Case Studies - from snore to MORE!

At some point in your career in the internet services/consulting arena you have probably had to write or edit a case study. We create case studies for many different reasons, but mostly to illustrate work done for a client that will help sell similar services to more clients. We also produce case studies as a means to establish thought leadership and to prove strategic thinking. Toot-toot goes your own horn.

I recently sat down and had to write a case study for some email testing that Silas Partners has been doing for The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can read or download it from www.silaspartners.com.

I found that I had a problem with the standard “problem-solution-result” format of case studies and a format that we have used with most other case studies. There is no ‘life’ in these reports and they tend to read very bland.

The case study I created was more article than a standard case study theme - testing an email to get desired results based on some outside situation. I knew the reasons why this case study was important to existing clients and other stat geeks, but what was going to make it interesting to anyone else that generally doesn’t live in the email marketing fundraising world? There must be a different angle to take.

Today, I received an email from MARKETINGPROFS-TODAY which offered a solution to my problem with a story entitled “Case Studies With Kick: How to Write an Insight-Based Case Study” which talks about finding that crucial insight into what makes the case study interesting. In that mountain of information and results from every perspective, what is the key element that tells a story? I won’t cut and paste any key elements from this article, but will instead recommend that you just give it a quick read. It’s short.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/7/writing-insight-based-case-studies-levy.asp

This will definitely help you when you need to create another case study. Let me know what you think.