How to create a one-page case study
Businesses have been using case studies for years to demonstrate how they can solve—and have
solved—real-world problems. So, unlike other types of content included in the Content Marketer’s
Blueprint, it’s very possible your clients will already have one or two case studies available to work with.
If so, it’s won’t always be necessary to create brand new ones. You can put existing case studies to use in
an automated sales funnel, as-is or modified. To be effective for lead nurturing, however, case studies
should:
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Address identifiable real-world challenges. The more focused case studies are on specific
problems, the more useful prospects will find them. These should be the very challenges
prospects are concerned about.
Present clear solutions. A case study should clearly, and succinctly, explain how your client
solved a real-world problem or problems.
Be brief. We recommend a one-page format for case studies because it’s digestible and
shareable. If your middle-of-the-funnel content has done its job, prospects should already have
a good understanding of your client’s menu of services and what to expect from a business
relationship with them. As nurturing content, case studies are meant to be quick answers to the
one or two pushbacks that are preventing marketing qualified leads from proceeding to the
bottom of the funnel (direct interaction with your client’s sales team). They’re often used by
prospects to get buy-in from their superiors, executives who don’t have the time or inclination
to read complete reports.
Case Study Writing Tips
A case study should follow a narrative format and be written in the past tense. Like any good story, it
should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. In many cases, your clients will have ongoing
relationships with their customers, but a case study should document a discrete instance in which your
client helped a customer confront a particular problem or problems. The results of your client’s
solution—the conclusion of the story—will be most impressive if they demonstrate a quantifiable
improvement: a dollar amount or percentage of sales increased, amount of time saved, number of
customers added, amount of costs reduced, and so on.
Avoid obscure language that brags about your client without actually saying what, specifically, it did to
help a customer solve a problem. Don’t say, for example, “Company X deployed a market-leading
solution and worked with Company Y to optimize sales.” Instead, say, “Company X helped Company Y
increase sales 60 percent with System Z, which does…”
Outline for a One-Page Case Study
Putting together a case study for a client from scratch doesn’t have to be a major project. Because case
studies are based on your client’s real world experience with customers, creating a case study is a simple
matter of drawing that experience out of a client and translating it onto the page.
If you’re creating brand new case study for one of your clients, we suggest a simple formula:
Real-world problem + specific solution = desirable results
One effective and easy approach to writing a case study is to put it in your client’s own words. Conduct a
brief interview with your client (following the outline below), record and transcribe the interview, and
let your client’s answers (perhaps after light editing for brevity and readability) do the writing for you. If
you can get in touch with the customer your client helped and use quotes from them, so much the
better.
1. Real-World Problem
a. Name one or two common problems your business solves.
b. Identify one customer for which you feel your business solved this problem(s)
successfully.
c. How did this customer identify they had a problem? What were the symptoms? Be as
specific as possible.
2. Specific solution
a. Why did this particular customer ask for your help solving this particular problem(s)?
b. What did your business do to solve the problem(s) identified above?
c. Why did you feel this was an appropriate solution?
d. How did this solution differ from what the customer was doing before?
3. Desirable results
a. What effect did your solution have on the symptoms identified in part 1?
b. Can you quantify the improvements?
c. How satisfied was your customer with your solution? Did they feel it solved their
problem? (This is a great place to use a quote from the customer who was helped.)
4. Next steps
a. How can readers of this case study learn more about how your business can help them
with their challenges? (Call to action)