The case method began to be used in education relatively recently, but it is rapidly gaining popularity and demonstrates high efficiency.
The main difference between this method and traditional teaching methods is that the case does not have an unambiguously correct solution. Each student can offer the most optimal, in his opinion, way out of the proposed situation. In the case method, the emphasis is not on the result, but on finding solutions and discussing them.
Many students, faced with cases for the first time, do not know how to approach a task that is different from traditional and familiar tasks. We will understand what cases are, how to solve them and arrange them. But first, a little history.
Definition and history
case - from Latin case a problem or situation that needs to be addressed.
The solution of the case is not in the textbooks, it should be looked for only in your own head. Theory and practice, as you know, go side by side, but at the same time stand on different shores. Even if you take all the textbooks in the world, they do not contain descriptions of situations that happen in real life.
That's what the wise professors thought about Harvard university V 1924 year. It was simply impossible to train specialists in modern specialties using existing textbooks.
Then the university organized seminars where entrepreneurs and businessmen told students about the real problems that their companies faced. The students had to offer their own solution, which each chose individually.
This method of training quickly brought results. Thanks to case studies, graduates gained practical experience while still at the university and were well prepared to solve non-standard tasks.
If all over the world cases have become popular already in 50 -X years 20 century, then into the education system Russia this method came only after the millennium. Now case tasks are actively used in education, and it is simply irresponsible to underestimate their usefulness.
What goals does the consideration of case situations help to achieve in the framework of the educational process?
- Development of intellectual abilities;
- the ability to defend one's position with reason;
- resistance to stress;
- development of communication skills and the ability to work in a team.
Cases exist in almost all areas of knowledge. After all, problem situations arise and can be modeled in every profession: medicine, law, pedagogy, psychology, business analytics.
By the way! For our readers there is now a 10% discount on any kind of work
Cases in business
Case studies are actively used not only in education, but also in business. To attract new customers, a company can write a case based on a specific situation.
Example: A company is engaged in the demolition of buildings. In the case posted on the site, the task of demolishing an old power plant in the city of Tolochin is considered. A potential customer, having familiarized himself with the case, immediately sees how the work is going on, what equipment is used, how real practical problems are solved. In other words, this is a visual demonstration of the service in action.
Thus, the case is a powerful tool for promoting services and products. 
Another popular use of case studies is to use them in interviews. Instead of studying resumes, applicants are offered to go through a case interview and offer solutions to several situations, after which it immediately becomes clear whether the candidate is suitable for the position.
Here is an example of an interview case.
Situation: poetess Marina Tsvetaeva was left without work. She can translate from French and German, has a musical and philological education. You are her agent. What are your steps to successfully help Marina find a job? When solving the situation, you can use data from the biography of the poetess.
As you can see, such a task really does not have an unambiguous solution, but the ways to solve it will allow us to judge such qualities as the ability to negotiate and argue competently.
How to write and submit a case
Many people ask themselves the question: how to draw up a case? A case is a non-standard task, so you don’t have to adhere to strict rules when designing it. In other words, the design of a case is not such a serious task as the design of a term paper or diploma.
What should the case contain:
- Title. It is important that the heading reflects the essence of the case and gives an idea in advance about the situation that will be considered further.
- Description of the situation. It's like the "given" section in physics problems. To make the information easier to perceive, the situation can be broken down into points.
- Searching of decisions. A detailed description, analysis of ways to solve the case and the choice of the best way out of the situation. Here you need to consider all possible options with an indication of the expected consequences.
- Description of the result. This paragraph describes the result of the action to resolve the problem. What happened, what happened and why.
It is recommended to choose a comfortable and easy to read font. In the design of the case, the use of illustrative materials is welcome: graphs, diagrams, videos, tables. Often cases are designed in the form of presentations.
Any experience is given by a difficult trial and error. Now you can avoid this by contacting our authors to complete the case. We will not only solve the tasks, but also help you draw up a document or a case presentation, which will only have to be submitted to the teacher for verification. Learn easily and get new experience with Zaochnik!
The case is one of the most powerful tools that inspire confidence in the company from customers.
What does a customer want to see before placing an order? Concrete results in numbers, terms and profits that he can get.
Case studies can not only show what results can be achieved, but also motivate a potential client to place an order.
In this article, we will present our ideas on how a case should be in order to maximize its effectiveness.
Where can cases be used?
- For publication on the site so that any visitor can familiarize themselves with them
- At conferences and presentations
- To send to the client as a separate file
- For the preparation of press releases and distribution to the media.
In fact, the case can and should be used wherever there is a need for it. A good case will never be superfluous in any printed material or on the company's website.
Case title
Compare two headers:
- Case of the company "___________"
- How did ___________ increase sales by 27% using __________?
Which of these headlines do you find more attractive?
The second heading motivates the reader to continue studying the material, especially if he is interested in purchasing the product.
Description of the problem
Here we introduce the reader to the situation that the client faced before proceeding to solve the problem.
The text should clearly describe the problem from all sides. As well as the possible consequences of this problem.
We need to make the reader feel in the place of the company described in the case. He must feel and accept that he has the same problem that needs to be solved. Sometimes an urgent decision.
What actions have been taken?
This can be called the most important part. What was done to solve the problem?
Describe in detail the product or service you used. Support information with numbers, graphs and tables.
Outcome
Here you need to indicate what result you came to.
If you are describing a sales case, indicate in percentage terms how much sales have increased. In some projects, it will be more powerful to state the result in terms of money.
In the case when you were engaged in the promotion of sites, indicate the number of visitors "before" and "after" the use of the product / service.
Photo and video
An excellent addition or even reinforcement for the case will be a photo or video report on the work done. So that a potential client can clearly see what was done and how the work was carried out.
A product photo or a full-fledged presentation with the ability to independently switch slides will help the user understand the process and decide to work with you.
Feedback or gratitude
Even a well-written selling case can always be made even more selling.
Ask the head of the company about which the case is being written to leave a detailed review or write a letter of thanks. This will serve as an excellent reinforcement to the case itself.
By the way, you can use our checklist
Use a call to action
What call to action can be used for ? Depends on your business.
If you sell products, you can direct the reader to the appropriate page on your site. In the case of the sale of services, indicate contacts for communication and motivate the user to contact you.
In any case, tell the user what to do next.
What size should the case be?
Case case - discord. There are no approved standards.
It is important to remember what you are for. To influence the reader's decision. So don't worry about size. Think about how to answer all the questions a potential client might have.
Show the result to which you can lead the client. Do it competently and without unnecessary "water". Prove that you can handle his task better than others.
- 1. Pick a few satisfied clients who fully understand and can justify the benefits of working with you.
- 2. Use headings and subheadings to draw readers' attention to the main points and results.
- 3. Help the client write a good case report. Ask leading questions or give him, with which he himself will make such a review.
- 4. Describe the problem in detail and the solutions you applied.
- 5. When writing a review, choose a neutral tone and stay on topic.
- 6. Describe how relevant the decisions you made in the case are and how they can help other clients.
- 7. Do not make the case intrusive advertising. It should be an interesting story that sells itself.
- 8. Use numbers. It looks more convincing.
- 9. Don't limit yourself to a few cases. For each new client, create a new case. Fill up the base.
- 10. Don't lie about cases. That's noticeable.
A case is a powerful tool that can influence the client's decision to work with you.
More sales cases and loyal customers for you.
How to get the trust of a potential client? Everything starts on your initiative. First, you show that the product or service really has the promised properties, and then the person decides whether to open the wallet.
Of course, we can say that you are increasing sales very dramatically, and in terms of energy savings or the use of environmentally friendly materials, you have generally outstripped your competitors by a couple of light years. But these are just words. What you really need to win new customers is unequivocal, irrefutable proof.
One of the best ways to prove your edge is to create a compelling case study that clearly shows how your product or service helped the customer. So how do you gather information for your potential buyers that they can trust? A step-by-step guide on how to write a business case will help you.
Instructions for creating a case
Step 1. Choose what to focus on
To give your sales reps a really valuable case, you need to choose a "candidate" - a situation that shows your business in the best possible light.
For example:
● Product knowledge. The more consumers know about your product, the better. Sales managers should be able to talk about the properties of the product that are valuable to the future buyer, and a detailed case will equip them with practical examples.
● Decent result. The strongest cases are from companies that have achieved impressive results. If your product or service really helped someone solve a problem or increase profits, then the potential customer will quickly become infected with the desire to contact you.
● Unexpected success. Cases that stand out from the big picture will help rid potential customers of any doubts. For example, when a positive result came faster or the effect was better than expected. Here, for example, is an interesting case study on the use of retargeting.
● Recognizable name. Big brands will help increase your credibility. How they do it, for example, the names of Optimism.ru clients in the descriptions of our services -.
● Customers coming from a competitor. The stories of the customers who ended up choosing you will highlight your competitive advantage and help others make the right decision to contact you.
Step 2. Get case participants
To present the experience of your company in the form of an attractive case, invite a satisfied client to work. Formulate your expectations from the case and agree on a work schedule in advance.
The main reason why the process of creating a case is usually delayed is that the client does not have a clear schedule or rights to access the necessary data (for example, the marketer does not have access to Google Analytics). Therefore, before you dive into the development of a case, make it a solid foundation.
To avoid delays, carefully ask the management of the client company if they want to reveal the results of working with you to the world. Then you can write an e-mail to someone who was directly involved in the project. Like that:
"Hello!
We are pleased to know that your management is interested in having you featured in our client's success story. I am the manager of this case, Vasily Ivanov. Attached to this letter you will find two important documents. Please review them and we can get started. The first document, key data for the case, please sign and send to us before we start collecting information for the case. This will be confirmation of participation.
The second document, the success story letter, is an outline of the process for creating the case.
Usually a case is prepared within 1-2 weeks, depending on how quickly we collect and process information.
When I receive your confirmation, I will send you an online questionnaire to help us create a unique case. Could you complete it by March 7th?
I'm excited to get started and learn more about your progress. You can contact me for any questions.
Sincerely, Vasily.
What is a “case release” and “success story letter”?
Let's start with the case release.
It includes:
● a clear explanation of why you are creating a case and how you will use it;
● information that you are going to include in the case - names, logos, numbers, positions, photographs, etc.;
● your intentions regarding the participation of the client in the work with the case, in addition to filling it out (is your client ready to link to the case on your site or share feedback with you; can you distribute your client's contact information in his interests?);
● information about remuneration. The content of this document may vary depending on the size of your business, industry and what you are going to do with the finished case.
Success Story Letter
This is the outline of the whole process. It should briefly explain how the client will benefit from participation in the development of the case, and describe all the main stages.
● Acceptance. First, you need to get internal approval from the company's marketing team. They should then send you a signed release. At this stage, you need to determine a time schedule that will meet the needs and capabilities of both teams - yours and the client.
● Poll. To get a productive interview for an interesting business case, invite a client to participate in a telephone survey. This will give your team a foundation for the main interview from which you can get as much information as possible.
● Interview. After completing the survey sheet, you contact the client to schedule an interview. It can last half an hour, an hour or more. The purpose of the interview is to get answers to questions about the customer's experience with your product or service.
● Draft check. When the case is formed, a draft is sent to the client so that he can give feedback and make changes.
● final approval. After making all the necessary edits, the client checks the final version of the case and finally approves it.
When this plan begins to be implemented, it is best to follow it together with the client. Send him a link to the page in Google.Docs, where the draft case lives. It will be great if the client connects to the task.
Step 3. Ask the right questions
During the telephone survey and the main interview, you need to ask not just questions, but the _right_ questions.
To get started, you can ask by phone:
● What are your goals?
● What challenges did you face prior to purchasing our product?
● What makes our product different from the competition?
● How did your company decide to work with us?
● How did you succeed with our product or service (preferably with specific numbers if possible)?
Remember that the questionnaire is designed so that you can ask strong, success-oriented questions during the main interview.
The golden rule of an interview is to ask open-ended questions.
If you want to write a compelling story, yes and no answers will get you nowhere. Ask in such a way that the answers are broad, and you can supplement them with clarifying questions. The easiest start for a question is "Describe, please..." or "Tell me about...".
In order for the interview to give you all the information you need for a rich, comprehensive case (and not stretch for hours), try to keep it according to plan.
Structure of the interview:
1. Your client's business. The purpose of this section is to understand the company's current goals and challenges and where it fits in its industry.
Sample questions:
How long have you been in this business? How many employees do you have? What are your current goals?
2. Need for a solution. To write a compelling story, you need context. It will help you understand how the needs of the client and your solution are combined.
Sample questions:
What problems and goals led you to find a solution? What would happen if you didn't find a solution? Have you used other solutions that didn't work? If yes, what happened?
3. Decision making process. Find out how the client came to the decision to work with you, and this will help you understand how this process works for potential customers.
Sample questions:
How did you hear about our product or service? Who participated in the selection? What was the most important thing for you when evaluating the options?
4. Implementation. Focus on how the customer got started with your product.
Sample questions:
How long did it take you to get started? Were your expectations justified? Who was involved in the implementation process?
5. Solution in action. The purpose of this section is to better understand how a customer uses your product or service.
Sample questions:
Is there an aspect of our product or service that you rely on the most? Who exactly is using the product or service?
6. Results. At this stage, you need to find out what the impressive (and necessarily measurable!) result is. The more numbers the better.
Sample questions:
How does our product or service help you save time and increase productivity? How does our product enhance your competitive advantage? How much have parameters A, B, C improved?
Step 4. Present the case in an attractive way
It's time to take all the information received about how the client responds to your service and turn it into something - write a business case concise in form and capacious in content.
Where to begin? What to include in the case, and what can be omitted? How to structure a case?
1. Title. Make it short. Emphasize the most compelling advantage.
2. Resume. Start with the main thing - 2-4 sentences about the results of the work. It is good to supplement the resume with 2-3 indicators that demonstrate success (you can issue them with bullets).
3. About the company. Introduce your client's audience - a company or a person. Brief information can be taken from the company's website or from a profile on social networks.
4. Challenges. 2-3 paragraphs about the problems and challenges that the client faced before he began to use your product or service, as well as about the goals that the company set for itself.
5. How did your solution help the client. 2-3 paragraphs describing how your products or services solved the problem.
6. Client results. 2-3 paragraphs that prove that your product has had a significant impact on the company or person and helped achieve their goals. Add numbers to make your contribution to success measurable.
7. Additional illustrations, quotes. Choose one or two strong quotes to include in the conclusion. Photos of satisfied customers or infographics are also great additions to your story.
When you design your case, remember that the collected information must be conveyed in the most clear and concise way. The case should be easy to read and understand. Most importantly, don't forget to include a call to action at the end so that your audience has a chance to learn more about your products or services.
P.S. Text adapted from How to Create a Compelling Business Case Study: The Ultimate Guide & Template.
P.P.S. Some more useful information on the topic in our blog.
Cases are the most selling content. Customers who are almost ready to buy are interested in cases, readers who don’t even think about becoming customers share fascinating cases, competitors follow cases, cases are always interesting.
I often see difficulties in writing case studies, so in this article I decided to talk about the principles that I myself adhere to.
Why write case studies
With cases, you can:
- demonstrate your approach to work;
- give examples of niches in which you successfully work;
- show the results obtained on their projects;
- Explain with examples what you can do.
What to do, there is nothing to write a case
Many people think that they do not have cases. I am sure that when work becomes a chore, people simply do not notice that they have done something cool. If there were no brilliant results on the project, you can always describe the process or talk about some cool thing that you implemented.
Do not invent anything supernatural
While working at LeadMachine, I made case studies in the form of presentations that were tied to a fascinating story and a vivid metaphor. You can see: example 1 and example 2 on slideshare, but only works under VPN.
And it was cool, I still like those works. But now I realized that this is not so much needed. That is, you can come up with something cool and interesting, and it will be great, but if there is not enough time or skills for such things, you can simply clearly and transparently talk about your work.
For a case, it is enough to describe it according to a simple universal structure:
client → client problem / task → your work to solve the problem → result
And that's it. I assure you, this is enough to write a good case. But let's go over the best way to tell these points.
In the beginning, tell about the client and his problem
A couple of words are usually enough about the client - what kind of company, what it does, and sometimes - how they got to such a life that they had a problem that you had to solve.
And here with a problem/task it is more interesting. It is important to describe it in such a way that the reader understands that there was nowhere to endure.
First a life example, then a business one.
Let's say you have a weak elastic band on your socks. If you report it, it won't hurt anyone. If you tell me that you were wearing socks with a weak elastic band when you went on a first date with a girl from Tinder (and she turned out to be more beautiful than in the photo !!!), and you walked for an hour, and felt how the sock slipped and crumpled somewhere in the middle of the foot, and if you correct him, this scoundrel will slide down again in five minutes, and you will be embarrassed in front of a girl to adjust your socks all the time and you didn’t want to look like an idiot, so you spent a good hour in this state , the reader will feel your pain.
And now an example from Email Soldiers marketing. In one case, we told how we set up reporting in Power Bi for the guys from banki.ru and deliberately described the problem in detail. Prior to our work, the managers of Banki.ru collected reports manually and in the form of Excel, it was dreary and incomprehensible. And when reports appeared in Power Bi, nothing had to be uploaded and filled in by hand, and the reporting became understandable and beautiful.
So, in this case, I deliberately described the problem in great detail so that the reader understands that this process was really a pain in the ass:
And then they also showed an excel with a report:
Such a description of the problem helps to feel it well.
Then outline the process of work sequentially,
And then we talk about our work. It would seem that it’s easy to outline a chain of steps: we did the first, second, third - what could be simpler? But from a normal whole case, some random dismemberment is often made.
Therefore, just consistently describe your work step by step. If you can group steps, group them. For example, if you implemented an abandoned cart email, a welcome chain, and a chain of emails with a discount increase for a client, you can tell about them all in the “trigger mailings” block.
... in simple words,
Remember that you are writing a case for clients. Clients give you their money because they do not have your competencies. Therefore, tell in simple language, do not need a lot of technical details:
…putting the reader into context
Sometimes in cases they forget about the reader and describe what happened as if all this time he was sitting with the narrator in the office at the next table. But no, I didn't sit. Therefore, tell the story in the light of the fact that the reader is not aware of your affairs. An example from a draft case (the very beginning of the case, there were no explanations before):
“In the constructor, you need to select one of the loan purposes, indicate the desired amount, loan term, the amount of the down payment and the monthly payment. Once you enter your passport details, you will be provided with your personal credit score…”
When it comes to passport data, the reader is like, “What? Passport details? You return to the previous sentence, you understand that there really was nothing about passport data, and you don’t understand where they came from. In this case, it was necessary to explain in more detail how the constructor works:
“In the constructor, the user fills in the data and receives loan offers. To do this, you need to indicate the purpose of the loan, the desired amount, the term of the loan, the amount of the down payment and the monthly payment. After filling in all the fields, the constructor displays a list of offers.
... and in a way that is easy to read.
Everyone knows that people don't read on the Internet. Remember that story when the software company hid $1,000 in a usage agreement? Only after 3,000 purchases did a guy show up who read the terms, found that thousand dollars, and came for the money. If you think that your case studies are being read much more carefully, you are flattering yourself. Not much. It's just that they are shorter and better laid out (not always), so it would be easier to find a thousand dollars.
If you want the client to read the case and understand what the essence of the project was, try to state the whole point in the subheadings. For example, this is how we implemented it in the Email Soldiers case:
Show result
A case is always a “before/before” story. In fact, any story is about “it was / became”: a sleeping beauty wakes up, a decent military man becomes the head of the underworld, a ghost wandering around the castle finds peace. If nothing has changed, then why say anything at all? If your work didn't affect anything, why did you do it?
However, there are options for how the result will look like.
Result in numbers
The most impressive and curious result is in terms of money: thanks to our work, the client earns 2 million rubles more per month. But a) it is almost always an exaggeration and craftiness; b) it is almost never possible to publish such information because clients are not ready to disclose it.
The way out is to show a relative result: the number of transactions increased by 140%, profit doubled, etc.
In fact, it is worth critically evaluating all these results. Because if the company did not do content marketing, and then the agency came and did it, then it is clear to the fool that traffic will grow. But if you already did content marketing, and then came up with the idea of doing it even better, and the growth was small, but persistent, that's cool. And your case will not impress anyone, because the result is not expressed in large numbers.
The result in gaining new experience, overcoming difficulties
If the result cannot be expressed in numbers, then the case can be made bright by dwelling in detail on the difficulties overcome in the work. My colleagues and I call such cases process cases. For example, on the Email Soldiers blog, I published an article about the pains in which the presentation of the agency was born. There were no figures, but the case is interesting due to the story itself. At the end of the conclusion. Conclusions are a sign that we have realized something, learned something in the process of work, and this is our “was / has become”.
It is normal if there is no six-figure result in the case. Not normal - if at all it is not clear what you have achieved.
I call such cases process cases. The main thing that is important in them is to show the difficulties that you encountered and overcoming them. The story should feel the struggle, then it will be exciting, the case will be remembered, and you will look like professionals.
You can also add a customer review at the end of the case. It adds credibility, and the joy of the client is also an important result.
You don't need many results.
When the work is done well, you want to show it in all its glory and everything seems important. Then they begin to suffer from featureism - to talk about what is important for the project participants, and not important for the reader / client.
For example, you can explain how the compression mechanism works on your servers, but only specialists will understand you. If you say that the site page will load in half a second, it will be appreciated. Even better is to say that it will happen faster than the light bulb turns on after the switch is flipped.
Here is an example from the case of one agency. Guys, nothing personal, I just got you:
People are too lazy to delve into it. With rare exceptions, like the guy who got $1,000 for reading trems and conditions.
Do not do it this way. Focus on 1-3 important figures / achievements, then the result will be remembered better, and the case will be clearer: you did this and that, you got this result, simply and transparently. Save the list of all achievements for reporting to the client to sparkle with armor.
This article required:
Winning the trust of potential customers is not easy. First you need to convince them of the validity of your promises. And only bare facts can help in this.
The best way to prove your value is to create a case. It can talk about the positive impact your offer has had on the business of existing or past customers.
Step 1: Choose the Right Candidate
To write a case, you need permission, quotes, and a plan. Here's what to look for when choosing a potential candidate:
- Product Knowledge: the more familiar the customer is with your product or service, the better. This way you make sure that he communicates the value of your offer in the right way.
- Significant results: for effective cases, it is better to choose companies with the best results. If they really like your brand, then they have the enthusiasm you need.
- Unexpected success: unusual customers whose results have improved significantly after working with you will help overcome any doubts of potential buyers.
- Known Names: While small companies can have interesting stories too, large and well-known brands can help you build credibility and brand status.
- Former clients of competitors: customers who contacted you after working with competitors will help highlight your advantages and increase the odds in your favor.
Step 2. Contact case participants
Before you start working, you need to prepare the ground for communication. To do this, discuss expectations in advance and set deadlines.
The preparation of most cases is extended for an indefinite period of time because no deadlines have been set for clients, or all conditions have not been agreed. To avoid this, it is necessary to discuss organizational issues at the very beginning, and only then get to work.
To do this, you can send an email message with information about what the client should expect from , as well as what you expect from him. To facilitate communication, it is recommended to use the Case Study Consent Form and Success Story. What is this?
Consent form for participation in a case study
This document will vary depending on the size of your business, the type of activity and the purpose of the study. Here's what you need to pay special attention to:
When creating a Success Story, you need to pay attention to the following elements:
- Agreement: firstly, you need to obtain consent from the marketing team of the company, as well as a signed Consent Form to participate in the case study. At the same stage, it is desirable to determine a time frame that would satisfy both parties.
- Questionnaire: In order to conduct an effective interview, it is best to first ask participants to complete questionnaires. They will be an excellent basis for future conversations.
- Interview: after filling out the questionnaire, you need to contact the participants to schedule an interview lasting 30-60 minutes. Questions should be about the experience of interacting with your product or service.
- Short review: after drafting the case, it is necessary to send it to clients for approval.
- Final confirmation: after making all the necessary changes, send the final version of the case to the clients for final confirmation. Share the link with participants after the study is published. Ask them to send this link to friends and colleagues, because the case will help them highlight the rapid growth of the company.
Step 3: Make Sure You're Asking the Right Questions
When compiling questionnaires and preparing interview questions, you need to make sure that you have done the maximum for future success. For research to be truly meaningful, it is important not just to ask questions, but to ask the right questions.
The following can be used in the questionnaire:
- What are your goals?
- What difficulties did you encounter before using our product or service?
- How does our product or service differ from our competitors?
- What does your decision making process look like?
- How has using our product or service helped your business? (If possible, provide exact numbers).
Remember that the questionnaire is designed to help you identify areas that you need to explore in more detail when conducting an interview.
When arranging a telephone interview, it is advisable to ask open-ended questions. If you want a compelling and useful story, yes-or-no questions will not suffice. Don't forget to ask clarifying questions: "Could you describe..." or "Tell me more about...".
To increase efficiency, it is recommended to break the interview into six parts: the client's business, the need to solve the problem, the decision-making process, the implementation, the solution in action, the result. Using these questions will gather enough information for a complete study. Here's what those sections might look like:
Client business
The purpose of this section is to better understand the current challenges and goals for the company and how they fit into the state of the industry.
Sample questions: How long have you been in this business? How many employees do you have? What are the current goals of your departments?
The need to solve the problem
To create a good story, you need context. This will help you match the client's needs with your solution.
Sample questions: What problems and goals created the need to find a solution? What would happen if you didn't find a solution? Before working with us, did you apply solutions that did not work? If yes, what happened?
Decision making process
Understanding the decision-making process of existing customers will help you manage the decision-making processes of potential customers.
Sample questions: How did you hear about our product or service? Who was involved in the selection process? What was the most important thing for you when considering options?
Implementation
In this section, attention should be paid to experience in the process of mastering a product or service.
Sample questions: How long did it take you to master the product or service? Did it meet your expectations? Who was involved in the process?
Solution in action
The purpose of this section is to better understand how a customer uses your product or service.
Sample questions: Is there any element of the product or service that you rely on the most? Who is using the product or service?
Result
Here you need to pay attention to the impressive results and conclusions. The more numbers there are, the better.
Sample questions: How does the product or service help you save time and increase productivity? How has this affected your competitive advantage? How much did you manage to increase indicators A, B and C?
Step 4. Create a case
When it comes time to collect all the information received and write a case, it is easy to get confused. Where to begin? What to include? What structure to choose?
Remember that there is no recipe for the perfect case. But in any case, the format should be visual - using photos and videos.
Be sure to include the following items in your study:
- Title: it should be as short as possible, reflect only the most significant results.
- Summary: use here 2-4 sentences that reveal the essence of the study, and be sure to include 2-3 impressive facts confirming the success.
- About client: this part is a description of the person or company you worked with, you can use information from the Internet for it.
- Challenges: this section should include 2-3 paragraphs describing the challenges customers faced before using your product or service, it is also desirable to add a description of their goals.
- How did you help: This section should have 2-3 paragraphs talking about how your product or service solved your customer's problems.
- Their results: in this section, in 2-3 paragraphs, you need to indicate how your product or service has affected a person or company, and also helped in achieving goals. It is advisable to use the data.
- Visual content or quotes: choose two or three vivid quotes from the previous text, and also select suitable illustrations.
Case examples
So that you know what the result should be, it is useful to analyze the best cases from well-known brands. Some of the best examples can be found below.
1. “New England Journal of Medicine” by Corey McPherson Nash
All works of branding and design studio Corey McPherson Nash attract attention with bright visual elements. This is not surprising, because this is the scope of their professional activity. And the New England Journal of Medicine project was no exception. In it, the brand literally showed what results they managed to achieve.
2. “Shopify Uses HubSpot CRM to Transform High Volume Sales Organization” by HubSpot
This case differs in the way the client is represented in it. This approach is the credo of HubSpot: the customer always comes first. The study explains why Shopify uses HubSpot, complete with videos and statistics. Please note that this case combines different types of content.
3. “Designing the Future of Urban Farming” by IDEO
IDEO knows a lot about simple cases. As soon as the user enters the page, he is greeted by a large photo and two simple columns with text: problem - solution. The whole process of cooperation is described in more detail and interestingly below.
4. “Secure Wi-Fi Wins Big for Tournament” by WatchGuard
In this case, the visual content (video) tells the whole story. It contains both information about the company and a description of the experience of working with Windmill Ultimate Frisbee.
When planning the content, you should try to present the collected information in the most understandable and simple way. Structure the text in a way that is easy to read, and be sure to add visuals and a call to action so that interested readers can learn more about your product or service.
