Are your case studies gaining you the leads and/or conversions you’re looking for? Or are they just taking up space on your website?

If you’re not getting the results you’d like from your case studies, you may me missing an essential piece of the puzzle: the customer interview.

For those of us who’ve written our fair share of case studies, it seems like a no-brainer that you need to interview the customer. But a lot of small business owners don’t have that experience – and might not understand why “case study” is supposed to equal “customer success story.”

The Interview-Free Case Study Pitch

I’ve received a few variations of this email over the years:

Dear Angie:

I am a marketing manager for XYZ Company, and I’m looking to have a few case studies written. These will be super easy – you don’t have to interview anyone, because we have all of the customer information on file. You just have to write up what we did for them. How fast can you write them for us?

My answer to these emails is always the same: I would love to work with you, but my first task won’t be writing the case studies. It’ll be helping you choose appropriate customers to tell their stories on record.

Here’s the thing: the whole point of a case study is to show potential clients why other businesses in their situation chose you over all of your competitors. It needs to show:

• The pains and challenges the customer experienced before working with you (so prospects can put themselves in that customer’s shoes – “Wow, that sounds familiar. We have that problem, too.”)
• The selection process your customer went through while choosing a vendor. What other vendors did they consider? What criteria did they use to make their selection? Why did they ultimately decide to work with you instead of one of your competitors?
• What it was like to work with you. Did they have concerns about the process of using your product or service? Who was their contact point? Did they receive support throughout the product rollout process?
• What your product or service did for them. Have the challenges and pains the customer experienced before working with you been resolved? What does their workday look like now? How are they using your product/service in their specific situation, and how does it make their job better?

The Customer-Focused Approach

I get it: there are many reasons you may feel like you don’t need to (or can’t) interview your customer. Maybe you won’t be naming the customer anyway (or they don’t want to be named – common in regulated industries such as finance). Maybe you feel like you’re bothering your customer by asking for a case study interview, or you’ve asked but the customer is resistant.

But the thing is, your case study will not make a compelling case for your product or service if it’s just a one-sided summary of what you did for that customer. It needs to be more story and less sales pitch.

If you can nail down a customer interview, your case study will come alive for prospects.

If you don’t, you may just be tossing money into a wasted effort.

Need some help selecting customers and gaining their buy-in for a case study interview? I can help – schedule your free 15-minute consultation today!