How to Write a Case Study (+10 Examples & Free Template!)

Case studies are little more than tools to be used by either self-motivated prospects researching your company, or by sales professionals as tools to help convince prospects to convert. Nothing more. They’re designed for audiences that are already strongly considering becoming your customers, which is a smaller but more qualified group of people than your general audience.
Currigate is a software service that offers highly customizable subscription packages to banks, brokers, and investors in the mortgage lending market.
Ah, the case study: One of the most important pieces of marketing content for a business, and yet all too often, also the most boring. The problem with this is, lose a reader and you lose a customer. It doesn’t have to be this way!

What is a case study?

As a storyteller, it’s your job to craft a compelling narrative about how your featured client triumphed over the forces of evil using your product or service, but that doesn’t mean your protagonist doesn’t have their own voice.
In addition, Currigate was able to identify ,403 worth of overages they wouldn’t have caught otherwise. “Now, we can be sure that their customers are being billed appropriately (which is great for us) and receiving the services best fit for their dynamic needs (which is great for them). It’s a win-win.”
Just like when asking for reviews, it’s important to make the process as clear and easy as possible for the client. When you reach out, ask if you can use their story of achievement as a case study for your business.
With the new platform, Currigate’s account managers could access all seven data sources—as well as generate, track, send, and approve invoices—all in one place. Time spent invoicing went from days to hours, freeing up time for them to engage with customers and work toward strategic goals. “Our staff are less bogged down to the point where they’re asking to take on more clients—which is unheard of.”

Why write a business case study?

Currigate Plugs k in Profit Leaks with Kumbo Digital

Build customer loyalty: Not only is this an opportunity to engage with your satisfied customer, but to reaffirm why they chose you and why they should continue to choose you.
Assist sales: In addition to having case studies posted on your website, salespeople can share them with potential customers in conversations to help them build confidence in the prospect.
Multi-purpose content: Quotes and data snippets from your case studies make great testimonial tidbits for your the homepage, products/services pages, landing pages, and more. You can also repurpose these into PDFs, videos, blog posts, and infographics.
Earn trust: Case studies turn positive customer opinions into tangible data that actually proves your value. In fact, it’s among the most trusted content types according to 60% of marketers.

brand voice or messaging matrices and forget to leverage the narrative form that makes stories so compelling. Or, even worse, they simply can’t stop themselves from harping on about how great their company is, the gravest of sins when case studies are concerned.

How to write a case study: steps & format

Clear headline: Like a newspaper headline, it should give the most important information. A subtitle with supporting details or a customer quote is optional.
Snapshot: Provide the TLDR prominently at the top, including the client’s name/industry, the product/service used, and quick result stats.
Client introduction: One or two sentences describing the customer and a highlight about them.
Problem: State the problem/goal, consequences, and any hesitations the customer had. Include quotes.
Solution: Share how they found you, why they chose you, what solution they chose, and how it was implemented. Include quotes.
Results: Describe the results and the benefits, as well as any bonus benefits that came of it. Include quotes.
Conclusion: Share additional praise from the customer and words of advice they have for other people/businesses like them.

We already know that case studies aren’t the most exciting reads, so don’t make it worse by throwing a bunch of text and numbers onto a page. A good case study is skimmable, visual, and organized.
The same Mailchimp case study example above finishes off with an “advice for other small businesses” section:

A case study example

In this guide, I’m going to show you how to write a case study that prospects will actually want to read. An attractive, inspiring, and convincing case study that turns readers into customers.

1. Start with a clear headline

Whatever format you go with, use it for all of your case studies. This will not only help you to streamline the process but also make it easier for prospects to digest the information.

Wrike takes the case study snapshot to the next level in this example. What we like about it:

2. Provide a snapshot

Customer name/category/industry
Product/service used
Results (ideally three stats)

3. Introduce the client

Apart from kitchen remodeling and website makeovers, it can be hard to make a case study compelling. But there is always room for creativity.

4. State the problem, consequences, & hesitations

So don’t be disheartened if your case study content doesn’t attract as much traffic or engagement as your best or even average content. They’re not meant to. But that doesn’t mean you should stop creating them or start obsessing over how to improve them.

This should be like a newspaper headline that gives the most important information. A subtitle with supporting details or a customer quote is optional.

Your angle is the “hook” that will catch your audience’s attention, but it’s essential that ALL prospects can relate to and identify with the problems encountered by your case study’s “protagonist.” This means catering to your core demographics and target markets, and solving the problems most commonly experienced by your customers.

Make the details as clear as possible, including:

5. Describe the solution

Call us biased, but LOCALiQ’s case study format is pretty rad. What we like about it:

There should be a section at the top with the important details. This includes

After learning the details of the situation, the Kumbo team proposed a custom solution that would integrate all of the data sources into one dashboard. “I was hesitant at first, but they showed me a small scale example which helped me to understand a little more about how it would work. I appreciated their patience with me as I took some time to make a decision.”

The clearer the picture you paint for them, the more receptive they’ll be to sharing their time with you.
This case study example by Intercom puts faces to the name of their protagonist, Atlassian.

6. Share the results & benefits

Grigham learned about Kumbo Digital through none other than Google research and decided to get in touch. “The thought of explaining the whole thing felt daunting, but I was relieved to hear [the rep] finishing my sentences for me!”

Finish off with a CTA to contact your business and/or a link to view more case studies.
By the end of a case study, the reader should be able to visualize themselves as the hero of their own story. They should be able to relate to the problems of your featured customer, and see themselves achieving their own goals by using your product or service.
“We were getting in our own way,” said Melanie Grigham, Currigate’s VP of Operations. “Our customer relationships were starting to falter, and we knew we had to do something. But the thought of manipulating just one of our data sources—let alone all seven—was scary. There were so many random connections in place and so much confidential information, we couldn’t risk it all breaking.”

7. Conclude with words of advice and a CTA

The redesigned and simplified product catalog (206 product codes instead of 1,024) has also made it easier for them to upsell as well as recommend combinations for specific needs. “Sometimes our new clients don’t know what they want, and this is perfect for giving them a starting point.”

Let’s go into the details on each one of the steps above, using a fictional example. Our business is Kumbo Digital and our client is Currigate.

View full case study here

Tips on how to write a case study that prospects will want to read

Read this case study example.

1. Make it as easy as possible for the client

Image source
Read this case study example.

The process (20 minute interview, follow up with a draft for their approval).
Where the case study will live (on your website? in PDFs shared by sales reps? etc.)
Their options for the interview (in person, phone/video call, via email).
Any benefits (exposure on social, for example).

Alright, so that was a basic example of a case study, but there’s more to it than just the words that comprise it. Here are eight tips to write a great case study that prospects will want to read and that will help close deals.

2. Include a prominent snapshot with the results

Include which specific product or service they chose, how it was implemented, and how the customer used it. Stay brief!
While a good case study is like a story, you don’t want to hold out on your reader until the end. You want them to know the results right off the bat, then they can read further to find out how those results were achieved. In the example below, the overall picture is made clear with the title (The Loot Box Uses Ad Factory and Content Marketing to Drive Sales) and the three stats below it.
No two businesses are alike, and case studies vary widely in terms of style, tone, and format. One thing that all marketing case studies share, however, is their purpose – to convince prospects that doing business with you is a good idea. With these case study steps, tips, examples, and templates, you’ll be well on your way to producing stories your prospects will actually want to read.

3. Choose an interesting angle

Focus on particularly interesting customers who use your product in a unique way or who have a more extreme situation.
Weave a theme into the story that connects your industry with theirs (this might mean puns).
Hook the reader at the beginning with a teaser about the best result in the study.
Incorporate the client’s unique personality into the story.

Share how the customer found your business and why they chose you.
Here are some business case study examples that put the tips in this guide into play.

4. But make it relatable to all prospects

Clean, organized, and skimmable.

Our final marketing case study example comes from Slintel, a go-to-market intelligence software. What we like about it:

5. Make them visually appealing (and consistent)

While this high level of customization is what sets Currigate apart from its competitors, it also requires multiple applications with disparate data and heavy manual work. Account owners were spending so much time manage invoicing, there was little left over to build relationships with clients, stay on top of overages, and upsell. This was leading to leaks in profitability and a weakening of customer service.

Include customer quotes as well as any hesitancies they had with using a product or service like yours.

You saw a sneak peek of this above! What we like about it:

6. Be the supporting character, not the hero

Share one to two sentences with your customer’s name, industry, location, and a highlight.

Allbird’s omnichannel conversions soared
Gymshark scaled internationally
Staples replatformed in half the time
Bombas saved $108,000 a year

how to write a case study - shopify examples

7. Let your clients tell their own story

The answer is because they’re really effective.
The more compelling your angle, the better the story. The better the story, the more engaging your case study will be. In Mailchimp’s case study example below, the customer name (Good Dye Young), compelling headline, and expressive image all work together to give this case study life.

Let them tell the story in their own words and then incorporate direct quotes into your narrative. This will break up your text, increase credibility, and make your protagonist a tangible character that readers can relate to. Take an interview style format and use paraphrasing and annotations so the text isn’t repetitive. Set up the segue and create room for your client’s quote, and let them do the rest.

8. Have realistic expectations

Read this case study example.
View the full case study example here.
Click to view full-size.

Business case study examples

LOCALiQ

Explain the issue the customer was facing or the goal they were having a hard time reaching—as well as the negative outcomes.

High-quality visual at the top.
Immediate snapshot of customer and results.
Clear-cut sections with challenges, solutions, and results.
Customer quotes layered in with paraphrasing and commentary.

Your company should always be positioned as a helping hand that helped the real hero of the story—your client—overcome their obstacle. There are two reasons this approach is so effective. Firstly, you want your audience to visualize themselves as the protagonist of the case study. This is much more difficult if you won’t stop talking about how great your company or product is. Secondly, adopting a more humble tone can help increase your credibility in the mind of the reader.

Intercom

Mailchimp

Slintel

Case studies may not be as sexy as a viral blog post, and as such they’re often overlooked in favor of other content formats. This begs the question – why create marketing case studies at all?

Attractive headline: Leoforce sees 2x increase in meetings booked with Slintel
Coordination of image with branding colors.
That it is written by their RevOps manager (what is RevOps?).
Descriptive headings: The Challenge: Cleaning up bad data.
Large results data and prominent quote callout boxes.

To make things easy for you, I’ve compiled the tips and examples into a marketing case study template, in document form, that you can use to write your own.