Case study benefits: Top 5 reasons case studies are powerful for marketing and sales

Want to improve your small business marketing and sales efforts? Here are the top 5 case study benefits for businesses.

As a small business owner or marketing manager, you always look for ways to improve your marketing and sales efforts. One way to do that is by using case studies.

Case studies are an extremely powerful marketing tool because they provide potential customers with real-world examples of how your products or services have helped others.

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5 Reasons why small businesses struggle with converting prospects into clients:

Here are the top 5 reasons why businesses struggle with attracting the right types of clients and converting them on sales calls:

1. Lack of social proof

When you don’t have evidence of social proof, it’s harder to build trust with potential clients. They may not be sure if your product or service can really help them because they don’t have any third-party validation.

2. No credibility or trust

If potential clients don’t trust you, they will not do business with you.

If you can show that you’ve helped others solve their problems, it’ll be much easier to persuade potential clients to work with you.

3. Shallow case studies (or only using testimonials)

When selling services, testimonials don’t do the best job because they don’t provide any context to prospective clients.

Testimonials might say, “I loved working with Jane, she was great!” But what does that actually tell the prospects about what it was like to work with Jane and what results they can expect?

Not much.

Shallow case studies have some of the same problems.

They might talk about the client’s challenge and what Jane did to help, but they don’t go into enough detail about the results.

What you want are case studies that tell a story, from the prospect’s perspective, about how you helped them solve their problem so that potential clients can see themselves in the case study and imagine what it would be like to work with you.

By having case studies that are well-written and rich in detail, you’ll be able to more effectively sell your services and close more business.

4. Talking to the wrong prospects

A lot of time can be wasted on sales calls with people who are not good prospects for your products or services.

It’s hard for prospects to know if they’re a good fit for your business or not when they can’t see examples of clients you typically work with.

A better way is to have a system that:

1) allows leads to self-qualify as to whether or not they’re a good fit to chat with you, and

2) warms up new prospects so that they’re already aware of the results you’ve produced for past clients and are more likely to do business with you by the time they’re on a sales call with you.

5. Manual prospecting & No system for generating consistent leads

Whilst manual prospecting is encouraged and necessary in the early stages of starting or growing a business, eventually, if you don’t have a system for generating qualified leads regularly, you’ll struggle with consistent cash flow.

You’ll experience the “feast and famine” cycle common in small businesses.

One proven way to address these challenges is to leverage the power of case studies for sales and marketing.

What is a compelling case study?

A case study is a story that describes how a real customer used your product or service to solve a problem or accomplish a goal. It’s compelling when it answers all the questions (and potential sales objections) a prospect may have about your product or service.

How is a case study different from a testimonial?

A testimonial is simply a statement from a satisfied customer about how much they liked your product or service.

A case study goes into more detail about the customer’s story, describing their challenges and how your product or service helped them overcome those challenges to achieve their desired results.

Related: Why Case Studies Are Better Than Testimonials

Here are the top 5 case study benefits and why they’re so powerful:

1. They provide social proof.

When case studies are used in marketing and sales, they provide social proof that your product or service works. This is because prospects can see that you’ve helped other people who are just like them solve their problems.

This is especially effective when you’re selling to larger businesses, which often require multiple forms of social proof before purchasing.

2. They create instant credibility and trust. And are persuasive.

Because case studies feature real stories from actual customers, they carry a lot of weight and authority.

Case studies show potential customers that you’re trustworthy and that you care about your customer’s successes. They’re the ultimate positioning tool for your business.

A well-written case study can be very persuasive, giving potential customers all the information they need to make a decision in your favor.

3. They’re specific and detailed.

Case studies get specific, providing plenty of details about the problem the customer was facing and how your product or service was able to help solve it.

4. They help prospects self-qualify

Case studies can serve as a great self-qualification tool for prospects.

For example, if you sell advisory services to $1M+ e-commerce businesses, you can use case studies to show that your service is helping businesses of that size to produce tangible results.

This can help prospects self-qualify and decide whether or not they should pursue doing business with you.

5. They can be used as part of an automated case study funnel

A case study funnel is simply a sales funnel that uses case studies to attract prospective clients and automatically “warm them” up before they speak to you on a sales call. This warm-up process is commonly referred to as “lead nurturing.”

Here’s a great 7-min video from Hubspot that covers the importance of lead nurturing:

This type of funnel can be highly effective, especially if you have a solid case study that prospects can read (or watch) at the beginning stage of the funnel.

You can also include the case study (or a second related case study) in your automated lead follow-up and nurture email sequences. This is particularly useful for two instances:

• Provide additional social proof right before a prospect is scheduled to jump on a call with you.
• Where your prospect is a no-show for a sales call.

The Case Study Funnel: A solution to addressing the problem of feast and famine in your business

1. Craft a compelling in-depth case study
2. Build a case study funnel: traffic > case study > qualification > sales call
3. Deliver remarkable results (this only works if you can actually deliver!)
4. Rinse and repeat (create a compelling case study using the client you just helped – see how this becomes a repeatable system?) 

Ready to grow your leads and sales with compelling case studies?

If you’re looking for a way to improve your marketing and sales efforts, look no further than case studies.

Case studies are credible, persuasive, and specific, making them an excellent way to win over new customers. Plus, they’re a great way to build trust and credibility with your audience.

So what are you waiting for? Start creating some case studies today.

Want help with creating compelling case studies? We’ve got you. Here are two ways to tackle this:

1. To DIY, read How to Create a Case Study That Converts: The Ultimate Guide for Businesses
2. Don’t have much time and prefer an expert to do it for you so that it actually gets done? Check out our done-for-you case study service.