The Ingredients of a Powerfully Engaging Customer Case Study
Case studies. I love them.
One of my clients has even referred to me as "the case study queen", and it's the truth. I love listening to customer stories and paring them back into a compelling narrative.
I love picking apart the stats and showcasing them in a way that's going to help future potential customers. I think case studies are amazing for both the customer involved and the client - but especially the client.
If you're a SaaS brand that hasn't created any case studies, I'm shaking my head at you.
Here's where you're going wrong.
Why a SaaS Business Case Study is CRUCIAL
SaaS products are fun and useful, but they can often be confusing, especially for people at the top of the funnel who aren't even sure they have a problem that needs solving just yet.
In fact, SaaS products can be complicated.
They've often been thought up by genius developers who, let's face it, are incredibly passionate about their creative code and the backend of their product, but forget that us regular folk don't know the difference between Javascript and... well, I don't actually know any other types of code, so that should be evidence in itself.
What I'm saying is this: a SaaS business case study is crucial for showing potential customers how others have used your product and seen success.
While demos are great for taking leads behind the scenes and showing the capabilities of your product, SaaS case studies actually show the results they can get.
It's kind of like the difference between features and benefits (and if you've ever dipped a toe in the copywriting world, you know what I'm talking about).
Your demos, handbooks, and help centres show users the features of your product and how they can use them.
B2B case studies show users what's possible. They show them the benefits they can get from those features, and this is often a lot more powerful.
Of course, you could just list out the benefits, but who doesn't love a bit of social proof?
Because that's exactly what case studies are: social proof.
And they're damn good social proof too.
Not only have you got in-built testimonials pouring out of every sentence, you've got numbers, percentages, and the backstory that shows why a customer came to you in the first place and exactly what problem they needed solving.
If a lead recognises themselves in the customer your case study is about, you're onto a winner already.
The Ingredients of a Compelling B2B Case Study
While your SaaS case studies should be driven by the story and the amount of information future customers might need, there's a loose formula I use for all the ones I write.
This is because, as humans, we have a distinct order we like to read things in.
We like to see a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And, with case studies, you don't want to leave anything to the imagination or incite any confusion of any kind.
It's important to stick to what us humans know and like.
1. The Problem
This is the "beginning" of the story. It sets the scene and shows why the protagonist needed your product in the first place.
Here, the best thing you can do is mention one really big niggle the customer has that, if solved, would release a huge burden (like save them tons of cash or days of time).
If you've already got a set of customer personas where you've identified the key problems your target customers face, it's a good idea to focus your case study on one of these.
Podia are sure to call out the biggest problems their users face in their case studies.
Here are a couple of different "problems" your leads might face (these are just case study examples pulled from the top of my head):
They needed to drastically improve their site speed with their current tech stack
They needed a solution to compete with much bigger brands on a small budget
They'd hit a glass ceiling for leads and needed a breakthrough
They needed to increase the number of customer support tickets they were answering
You get the gist.
The problem is often followed by a reason why they need it solved urgently, like losing visitors because of slow site speed, seeing a revenue plateau, or receiving too many customer complaints and getting bad customer reviews.
2. The Solution
The solution part of your case study should give the reader a huge sense of relief knowing that their problem can be solved.
Even better, it can be solved with your product.
I see a lot of case studies that do a chronological map of how the working relationship went. I.e:
"[Brand] signed up with us, we set them up with a personalised dashboard, we did a demo with them, they mainly used our X feature, and they lived happily ever after."
But this is a great moment to show why your product was the perfect solution.
Maybe it allowed them to tackle their problem much quicker than other solutions.
When writing case studies for clients, I try to make this part the most engaging. I try to show how a product solved a problem rather than tell it in a boring, chronological way (the route is usually a bit meandering too, so chronological can often feel long and draggy).
The solution in this case study for Gorgias starts by reiterating the problem (or exacerbating the pain point, as we like to call it in the B2B marketing world) and then moves on to show the solution through the eyes of Gorgias.
See how it always links back to the original problem.
I've seen brands bullet point the solution or key features that solved a problem. This works great if you're targeting a particularly busy audience who prefer to scan a post than read it in full.
Remember, they want to know:
What problem the existing customer had
What YOU or YOUR PRODUCT did to solve it
Why it matters (what would be the consequence if the existing customer didn't find a solution)
Touch on these three points in the solution section of your case study and you'll be golden.
3. The Results
The creme de la creme of a case study is the results - the more impressive the better.
Firstly, you want to show that your solution actually solved the main problem an existing customer had, but you also ideally want to show to what extent it solved that problem.
Did it increase their productivity by 25%?
Did it save them $35,000 per year?
Did it mean they had the capacity to target 600 new leads a month?
See the common thread between these examples?
They all incorporate numbers.
Numbers cut through the noise of text and allow potential leads to quantify the results of your solution.
They can put themselves in the spotlight and think "okay, if I saved $35,000 a year, I'd be able to..." or "okay, if I can target 600 new leads a month, that means I can increase revenue by X".
Drip is a firm believer of using numbers to back up their case studies.
Safe to say, numbers are a must for SaaS business case studies.
But there's another kind of result I like to include when writing case studies for clients: the intangible results.
The results you can't put a number on, like a happier team, more engagement, and the ability to focus efforts elsewhere.
Don't leave out the intangible results because they don't come with a number attached. Sometimes they can be the most important benefit, especially if a brand is looking to solve an emotional or personal problem.
Bringing Everything Together
While I've laid out a simple formula for writing a case study, how you display it will completely depend on the resources you have available, your brand, and your audience.
For example, if you're targeting highly corporate B2B companies with lots of gatekeepers, you might decide to publish your case studies in PDF format so they can print them out and share them with their team in meetings.
Alternatively, you might turn your case study into a short video that picks out the key numbers, like Help Scout does. Or you might build an interactive post that lets readers click on buttons to reveal results.
You don't have to be this fancy at all, though.
The main goal of your case study is to provide social proof, instill buyer confidence, and show leads what they can achieve with your product. So a simple blog post format works just as well.
Want to find out how case studies can work for you? Get in touch.
