«Return to Blog List What IT People Really Think about Success Stories
The folks at the Reference Success blog pointed me to a recent article about IT pros’ opinions of case studies, success stories and references.
Scott Vaughn, VP of Marketing at TechWeb, got the chance at an event to hear what CIOs and IT people think about case studies and success stories. He then shared their comments.
The original question: What works and what do marketers need to do better? Their answers were pretty thought-provoking.
Highlights:
Case studies are helpful and should be comprehensive when the audience is IT folks
Lessons learned were seen as the most valuable information. What would the featured customer do differently?
Customer references are valuable during the short-listing process
Customer success stories received the strongest reaction. Respondents said they are OK for sales references but IT folks don’t want to read just a happy ending. They want more dimension in their stories, so this is the format they are least likely to read.
That brings up some questions. Are you integrating lessons learned in your technology customer stories? How has that been received by sales reps? What’s the best way to bring this into the story – in the body or sidebar? Are you labeling stories with lessons learned either case studies or success stories?
Hi Casey,
One of my clients – SAP – is now producing “Business Transformation Studies” that incorporate a Lessons Learned section in both the main body and in the summary at-a-glance section. (Examples of these: http://www.sap.com/usa/industries/businesstransformations/index.epx)
Scott’s comments had caught my eye a couple of weeks ago, prompting me to write a blog post about what
tech evaluators seek in case studies. Your readers might find value in my suggestions for interview questions: http://www.savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/60232/what-do-technical-evaluators-get-from-your-case-studies-
Look forward to your next post!
Best,
Stephanie