— Case studies must answer basic questions, like: What was the problem? How was it solved? What is now better? And why does it matter? But just because the questions are predictable, that’s no reason to bore your readers with the answers.
Customer case studies: the marketing staple of B2B providers; the ace up the sleeve that soothes buyers’ nerves and removes all doubt. “If it worked for them, it could work for me,” buyers can reassure themselves.
However, too often, case studies follow a predictable story structure that ends up boring the pants off readers. You know, the one that starts with: “Company X was founded in xxx and has a proud history of…But something was holding them back…” Sections covering ‘problem’, ‘solution’ and ‘benefits’, often stated in those very terms, drag reluctant readers through a territory so telegraphed that it puts a glaze over their eyes.
Help readers decide to keep reading
More than anything, readers want to know the moral of the story – the “take home” message. Landing on this singular idea comes from better interview questions. Try this one in your next customer interview: “In the end, what’s the biggest thing you learned during this project?” Or: “Looking back, if there was one observation you could make about <service/solution in question>, what would it be?”
Answers to these questions will help focus your case study story on a high-level interest point, which is your angle. Certainly, your product/service helped the customer to be more efficient, cost effective, smarter and so on. But what does it all mean, in the end?
This idea is your story engine, and it starts with your heading – the main determinant of whether someone will read your case study.
When it comes to headings, the Economist’s three-tier heading structure nails it (sorry about the resolution).
- Fly hook: ‘Business’
- Headline: ‘The cloud is the fiercest front in the chip wars’ (tells readers what they will learn about ‘Business’)
- Rubric: ‘Data-centre chips….’ (summarises the argument, i.e. a stale monopoly is now brimming with competition)
Sure, this is an opinion piece, but the heading structure also works for case studies.
A quick Google search surfaced a B2B case study published by telco One.
The headline reads – Innovating for impact: Fisher Funds evolution in customer experience. It’s a little abstract for my tastes (…. innovating, impact, evolution….), but I digress. It’s a short case study about One’s role in consolidating contact centre platforms in the cloud for client Fisher Funds.
You can read it here, if you dare.
Here’s a screenshot of the heading and intro (dodgy resolution, so click the link above to see every damn word in solid pixel glory).
Using the Economist’s three-tier heading structure would be a huge improvement and more helpful to readers.
How about this:
- Fly title: Cloud-based contact centres
- Headline: How a leading investment firm streamlined customer service with a cloud-first strategy
- Rubric: Consolidating contact centre platforms makes services cheaper to run. It also paves the way for next generation services.
Not great, but at least it tells readers what they’re about to read in more concrete terms. And it also outlines the argument, or provocation – that consolidation reduces costs, but it does so much more. The moral of the story, perhaps.
The body of the case study is a word soup of business cliches and vagaries, but let’s not go there (I don’t mean to pick on you One, but sheesh: “The company leveraged its consolidated platform to deploy informational banners based on targeted customer intent within minutes, enabling it to provide relevant information to its clients in a timely manner.” Would you talk to your mother like that? No one could possibly take this seriously).
The moral of my story is – think big. Go beyond the obvious to find your argument – the main point you want to get across to readers. Convey the idea using the Economist’s three-tier heading structure. It will focus your writing on what matters most to your story’s main message.
Learn more about Vernacular’s case study process here.