Case studies whether you are Jon Butt, Marketing for Owners, whether it’s Fire Protection Online, whether it’s your site, or anything. Everybody benefits from a solid case study for their business.
So just simply it’s social proof. It’s genuine proof. It’s from a real customer, a real client. And that’s what it’s all about.
Alright, so you should have case studies anyway but quite often they are not as strong as they could be. So it’s a simple formula. Really really easy. In fact this won’t be a very long podcast. Well I said that before and then talked on a bit. Because I like to talk.
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So firstly contact your top, say 5 customers. Okay. Your best customers are the ones most likely to give you that great case study. The reason they are your best customers is because they like you. It’s not because they are forced to buy more often. They actually like you.
Whatever you are doing is working. They are going to agree. And if they don’t, if you get 3 out of the 5, that’s fine. Then try another couple, etc. this should be an ongoing exercise.
The other thing is to remind them that this is a benefit because when you put these on your website or out in your media; you are going to give a link and a mention to their company, and so it’s a win win. They are going to get free advertising.
They are possibly going to get a link, back to their website from your website, which is pretty cool if you’ve listened to my SEO podcast. If you haven’t, it’s me slapping your wrist because they were good ones.
And everyone’s a winner. So what’s not to like. But most are, most of the case studies I read are a little weak. A little missing, a little, or a little me me me me about the company.
And we did this, and we did that. And then we did this, and we did this. Yeah, and remember, said this before. It’s not about you. No one’s interested in you, in fact I am really sorry. I’m really really sorry.
They are not the slightest bit interested in you. Sorry if that deflates your ego a bit. But people are only interested in themselves. And how it effects, how anything effects them and their problems.
So, well that’s simple formula. Okay, okay, okay. I did say it was going to be quick. So step 1, with that customer you need to find out what were the challenges faced by that customer. Okay. So that’s the first thing.
The challenges faced by your customer. Now they had challenges. Everyone has a challenge. When you, when you go shopping to the super market for your Christmas pudding, your challenge is that you need to find the right Christmas pudding that you want, that your family like, at the right price.
There is a challenge. Everything has a challenge. No matter what it is, okay.
Find Their Challenge
So find their challenge, it’s most likely to be something else. And you might say, oh they’ve bought multiple times, and they’ve done this and that. Just find the major one, find the first one, find the biggest one.
The one that is going to connect more with your potential other customers. The challenge that is likely to be common amongst your audience.
The 2nd one, this is where you get to talk about you. You then talk about the solutions that were provided by your company.
Now always put it in relation to that customer. Okay it really isn’t, me isn’t, we did this, we did that. Always put it in relation to the customer. So list those out, so first you got the challenge, then you got the solutions provided by you.
Now the last one, and this is the killer. This is the killer. You need to list down or explain the benefits given to your customer. Your client, your customer.
But you want to have the benefits. And that’s all anyone’s really interested in. the first 2 are just the build up to the ending, the grand finale. The grand finale are, that’s the benefits.
Okay, because until that customer gains benefits, they’ve got nothing, absolutely nothing. Hmm. You follow, you dig? And that’s it.
Now get those, collaborate with your customer on these. so when you get it, write it out, then go see or talk to your customer and say this is the, does this sum it up? Make sure it’s going to be something that they are going to like.
Don’t Ask Your Customer This
Oh yeah one, here is another mistake. One common mistake. If you want to never get anywhere with this, don’t ask your customer to write out this and send it in, they’ll never do it. It’s not that valuable to them.
They are never going to do it, they’ll never get around to it, you’ll be chasing them forever and they’ll say, ‘Oh I’ll try and do that next week’, ‘oh yeah, oh I forgot, just, I’ll get around to it.’ Just write it for them.
Write it, look up their website, look at the way, they’ve written stuff. If they have a blog or anything like that. And just put it in their kind of terminology. So it does not look like you wrote it or okay. Simple. Easy, eh?
And then when you got it, as I said, send it to them and say what you think of this. Now they may suggest a couple of little tweaks, make them to keep them happy, then suggest and put it in. you don’t have to use all their suggestions, right. It’s your document.
But to keep them sweet, do a couple. Be on their side. But after that, then explain or just ignore the others or explain why you didn’t. And that’s it. Then you’ve got it. And then it’s there. Then it’s real.
And then promote it. Promote the heck out of it. Send it off in an email to your clients, other clients and say, hey, don’t, ‘we’ll love you to buy our service, you’d love, and we’d love to tell you how wonderful we are.
But you are probably sick and tired of hearing us saying. So how better then to hear it from the words of one of our customers. This is what it, this is what it did for them.’ Yeah. Imagine the power. Imagine how many things you’d bought with that.
Anyway, oh sorry. I’m talking about for nothing, aren’t I? Okay, so that’s it. Case studies, boost the power.
Tuesday Toolbox Tip
It’s Tuesday. Time for a Tuesday Toolbox tip. Now one warning, this is paid. But this, you’ll be glad of this one. It’s from a guy called Brian Johnson. And his website is called www.optimize.me. The American spelling with a Z.
They have an app for the site, so if you are a paid member, now I think it’s, am I right in saying its in dollars, it’s 7.99. so it’s about 5 pounds a month.
And if you go there, they have an app that downloads to your phone, and plays and gets access to everything. So it’s the optimize app.
So you’d have to put optimize app and you’ll find it. There’s going to be lots of apps with the word optimize in, so be careful. But you’ll recognize the pictures from his website. So you know, pay to be a member first, and then get it.
But what this does is they have book summaries. So all those books I recommend, you think, ‘oh gosh I haven’t got time to read all those, or to buy them all.’
Well Brian Johnson, he has a thing called Philosopher’s notes. He reads the book for you. He condenses it down into about 15 minute presentation.
He then puts it into a pdf with all the salient points, and puts it out. So from that app, you can play those 15, 20 minute mp3, and you can hear an entire book in 20 minutes.
To give you an example, I am not sure if it’s in there, but Seth Godin, Purple Cow, brilliant book. But very simply could have been summed up in a paragraph.
Just say, imagine if you drove along and saw a field full of black and white cows and one of them was purple. Wouldn’t that stand out? Or try and imagine that for your products and services.
That is a summary of his book. Obviously it is worth reading a book. But that’s a, and Brian Johnson is a lot better. He explains the lessons, he explains the key takeaways. Then he’s got loads and loads of courses.
Click here to instantly download our FREE Book “The 71 Ultimate Marketing Tools”
This is a portfolio stuff he’s built over the years. Honestly. I am not going to tell you anymore. Just go to it. www.optimize.me. $7.99 a month I think. And then get the app.
It is a massive time saver. And a life saver too. Talk to you soon.
