Storytelling is a tradition that has been around for centuries and has become an important aspect of content marketing. Understanding the importance of telling your brand’s story is vital to your overall marketing strategy. As a partner, it is important to cut through all the noise in solution marketing to differentiate yourself as an IT provider. There are many ways you can do this, but one of the most powerful ways is through the use of case studies.
Appealing to a customer’s emotions is a great way to begin building a relationship and understanding their needs. Case studies connect your IT expertise with a customer’s business challenge and uncover the story behind solving that challenge. In marketing, case studies help move your potential buyer down the sales funnel. In this blog, you will learn the importance of case studies in IT marketing and how to incorporate them into your overall marketing strategy.
What’s Your Rating?
Ever go to Yelp! before eating at a restaurant? How about looking at product reviews on Amazon before clicking “add to your cart”?
IT solution shopping is no different. When customers come to your website they aren’t just looking to see if you have the solution or product they want. They are using your website as a resume and testament to your work and expertise. More importantly, they are looking for reviews ─ case studies.
A recent survey showed that 73% of B2B marketers are writing and publishing case studies. This particular type of content is unique because it shows how you provided the right IT solution and support to solve their business challenge. Case studies highlight your results and success which provide a preview of what it is like to work with you. It’s valuable content that shows your credibility to prospects considering doing business with you.
Writing Your Review
First, choose one of your best customers; someone willing to evangelize your company. Consider the details, such as their industry, company size and even geographical location. These are what will make your case study relatable to prospects or current customers trying to resolve similar challenges.
What are that company’s goals? What challenges do they face that are preventing them from meeting those goals? Make sure to highlight how you, as an IT solution provider, addressed those challenges and yielded results.
Don’t be afraid to brag. If there was a special certification that you have that assisted this customer, mention it. Use numbers that help readers understand the impact you made on your client’s business. You want to make sure you are telling the client’s story, not your own.
Share Your Social Proof
There are many ways you can utilize case studies to share your success as a trusted solution provider. Case studies can be utilized on your website, broken down into social media posts or just used as a reference to a customer. Your social proof can be repurposed into handfuls of other content that can be incorporated into your overall marketing efforts.
While case studies are more complex to create, they provide great value to your sales funnel. They can be created from many different perspectives. They can highlight business outcomes, product features or IT trends.
What other types of content provide the opportunity to provide complete context around the business challenges you help solve? Case studies are a great way to showcase your solutions and the results they yielded for your customers.