Case studies

What a case study is

A case study is a page about one customer, telling a buyer who is deciding whether to hire you what happened when someone like them did. It has a fixed shape: the situation the customer was in, the decision they made, what was done, and what it produced, with a number wherever the customer will let one be published. It is the most persuasive page type a business website can carry, because it is the only one where someone other than you does the talking.

It is not a testimonial. A testimonial page collects quotes; a case study tells the whole story with the quote inside it. It is also not the sales version. Case studies for sales are built to be handed over in a meeting and are shaped around one objection; a website case study is read by a stranger with no one to explain it. The interview is the same; the page is not.

Who this is for

A business that has done good work for real customers and has nothing on its website to show for it beyond a logo row and "trusted by hundreds". Professional services, trades, agencies, manufacturers, software companies: any business where the buyer's real question is "has this worked for someone in my situation" and the site does not answer it.

It is not for a business with no customer willing to be named. A case study with "a leading company in the sector" as its subject persuades nobody, and I will say so rather than write it. If your customers will talk but not be named, a customer story with the identifying details changed and labelled as such is honest and still useful. If you have customers who will be quoted but not interviewed, start with testimonial editing.

What it contains

Every case study follows the same five sections, because a buyer who reads two should be able to compare them.

1. Who the customer is. Trade, size, place, and the one detail that makes a reader think "that is like us". Two or three sentences, with the customer's name and, where allowed, a person's name and role.
2. The situation. What was wrong or what was wanted, in the customer's own words where possible. This is the section that makes the reader keep going, and it is written from the interview, not from your proposal.
3. The decision. Why they chose you, what else they considered, and what nearly stopped them. The honest version is more persuasive than the flattering one.
4. What was done. The work, in enough detail to be credible and no more. Dates, quantities, the sequence, who was involved on both sides.
5. What it produced. The result, stated as a number if the customer will approve one, and as a specific description if they will not. Then one quote, attributed, about what it meant to them.

Each page carries a short summary block at the top, three lines a scanner can take in without reading, and ends with a link to the service page the story belongs to.

What you get

The interview. A recorded call of thirty to forty-five minutes with your customer, arranged by you and led by me. Customers say things to a stranger that they will not say to you, and the recording and transcript are yours.

The case study page. 500 to 900 words in the five sections above, with headings, the summary block, the pull quote, the title tag and the meta description.

The short version. A 150-word summary of the same story for proposals, the home page and the service page it supports.

The approval record. The exact text the customer approved, dated, with their written sign-off, so nobody has to remember what was agreed when the page is edited two years later.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A commercial cleaning company has served a regional chain of eleven dental clinics for four years and has never written a word about it. The website says "trusted by healthcare providers" and shows a logo. Prospective clinics phone to ask whether the company understands infection-control protocols, and the owner explains it every time.

The interview with the chain's operations manager produces the story: the clinics had been through three cleaning contractors in two years, each failing an internal audit on the same two points. The decision came down to whether the new contractor would put its procedures in writing and train to them. The case study describes the written protocol, the staff training week, and the audit routine, and the manager approves publication of the audit pass rate across the eleven sites. The quote at the end is about not having to think about cleaning any more. The page is 700 words. The short version goes on the healthcare service page, and the owner sends the link instead of explaining the protocols by phone.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. Which customers might agree, what each story would show a buyer, and which service page each supports. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. The number of case studies, the price and the dates, agreed before anything starts.
3. The introduction. You ask the customer and make the introduction. I send them one page explaining what the interview covers and what they will approve.
4. The interview. Thirty to forty-five minutes, recorded, on video or by phone, at their convenience.
5. The draft. You read it first for accuracy, then it goes to the customer for approval. Changes they ask for are made without argument.
6. The final page and short version. Delivered with the approval record once the customer signs off.

Two to three weeks per case study is typical, and most of that is waiting for calendars. Several run in parallel.

What it costs

A case study is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many case studies are in the set, whether the customer interview is needed or you already have the material in writing, and whether the customer's approval process is a signature or a legal review. A set of three or more is priced per case study. The number is agreed in writing before the work starts, and the pricing page explains how quotes are built.

What happens next

A case study does its work when it is linked from the page a buyer is reading, so the service pages it supports are usually revised to carry the short version. Quotes gathered in the interviews build a testimonial page arranged by objection. When the sales team wants the same story in a form they can hand over, case studies for sales reshape it from the interview already done.