«Return to Blog List Case Study Copywriters: Where’s Your Cheat Sheet?

Customer case studies just aren’t like other marketing projects.

With a brochure, data sheet or white paper, marketing managers can usually mark the calendar for when to begin.

But as much as they target a certain number of case studies or success stories a month or quarter, starting still depends on if and when the customer is ready.

And sometimes that’s a LONG time to wait.

For freelance case study copywriters serving these marketing managers, those lags present another challenge: memory loss.

If you haven’t written for a client in a few months, the details may be fuzzy – especially if you work with multiple clients (or really technical products) like many writers.

In fact, I often need to re-orient a little to a client’s products and services.

Years ago I came up with a way to help myself out in these situations.

Every time I engage with a new client, I create a “Cheat Sheet” that’s just for me.

It includes all the main details I need to get back on track quickly after a pause in projects with a particular client.

Create your Cheat Sheet from the beginning, which also helps you focus your study of a new client’s products and services.

What goes on it?

Look for answers to questions such as…

• How does the company refer to its products and services? What names and industry terms do they use?
• What do the featured solutions do?
• Who uses them?
• When?
• What problems do they solve?
• What are the main business benefits that users can expect?
• What preferences do they have that are specific to them?
  (I.e. maybe they prefer to capitalize business titles versus lowercase)

Take the little bit of extra time to create this every time you work with a new client. When you need a refresher, everything you need is on one sheet.