«Return to Blog List How Customer Case Studies Drive Traffic to Company Sites

A glowing customer success story is a coveted piece of marketing collateral, but case studies are not always easy to create. If you manage case studies, or write them, you know the challenges: getting a customer to agree, conducting interviews, writing and editing the story, and getting customer signoff.

After all that work, how do you use the heck out of a case study to engage prospects and customers?

Nearly every organization posts a completed case study on their website. But how do you get traffic to it?

Companies today are using case studies in multiple ways to pull prospects to their websites, from traditional print media to social media to digital advertising.

Here are some fresh examples of success stories in action:

Twitter

 I recently caught a Dell tweet about the success of one of its customers, with a link to the full version of the case study. It was engaging and specific, encouraging prospects to click.

LinkedIn and Facebook

Last year, I featured PostcardMania.com for its extensive use of case studies. The company helps organizations market effectively with postcards. I also learned the company mentions its customer successes on LinkedIn and Facebook.

In the course of a conversation on LinkedIn, the company’s social media manager might point a dentist, for example, to a gallery of visual examples of other postcard campaigns or to a video and/or written case study showing how another dentist brought in new business with postcard marketing.

For marketing to existing fans, PostcardMania posts teasers to its success stories on Facebook. But it’s critical to be specific:

“Find out how this landscaping company, ABC Lawn, brought in $15,000 from just one postcard mailing.”

Print Advertising

While perusing Wired magazine this week, I came across a full-page ad from HP featuring its customer, NASCAR. NASCAR and HP teamed to create a way to measure NASCAR’s impressions and success across its media channels.

After a brief summary of the story, the ad then shares the URL to find the full, engaging customer case study with all the momentum worthy of NASCAR.

Digital Display Advertising

EarthLink runs digital display ads that link back to a landing page featuring a specific case study. The landing pages include engaging images, a summary of the story, a link to read more, and a call to action.

These are just a few examples of how companies use case studies to bring eyeballs to their websites. Seen any great examples lately? Share them here!