Last week, Fire Enterprises (FEI) marketing maven Marka told savvy salesperson Zoot how to use the “Challenge/Solution/Results” formula to write successful case studies. This week, Marka shows Zoot how including results statements will make FEI’s case studies compelling. Remember, fire=print.
Spring had come to Olympus, which meant sunny days and everybody donning their short-sleeve togas. One Friday afternoon, Marka and Zoot had lunch out at Demeter’s Café—a rarity, given how busy FEI usually is—and took a quick stroll through a nearby park.
“Now that we’ve got the Challenge/Solutions/Results formula down pat, it should be easy to write an effective case study,” Zoot said.
“Knowing this formula is a good start,” Marka agreed. “But a truly successful case study will do more than just deliver the facts—it will also intrigue the reader with a compelling Results Statement. Virtually every effective case study has a powerful Results Statement at its core. The Results Statement answers a simple question that every FEI prospect reading our case study wants to know: How have we helped this client reduce their costs, improve their efficiency, or make some other quantifiable improvement to their business?”
“The ROI statement is one effective type of Results Statement,” Marka continued. “Before making a long-term investment in our bigger, more expensive kilns, for instance, our prospects want to know: ‘How long until this machine pays for itself?’ A compelling ROI statement for FEI would be ‘It took Dione’s Donuts just five months to achieve ROI with FEI’s new patented eight-torch kiln.’”
“Another type of Results Statement simply ties our solution to cost savings or a quantifiable increase in efficiency,” Marka continued. “Example: ‘Using FEI’s kiln solution, Dione’s Donuts has decreased cooking costs by 15 percent this year.’”
“Once we’ve developed our Results Statement, how do we incorporate it into our case study?” Zoot asked.
“We revolve our case study around it,” Marka said. “The title of our case study should essentially just be a Results Statement: ‘Dione’s Donuts reduces their cooking costs by 15 percent after installing FEI kiln.’ We weave this statement throughout the case study, especially in the ‘Results’ section. And we include big, splashy graphics and multimedia content to compellingly illustrate this Results Statement. Bottom line: it should be clear to anyone who takes a passing glance at the case study exactly how FEI helped Dione’s Donuts—and how we can help their business too.”
“This all makes sense to me,” Zoot said. “One question, though: what does this multimedia content look like?”
“Glad you asked,” Marka said. “But you’ll have to wait until next week to find out.”
“Next week?” Zoot asked. “What, are we on a serialized blog?”
Next week: Marka and Zoot discuss using multimedia content to demonstrate a case study’s results statement.
Today’s FIRE! Point
The value and focus of your case study should be the results statement, which details exactly how you’ve helped your client reduce costs, improve efficiency, or achieve some other kind of quantifiable result.
FIRE! In Action: Hubspot Uses Customer Case Studies to Bolster Web Presence
The internet marketing software company posts dozens of case studies on its Website. Every case study is relatively short, includes graphics or video content, and, most importantly emphasizes the measurable results the client has seen.
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Very much alive and now officially an industry curmudgeon, strategic growth expert T. J. Tedesco can be reached at tj@tjtedesco.com or 301-404-2244.