«Return to Blog List Right #4 of Case Studies that Compel & Sell – Right Angle

Every year, Bike to Work Day – where I live – takes place at the end of June. This year, it’s this Wednesday.

And every year, the local newspaper covers the event. Same event, year after year. So, how does the newspaper make it interesting and different to readers?

It’s all about the angle, or slant, of their stories on the topic.

This year, the local paper decided to focus on three "extreme commuters," people who bike as many as 25 miles each way every day to work. The story highlights who they are and why they do it.

I wouldn’t have read a staid story about numbers of participants or locations of breakfast stations, but I did read this interesting twist on the annual event. Like any good stories, it also put people behind the facts.

It’s just one example of the power of a story angle.

Pick an Angle

Customer case studies and success stories are just the same. For any story you create, you have to choose the angle that will maximize the mileage, whether that’s for lead gen, sales or PR, or all.

As you create a diverse mix of case studies to support your goals, pursue a variety of angles.

For example, I manage case studies for a software company where the benefits include regulatory compliance, network security and internal IT efficiency. The best angle for each story is where the goal and the customer’s experience meet in the middle.

In developing each case study, here’s how to ID your angle:

• Who’s your audience and what do they care about? Or, what are their "pains?"
• What angles are most compelling to your audience?
• What is the featured customer’s actual experience/results?
• How do you plan to use the story and what angles are most effective for those purposes?

Considering these factors, pinpoint your ideal angle and emphasize it throughout – from the headline to the sidebar call-out to the main benefit the customer experienced.

Tags: case study writing, customer case studies, how to write a case study