

Qualitative research is all about numbers and graphs. This is extremely data-heavy and is well-suited for technical content, especially when looking for causation or correlation in results that can be statistically proven. 

Experiments, surveys with multiple-choice questions, and observations recorded with data may be used for quantitative research. 

Quantitative and qualitative research: which to use?

Case studies with hard data and statistics are incredibly valuable selling tools when you're trying to show the specific, proven, and measurable impact your brand or service has had on a product. A call answering service, for example, could track that customer service reviews increased in satisfaction by 60% after they started handling all incoming calls for one of their clients. That's clear and measurable. 

Case studies using quantitative data are often best accompanied by a list of clear statistics and ideally visual representations. They work well in infographics and written blog-post formats. 

Sometimes though, ideas or concepts are just as important to customers, and this is where qualitative research is used. A home security system may not be able to prove that it prevented burglaries that never happened, but the business can interview customers that can share thoughts about their feelings of safety or the reliability of the system. These case studies typically will be best in a written format and don't translate as well into infographics. They do, however, work well as video content that can be shared on your site and social media. 

Some case studies will combine the two research methods for a mixed methodology approach. In this case, you may feature an interview with a client (or from different individuals in a group) that's paired alongside quantitative, statistics-heavy data.  

4. How to write a case study

Wondering how to write a case study? Here are 7 tips to help you write a compelling one: 

1. Set proper expectations

Case studies are pieces of content that can take a bit of time to research, organize, write, design, and publish. You may be hoping that the minute they are posted to your website, the traffic comes pouring in. However, they likely aren't going to be the big traffic drivers for you. 

If you look at the sales funnel, the top is the biggest and as prospects get closer to becoming customers, the funnel gets smaller and there are fewer of them. Case studies are a type of content that prospects are looking for in the decision phase of their buyer's journey, which comes after the awareness and consideration stages. As a result, fewer people will be looking for them than, say, a blog about a more general topic. However, those that are seeking out case studies, will be on the brink of buying and just need that final nudge. 

So the bottom line is don't expect your case studies to go viral but know they play an important role in converting prospects. 

2. Choose a strategic angle

As you're planning your case study, it's important to think about your angle. Where are you coming from, what impact do you want to make, and how do you want to make it? With thousands and thousands of case studies floating around out there, you need to offer something different. So head to the drawing board to brainstorm. For example, a personal trainer could perform a case study on a past client who wanted to lose weight after they quit smoking. This would be more than just a before and after, but a story that resonates with a whole sector of potential clients dealing with a particular issue. 

3. Make your case study easy to identify with

While you do want your case study to have an angle, you also want it to appeal to most of the people in your target market. So while you address a specific aspect of your solution and hook many readers, you also need to highlight the overall solution that will appeal to a wider audience. For example, using the example above, you would highlight a weight loss plan after quitting smoking but also show how you create a customizable weight loss solution that can work for a wider range of people. 

4. Tell a story

As humans, we're hardwired to love a good story. It's why many TV shows, movies, books, and even commercials can hook us. They follow a specific storytelling formula. You can help to engage your readers by following that formula, too. It's called the narrative arc and has the following main components:

• Introduction: Introduce the client and the problem they are facing. Ensure the client is the protagonist of your story. Also, set the scene, providing necessary background information and relevant facts. 

• Inciting incident: Explain what drove the client to seek out a solution? What problems were they facing?

• Rising action: What solution did you provide? Why was this solution chosen? Detail what you offer and how the client used it. 

• Climax: What changes did they see? Explain how your solution helped them. 

• Falling action: What were the results over time? Here you can include the hard data that highlights the results. 

• Resolution: Where are they now? How has the solution transformed their business and brought them a "happily ever after" ending?

Throughout the case study, you should be showing how the customer's experience was transformed thanks to your solution. Make it a cohesive story that starts with the problem, leads to the solution, highlights the result, and then wraps up in a conclusion. When finished, be sure that there aren't any gaps or inconsistencies in the structure or content. 

5. Incorporate data

Data is the meat and potatoes of your case study and the proof that you have solved your customer's problem and can likely do so again for future prospects. It should directly reflect how you solved the problem faced by your past client. It's great if you can also visualize it using charts or graphs. These will be the main takeaways the reader can keep in mind. 

6. Position yourself as the loyal sidekick

Next, it's important to remember that you are not the hero of your story. Instead, the customer or client is the hero. They are the main focus and you are more like their loyal sidekick. The story is about your client facing a problem and finding a solution for it, your company just happens to be that solution. Taking a supporting role can help to earn the trust of your audience and help them visualize themselves as the next hero in your story. 

7. Include real testimonials 

Lastly, you can only say so much about yourself. Letting your real clients do some of the talking in their own words can help to further validate your solution and gain more credibility. Often, clients will explain their experience in a way you wouldn't think to but that resonates greatly with other clients like them. So be sure to integrate direct quotes from your clients in your case studies, specifically in the section describing their problem and how the solution transformed their business.

Conclusion

Using case studies to market your business can make a huge impact on how customers see you. Having detailed information about actual results that you've managed to achieve for other clients can be an essential trust-building tool that can lead to a direct and immediate increase in both rapport and sales. 

These benefits are exceptional, especially once you consider that case studies can be incorporated into your overall marketing strategy as a form of content marketing to increase your reach even further. Since case studies are original to you, no one else can copy or replicate the data, helping you further differentiate yourself from the competition.