IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU
Summary:
- Agreeing to take part in a case study for your brand will take serious time and energy for your client, as well as the corporate risk of “sticking their neck out” for a product.
- Before approaching your customer, find out if there are any benefits you can offer to your customer to win their approval.
- When communicating the desire to create a case study, discuss how there may be value for the brand in agreeing to tell your joint story.
- Make your customer a partner in creating the story! Make them feel in the driver’s seat – whether that be the narrative you tell, or simply creative control over what is released in the end.
What's In It For Them?
Something many product marketers tend to forget when creating case studies is that, as the customer, participating in a case study can be a lot of work.
So, think about it this way: What can you do for them in return for participating in the case study?
No two situations are the same – that’s why it’s important to know your customer and what they are looking for. Viewing the case study as a mutual story you’re telling together with a little help from your customer is going to make them feel better and ultimately raise the odds of creating good content.
- Is there any bonus or discount they need to say ‘yes’ to using their brand and logo?
- Can you timebox it to a 10-20 minute interview so it doesn’t take a lot of effort on their part?
- Can you make them feel that they have control over the entire process while still using relatively little time?
No two situations are the same – that’s why it’s important to know your customer and what they are looking for. Viewing the case study as a mutual story you’re telling together with a little help from your customer is going to make them feel better and ultimately raise the odds of creating good content.
