What Is a Marketing Case Study?
A marketing case study tells the story of how one of a company’s customers tackled a challenge using as particular service, product, or strategy. At minimum it informs the market what happened, how it was done, the learnings gained, and the outcomes achieved. It is usually designed to support the company’s marketing activities, but can also have significant benefits for sales activities. Decision-makers who encounter it gain insight into someone else’s real experience, so they can see what is possible. They are influenced and gain trust and confidence from learnings how real customers have gained.
Creating a marketing case study: the good, the bad and the ugly
Many businesses create marketing case studies, but they don’t always create them well.
A good marketing case study is far more than a recap of the problem, solution approach and a list of benefits, written by the business to showcase that it has real customers—honestly!
Done right, it is a compelling real-world story not only of how a business challenge was tackled. It’s not just about how a customer used a particular strategy, service, or product. It is also a glimpse into the mind of that customer. It walks the reader through what happened, why it mattered, what was learned, the results and the overall experience.
Think of it as a window into what’s possible. It shows prospective clients that success isn’t just promised to people—but are proven and delivered.
Then, there are the bad (or downright ugly) case studies. Far too many companies don’t even ask their customers for their opinion or input on whether their experience was positive—they simply assume it was, and write accordingly. They litter the case study with sales messages and product detail.
That may provide lots of information, but often gives little reassurance or positive vibes to a prospect seeking an answer, a solution or a partner.
Why businesses rely on marketing case studies
When done well, a marketing case study becomes one of your most persuasive tools. It does more than just tell a story—it builds credibility. For businesses, especially in the B2B space, case studies can actively bridge the trust gap.
They offer not just concrete proof that you can deliver on your promises, but can also communicate what a good company you are to work with, the calibre of your team, the quality of your service, and so much more.
Here’s how they’re often used:
- Supporting the sales team with compelling real-life success stories they can whip out to support a pitch or counter sales objections
- Establishing expertise within a particular sector or niche—when you have a few to field in a sector, that’s pretty powerful stuff!
- Demonstrating your unique approach to solving problems and driving ROI—your customers can state your differences way more convincingly than you can.
- Offering reassurance to both technical decision-makers and commercial stakeholders—making it feel safer to say yes, or recommend a decision in your favour.
The difference between basic and brilliant case studies
Let’s be honest—many marketing case studies are totally forgettable. They’re generic, simplistic bullet point lists that skim over the details. They focus too much on the technical details of what happened, not why it mattered and how customers felt.
A standout case study doesn’t just state the problem presented, outline the details of a solution or service, then say how pleased the customer was. Instead it:
- Tells a story—not just outlining a process
- Speaks in the customer’s voice—and makes them the hero of the story
- Outlines the challenge from the customer’s perspective, not as you perceived it
- Contextualises the solution within the customer’s environment
- Frames the need, as well as sharing specific, measurable outcomes or changes
Treating case studies as a templated exercise and a basic activity to fill a customer page on a website just isn’t enough.
Especially when it’s possible to bring real relevance, depth, and real-world value to the surface—if you only try.
What makes a great marketing case study?
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula, but the very best marketing case studies consistently share these traits:
- Relevance—so the audience can actually see similarities to their own situation in the story
- Personality—telling stories not just about specific companies, but including real people with real opinions
- Voices — letting the words of customers dominate the story they way they see it, woven into your narrative
- Transparency – surfacing the problems and challenges encountered along the way—nobody is naïve enough to believe a “perfect” story
- Impact — not only including quantifiable business outcomes and impacts, but also softer impacts
- Depth — digging into the interesting parts of the story, adjacent to but lending richness to the main problem-solving story.
- Clarity—It should be easy to read and follow for any decisionmaker or stakeholder at a prospect company. Especially senior leaders who may need to sign off on a decision to shortlist or to purchase.
When these elements are present, your case study doesn’t risk being seen as promotional fluff that’s only worth a glance.
Instead, it becomes worth a read, because it delivers genuine insight—and that builds trust far more effectively than a crappy case study will ever do.
The meaning of it all
In a world which is full of content, and most of that dull and unremarkable, companies that use powerful marketing case studies can stand out from the crowd immediately.
Even more importantly, marketing case studies that are developed with the kind of attributes we outline above have enormously greater potential for ROI. They can attract attention, create engagement, melt sales objections and help convert prospects into new customers like no other piece of collateral.
Discover our marketing case study services and explore the Case Study Studio portfolio to see examples.
