It may be the perfect time to finish projects that don’t get done when everyone’s asking for your time.

One project that often slips to the bottom of the to-do pile during prime time is the hardworking case study.

Sales teams love case studies because they help prospective customers visualize the benefits of working together in a real-world example. Case studies serve as testimonials, services run-downs, and, if well-crafted, compelling advertisements that help elevate your reputation. They also provide plenty of opportunity for repurposing: launch them as blog posts; send them as emails; make them available as PDFs; print them and package them with leave-behinds and proposals; and, of course, serialize them across your social media accounts and newsfeeds. Case studies show off what your company does best.

If we’ve inspired you to create a couple new case studies for your team, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Develop a template that reflects your brand and key objectives. Following your own style guidelines will help unify the look and feel of the case studies, fortifying your brand and core messaging.

Focus on the primary customer benefit of working with your company. Don’t shy away from the emotional impact of the project. Help readers understand why saving time was essential to your customers because with more time they could focus on improving service to their customers, for instance.

Decide which is most important: the customer industry or the bundle of services your team delivered. Direct the case study into that lane so you and your sales team can get the most use out of it. If you want to employ it with both audiences, write it two ways and create two different studies. Don’t try to accomplish both with one; you’ll muddy the intention.

Break the story into a few major categories.

Answer the questions:

• What was the problem, challenge, or assignment?

• Why were you brought onto the project?

• What was your unique approach to finding a solution?

• How did the customer benefit?

• How did the customer’s customer benefit?

• What details made a substantial difference?

• Why is this case study of interest to anyone else?

Ask every contributor the same questions. If you’re getting information from different resources from inside your company, provide each with the same short questionnaire. This way, you’ll find it easier to create similarity between content flow and depth of detail.

We can help.

If the timing isn’t right for you to start work on your case studies, we’ve got you covered. In short order, we can get you geared up with shiny new case studies that your team will want to use. Send us an email or give us a call.