This article is about case studies…
Hang on. Don’t go yet!
In the past, everything about case studies got you far away. They are often dry, generic, or just a high school pep rally cheering for a company, product, or solution. But it doesn’t have to be.
Case studies can play an important role in your content marketing strategy. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, small B2B marketers say case studies are the most effective content marketing tactic they can implement.
A good case study can help you present your product or service subtly and compellingly. It talks about a client’s business problem and what you did to overcome it. Statistics provide concreteness, and customer estimates provide reliability. Case studies can attract new customers who are already in the purchase funnel.
It’s time to take a different approach to case study writing so that your case studies are read, shared, and lead to more leads.
Here are 10 things to remember to create less boring and more effective case studies.
10 Things to Remember While Writing a Case Study
1) Focus on your prospects: Selecting potential clients is the key to creating a compelling and engaging case study. If people reading your case study can relate, they will understand that the same product/service works for them. This helps ensure they can talk about the value of what you offer, which makes sense to potential customers.
2) Tell a story: We all love good stories. A good story has three structures- beginning, middle, and end. A good case study allows someone to get to know the client and their goals, challenges, and solutions. So turn your case study into a story full of emotion and express your personality to connect with your readers.
3) Include numerical: Numbers never lie; they add veracity that words cannot. Including numbers in your content helps to describe the challenge level, the process, and the results achieved. Readers can see real concrete results. This makes case studies more impactful.
4) Use an easy-to-read format: No matter how interesting and informative your case study is, not everyone likes a huge amount of information. Most readers search for case studies to find relevant pieces. Consider the following formatting features when writing your case study to make it easier for your readers to read.
- Headline
- Images, infographics, or videos
- Bulleted list
- Bold and italic text
5) Use citations: Getting quotes directly from clients is another great way to add credibility and credibility to your case studies. This makes case studies more realistic and more relevant.
6) Experiment with different formats: People love stories, but sometimes case studies don’t fit the mold. It would be best to try different case studies, such as- an interview format that asks questions about the customer’s needs, goals, plans, and successes.
7) Don’t forget the words “W” and “H”: All writers must follow the 5 Ws and Hs to create a complete case study. “Who, what, when, where, why, how?” Case studies are more meaningful when presented with the big picture.
8) Use keywords in titles and body text: Analyze your case study topic and write a summary. This helps Google find and disseminate case studies. Include well-known keywords in the headline and a few times in the body of your case study.
9) Don’t lie: You need trust to make your case studies authentic and meaningful. Content must be honest to build trust. Use real company names, numbers, and original product images to show the face behind your statements and quotes. A special presentation of a client’s success story makes for a more engaging read while having more impact.
10) Make it searchable: Writing a good case study doesn’t mean your job is done. What’s the point of having a good case study if no one can find it? Make sure your case study is structured and easy to find. Promote your case study in any way you can. You can post them on social platforms and discuss them in pitches and client meetings.
The Simplest and Tried-n-Tested Format of a Case Study
- Problem Definition: Your case study will always open by presenting a problem suffered by one of your clients. This part of the study establishes what’s at stake and introduces the characters – your company, the client company, and whichever individual decision-makers speak for each side.
- Our Solution: Once you define the problem, the next step presents your offering, which serves as the answer to the dilemma. Your product or service is, in a very real sense, the hero of the story. It catalyzes the change which you describe in terms of your features, advantages, and other differentiators.
- How we solved/implemented: This step explains how you executed the solution to bring in the change. This section also covers the challenges and problems you faced in implementing the solution for the good of your product or service.
- Results Achieved: In the final step, you discuss the “happy ending” brought about by your solution.
Returning to the “stakes” you established at the very start, you expand on how much better things are thanks to your intervention. You want prospects to imagine themselves enjoying that level of success.
Example of A Story-based Case study
THE CLIENT
A leading global financial services firm, looking to improve their defined contribution, or 401(k)offering, approached J.P. Morgan. The client had both- a large and mature defined benefit plan and a new, rapidly-growing defined contribution plan. They also had an aggressive agenda – their investment committee required the ability to continuously assess current plan options and seek new options that would benefit plan participants. Additionally, they sought to add an auto-enrollment feature and default investment options, as well as simplify their portfolio lineup. As such, the client was looking to offer target-date funds to their defined contribution offering.
THE NEED
A pension plan sponsor bears a fiduciary responsibility to ensure participant needs are fairly represented and appropriately addressed. There has been significant litigation over the past five years where firms have been held liable for failing to act in the best interests of plan participants. While specifics differ, many of these suits have claimed that plan options were not cost-effective, participants were misled about the nature of their investments, and adequate investment strategies were not offered.
J.P. Morgan’s client received feedback from its plan participants that the investment decision-making process was difficult and overwhelming, and despite a variety of educational tools, employees still struggled to make adequate investment and asset allocation choices. Additionally, the client observed that many of its employees were taking no action to save for their retirement, therefore putting themselves in a more challenging financial situation. To address this concern, the plan’s investment committee sought to implement an auto-enrollment feature obligating new employees to participate in retirement planning even if they took no overt actions. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 requires the use of a “Qualified Default Investment Alternative,” or QDIA.
To represent the best interests of their plan participants, the client had four main investment priorities: 1) diversification and access to new asset classes, 2) open architecture, 3) cost efficiency, and 4) a comprehensive solution for ease of implementation and administration.
DIVERSIFICATION AND ACCESS TO NEW ASSET CLASSES
The client’s investment committee wanted to offer their participants access to extended and alternative investment options. There has been increasing, broad-based interest in investment strategies that offer a diversifying effect, including investing in real assets (commodities, real estate, timber, etc.).
Furthermore, alternative-style portfolios that employ shorting and derivatives strategies have been gaining more mainstream acceptance in the pension market and may generate investment returns less correlated with the broader markets. For certain asset classes, passive or index funds can also be appropriate investment choices. The client wished to be able to offer the best options as they continue to arise in the marketplace.
COST EFFICIENCY
J.P. Morgan’s client sought a customized yet cost-effective solution, and some custom target-date funds can offer such benefits. For example, custom target-date funds may utilize collective trusts instead of, or in addition to, mutual funds.
Collective trusts tend to have fewer costs associated with their maintenance and are, therefore, generally less expensive than mutual funds. Additionally, for certain asset classes, the client determined that passive investment approaches offered the best cost/benefit tradeoff. Thus the need to offer both passive and active investments was important.
THE SOLUTION
The client selected J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Investor Services, using J.P. Morgan Cash Allocation and Rebalancing Solution (CARS), to manage and service their new target-date fund offering. The deciding factors included the firm’s offering of an integrated end-to-end, bundled target-date fund solution at a compelling price, innovative investment strategies, and the ability to support this complex, customized open architecture.
EXAMPLES:
#1. A Structured Case Study
Automaker revamps accounting processes and transforms to digital at scale.
Cognizant was asked by a longtime client to assess how to address inconsistencies in its global financial and accounting functions. Our client, although based in Europe, has automotive sales and manufacturing operations around the world and suffers from non-standard processes, aging legacy systems, and various enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the market. ) had to deal with the package. Disjointed processes and systems lacked real-time visibility into global results, creating uncertainty about the ability to deliver timely consolidated reports to senior management.
Rough driving
Due to inaccuracies and slow reporting in clients’ accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) functions, management is concerned about sales and marketing performance in key markets versus impacted markets. It lacked insight into how per-operating costs impacted performance. In addition, the company’s various methods and processes for collecting and preparing financial condition reports result in inefficiencies in the time spent on internal resources, resulting in high costs for accounting, sales, and procurement functions. A large number of stale unreconciled items have occurred.
The Digital Path
Cognizant’s long-term relationship with this client includes managing the company’s global SAP ERP solution. From this work, we learned that the company’s IT systems and business processes have become more complex as it has grown through, for example, acquisitions and divestitures of companies. Although the company had a centralized ERP system, not all of its widely distributed operations provided information in a usable format, nor did they report it in the same way or at the same time. We used the OneFinance approach to review existing non-standard workstreams and proposed to develop best practice templates for each workstream to improve key internal accounting processes, including AP and AR. Our solution ensures that all major accounting work streams work seamlessly with SAP. We worked with the company’s procurement function team to define the strategy and operating model and developed processes to address differences in systems and processes by country, including China.
We are deploying several solutions to improve operations and governance that leverage analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation, including:
• GRIP automation tool for automatic analysis and settlement of open Goods Receipt/Invoice Receipt Items (GR/IR).
• Workflow tools for visualizing production reporting and analytics (VIPRA) to simplify work assignment and supplier invoice tracking.
• Automated cash application powered by SAP scripts and automated allocation tools.
• Executive dashboards using PowerBI. Multidimensionally display indicators for the entire country or legal entity.
Preparing for the Future
As brands compete for buyers and invest in new initiatives, they must be relentlessly efficient to maintain margins. That means finding ways to reduce inefficiencies, better track and report financials, and reduce overhead and costs.
OneFinance program for this automaker implements best-in-class digital finance and accounting principles and processes across key accounting functions, from its European headquarters to its operations in 35 separate markets in Asia Pacific, North America, and China.
We have worked with our clients to reallocate resources previously spent on manual AP/AR processes, implement new automated best practices for critical financial workflows, and reduce outstanding APs. It also provides management transparency and audit trails, along with a C-level executive dashboard that provides a multi-dimensional view of 21 key financial and accounting metrics.
Want the best case studies for your business?
As stated earlier, case studies help promote your business and effectively reach potential customers. So, if you want the best case studies, contact us at Dimensions. With years of experience in content writing from various industries, our expert content writers offer the best case studies and other content. Our case studies are informative and well-researched and compel readers to act positively.
