«Return to Blog List Customer Stories – The Essential Sidebar
Nearly everything today is written for skimmers, and customer stories are no different.
Some readers will read the whole case study or success story while others will look to headlines, subheads and sidebars for the highlights. Yet, I often see customer stories created without skimmers in mind.
Let’s look at just one element that helps your skim readers – the sidebar summary. If readers look only at this, it should give them the basics they need to understand the story.
The above example shows the sidebar on the left. It includes the customer’s name, industry, products used, a few stats about the customer, and three key benefits.
When creating your sidebar, consider which sidebar elements will be most interesting to readers, which is likely different for every organization. You can include the geographic location or region, the name of the partner/reseller that was involved, annual revenue, etc.
Just make sure your sidebar is clear and stands out for your skimmers.
