How to Generate More Customer Case Studies

Customer case studies are quickly becoming an essential part of your website and marketing efforts. Not to mention how they can help you gain an advantage over your competitors. But, we all know that generating high-quality customer case studies is difficult. And, formatting them to fit your branding and messaging is even more challenging. If you’re wanting to learn how to generate more customer case studies, you’re in the right place. But, before we go straight into how to generate them, let’s talk a bit about the importance of customer case studies. 

Why Are Customer Case Studies Important?

Customer case studies are becoming essential for companies to have. With how competitive the market is, and will continue to be, if you don’t have customer case studies, you run the risk of losing a prospective customer to one of your competitors. Case studies and reviews are how most prospects choose between their options. In fact, 93% of purchasers review customer case studies prior to making their final decision. With stats like this, it’s hard to deny that they’re important.

Customer Case Studies vs Reviews

I commonly see marketing managers say that they have reviews, on sites like G2 Crowd and Capterra, so they don’t need to put in the effort to generate customer case studies. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Reviews on sites like those are great, but, oftentimes when a prospect looks at those sites, they order the reviews from lowest rating to highest. This means they see negative things about your company before the positive. On the other hand, you can choose whether or not you want to publish your customer case studies, what supporting information is included, and other positive points that can be included. Additionally, the more positive information that you have on your website, from real customers, can make your company seem more credible, trustworthy, and reliable. Now, let’s dive into how to generate more customer case studies.

otrillo

otrillo is the easiest way to generate high-quality case studies. We all know that it can be a headache to ask your loyal clients for a case study, whether it’s a video or written study. But, with otrillo, all you have to do is build the question format. Then, send your prospects a link to their custom survey. We’ll do the rest! We know how difficult it can be to properly format your case study, add in supplementary information, imagery, and other important information aligning with your brand and competitive advantage. Join the otrillo waitlist today to gain early access and start generating enticing customer case studies.

Offer Incentives

Your clients are busy running their companies. They don’t necessarily have the time to sit down and type out or record a case study if there’s nothing in it for them. So, you can offer gift cards, discounts, or other promotions to incentivize them to participate. An incentive that I see a lot is gift cards to Amazon. This is a great idea as Amazon is recognized worldwide, and everyone can find something they want on it. Another great incentive is discounts on your own product, like a 15% discount off of their renewal term. 

Start With Your Happiest Customers

If you have customers who are continuously asking questions about your product on your live chat, and are often confused or annoyed with the way things work, they’re probably not the best customer to ask. Not that they could never be asked, but for the time being it’s best to help them understand your product first. If you have a few clients that have been using your product for a while, reach out to them and ask them how they are enjoying your product. If they reply positively, ask them if they would like to participate in a case study.

Email Onboarding Sequences

When onboarding new clients, there’s a good chance that you have a sequence of automated emails to help them get started. Your email sequence most likely sends different emails to these clients at different points in your sales funnel. An example of when you can ask a client to participate in a customer case study is by sending them an email two months after they have been successfully using your product. By this point, they will have fully realized opinions. While still remembering why they chose to go with your product in the first place. Below is an example of what one of these emails could look like.

Review Sites

If you’re having a hard time generating customer case studies, taking your good reviews and building a case study around it is a great option. Look at your best reviews on G2 Crowd, and do your best to manipulate its information into a review. Ensure the review is long and touches on multiple points about why they enjoy your product or service. But, it’s important to ensure their opinions and direct quotes are the same. And, that you don’t use their full name without permission. When you have found the perfect review, try to format it into a long-form piece of content. Add in supplementary information, images, and videos where necessary.

Offer Employees a Bonus

If you have a large sales team, it can be helpful to get them involved in generating more customer case studies. Especially if they are the ones handling a lot of client interactions. You can include this into their bonus structure, or create a competition between your sales team where whoever generates the most customer case studies is rewarded. A little friendly competition amongst your sales team is a great way to get them engaged and drive results.

Live Chat

When one of your customers logs into their account, you can prompt your live chat software to ask them if they would like to participate in a client case study. Below is an enticing way that you could catch their attention. With a message like this, you catch their attention and start off with the reward, you might have a better chance of getting a “yes” from them. A/B testing different variations of this text is a great way to see what drives the best results.

Timing is Everything

If your client has only used your product for one week, it’s probably not the best idea to ask them for a case study. Their feedback may be incomplete or they may still have unanswered questions. In addition, if your clients live in a different time zone, it’s important to know what time it is when you send the request. If it’s 6pm when they get your email, there’s a good chance they forget about your request by the morning. Instead, use your CRM to schedule the email to send during their work hours. 

Just Ask!

The worst they’ll say is no. If you know that your customers enjoy using your product, there is no harm in asking them for their feedback. When you ask, it can be helpful to send them case studies that you have already built. This will help them understand exactly what you’re asking them to do. Just keep in mind that the way that you ask should depend on how you regularly communicate with them. If you’ve only ever communicated via email, giving them a call might not be the best way to ask.

How Many Customer Case Studies Should You Have?

When browsing other company’s customer case studies, you may notice that they have dozens. Some enterprise-sized companies even have hundreds. But, for most companies, that is completely unnecessary. When you are thinking about how many case studies that your company should have, think about how many different industries you serve. As an example, if you’re a B2B marketing agency, you’ll want to have at least one case study from a tax company, a SMB software company, a healthcare company, and any other industry you focus on. It’s also a good idea to have a variety of formats to give your prospects the option to watch or read the case study.

Closing Statements

As you can see, there are a lot of different ways that you can generate customer case studies. Some ways may be easier than others. But, you should choose whichever will yield the best results and take up the least amount of valuable time. If time and quality are important to you, then otrillo is most likely the best option to help you generate customer case studies.