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Marketing case study 101 (plus tips, examples, and templates)

Summary/Overview

If you’re familiar with content lines like, “See how our fancy new app saved Sarah 10 hours a week doing payroll,” you’ve encountered a marketing case study. That’s because case studies are one of the most powerful marketing tools, showcasing real-world applications and customer success stories that help build trust with potential customers.

More than 42% of marketers use case studies in their marketing strategy. Let’s face it — we love testimonials and reviews. People love hearing customer stories and experiences firsthand. In fact, 88% of consumers view reviews before making a purchase decision. Case studies work similarly by providing prospective customers with real-life stories demonstrating the brand’s success.

Case studies provide a more in-depth view of how your product solves an existing problem — something potential buyers can relate to and learn from.

In this article, we take a closer look at what marketing case studies are, why they’re important, and how you can use them to improve your content marketing efforts. You’ll also learn the key elements of a successful case study and how to turn a good case study into a great case study.

What is a marketing case study?

A case study is a narrative that documents a real-world situation or example. A marketing case study is a detailed examination and analysis of a specific strategy, initiative, or marketing campaign that a business has implemented. It’s intended to serve as an all-inclusive narrative that documents a real-world business situation and its outcome.

Marketing case studies are tools businesses use to showcase the effectiveness of a particular tool, technique, or service by using a real-world example. Companies often use case studies as sales collateral on websites, email marketing, social media , and other marketing materials. They provide readers with a firsthand look into how your product or service has helped someone else and demonstrate the value of your offering while building trust with potential customers.

Some common key components of a marketing case study include:

• Context: A case study begins by describing the business’s situation or problem. This often includes challenges, opportunities, or objectives.
• Strategy: An outline of the tactics or strategy utilized to address the business’s situation. This includes details such as the target audience, messaging, channels used, and other unique aspects of the approach.
• Implementation: Provide information about how the strategy was implemented, including timeline, resources, and budget.
• Results: This is arguably the most crucial part of a marketing case study. Present the results through data, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the impact of the strategy. The results section should highlight both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Challenges and Solutions: A great case study not only focuses on the successes but addresses any obstacles faced during the campaign. Make sure to address any challenges and how they were overcome or mitigated.
• Customer Feedback: Including testimonials or quotes from satisfied clients is a great way to add credibility and authenticity to a case study. Choose customer feedback that reinforces the positive outcomes of the strategy taken.
• Visuals: Compelling case studies include visuals such as graphs, charts, images, videos, and infographics to make the information presented more engaging and easier to understand.
• Analysis: An optional way to conclude a case study includes discussing key takeaways, insights, and lessons learned from a campaign.

Case studies can help you connect your product to the customer’s needs by providing a real world examples of success and encouraging conversions.

Benefits of marketing case studies

Some of the key benefits of using case studies in your marketing efforts include the following:

• Building trust and credibility. You build trust and credibility with potential clients or customers by demonstrating real world success stories. In-depth looks at how your products or services have helped other businesses or people achieve success can increase customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
• Learn best practices. Learn from strategies employed in successful case studies and apply similar approaches to future campaigns.
• Enhancing sales and conversions. By highlighting the real world results your products or services have delivered, case studies can be a powerful tool for boosting sales. They can help demonstrate the value of your offering and persuade your target audience to make a purchase.
• Explain how your business generates results. Case studies are a compelling way to share key takeaways with your target audience and showcase your brand.
• Use them as content marketing material. Use case studies as content for marketing purposes on websites, social media, and beyond.

Case studies can help your business stand out and achieve success. By highlighting the real world results you’ve delivered, you can use case studies to boost sales, build customer loyalty, and compellingly showcase your business.

Tips on how to write an effective marketing case study

Are you ready to write a compelling case study? Get started with these tips.

Develop a clear and compelling headline

You have about 10 seconds to communicate your value proposition to keep customer attention. Whether you’re designing a new landing page or making a long-term plan for your brand’s content marketing strategy , the headline is the most crucial part.

A compelling title should capture readers’ attention and make them want to read more. To craft a compelling headline:

• Understand your audience: Before crafting a headline, ensure you know your target audience — what are their pain points, interests, and needs?
• Highlight the most significant result: Focus on the most impactful result achieved in the case study. What was the primary outcome of the strategy implemented?
• Keep it brief: Keep your headline concise and to the point. Try to keep your headline under 12 words.
• Use action words: Incorporate action verbs such as “achieved,” “transformed,” or “boosted” to convey a sense of accomplishment.
• Include data: Numbers make your headline more credible. For example, if the case study achieved a 75% increase in sales, include that in the headline.
• Emphasize benefits: Focus on the positive changes or advantages the implemented strategy brought to the client or business. Use these as selling points in your headline.
• Make it unique and memorable: Avoid generic phrases to make your headline stand out from the competition.
• Use keywords wisely: Incorporate relevant keywords that align with the case study and your target audience’s search interest to improve search engine visibility through search engine optimization (SEO).
• Consider subheadings: If you cannot fit all the necessary information in a headline, consider adding a subheading to provide additional context or details.

Here are some examples of clear and convincing case study headlines:

• “Achieving a 150% ROI: How [XYZ] Strategy Transformed a Startup”
• “How Optimized SEO Tactics Skyrocketed Sales by 80%”
• “Mastering Social Media: How [ABC] Brand Increased Engagement by 50%”
• “The Power of Personalization: How Tailored Content Quadrupled Conversions”

Write relatable content

Almost 90% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers prefer influencers who they consider relatable. Relatability is part of building trust and connection with your target audience.

When writing your case study, make content that resonates with readers and speaks to their pain points. The best marketing doesn’t just increase conversion rates — it also serves your customers’ needs. To write content that really resonates with your target audience, make sure to:

• Understand your audience: To successfully write relatable content, you first need to understand your target audience — their interests, pain points, and challenges. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your content to their needs.
• Identify pain points: As mentioned above, identify challenges your target audience may face. Make sure to highlight how the product or service in the case study can effectively address these pain points.
• Tell a story: Create a narrative that follows a standard story arc. Start with a relatable struggle that the customer or business faced and describe its associated emotions.
• Use real customer feedback: Incorporate quotes or testimonials from actual customers or clients. Including authentic voices makes the content more relatable to readers because they can see real people expressing their experiences.
• Use relatable language: Write in a tone to which your audience can relate. Only include overly technical terms if your target audience solely consists of experts who would understand them.
• Use social proof: Mention any recognitions, awards, or industry acknowledgments that may have been received by the customer or business in the case study.
• Encourage engagement: Urge readers to share their own challenges or experiences related to the subject matter of the case study. This is a great way to foster a sense of community.

Outline your strategies with corresponding statistics

Whether you’re showing off the results your marketing team achieved with a new strategy or explaining how your product has helped customers, data and research make it easier to back up claims.

Include relevant statistics in your case study to provide evidence of the effectiveness of your strategies, such as:

• Quantitative data: Use numerical data to quantify results.
• Qualitative data: Use qualitative data, such as customer testimonials, to back up numerical results.
• Comparisons: Compare the post-campaign results with the pre-campaign benchmarks to provide context for the data.
• Case study metrics: Include specific metrics relevant to your industry or campaign if applicable. For example, in e-commerce, common metrics could include customer acquisition cost, average order value, or cart abandonment rate.

By incorporating relatable outcomes — such as cost savings from new automation or customer responsiveness from your new social media marketing campaign — you can provide concrete evidence of how your product or service has helped others in similar situations.

Use multiple formats of representation

People love visuals . It doesn’t matter if it’s an infographic for digital marketing or a graph chart in print materials — we love to see our data and results represented in visuals that are easy to understand. Additionally, including multiple representation formats is a great way to increase accessibility and enhance clarity.

When making a case study, consider including various forms of representation, such as:

• Infographics: Use infographics to condense critical information into a visually appealing, easy-to-understand graphic. Infographics are highly sharable and can be used across marketing channels.
• Charts: Use charts (bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, etc.) to illustrate statistical information such as data trends or comparisons. Make sure to include clear labels and titles for each chart.
• Images: Include relevant photos to enhance the storytelling aspect of your case study. Consider including “before and after” pictures if relevant to your case study.
• Videos: Short videos summarizing a case study’s main points are great for sharing across social media or embedding into your case study.
• Tables: Use tables to help organize data and make it easier for readers to digest.
• Data visualizations: Include data visualizations such as flowcharts or heatmaps to illustrate user journeys or specific processes.
• Screenshots: If your case study involves digital products, include screenshots to provide a visual walkthrough of how the product or service works.
• Diagrams: Use diagrams, such as a flowchart, to explain complex processes, decision trees, or workflows to simplify complicated information.
• Timelines: If your case study involves a timeline of specific events, present it using a timeline graphic.

Use a consistent design style and color scheme to maintain cohesion when incorporating multiple formats. Remember that each format you use should serve a specific purpose in engaging the reader and conveying information.

Get your case study in front of your intended audience

What good is a compelling case study and a killer call to action (CTA) if no one sees it? Once you’ve completed your case study, share it across the appropriate channels and networks your target audience frequents and incorporate it into your content strategy to increase visibility and reach. To get your case study noticed:

• Take advantage of your website. Create a dedicated section or landing page on your website for your case study. If your website has a blog section, consider including it here. Optimize the page for search engines (SEO) by including relevant keywords and optimizing the meta description and headers. Make sure to feature your case study on your homepage and relevant product or service pages.
• Launch email marketing campaigns. Send out the case study to your email subscriber list. Be specific and target groups that would most likely be interested in the case study.
• Launch social media campaigns. Share your case study on your social media platforms. Use eye-catching graphics and engaging captions to draw in potential readers. Consider creating teaser videos or graphics to generate interest.
• Utilize paid promotions. Use targeted social media and search engine ads to reach specific demographics or interests. Consider retargeting ads to re-engage visitors who have previously interacted with your website.
• Issue a press release. If your case study results in a significant industry impact, consider issuing a press release to share the exciting news with relevant media outlets or publications.
• Utilize influencer outreach. Collaborate with influencers who can share your case study with their followers to increase credibility and expand your reach.
• Host webinars and presentations. Discuss the case study findings and insights through webinars or presentations. Promote these events through your various marketing channels and make sure to encourage participation.
• Utilize networking events and conferences. Present your case study at industry-related conferences, trade shows, or networking events. Consider distributing printed or digital copies of the case study to attendees.
• Utilize online communities. Share the case study in relevant online forums and discussion groups where your target audience congregates.
• Practice search engine optimization (SEO). Optimize the SEO elements of your case study to improve organic search ranking and visibility.

Remember, the key to successfully promoting your case study is to tailor your approach to your specific target audience and their preferences. Consistently promoting your case study across multiple channels increases your chances of it reaching your intended audience.

Marketing case study examples

Let’s look at some successful marketing case studies for inspiration.

“How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with HubSpot”

Right away, they lead with compelling metrics — the numbers don’t lie. They use two different formats: a well-made video accompanied by well-written text.

The study also addresses customer pain points, like meeting a higher demand during the pandemic.

“How AppSumo grew organic traffic 843% and revenue from organic traffic 340%”

This case study from Omniscient Digital leads with motivating stats, a glowing review sharing a real user experience, and a video review from the AppSumo Head of Content.

The case study information is broken down into clearly marked sections, explaining the benefits to their target audience (startups) and providing plenty of visuals, charts, and metrics to back it up.

“How One Ecommerce Business Solved the Omnichannel Challenge with Bitly Campaigns”

Download this Bitly case study from their site to see the details of how this company made an impact.

Not only is it well designed, but it also tackles customer challenges right away. The most compelling types of case studies serve their audience by showing how the product or service solves their problems.

Bitly nails it by listing obstacles and jumping right into how the brand can help.

Marketing case study template

Use this basic template to better understand the typical structure of a business case study and use it as a starting place to create your own:

Case Study Title

Date: [Date]

Client or Company Profile:

• Client/Company Name: [Client/Company Name]
• Industry: [Industry]
• Location: [Location]
• Client/Company Background: [Brief client or company background information.]

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the client or company and any necessary context for the campaign or initiative.
• Problem statement: Describe the specific challenge or problem faced by the client or company before implementing the campaign or initiative.
• Strategy: Explain the strategy that was implemented to address the challenge. Include details such as target audience, objectives, goals, and tactics.
• Implementation: Provide a timeline of the strategy’s implementation, including key milestones and other notable considerations taken during execution.
• Outcomes: Present the qualitative and quantitative results achieved through the implemented strategy. Include relevant metrics, statistics, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Comparative data: Compare the post-campaign results to pre-campaign benchmarks or industry standards.

Analysis and Insights:

• Key insights: Summarize insights and lessons learned from the campaign and discuss the campaign's impact on the client or company’s goals.
• Challenges faced: Address any obstacles encountered during the campaign and how they were mitigated or overcome.

Conclusion:

• Conclusion: Summarize the campaign’s overall impact on the client or company. Highlight the value that was delivered by the implemented strategy and the success it achieved.
• Next Steps: Discuss potential follow-up actions, recommendations, or future strategies.

Testimonials:

• Include quotes or testimonials from the clients or customers who benefitted from the campaign.
• Incorporate relevant visuals to illustrate key points, findings, and results.

The above template is a great way to get started gathering your ideas and findings for a marketing case study. Feel free to add additional sections or customize the template to match your requirements.

Craft a compelling marketing case study for your business

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Choose from our library of designed templates, or make it yourself with powerful tools and a library of ready-to-use graphic elements.

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The Post-Purchase Customer Experience: B2C marketing case studies of effective strategies for big-ticket items

Get a proven methodology to help you create a sales and marketing SuperFunnel and optimize your potential customers’ experience when you join the AI Guild. Start a free trial at MECLABS.com/AI

In this article, we show you examples of three ways focusing on the post-purchase customer experience can help you your brand:

• Customer Engagement – See how Shinola integrated QR codes and personalized communications to boost open and click rates
• Word-of-Mouth Marketing – Read how a local contractor leveraged WOMM on Facebook by sharing the post-purchase experience
• Social Proof – Discover how a small-group travel company brought transparency to the trip experience by showing that others would be on the trip that prospects were considering purchasing

Quick Case Study #1: How digital product registration lead to 78% email open rate for Shinola

Shinola is a Detroit-based luxury design brand.

BEFORE – Product registration challenge

The retail company used a card-based product registration system. The card mentioned the warranty and provided a written URL the customer could visit to register the product.

Creative Sample #1: Product registration card

The card had a low engagement rate. This left the lifestyle brand with little information about its customers and hindered its ability to connect and provide customers with a great experience.

AFTER – Enhanced customer engagement strategy

To improve the customer experience, the team made three key changes.

Step #1: Product registration with QR code

The team allowed customers to register their luxury products with just the scan of a QR code. The new card also mentions the content customers will receive – “Get tips and tricks for watch care, maintenance, and use…” (Please note: Event though the creative samples show different warranty lengths, the warranty length did not change. Some products have a three-year warranty, and some have a lifetime warranty).

Creative Sample #2: QR code registration (front)

Creative Sample #3: QR code registration (back)

Step #2: Human, in-person communication from the retail sales team

In-store salespeople began emphasizing the importance of product registration, communicating to customers how they could access post-purchase product care and maintenance resources. Retail associates could even help customers register in store, reinforcing the importance of the post-purchase experience and high-touch service levels.

Step #3: Personalized email journeys and quicker customer service calls

After capturing key owner data, including customer information and opt-ins, the luxury goods retailer used the data to reduce resolution time for customer service calls. The team also created personalized email journeys to provide value through the post-purchase experience with product care and maintenance information, rather than direct marketing.

RESULTS – Customer registration success metrics

“Using this strategy, we've more than doubled our watch registration percentages within our first six months and our registration rates have only continued to climb – highlighting that our current registration process is the easiest it’s ever been for our guests,” said John Hurlahe, Senior Manager of Brand Experience, Shinola .

With the new process, product registrations increased from 15% to 35%.

The personalized post-purchase email journey had a 78% open rate with an average click-to-open rate of 20%.

“The metrics showcase the power of knowing who your customers are and responding with content that matters to them,” said Heather Wilkerson, SVP, Marketing, Registria (Shinola’s product ownership experience vendor).

Quick Case Study #2: How local contractor expanded organic Facebook post strategy to grow from 2 to 26 leads per month

Apex Installations is a general contractor.

BEFORE – Simple posts

The team started doing Facebook posts. The posts were simple with one post per project.

For example, the below post was a straightforward before-and-after photo of a kitchen remodel they had finished. The post has visual appeal, but there's not much content for the audience to consume or interact with.

Creative Sample #4: Simple Facebook post (February 2023)

“Our Facebook was something we didn’t really spend too much time on at the beginning of the year. It just didn't seem to get a good response from our customers,” said David Alderman, Owner, Apex Installations .

 AFTER – Three-phase posts (before, in-progress, after)

The team changed the post strategy from one post per project to three posts to show the customer’s journey – one before, one in progress, and one after. Each before and during post would include a teaser like ‘make sure to check back later this week to see progress/finished pictures!’ This not only boosted post views and interactions, but also built familiarity because customers that return frequently begin to recognize the brand.

Referencing Joseph Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’ narrative pattern, Miles Campbell, Owner, Trillium Marketing (Apex’s marketing agency), told me: “The best marketing and sales is telling a story where your customer is the hero (or can relate to the hero). With just one post of the 'after' pictures, there's no story. And while three posts is not enough to cover every point in the hero's journey, we can show more of a story that other potential customers can relate to. We can show some of the challenges with the ‘before’ pictures, imply that we are 'the mentor that helps the hero overcome their challenges,' show the customer's goal being achieved, and show what their new reality looks like (‘after’ pictures). It's a story with a character arc.”

The team added a quick description of the work to the post to be transparent about how the remodeling is done and the types of materials used.

“For example, we started posting that for every tile shower or tub, we use a Schluter waterproofing system behind the tile. Then in every 'during/progress' post, we mention that we installed a Schluter system and post a picture of it. We've probably posted at least two tile jobs per month over the last 10 months, so our hope is that when a customer wants tile installed in their shower, they expect us to offer a Schluter system, and they know exactly what it is and what it does,” Campbell said.

The team tried to get the posts shown to more people that are interested in home improvement services by adding hashtags. “Include relevant hashtags (#bathremodel, #showerremodel, etc.),” Campbell advised. “When people search in the group or on Facebook in general, posts with relevant hashtags will show up first. So for example, if a customer is looking for a bath remodel, all posts with ‘#bathremodel will show up first.”

The team also posted in local groups to reach a larger audience.

Here are some examples of a set of posts about one project.

Creative Sample #5: New Facebook strategy, ‘before’ post (November 2023)

Creative Sample #6: New Facebook strategy, ‘during’ post (November 2023)

The team makes sure to add a before/after side-by-side image for every ‘after project’ post.

Creative Sample #7: New Facebook strategy, ‘after’ post (November 2023)

“It may not seem all that complicated, but it's the minor improvements every day that lead to the best results,” Campbell said.

RESULTS – Enhanced lead generation

For the example posts above, the post from February 2023 (before they made the improvements reached) 500 Facebook users and resulted in two new leads in the month of February.

After they made the improvements, they saw those numbers increase. For example, the posts from November reached 2,800 users (‘before’ post), 4,900 users (‘progress’ post), and 5,200 users (‘after’ post).

The first comment on any post was usually from the homeowner that hired Apex for that project saying that the work looks great and they love it. That first comment from the homeowner usually leads to a few other comments from their family and friends like ‘Looks great!’ or some other short affirmation, resulting in word-of-mouth marketing.

“Since the family and friends are also likely in the area and in the local groups on Facebook, it boosts the views/impressions for that post,” Campbell said. “I can't say for sure why this improved with the three-post strategy, but my hypothesis is that it's due (at least in part) to frequency. More posts for each project means the homeowner is more likely to see at least one post about their home.”

The company got 26 new leads in the month of November. “We've almost tripled yearly sales just with this Facebook strategy,” Alderman said.

Quick Case Study #3: How small tweaks to online checkout process helped travel company increase sales by 22%

Customers can book small-group trips with local adventure guides on Skyhook Adventure’s website. They click a ‘Book Now’ button on a trip page that takes them to the first step in the checkout process.

BEFORE – Streamlined travel booking checkout page

The checkout landing page was designed to be simple and clutter-free. The main information placed in front of a potential customer at this point in the funnel was:

• General trip information
• Number of travelers for the booking
• Rated excellent on Trustpilot
• Price details
• Trip header image
• Promise of a flexible booking

Creative Sample #8: Checkout landing page, before

“Booking adventure travel is a considerable investment for most people. A lot goes into a traveler's purchase decision, and we wanted to win their trust quicker,” said Megan Firth, Chief Operating Officer, Skyhook Adventure .

AFTER – Dynamic social proof and urgency-driven travel checkout page

To increase urgency and social proof on the checkout landing page, the team added:

• A prominent box in red to show how many remaining spaces are left on this trip (for example, in creative sample below, there are two left)
• Another prominent box in green to show the number of people already booked on the trip (for example, in the creative sample below, 12 other people have booked already). If they've completed their profile information, their image avatars appear.

Creative Sample #9: Checkout landing page, after

Typically purchase decisions in travel can take days or weeks while a person does their research and weighs their options. But, faced with the reality of limited spaces remaining on the trip as shown in the red box, the traveler is prompted to act quickly and book their space before someone else snaps it up.

The page already had some social proof with the Trustpilot rating, but I noticed it was moved further down the page. When I asked Firth about it, she told me, “Each trip page houses its own reviews, so travelers typically read reviews before clicking ‘Book Now.’ There was no need for the Trustpilot bit to be too prominent – it's simply serving as a reinforcement to say the person is in good hands; they're booking with a business rated excellent by their peers.”

The team further boosted that social proof by showing that potential customers will be joining a small-group trip with ‘X’ number of other people who have booked already. If image avatars display at this point, they further humanize the entire process, reassuring the potential customer that they're making the right decision by booking.

I asked Firth how they communicated that traveler avatars would be displayed, to ensure there weren’t any privacy concerns. “There is a section on every trip page (and often in the FAQs) that lets travelers know they'll be added to a group chat after booking. It's also in our booking terms to say that anyone who books through Skyhook gives consent to feature their photographs, videos, and images in our promotional and marketing materials,” she said.

RESULTS – Conversion-boosting travel page optimization

The combination of these two changes to the page caused an uptick in sales of 22% compared with the previous month.

As you can see in the creative sample, if a traveler hasn’t updated their picture, only a generic avatar will show. To help get more images of travelers, the team is redesigning the guest profile dashboard and guest trip form (which is where the traveler inputs their profile pic, name, contact information, and required travel information).

The profile picture field was at the bottom of the dashboard/trip form with no clear direction that they wanted the person to add their image. Now, the profile image sits at the top of the form, and there's a 'plus' sign to add your image. This will hopefully result in more people adding their image. “It's a new feature, so we'll continue testing it. So far, results look promising with the bump in conversions,” Firth said.

Related resources

3 case studies of marketers that made a positive change in customers’ lives (while getting results for their business)

Marketing Research Chart: How customer understanding impacts satisfaction

Product Development Chart: A “minimum viable product” is not enough to satisfy customers

This article was distributed through the MarketingSherpa email newsletter. Sign up now to receive real-life examples of marketing success sent straight to your inbox.

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16 Important Ways to Use Case Studies in Your Marketing

Updated: September 08, 2020

Published: July 30, 2020

When you're thinking about investing in a product or service, what's the first thing you do?

Usually, it’s one or both of the following: You'll likely ask your friends whether they've tried the product or service, and if they have, whether they would recommend it. You'll also probably do some online research to see what others are saying about said product or service. Nowadays, 90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year , and 82% of consumers read online reviews. This shows that the majority of people are looking to peers to make a purchasing decision. Most customers know that a little online research could spare them from a bad experience and poor investment of your budget.

What Is a Marketing Case Study?

A case study is the analysis of a particular instance (or "case") of something to demonstrate quantifiable results as a result of the application of something. In marketing, case studies are used as social proof — to provide buyers with the context to determine whether they're making a good choice.

A marketing case study aims to persuade that a process, product, or service can solve a problem. Why? Because it has done so in the past. By including the quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the study, it appeals to logic while painting a picture of what success looks like for the buyer. Both of which can be powerful motivators and objection removers.

Why Use Case Studies?

In essence, case studies are an invaluable asset when it comes to establishing proof that what you're offering is valuable and of good quality.

According to HubSpot's State of Marketing Report 2020 , 13% of marketers name case studies as one of the primary forms of media used within their content strategy. This makes them the fifth most popular type of content, outshined only by visual content, blogs, and ebooks.

Okay, so you know case studies work. The question is, how  do they work? And how can you squeeze the most value out of them? 

When to Use a Case Study

Here are the ways you can market your case studies to get the most out of them.

As a Marketing or Sales Asset

1. use a case study template to create pdfs for email or downloads . .

Do not underestimate the value of providing social proof at just the right time in order to add value and earn their business. Case studies are extremely effective in the consideration stage of the buyer's journey when they are actively comparing solutions and providers to solve a problem they're experiencing. 

For this reason, case studies in an independent PDF format can be helpful in both marketing and sales. Marketers can use these PDFs as downloads in web content or email campaigns. Sales reps can utilize these assets in demonstrations, in a follow-up, or to overcome objections. 

The easiest way to create PDF case studies is by using a case study template . Doing so can decrease the amount of time you spend creating and designing your case study without sacrificing aesthetics. In addition, you can ensure that all your case studies follow a similar branded format. 

We've created a great case study template (and kit!) that's already locked and loaded for you to use. All you have to do is input your own text and change the fonts and colors to fit your brand. You can download it here .

On Your Website

2. have a dedicated case studies page..

You should have a webpage exclusively for housing your case studies. Whether you call this page "Case Studies, "Success Studies," or "Examples of Our Work," be sure it's easy for visitors to find.

Structure on that page is key: Initial challenges are clear for each case, as well as the goals, process, and results.

Get Inspired:  Google’s Think With Google  is an example of a really well structured case study page. The copy is engaging, as are the goals, approach, and results.

3. Put case studies on your home page.

Give website visitors every chance you can to stumble upon evidence of happy customers. Your home page is the perfect place to do this.

There are a number of ways you can include case studies on your homepage. Here are a few examples:

• Customer quotes/testimonials
• A call-to-action (CTA) to view specific case studies
• A slide-in CTA  that links to a case study
• A CTA leading to your case studies page

Get Inspired: Theresumator.com  incorporates testimonials onto their homepage to strengthen their value proposition.

Bonus Tip: Get personal.

Marketing gurus across the world agree that personalised marketing is the future . You can make your case studies more powerful if you find ways to make them “match” the website visitors that are important to you.

People react to familiarity -- for instance, presenting someone from London with a case study from New York may not resonate as well as if you displayed a case study from the U.K. Or you could choose to tailor case studies by industry or company size to the visitor. At HubSpot, we call this "smart content."

Get Inspired: To help explain smart content, have a look at the example below. Here, we wanted to test whether including testimonials on landing pages influenced conversion rates in the U.K. The landing page on the left is the default landing page shown to visitors from non-U.K. IP addresses. For the landing page on the right, we used smart content to show testimonials to visitors coming from U.K. IP addresses.

4. Implement slide-in CTAs.

Pop-ups have a reputation for being annoying, but there are ways to implement that that won't irk your website visitors. These CTAs don't have to be huge, glaring pop-ups -- instead, relevant but discreet slide-in CTAs can work really well.

For example, why not test out a slide-in CTA on one of your product pages, with a link to a case study that profiles a customer who's seen great results using that product?

Get Inspired:  If you need some help on creating sliders for your website, check out this tutorial on creating slide-in CTAs .

5. Write blog posts about your case studies.

Once you publish a case study, the next logical step would be to write a blog post about it to expose your audience to it. The trick is to write about the case study in a way that identifies with your audience’s needs. So rather than titling your post “Company X: A Case Study," you might write about a specific hurdle, issue, or challenge the company overcame, and then use that company's case study to illustrate how the issues were addressed. It's important not  to center the blog post around your company, product, or service -- instead, the customer’s challenges and how they were overcome should take centre stage.

For example, if we had a case study that showed how one customer generated twice as many leads as a result of our marketing automation tool, our blog post might be something along the lines of: "How to Double Lead Flow With Marketing Automation [Case Study]." The blog post would then comprise of a mix of stats, practical tips, as well as some illustrative examples from our case study.

Get Inspired:   Check out this great example of a blog post from Moz , titled "How to Build Links to Your Blog – A Case Study."

6. Create videos from case studies.

Internet services are improving all the time, and as a result, people are consuming more and more video content. Prospects could be more likely to watch a video than they are to read a lengthy case study. If you have the budget, creating videos of your case studies is a really powerful way to communicate your value proposition.

Get Inspired: Check out one of our many video testimonials for some ideas on how to approach your own videos.

7. Use case studies on relevant landing pages.

Once you complete a case study, you'll have a bank of quotes and results you can pull from. Including quotes on product pages is especially interesting. If website visitors are reading your product pages, they are in a "consideration" mindset, meaning they are actively researching your products, perhaps with an intent to buy. Having customer quotes placed strategically on these pages is a great way to push them over the line and further down the funnel.

These quotes should be measured, results-based snippets, such as, “XX resulted in a 70% increase in blog subscribers in less an 6 months” rather than, “We are proud to be customers of XX, they really look after us."

Get Inspired: I really like the way HR Software company Workday incorporates video and testimonials  into its solutions pages.

Off Your Website

8. post about case studies on social media..

Case studies make for perfect social sharing material. Here are a few examples of how you can leverage them on social:

• Share a link to a case study and tag the customer in the post. The trick here is to post your case studies in a way that attracts the right people to click through, rather than just a generic message like, “New Case Study ->> LINK." Make sure your status communicates clearly the challenge that was overcome or the goal that was achieved. It's also wise to include the main stats associated with the case study; for example, "2x lead flow," "125% increase in X," and so on.
• Update your cover image on Twitter/Facebook showing a happy customer. Our social media cover photo templates should help you with this!
• Add your case study to your list of publications on LinkedIn.
• Share your case studies in relevant LinkedIn Groups.
• Target your new case studies to relevant people on Facebook using dark posts. ( Learn about dark posts here. )

Get Inspired: MaRS Discovery District  posts case studies on Twitter to push people towards a desired action.

9. Use case studies in your email marketing.

Case studies are particularly suited to email marketing when you have an industry-segmentable list. For example, if you have a case study from a client in the insurance industry, emailing your case study to your base of insurance-related contacts can be a really relevant addition to a lead nurturing campaign.

Case studies can also be very effective when used in product-specific lead nurture workflows in reactivating opportunities that have gone cold. They can be useful for re-engaging leads that have gone quiet and who were looking at specific areas of your product that the case study relates to.

Get Inspired: It's important that your lead nurture workflow content includes the appropriate content for where prospects are in the sales cycle. If you need help on how to do this, check out our post on how to map lead nurturing content to each stage in sales cycle .

Pro tip: When sending emails, don't forget about the impact a good email signature can make. Create your own using our free Email Signature Generator .

10. Incorporate case studies into your newsletters.

This idea is as good for your client relations as it is for gaining the attention of your prospects. Customers and clients love feeling as though they're part of a community. It’s human nature. Prospects warm to companies that look after their customers; companies whose customers are happy and proud to be part of something. Also, whether we are willing to admit it or not, people love to show off!

Get Inspired: Newsletters become stale over time. Give your newsletters a new lease of life with our guide on how to create newsletters that don't suck .

11. Equip your sales team with case studies.

Tailored content has become increasingly important to sales reps as they look to provide value on the sales call. It's estimated that consumers go through 70-90% of the buyer's journey before contacting a vendor. This means that the consumer is more knowledgeable than ever before. Sales reps no longer need to spend an entire call talking about the features and benefits. Sales has become more complex, and reps now need to be armed with content that addresses each stage of the buyer’s process. Case studies can be really useful when it comes to showing prospects how successful other people within a similar industry has benefited from your product or service.

Get Inspired: Case studies are just one type of content that helps your sales team sell. They don't always work by themselves, though. Check out our list of content types that help sales close more deals .

12. Sneak a case study into your email signature.

Include a link to a recent case study in your email signature. This is particularly useful for salespeople. Here's what my email signature looks like:

Get Inspired: Did you know that there are lots more ways you can use your email signature to support your marketing? Here are 10 clever suggestions  for how you can do this.

13. Use case studies in training.

Having customer case studies is an invaluable asset to have when onboarding new employees. It aids developing their buy-in, belief in, and understanding of your offering.

Get Inspired: Have you completed our Inbound Certification course  yet? During our classes, we use case studies to show how inbound marketing is applied in real life.

In Lead-Gen Content

14. include case studies in your lead gen efforts..

There are a number of offers you can create based off of your case studies, in the form of ebooks, templates, and more. For example you could put together an ebook titled “A step-by-step guide to reaching 10,000 blog subscribers in 3 months…just like XX did.” You could create a more in-depth version of the case study with access to detailed statistics as an offer. (And don’t forget, you can also u se quotes and statistics from case studies on the landing page promoting the ebook, which adds credibility and could increase your conversion rates.) Or, you could create a template based on your customer's approach to success.

Get Inspired:   If you think you need to be an awesome designer put together beautiful ebooks, think again. Create ebooks easily using these customisable ebook templates .

You can also use case studies to frame webinars that document how to be successful with X. Using case studies in webinars is great middle-of-the-funnel content and can really help move your leads further down the funnel towards becoming sales qualified leads.

Get Inspired: Webinars are really effective as part of a lead nurturing workflow. Make sure your next webinar is spot on by following these simple webinar tips.

15. Create a bank of evergreen presentations.

It’s important to build up a bank of evergreen content that employees across your organisation can use during presentations or demos. Case studies are perfect for this.

Put together a few slides on the highlights of the case study to stir people’s interest, and then make them available to your sales and customer-facing teams. It's helpful if the marketer who created the presentation is the one who presents it to anyone who might use them in the future. This ensures they can explain the presentation clearly and answer any questions that might arise.

Get Inspired: What to create presentations people want to use? Here's a list of tools to make your presentations great.

16. Create SlideShares based on case studies.

Following on from a few short slides, you could also put together a more detailed presentation of the case study and upload it to SlideShare. After all, not only is SlideShare SEO-friendly (because Google indexes each presentation), but there is a huge pre-existing audience on SlideShare of over 60 million users you can tap into. SlideShare presentations are also easy to embed and share, and allow you to capture leads directly from the slides via a lead capture form.

Get Inspired:   Want to generate more leads with SlideShare, but not sure how to get started? Check out this blog post .

Now that you understand the value of a marketing case study and the different ways that they can be used in your content marketing (and even sales) strategy, your next step is to think about what would convince your target audience to do business with you. 

Have you recently accomplished something big for a client? Do you have a process or product with demonstrable results? What do your potential clients hope that you'll do for them? 

The answers to those questions will help you craft compelling content for your case study. Then, all that's left is putting it into your audience's hands in formats they want to consume.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Persuasive Marketing Case Study Examples & Templates

Get examples of marketing case study mastery. Learn by example how to engage and convert more prospects and launch your effort with battle-tested templates.

Dominika Krukowska

9 minute read

Short answer

What makes a great marketing case study.

A great marketing case study is a compelling narrative, showcasing real-world success, complete with quantifiable results. It weaves strategy, execution, and outcome into a captivating story that inspires and convinces the reader to take the desired action.

Are your marketing case studies falling flat?

Marketing case studies are an essential step for many prospects to see if they can trust you, if you meet their particular needs, and if tying their business with yours feels right.

Marketing case studies provide prospects a sense of security without which they’ll never convert.

But when done poorly, case studies can become little more than digital white noise. They’ll fail to build trust and confidence, but worse yet, they might just drive prospects to go with your competition.

Too many companies invest time, thought, and money into creating “white noise” case studies without knowing that they may cause more harm than good.

But there’s a way forward. This post will serve as your compass, guiding you to the promised land of persuasive, profit-driving success stories.

Let’s get started!

What is a marketing case study?

A marketing case study is a narrative showcasing a company's successful marketing strategy . It outlines the challenges faced, the solutions implemented, and the achieved results. This tool effectively demonstrates value, builds credibility, and convinces potential customers to take action.

What is the purpose of a marketing case study?

The purpose of a marketing case study is to build trust and authority and inspire action from potential clients. It's intended to present a narrative of success through a transformational business story with measurable outcomes. Its goal is to encourage potential customers to envision their own success with the help of your solution.

1) To present a narrative of success

Think of your case study as a rags-to-riches success story starring your client. They struggle with problems, they stumble on your product or service which guides them back to safety. But here the 'happily ever after' is a measurable outcome.

2) To build trust

A case study shows how you brought tangible indisputable results. It shows the positive transformation you helped bring about for your client. It's like having a credible friend vouch for you—it has an authentic persuasive effect that nothing you say yourself could ever achieve.

3) To inspire action

A good marketing case study nudges the reader to think: 'If it worked wonders for them, why not for me?' It subtly encourages potential customers to envision their own success with your product or service, though they came doubtful.

4) To show relevance

A marketing case study doesn’t just show a specific problem. By highlighting challenges similar to those faced by your potential customers, a case study makes your solution look more than “a good fit” it makes you look like “the best fit”, or even “the only fit”.

Our Head of Marketing has this piece of advice for you:

"When we write a marketing case study we treat it like a personal story we’d share with friends over lunch.

This makes our case studies feel familiar and gives them the credibility of personal experience, which tends to inspire others to act the same way."

—Amotz Harari, Head of Marketing at Storydoc

What should a marketing case study include?

Looking to craft a marketing case study that grips, convinces, and converts? Here's your blueprint.

A compelling marketing case study should include:

A captivating title: Much like a great book, your case study needs an intriguing title. One that grabs attention and promises an interesting story - a story of a problem solved, a challenge overcome, a victory achieved.

The protagonist: Every good story needs a hero. In your case study, it's the client or customer. Start by introducing them - who are they? What do they do? What unique challenge were they facing?

The problem: Detail the problem your customer faced. This is the villain of your story - the hurdle that stood in your customer's way. Make it relatable, so potential customers facing the same issue can see themselves in your protagonist's shoes.

The solution: Now introduce your product or service - the knight in shining armor. Explain how you swooped in to tackle the problem. Highlight what makes your solution unique and effective.

The implementation process: Give a brief account of how the solution was implemented. This is the journey part of your story - the struggle, the strategy, and the steps taken to overcome the challenge.

The results: The happily-ever-after of your tale. Showcase the positive results achieved using your product or service. Be specific and use hard numbers - they provide tangible proof of your success.

The testimonial: Finally, include words of praise from your satisfied customer. A happy client is the best endorsement. This validates the story you've told and adds an emotional, human touch.

A clear next step: Conclude with a clear call to action. What should the reader do next? Contact you for a consultation? Sign up for a demo? Download a guide? Make sure the next step is relevant, clear, and compelling.

Here’s an example of a marketing case study designed according to this structure:

What are the main types of marketing case studies?

Selecting the right format for your case study depends on your goal, the specifics of your customer's story, and the message you wish to convey.

4 case study types to consider:

1) Problem-solution case study:

This is the classic 'hero’s journey'. Your customer (the hero) is faced with a challenge (the problem), and aided by a trusted guide (your solution) goes through a transformation overcoming their hurdles and fulfilling their full potential.

This format focuses on the details of the journey with its ups and downs.

2) Before-and-after case study

The Cinderella tale of the business world. You show the situation 'before' your product or service came into play, and the improved situation 'after'.

This format focuses on contrasting the transformation , highlighting the dramatic changes from before your solution came in and after.

3) Success story case study

Think of this as the 'rags to riches' narrative. Rather than focusing solely on a single problem and solution, this case study celebrates an overarching success.

It provides the details of how the change was achieved but focuses mainly on the outcomes and their business impact.

4) Interview style case study

This type is more personal and candid, providing direct quotes and insights from the customer’s perspective.

This format lends authenticity and focuses on building an emotional connection with the reader.

The ACORN method - 5 steps for writing story-led case studies:

Best marketing case study examples to inspire you

I've curated for you a selection of brilliant marketing case study examples from some of the biggest names in business.

These case studies represent a variety of industries, challenges, solutions, and outcomes, providing a wealth of insights and inspiration for your own case study creation.

Let's dive in:

1. How Nestlé empowered the sales team with high-quality leads

Tenlo, a marketing agency, worked with the Nestlé Professional Dispensed Beverage Sales Team to improve their lead generation efforts.

Through a targeted content strategy and optimized lead nurturing campaigns, they successfully empowered the client's sales team with high-quality leads, resulting in increased conversion rates and revenue growth.

2. Dove's Real Beauty Sketches

Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign aimed to challenge societal beauty standards.

Through an emotional and thought-provoking video campaign, Dove sparked conversations and empowered women to redefine their perception of beauty, resulting in widespread awareness and positive brand sentiment.

3. How AppSumo grew organic traffic 843% and revenue from organic traffic 340%

AppSumo, a digital marketplace for software deals, employed clever marketing tactics to drive organic growth.

Through the strategic implementation of SEO, engaging product-focused content, and effective link building , they successfully increased their blog's organic traffic and saw a significant boost in revenue from organic sources.

4. How Start-Up Nation Central created innovative reports for an innovative industry

Start-Up Nation Central is an NGO with a clear mission—to fuel the growth of high-tech companies. They produce and send out a lot of business analysis reports, and they were looking for a way to modernize the way they present data.

By working with Storydoc to switch from static PDFs to interactive next-gen decks, they gained access to full reader analytics and A/B testing options to see which versions of their reports were getting the most traction.

5. How Forbes grew their subscriber base by 20% using PPC advertising

Adventure PPC collaborated with Forbes Magazine to enhance their subscriber base. Through targeted paid advertising campaigns , video production, and remarketing, they achieved a significant 20% increase in subscribers. Adventure PPC's strategy included closely monitoring ad budget to optimize campaigns and ensure effective resource allocation.

6. L’Oreal Paris and Google

L’Oreal cooperated with Google ahead of their new product launch to identify relevant audience segments based on hard data.

They targeted potential customers across all stages of the marketing funnel, which resulted in increasing ad recall, market share, and e-commerce sales.

You can watch the case study below:

7. How Bitly solved the omnichannel challenge

Vissla, an e-commerce shop, was looking for a more effective way to keep an account of data across all of their marketing channels.

They partnered with Bitly Campaigns to create a dashboard containing all marketing activities, track results in real-time, and optimize their content based on hard data.

8. Gannett marketing operations grows digital subscriber base with Asana

When Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the US, brought their marketing campaign production in-house, they had to find a way to scale up the number of projects.

They collaborated with Asana to increase campaign volume and streamline campaign management.

9. How Stripe leverages GPT-4 to streamline user experience and combat fraud

Stripe, the innovative payment platform, gathered 100 brilliant minds from within its own ranks to revolutionize features and workflows with GPT-4. Their mission? Take Stripe to new heights!

The result? 15 groundbreaking prototypes emerged, promising personalized support, expert answers to tough questions, and the power to nail fraud on community platforms.

10. How Ryanair uses Hotjar Surveys to measure satisfaction and report on trends

Ryanair, a leading Irish discount airline, needed to find a way to report product performance to its main stakeholders.

They turned to Hotjar Surveys to measure user satisfaction, identify main pain points and barriers to purchase, and report the larger trends.

11. Accelo gives software company the insights and efficiency to double revenue

The leadership team at Tambla, an HR technology company in Australia, was struggling to pinpoint resource leaks.

By consolidating client work management tools using Accelo, they gained unprecedented visibility. In just two years of using the platform, Tambla doubled revenue, quadrupled project turnover and increased recurring work by 15%!

Marketing case study design examples you can use as your template

Your marketing case study design can significantly influence its effectiveness. But design is a serious business.

Imagine starting a marketing case study from zero—it's like carving a statue from a solid block of marble. But, what if you had a mold?

These interactive case study templates provide a structured narrative, coupled with the flexibility to add your own data, images, and other interactive elements designed to engage, impress, and persuade.

Why you shouldn’t make case studies as PDFs

Considered the go-to format for case studies, PDFs offer accessibility and versatility. Share them around, download at will, or print for a keepsake.

But just because PDFs are easy for you to use, it doesn’t mean they’re easy for your audience to consume. They’re not.

PDFs are a hassle. They're tough to read, scan, and navigate. They're not mobile-friendly, they lack interactivity, and they can be downright dull.

On top of that, they take your audience offline, disconnecting them from your online assets, like your website or app.

What you can do instead

Instead of PDFs that tank engagement, it’s better to go with the webpage option.

Webpage-designed case studies offer multimedia, interactivity, and mobile-friendly navigation that lead to renewed engagement.

They give your readers a rich content experience with videos, animations, and clickable elements like tabs, sliders, and buttons, all wrapped in a story.

However, webpage case studies are not so easy to produce . They require the involvement of designers, developers, website managers, brand managers, and so on.

With all these people involved, even adding the tiniest update to the page can become a headache.

But there’s a way to bypass all this needless complexity . Creating a case study with Storydoc combines the interactivity of a webpage and the simplicity of producing a PDF.

When using Storydoc you’re stepping into a safe walled garden where everything is already taken care of , from coding to design to branding. And making changes takes just a few seconds.

Here’s how PDF and Storydoc case studies compare:

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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What Is a Case Study in Marketing and How to Build One (Examples)

A marketing case study allows you to illustrate and explain how you achieved enormous success in a specific situation.

For instance, last year, Jacob McMillen wrote about how Pronto used Crazy Egg to increase leads by 24 percent .

That’s a big number.

It’s not a full case study , but it demonstrates the goal of a marketing case study. You want to shock your audience, then explain exactly how you achieved your results — preferably with proof.

You might have read lots of case studies over the years without realizing your business could benefit from them. Lots of entrepreneurs are put off by the hard work and long hours required to build a marketing case study.

However, think about how many leads you might convert by proving your track record, establishing trust, and attracting traffic through SEO .

Let’s look at how marketing case studies can impact your business, discuss how to write one, and check out a few examples.

What Is a Case Study in Marketing?

A case study in marketing is a document or web page that includes several basic parts:

• Description of the subject : Explain your customer’s or client’s history and pain points.
• Subject’s goal : Identify your customer’s or client’s goal for the project so readers understand what to expect.
• Hypothesis for strategy : Tell your audience what you expected to happen after you implemented your strategy for the customer or client.
• Implementation of strategy : Take the reader through the step-by-step process you used to help your customer or client.
• Results of strategy : Deliver the results in as much detail as possible, preferably with a quote from the client or customer.
• Concluding findings : Explain what this case study has taught your specifically and how it can help other people.

You don’t have to include every category, but the more detail you add, the more effective your marketing case study becomes.

Most of the time, you’re conducting a case study for your own business. You want to show the world how your product or service has helped a customer in a huge way.

For that reason, it helps to know you’ll perform a case study from the beginning. In other words, try not to reverse-engineer a case study from a great result. Instead, track your arrangement with your customer throughout the process.

The Importance of Creating Case Studies to Convert Leads into Customers

Think of a marketing case study as a lure. It’s a way to dangle amazing results in front of your leads so they’ll decide to convert .

Imagine that you’re a customer who’s trying to decide between two businesses, each of which offers time management software. One company has a marketing case study that illustrates how it helped a customer save four hours per week. The other company has no case study.

Which company would you trust most?

You can use that consumer logic to inform your business decisions. Thinking like a customer can help you achieve new insights into marketing.

Creating a marketing case study gives you an edge that your competitors might have. It can also help your leads make more informed decisions.

Too many businesses copy their competitors or other businesses. Instead, you should spend time being more creative and innovative. Below is a video by Neil Patel that illustrates why you need to quit copying digital marketing strategies.

If you’re bold enough to be different, you can convert more leads. A marketing case study gives you that opportunity because nobody else can duplicate it.

Why is it so important to build trust?

Anybody can throw testimonials on their site by Ron R. and Jennifer K. Anyone can also make them up.

Trust is tenuous in the digital marketing world. If you can’t create it, you likely won’t convert leads into customers.

Think about all the companies that have experienced data hacks. Their stocks plummeted, consumer sentiment turned ugly, and profits dwindled. That’s because consumers lost trust.

Similarly, any company can make bold claims about its products or services. Consumers have become numb to superlative-littered copy and hyped-up videos. They want to see evidence.

If you can prove that your product or service delivers powerful results, you’ll gain your leads’ trust.

Marketing case studies show how you tackled a problem and overcame it on behalf of your customer or client. It’s that simple. The more detail you give, the more authority you create for your company — and the more your leads will trust your expertise.

4 Case Study Examples

Before we tell you how to build a case study, let’s look at a few examples to get you warmed up. Each of these marketing case studies illustrates the power behind the medium.

They’ll also show you how different case studies can look depending on design, detail, results, and goals.

The Shopify case study by HubSpot demonstrates how a narrative can be woven from a company’s journey. When Loren Padelford became head of sales, he immediately identified weak spots in Shopify’s sales cycle, so he decided to adopt HubSpot.

This case study highlights the ways in which Shopify used HubSpot’s email plugin to save time and improve communication flow. There’s a quote from Padelford in the case study, which can add even more impact in terms of building trust among leads.

Here, we have a fairly vague result. The company — specifically Padelford — claims to have achieved great success with HubSpot’s tools, but there aren’t any concrete numbers to back that up.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach, though, as long as your customer or client can offer a raving quote.

Ecommerce marketing case studies can become extremely valuable. In this case, Bit.ly used a more traditional template for a marketing case study. The PDF document includes several sections that take you through the process of how Vissla improved its omnichannel marketing with Bit.ly.

The results were that Vissla was able to visualize and centralize data in one place. They gained greater control over their social media marketing, which resulted in faster and better improvements in the content they shared.

There’s also a quote from Vissla’s media marketing manager, Keegan Fong: “Bitly Campaigns offers us a whole new way to look at our marketing channels. By giving us an easy-to-use dashboard that instantly displays the results of our multichannel promotions, we can see what kinds of content work on what channel, which channels we should be investing in the most, and what we need to do to optimize our content.” [ For Social: @vissla ]

3. Viperchill

There’s a great marketing case study from Viperchill that you’ll want to check out. It’s a quick, fun read that explains how the author created a squeeze page that generated more than 700 leads and results in a conversion rate of 64 percent.

Notice that he used hard numbers. Sometimes, it’s impossible to boil results down to a figure or percentage, but if you can, do so. People comprehend real numbers faster than lengthy text explanations.

4. MarketingSherpa

This MarketingSherpa case study is super detailed and describes the process by which MarketingSherpa helped a natural foods company boost revenue by 18 percent with a site redesign. You see the entire project from start to finish.

You’ll notice that there are lots of visuals. Since this marketing case study focused on design, visuals were imperative. Let your business and its niche guide the way in which you construct your case study.

How to Create a Case Study Marketing Strategy That Converts

Now that you’ve looked through a few case studies, how do you create a marketing case study of your own?

It starts with a case study marketing strategy that’s designed to convert leads. You don’t want to choose just any project. It should be geared toward other businesses or customers who might benefit from your business.

Let’s take it step by step.

1. Choose a success story that is closely related to your potential customer

You might notice that many companies publish numerous marketing case studies. There’s a reason for that.

Each case study targets a different segment of the company’s target audience. Let’s say that you sell shoes, purses, and hats. A case study about shoes won’t interest someone who’s shopping for hats.

You can either choose a project that has already concluded or one that is starting or underway. It’s always best to start at the beginning, but if you’re anxious, you can take the reverse-engineering route.

Decide which segment of your target audience you want to appeal to first. Next, select a case study subject closely related to that segment. You want your marketing case study to resonate with the leads you most want to convert.

2. Identify the key points of the case study and use storytelling

Decide what parts of the case study you want to highlight. These details will likely appear in the marketing case study’s headline as well as throughout the rest of the text.

For instance, if you helped a customer boost revenue by 200 percent, that’s a highly relevant detail. You’ll want to spotlight it in the headline and several times in the content so you keep it fresh in readers’ minds.

You might have several key points. Think about the struggles your customer was facing before you stepped in, how you approached the solution, and why alternatives weren’t working. When you can provide numbers, do so.

Once you’ve identified those key points, start weaving them into a narrative. Make it exciting! Add sensory details, frustration points, and colorful anecdotes.

A marketing case study shouldn’t sound dry. It needs to engage the reader so he or she keeps going until the end.

If possible, intersperse the copy with images. Make them relevant and easy to see on the screen. Let the images help supplement the story you’ve woven.

3. Highlight the great results

As mentioned above, results are paramount. If you can express them in numeric form, so much the better.

Consider creating a custom graphic to serve as the featured image on your post. That way, people can share the image on social. Add the amazing result to the text on the image to entice people to click.

The point here is to capture attention. If people are willing to pay attention to you, then you’ve won the first part of the battle. As long as you maintain that attention, you have a good chance of converting the lead.

4. Explore different types of design

Design can prove fundamental to a marketing case study’s success. If you’re publishing it as a blog post, break it up with H2s, H3s, and H4s to guide the reader through the story. Add images and leading lines to keep the visitor engaged.

Remember that color matters. Consider using colors for text and images that correlate with your customers’ color scheme or with your own site’s palette.

5. Ask for feedback! What does your potential customer want to learn?

Don’t let the conversation stop at the end of your marketing case study. Open up the forum for more insights.

Invite readers to ask you direct questions about your business, products, services, or methods. Not only that, but respond to those comments. Take each one as a gift.

These comments might tell you what type of case study you should create next or allow you to cement a conversion by answering objections or questions.

Marketing case studies can improve your conversion rate , but you have to put in the time and effort. Yes, a polished case study requires work, but if you can secure sales from its publication, why wouldn’t you give it your full attention?

Remember that trust matters when it comes to converting leads into customers . If you don’t have trust, you’ll lose your leads to your competitors.

A great marketing case study demonstrates your track record. It builds a case for leads to use your products or services over someone else’s.

What are you waiting for? Start creating your first marketing case study now.

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Home › Blog › Audience Ops Case Studies › Marketing Case Studies: Everything You Need to Know

Marketing Case Studies: Everything You Need to Know

Sara robinson.

It’s 2024. Your buyers and clients have choices. But they won’t just trust you that you’re the right choice. This is why you need marketing case studies. You need to be able to share with prospective customers why they can trust you, but not be the one to tell them. On a small scale, we all know that seeing an ad may cause interest in a new product or service. If a friend or trusted person tells us that they use and like that product or service, we’re much more likely to make a purchase. 

But your business may be on a much larger scale– sometimes we’re asking people to spend hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars working with us.

Why should they trust us? Because we say so? That would be nice, but that’s not how it works. 

Having samples and portfolios is important, but what can really help push someone from contemplation to purchase is feeling trust that you can deliver. And that final push can often come from well-done marketing case studies.

Hi, we’re Audience Ops and since 2015 we’ve been helping founders and marketing teams with their content marketing needs and have developed thousands of case studies for our clients.

So, we know a thing or two about case studies. While we’d love it if you hired us to help you with your marketing case studies, we also wanted to share what we’ve learned with nearly a decade of experience under our belt.

We put together a series of articles that dig into the different elements of marketing case studies so that you can understand how to create them effectively. Creating case studies can feel like a heavy lift for a founder or small marketing team. Even larger companies may feel like their team’s time is limited and case studies become less of a priority.

Hopefully these articles will help you in whatever stage of case study your company is at: from zero case studies to looking for a better system to get them done, published and moving the business forward.

Everything You Need to Know About Case Studies

What is a Marketing Case Study?

How to Write a Case Study for Marketing and Sales

How to Format Marketing Case Studies

Marketing Case Study Examples

Video Case Studies for Marketing

Examples of our case study work

Learn About Audience Ops’ Case Study Service 

Frequently Asked Questions About Case Studies

Impact Stories for Nonprofits

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10 Best Case Study Examples for Marketers

• Written by: Rishabh Pugalia
• Updated: January 2, 2024

Did I miss any points? Let’s connect on LinkedIn .

Popular Searches:

• Testimonial Video Templates
• SaaS Case Study
• Testimonial Video Examples
• Video Testimonial Services
• Video Testimonial Tool
• Customer Video Testimonials

Case studies give confidence to the ICP in their purchasing decisions . Shared as marketing collateral, the best case study examples carry strong social proof of how businesses or people have benefitted from a product.

The studies take a closer look at what works and how. They are especially useful for testing out the successes of SaaS products for their specialized nature. The ICP is not just reassured but also helped with a step-by-step solutions guide to boot.

Customer stories and a user reports-based b2b example of a case study get prospects to think – “If they can do it, why can’t I?”. This triggers a FOMO reaction, nudging prospects to move faster along the sales funnel.

It’s no coincidence that 73% of the most successful content marketers today use case studies. Further, nearly 50% of SaaS companies say case study in content marketing has improved their sales. ( Forbes , Sept 2022)

Here’s what some marketers think are benchmarks for product case study examples to stand out:

Today, there are many ready-to-use DIY apps for creating strong content. You can sign up for a free account with most of them. Check out:

• Figma and ClickUp for customer story and report templates .
• Videopeel for video feedback sharing.
• Flourish for interactive data visualization and more.

To be honest, currently, there are way too many apps in the content creator’s toolkit. It can easily get overwhelming and lead to messy workflows. That’s why we find so many case studies ending up in the “white noise” of content marketing.

The result? Fancy graphics and meaningless fluff fill up the pages. BUT marketers fail to tell the world what kind of problems their products have solved and how.

We will assess some content examples later in this article to see which features stand out in case studies for marketing use cases.

We have made videos for 150+ B2B & SaaS companies.

Explainer Video, Product Demo, Remote Video Testimonials, and more.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study in marketing is a narrative on how a product/service solved a real-life challenge for a customer. The study is backed by results, documentary assurances (like a customer video testimonial), and data .

Case studies are good for attracting new buyers. You can see how prospects are constantly interested in learning about various products. They find it doubly interesting when their queries are not addressed from a sales perspective.

Reason? Fact-based content like case studies seem less salesy and, thus, more authentic.

In many particularly good case study examples, storytelling formats are used to introduce a customer. From there, the customer starts narrating the product story, not the brand.

Here is what such a format can capture:

• Introduction to the customer:  He/she is a relatable profile for the ICP.
• A brief rundown of the problems: Talks about the pain points set in real-life situations.
• Various product touch points: Sheds light on the buyer journey. Beginning from the customer’s first encounter with the product to the consultation and, finally, the big buy.
• The product as the solution: Elaborates how the product simplifies tasks, followed by the delivery of measurable results.
• Resolution process: Breaks down a product’s resolution process into stages – this helps measure the buyer journey against a timeline.
• Concrete outcomes: Many specific outcomes are listed in the conclusion.

FURTHER READING

• Build trust using Remote Video Testimonials
• 15 Video Testimonial Questions to Ask Your Customers

Types of Case Study

A marketing strategy matures by developing a full-funnel scope. Meaning — it guides the buyer journey from the top to the bottom of the marketing funnel stages. It begins with Awareness then comes Interest, then Desire, and finally Action – covering the entire AIDA spectrum.

So, should case studies be part of your round-the-funnel toolkit?

We’ve noted a few style formats to help you understand.

1. Problem Solution

This one makes your customer the key individual on a hero’s journey . They face various challenges but overcome them and ultimately succeed with the help of your product. It’s like your product is the wise guide, like Mr. Miyagi in ‘Karate Kid,’ helping them along the way.

We studied case study examples in the problem-solution format. They are custom-suited for prospects taking an interest. If they find a viable solution in your product, there is a good chance they will convert.

• The customer is introduced to an adverse situation
• The problem statement is delivered in the customer’s own words
• A solution is explored through your offering
• Measurable data is given to back claims of success
• Impact statement (again, delivered in the client’s own words)
• The best examples of case studies call for readers/viewers to experience similar success

Check out the Amazon customer story mentioned below of how Scenario used AWS Generative AI to produce 100,000 images daily.

It scaled their productivity within 2 months – and that’s a great story!

OUTSOURCING VIDEO TESTIMONIAL SERVICES

Click here to learn how to choose the best provider.

2. Before/After

So, your product makes a difference. How about making that visible?

Before/after case studies rope in visual learners present across the funnel stages. Here’s what they do:

• Product is vividly shown: Raises awareness level by several notches
• Parks viewer interest: Prospects’ doubts are answered with FAQs and visuals indicating solid outcomes
• Assures with market and social proof: Triggers conversions

Consider this Salesforce case study example.

It builds a story around Spotify coming to grips with personalized marketing at scale (propped by data silos). Soon, Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud transformed the scenario.

We know how to sell your story using your product UI

3. Success Story

People make emotional decisions (not necessarily all bad ones), even in business! Marketers are largely in the practice of using emotion to their selling advantage. See below:

Many branding case study examples that we studied (of Gong, Ramp, Asana, Shopify, and more) use the format of a customer’s success story. By telling the story of a challenge overcome, these brands anchor mainly on their prospects’ mental state . It covers people’s deeply felt wishes and aspirations.

There are ways to get your ICP’s attention with emotional appeal in all varieties of content. One particular example of case study which we studied showed how that is possible for factual content types as well.

• Build a case study on a theme of struggle anyone can empathize with (migration, recession, gender inequality)
• Let the story build up to a point where the customer’s quality of life improves when your product solves a particular problem
• Give data to support your claims
• End with an empathic call to action: “Need help with something similar? Chat with us.”

Remember, empathy prompts knee-jerk reactions and pushes forward buying decisions for prospects still in doubt.

4. Interview Style

The Q&A style is aptly called the “ Crisco ” of content marketing. In case studies, an interview-style Q&A smoothens the creases in introducing a problem. Next, it goes on to deliver nuanced views on the problem.

Here’s what makes a Q&A case study so convincing:

• Unfiltered user perspectives
• Two or more viewpoints shared (depending on the number of users participating)
• Pinpointed questions, bringing out specific outcomes of the product

The spontaneity of video case study examples in the interview style is hard to top in any other format. It also gives businesses the perfect opportunity to use information shared by users through their questionnaires (check this OliverWyman sample).

10 Best Case Study Examples

In product marketing, case studies strengthen the resolve of prospective buyers about their purchase. We discovered that particularly great case study examples offer facts and customer stories that prospects can trust.

The studies also help set realistic expectations before people decide to finally buy something. We have put together 10 case studies with special features. Reproducing certain specifics, as highlighted in the samples below, will increase the chances of getting your ICP’s attention on your content.

1. Content Beta

Type: B2B Journey Summary: A creative design company handled the end-to-end video production process for a software firm. They also solved brand alignment and scaling problems by offering a CaaS (creative as a service) solution. What we Liked: Before/After comparative diagrams and business impact quantified with data

Category: Collection of customer stories Summary: An app for managing corporate expenses saves time and worries What We Liked: The video of a customer speaking of their journey, the minimalist design, collection of customer stories as a case study

Category: Success Story

Summary: Efficiency for a team increases significantly with a remote work management solution

What we Liked: Creatively featured quotes to create scroll-stopping points

Summary: A revenue intelligence platform optimized sales pipeline

What we Liked: Multimedia embedding, light interface, and stylish use of different fonts

Category: Customer Experience

Summary: A web3 marketplace increases visibility for an art project

What we Liked: Showcase of finished creatives, bright layout, and use of GIFs creating a playful aesthetic

Category: Customer Story Gallery

Summary: An eCommerce company lists case studies about the many ways it has helped small businesses sell their products

What we Liked: These company case study examples can be filtered according to industry, product, region, use case, and others

Category: Interview-style

Summary: A homestay marketplace presents the opportunity for ‘experience hosting’

What we Liked: Use of candid conversation in interview style, personal storytelling

Category: Problem Solution

Summary: A conversational marketing company helps increase market-qualified leads for a search-as-a-service platform

What we Liked: This example of a case study has a forward approach with a comment on future plans

9. Biteable

Summary: An on-brand video maker helps make professional-looking videos quicker

What we Liked: Clear metrics and video marketing tips shared at the end

Category: Experience Story

Summary: An e-commerce company focused on handmade goods and craft supplies helps build a curated vintage article shop

What we Liked: An aptly placed CTA, in this case study example, deepens the curiosity that the title creates for the reader

Case Study Format

As the curated examples suggest, case studies for marketing can take inspiration from different creative styles. Brands today experiment with — multimedia embedding, first-person narrated user-generated content, visuals-centric skimmable forms , etc, to create their case studies.

Regardless, the underlying bare-bones structure of a case study needs to remain constant. Only then can you bring out the distinct flavor of this content type.

Our survey of different business case study examples reveals a format like this:

• Introduction: Gives background to the customer and the challenge scenario.
• Problem: Studies the main difficulty the customer was facing.
• Resolution: Gives an overview of the product or service the customer comes in contact with.
• Advantage: Summarizes the top benefits of the solution – why it was the appropriate selection.
• Outcome: The affirmative business result stems from the solution and advantages.

Having a standard structure is useful for many reasons. It allows the creative team working on a case study to understand exactly which pieces of information and assets to look for. At the same time, there is flexibility to highlight the USP of your business.

How to Write a Case Study

Case studies are factual and data-oriented . Research papers are quite the same. Only, they don’t tell a story.

When we placed some product case study examples under the scanner, different storytelling frameworks were found. Some were structured as a “hero’s journey,” while others were mindblowing success stories. We noticed all of them had a clear beginning, middle, and end corresponding to:

• Scenario and problem
• Product and solution
• Results and Quantifiable Outcomes

Our close reading of the case studies also gave us insights into writing them for the desired effect on prospects. Here is a process breakdown:

• Give the study a title indicating the problem your product has solved:  This will create an instant connection with your ICP, who are trying to solve similar challenges.
• Introduce the customer with the background:  This Freshbooks case study example focuses on a client who is a young mother surviving a recession while trying to run a business. The scope here for creating an emotional connection with the ICP is strong.
• Present the problem and tie it to the product:  This is the core of your content. Many B2B case study examples we came across had this part as the lengthiest segment. You may show how the customer tried other ways of dealing with the problem before discovering your product.
• Bring out the solution: Deliver a vicarious experience for your ICP by going into the details of the customer’s journey. Trace it from product purchase to onboarding and use the solution for one or more use cases.
• Demonstrate the results: Plug data in to support the positive outcomes from your solution. Here, data covers more than numbers. Customer quotes, polls, and reviews found on business after product use count as data, too.
• End with a CTA: Invite prospects to experience the explained product benefits themselves. Instead of a buy button, try lead nurturing with a demo request or a ‘learn more’ CTA. Gives you more time to strengthen the lead before attempting to convert them.

Why Choose Content Beta?

If you are running a company with a small crew, surfing case study examples of multiple delivery format options, narrative styles, and new design elements can slow down your workflows. Yet, competitor research and the continuous creation of case studies remain essential for the marketing strategy of any Saas product.

This is where the Content Beta’s skilled design team can add value.

Get Content Beta’s Creative as a Service for a video (in case you want to make a video case study) and the design team on standby for a fixed monthly cost.

We are a 4.5+ rated team on TrustPilot with a proven track record of delivering well-researched case studies on time. Our team makes content creation a thoroughly collaborative process with these cutting-edge functionalities in our work portal:

• Credits Roll Over: Unused credits are transferred to the next cycle, so you don’t have to pay for anything extra. Learn more about our pricing .
• Quick Revisions: Add your comments to a creative in the making.
• Cloud Storage: Upload all brand assets you want the case study to feature.
• Collaboration: Invite your team to collaborate on the project

Schedule a call with us today!

We take inspiration from as many case study examples as possible when creating one for our brand (or our clients). Surfing through different samples increases our options for creative storytelling and gives insight into what other businesses are doing.

The range of innovative elements found in case study design examples on the web is multiplying by the day . Think – animations, UGC snippets, AR and VR segments, microlearning modules, and more.

Keeping an inventory of curated examples just helps you find relevant materials quickly.

The key elements of a marketing case study are:

• The problem statement or scenario,
• The product as the solution,
• Quantitative results.

The best practices for writing a marketing study are:

• Quoting excerpts of customer-speak about your product and brand
• Giving data to support statements
• Presenting in a skimmable and visually rich format
• Placing a CTA to progress lead nurturing

The common mistakes to avoid in case study writing for marketing are:

• Not focusing enough on customer experience
• Writing in a jargon-heavy language that buyers cannot understand
• Not providing data to back claims of success for your product

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Marketing Results

22 Marketing Case Study Examples (With Template)

February 17, 2016 by Will Swayne

Prospects who aren’t ready to buy – or who are “sitting on the fence” – tend to be resistant to even well-crafted marketing messages.  But a bunch of well aimed marketing case studies can often tip the scales in your favour.

“Sell benefits, not features” is good advice, but benefit-rich copy can actually deter prospects who haven’t reached the decision stage yet.

And too many benefits in the absence of marketing proof elements  can ring hollow in today’s increasingly sceptical marketplace.

We published our first marketing case study back in 2005 and I quickly realised the power of case studies as a versatile and effective marketing tactic.

Why are marketing case studies so effective?

Here are three reasons:

• Case studies show, they don’t tell. Telling you I can get you more qualified leads is one thing. Showing you how a similar company to yours got 145% more leads with 24% lower marketing costs is another.
• Prospects are typically curious to understand how others have achieved the results they desire. They will eagerly devour a well-constructed case study.
• Case studies are also a great tool for closing fence-sitting prospects. For many years I’ve asked prospects why they chose to work with us, and the most common response seems to be, “I was impressed by your case studies” , or “I saw you helped someone in my industry so I figure you can help us too” .

Now let’s look at how to structure and effectively promote a case study, and then some marketing case study examples for you to replicate.

Our Recommended Case Study Template

Here’s the case study structure we’ve adopted which has proven effective:

• Start with a major headline that summarises the key result achieved: e.g. “Investment Property Strategist Triples Leads In 6 Months” . This gets the prospect excited about reading on.
• Then introduce the background . In other words, the “Before” scenario.Don’t bore the reader with too many details about the history of the client. But DO provide an insight into the “trigger” that led to them seeking your assistance. e.g. “The client noticed smaller competitors starting to appear ahead of them on Google”. And,   DO talk about the negative effects of the “Before” state. E.g. “New customer acquisition that had previously been growing by 10% every quarter had flatlined for the last 12 months.”
• Now talk about the solution . Here’s where you explain what you did to achieve the outcomes. I like to list different services or solutions in the form of bullet points. Also, include significant details and facts and figures to add “richness” to the story. Where possible, demonstrate with images, screenshots or other proof elements. Emphasise anything you did differently to the standard approach, or anything that highlights your point-of-difference benefits.
• Now talk about your results . Results are the crux of any good case study.I like to go with a number of punchy bullet points, populated with specific numbers. E.g . “Lead volume up 75%… New customer volume from online sources up 145%… 1,540 more organic search engine visitors per month.”
• Include a testimonial from the client. What was their reaction to your work? The “Before-During-After” approach is a good structure for testimonials. A strong testimonial adds texture and credibility to the data in your core case study.
• End with a call-to-action . This can be relatively low-key. For example, “Contact us to explore how you can enjoy similar breakthrough results.”

You can see more examples of different implementations of this concept on our online marketing case studies page.

How To Promote Your Case Study

A case study that never gets read won’t help you.

Here are some of our favourite promotional methods:

• Optimise each case study for search engines . A good start is using a <title> tag on your case study pages in the format: “<INDUSTRY> <SERVICE> case study”. For example, “Accountant online marketing case study” or “Car sales lead generation case study” .   This will tend to rank you well for anyone searching for case studies about your industry.
• Send case studies to your email subscribers . These emails achieve high engagement both as broadcasts, and as “drip emails” within an automation sequence .
• Create a print booklet of case studies to send to prospects and clients via snail mail or distribute at trade shows.
• Case studies make great social media updates and can be recycled every few months using different headlines.

22 Marketing Case Study Examples

1. fuji xerox australia business equipment, tripled leads for 60% less marketing spend.

In 90 days, we doubled web lead flow with lower marketing costs.

Read the full case study here.

Paul Strahl , National e-Business Manager

2. Surf Live Saving Foundation

Surf lottery grows online revenue 47%.

Marketing Results delivered tangible business improvements, including 47% higher revenue from digital, year-on-year.

Yin Tang , Surf Live Saving Foundation

3. ABC Reading Eggs

Integrated search and conversion management for abc reading eggs.

Marketing Results have been instrumental in profitably expanding our ad spend, while removing waste.

Matthew Sandblom , Managing Director ABC Reading Eggs

4. MAP Home Loans

From 70 hour weeks to 40 hour weeks with 100% annual growth.

I now make twice as much money, have less stress and fewer hours.

Craig Vaunghan , Principal MAP Home Loans

5. Inkjet Wholesale

Online advertising roi doubles – in just three months.

We couldn’t be happier – conversion rates are up, costs are down, ROI has doubled.

Glenn Taylor , National Marketing Manager Inkjet Wholesale

6. Breaking Into Wall Street

Info-marketing business achieves 300% revenue growth with 7-figure profits.

Marketing Results provided the marketing support to grow my annual revenue 300%+. They don’t just advise – they implement.

Brian DeChesare , Founder Breaking Into Wall Street

7. LatestBuy

Brw fast 100 online retailer latestbuy.com.au boosts sales by 45.3%.

Revenue had flatlined… Now it is up by 45%, with over 80% of that due to conversion rate optimisation.

Shaun Campbell , Co-Owner LatestBuy.com.au

8. directSMS

More traffic, less cost, lead volume doubles.

More than doubled the number of qualified enquiries via our website for the same ad spend.

Ramez Zaki , Co-Founder directSMS

9. Business Coach and Author, Pure Bookkeeping

Successful marketing automation and 100.95% year on year growth.

50%+ of business comes directly through online channels and none of this would have happened without Marketing Results.

Peter Cook , Business Coach & Author Pure Bookkeeping

10. Positive Training Solutions

Higher rankings plus more, higher-quality leads.

Marketing Results excels in strategic and online marketing.

James Grima , Managing Director Positive Training Solutions

11. Geelong’s Gym

From 5-6 leads a month to 60-70. 10x increase.

We’ve gone from 5 – 6 leads per month to 60 – 70!

Gerard Spriet , Owner Geelong’s Gym

12. Super Finance – SMSF Property

A new pipeline delivering a steady flow of web leads.

Outstanding quality of web generated leads!

Yannick Ieko , Director Super Finance

13. College For Adult Learning – Training Organisation

300%+ more sales with 60% lower cost per sale.

I expect at least another 60% more leads and 80-90% more revenue by continuing to work with Marketing Results.

Rob Golding , Director College For Adult Learning

14. The Gourmet Guardian – Food Safety Programs

4 times more leads and a 269% revenue increase.

Your AdWords strategies have quadrupled leads, almost tripled revenue and reduced my dependence on contract work to zero.

Gavin Buckett , Managing Director The Gourmet Guardian

15. Quick Coach – Life Coaching Courses

More qualified sales plus a facebook roi of 1285%.

The results have been fantastic… I have had over 500 potential students opt in via Google wanting to change their lives and those of their clients.

Glen Murdoch , Founder & CEO Quick Coach

16. Investment House – Property Development

Clients lined up for everything we can find.

We have clients lined up for everything we can find.

Colin Ferguson , Managing Director Investment House

17. Cosmetic Surgery Lead Generation

257% increase in qualified lead volume.

In less than a year, our enquiry volume increased by over 257% while increasing the quality and conversion rate of those leads.

Dee Tozer , Managing Director Medici Clinics

18. All Suburbs Catering

61% roi gain in less than 5 months….

20% more enquiries for 34% less cost – a compounded gain of 61% in only 5 months.

Jeff Veale , Managing Director All Suburbs Catering

19. Trilogy Funding

549 qualified sales leads in 3 months.

549 qualified sales leads in 3 months.

Ed Nixon , Principal Trilogy Funding

20. Customized Stickers

Online revenue rockets by 800%.

With Marketing Result on our side, our website revenue has increased by over 800% in only 18 months.

Anthony Khoury , Managing Director Customized Stickers

21. Technoledge

Engaging ceos of ideal target companies.

We’re routinely seeing CEOs of Australian hi techs with turnover of $5 million to $50 million (our target audience) opting in and proceeding to self-qualify before they contact us for a meeting. This is what digital marketing is supposed to do.

Tracey James , Director Technoledge

22. First Aid Training

Specialist first aid training company doubles revenue in 6 months.

We’ve streamlined customer acquisition, increased customer lifetime value, and doubled our revenue in 6 months!

Dave Hundt , Director Kids First Aid

I encourage you to put these tips into action and see how they work for you.

What other ways have you used case studies effectively in your business?

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[Updated] 8 Best marketing case study examples

Social listening and consumer intelligence will knock your marketing campaigns out of the park. No question.

Don’t believe me?

The following types of case studies speak for themselves about why you should… listen. Show me the success stories!

Table of content

• Grubhub | Consumer insights feed the soul
• UNICEF | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights
• University of Sydney | Proves the value of social media
• Bella&Brava | Image recognition sees all 
• HelloFresh | Social listening is the secret ingredient 
• Hong Kong Airlines | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success
• Bonduelle | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions
• Lion & Lion and Rimmel | Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

Grubhub marketing case study | Consumer insights feed the soul

When the world went into lockdown, food delivery services became an essential part of all our lives. But how to do it safely?

Based in the US, Grubhub is a food ordering and delivery platform that connects consumers with local restaurants and takeaways. To understand what people wanted and meet their new demands, the brand turned to consumer insights.

COVID-19 brought the world to its knees. People feared for their health and for their income. The challenge for Grubhub was how to address consumer concerns with regard to a restricted household budget, disinfection protocols, the mechanics of safe food delivery, and more.

Using our consumer intelligence platform, the Grubhub team monitored for diners' negative experiences, and countered with positive experiences.

When Grubhub's Belly Dance ad first aired on TV, it fell below expectations, receiving low engagement. Suddenly, in January 2021, the commercial became a viral meme, receiving over 40K mentions on social media in one month.

Working with Talkwalker, the brand created a strategy as to how to join this growing conversation .

Think you can make a commercial better than us? Prove it. Add your own music to it or suggest a song, then tweet it with #DeliverTheRemix . You could have your song featured in our commercial and win a YEAR of free food. Ends 1/19. No purch nec. 50 US/DC, 18+. Rules in bio. pic.twitter.com/cRxIFKAji9 — Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 16, 2021

As the campaign became more successful, the team launched the #DeliverTheRemix contest, asking followers to help choose the next song in the “Belly Dance” ad. Consumers loved it, creating a ton of fun and creative pieces of content.

To understand how Grubhub was able to turn negative community sentiment and drive a brand-amplifying strategy , read the Grubhub marketing case study.

Download the Grubhub marketing case study

UNICEF marketing case study | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been bombarded with misinformation about the virus and the various vaccines. As this case study shows, we look at how UNICEF MENARO developed a communication strategy to battle the fake news that threatened to undermine the vaccine program in the Middle East and North Africa.

The pandemic caught us by surprise, and we lacked a reliable source of truth. This issue was exacerbated with the release of the vaccine, when we suffered a further deluge of fake news that fed the rising anti-vaccine mood.

It became critical for organizations promoting the vaccine to understand the concerns of the public , enabling them to put peoples' fears to rest. And build trust in vaccines.

For UNICEF MENARO this meant using Talkwalker's consumer intelligence platform to track misinformation keywords , along with mentions of COVID-19 in online conversations in the MENA region to see just how serious the situation was.

Sentiment analysis was used to find the overall sentiment around vaccines, with results showing that net sentiment was low, proving vaccine hesitancy.

The net sentiment around vaccines from December 2020 - April 2021 demonstrated the overall negative view of vaccines.

To shift the sentiment, UNICEF in MENA activated the voices of community members to engage with people and allay their vaccine fears.

UNICEF'S communication strategy delivered a data-driven narrative using strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and real-life testimonies. Short-form videos that were a strong part of the strategy, with the video for the #MaskUp campaign receiving over 136K mentions between April 2020 and May 2021.

Number of mentions of #MaskUp in the MENA region during the past 13 months.

UNICEF continues to play a key role in monitoring conversation around the pandemic, whether it's positive or negative. 

To understand more about how UNICEF used consumer intelligence to battle fake news , and the successful campaigns it launched, check out our UNICEF marketing case study.

Download the UNICEF marketing case study

University of Sydney marketing case study | Proves the value of social media

The secret to a successful social media strategy is ensuring it's aligned with your business goals.

This marketing case study explores how the University of Sydney used a combination of Hootsuite and Talkwalker and increased sentiment, engagement, and video views.

The university was looking to boost its reputation for research, entice a more diverse range of top-level students, and build a brand that would stand out in a crowd. A forward thinking university, social media would inevitably play a big part, so much so, it already had a Social Squad using Hootsuite, Talkwalker, and Adobe.

What did the squad do? Bringing the various faculty teams together, it created a social media strategy that aligned content, goals, and reporting across it's 36 official social channels.

Sentiment analysis and social media listening enabled the university to measure and manage its brand reputation . Collecting insights that informed the campaign strategy and boosted sentiment through social media communication.

When sentiment turned negative during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Stay Strong India campaign brought about a 30% increase in net sentiment score.

“The insights that Talkwalker provides us have been incredible and have really informed our campaign strategy. Providing these insights to our stakeholders demonstrates what social media can do for our brand and helps us secure investment to increase our budgets and grow our team.” Liz Grey | Social Media | University of Sydney

In the past, when content was shared across multiple channels without a plan, reporting results was hard. The introduction of Hootsuite Impact meant that the team could efficiently report on engagement, campaign performance, and ROI.

A year into its successful social media strategy, the university continues to collect student insights, and is looking to recruit influencers to meet new goals.

For more details on how the university used social media to improve its reputation, download our University of Sydney marketing case study.

Download the University of Sydney marketing case study

Bella&Brava marketing case study | Image recognition sees all

I love pizza, you love pizza. 

With a whopping 106.2K mentions on July 9th, 2019 on Twitter alone, it’s clear that everyone loves posting about pizza.

Data found using Talkwalker’s QuickSearch .

The most popular emojis used when it comes to discussing pizza.

When Venice-based pizzeria Bella&Brava wanted to open restaurants in new locations, it partnered with digital consultancy company OpenKnowledge to harness the power of social media.

Using Talkwalker’s proprietary image recognition technology , OpenKnowledge analyzed data from user-generated content - UGC - created by the consumers Bella&Brava were looking to feed. Their hip, young target audience.

Using image recognition, photos of pizzas posted on social media platforms - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - were identified, along with background scenes and objects. 

The consumer insights collected from social networks helped Bella&Brava make critical business decisions . Which cities to open in? Which brand partnerships to explore? How will cultural differences influence the design of each new menu?

Read Bella&Brava’s marketing case study to see how social listening and consumer insights will put your brand ahead of your competitors, purely by listening to consumers and meeting their demands .

Download the Bella&Brava marketing case study

“In the digital age, there are two types of organisations: those that collect data and those that transform it into opportunities” Ilaria Baietti, Director - Brand Interaction, OpenKnowledge

Speed up the growth of your business by closing the gap between your brand and consumers. Boom!

HelloFresh marketing case study | When social listening is the secret ingredient 

When HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit company, was struggling with social media data, it was time to call Talkwalker. .

Previously, the brand had been manually collecting social media data. This was not only  time consuming, but vital information was being missed .

Humans are great, but when you consider the amount of social data out there…

It was time to freshen up HelloFresh’s marketing strategy with social listening.

“At HelloFresh, data is at the center of everything we do. It was only natural for us to turn to social listening to improve the performance and efficiency of our marketing and communications teams. Talkwalker has allowed us to unlock access to a much larger conversation around our brand than ever before.” Jordan Schultz, Social Media Manager, HelloFresh

Talkwalker’s consumer intelligence platform was able to identify consumer insights , then translate into meaningful data. Moving forward, HelloFresh identified more than 400% more mentions per month.

With all these new insights to hand, HelloFresh began to develop a crisis management plan.

Take a look at our HelloFresh marketing case study, for more details

Download the HelloFresh marketing case study

Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success

This is a case study from a few years back, so pre pandemic. But it remains a landing page that converts, bigly.

What’s every traveler’s dream and every airline’s nightmare?

When a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was mispriced at $561, consumers rushed to make the most of this mistake, with the Hong Kong Airline marketing team scrabbling for their oxygen masks.

The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions, engagement and reach.

What were their options in the face of this PR crisis ? Search for the nearest exit? Or, buckle up and go along for what was sure to be a bumpy ride? 

Hong Kong Airlines decided to take another route. They chose to breeze right through it.

Luckily, they were prepared because of social listening and consumer intelligence. By using the insights from Talkwalker’s social media data and sentiment analysis , they were able to plan accordingly and protect their brand reputation .

“When we see what is happening in “real time” on social media we are better prepared to make timely and informed decisions and communicate those decisions well. Social listening and analytics tools are critical to success. In this case, we managed to turn what could have been a damaging issue, into a fantastic PR opportunity. With 4,900% more engagements created in a one week period.” Dennis Owen, General Manager of Branding and Social Media, Hong Kong Airlines

Read the Hong Kong Airlines case study to learn how they used social media data from competitors, and sentiment analysis to inform their strategic decisions. All while keeping long term customers and potential customers happy.

Download the Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study

Bonduelle marketing case study | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions

Bonduelle, a major French brand in the FMCG/CPG industry, was in the grips of optimizing its online brand strategy. The company that specializes in providing frozen and canned vegetables daily to over 100 countries, wanted to ensure that all its consumer data was readily available across its entire company.

The problem?

Data silos in Bonduelle.

Each department was collecting its own data and interpreting it, without a platform from which to share the information with other teams. This is a common issue. The State of Social Intelligence Report points out that 31% of organizations offer their teams limited access to social data.

The crucial information was hidden away in the dark depths of the team’s computer folder – unable to be used across departments to identify added benefits.

Social listening held the key to knocking down these data walls. It brought together information from online, social media, and traditional press all on one platform . Allowing Bonduelle to find the topics that were being discussed alongside their products or services, images associated with the brand, their high-performing influencers, and how to protect their brand reputation from negative comments.

Talkwalker offered the perfect solution, giving the brand the opportunity to build their own dashboard and choose who would have access to the data.

Read Bonduelle’s marketing case study to learn more about how it...

• Determined positioning based on data maturity scale in report
• Identified its progress in terms of data maturity
• Created necessary systems and teams for scalable processing of data
• Introduced the chief data officer role to maximize the value of data as it progresses

Download the Bonduelle marketing case study

Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study ­| Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

When faced with the relaunch of the British cosmetics brand Rimmel in Malaysia, the brand’s digital marketing agency, Lion & Lion, turned to social media.

With the increasing demand for authenticity and inclusivity, the beauty industry has been opting for social media and specifically, influencer marketing instead of traditional advertising methods. 

Makes sense!

It’s a trend that resonates with Gen Z . Econsultancy states that 65% of this group rely on social media to find and choose beauty products. 

Rather than listening to marketers telling you what to buy, social media, blog posts and influencers become the cool friend with the inside scoop on the latest makeup trend. So, it’s no surprise that cosmetics brands are turning to social media marketing and social listening for consumer insights into what people really want.

In a country where the k-beauty brands dominate the shelves, the first step was to make Rimmel stand out in the crowd. 

The data showed that consumers trust that beauty is more than skin deep. It’s all about being confident. It’s all about being confident. They want bold, experimental makeup to create distinctive looks.

Rimmel then launched the #MakeUpYourOwnRules marketing campaign which championed self-expression and all-inclusive beauty that radiates confidence.

“As a result, we saw an increase in branded search and share-of-voice, and gained around 3x of our initial market share target within the first year of launch” Cheska Teresa, Managing Director, Lion & Lion in Malaysia  

For more details on how Lion & Lion took full advantage of social listening and consumer intelligence for Rimmel, read Lion & Lion’s marketing case study.

Download the Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study

Drive your marketing with consumer intelligence

There you have it. 8 of our best marketing case study examples. Download them all to discover how some of the world's biggest brands use our consumer intelligence platform to drive their marketing strategies to success . Our industry-leading platform turns social and owned data into powerful and easy to action consumer insights. Don’t get left behind…

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What Is A Marketing Case Study? See Examples And Write Yours

• by Ranu Kumari

There are several instances in life when a person can learn from observing the world around him, which also applies to organizations. When a firm wants to understand a product’s or strategy’s success or failure, they turn to case studies. There are several types of case studies out there. Some of them are – a marketing case study, a finance case study, or a case study in innovation.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject. This could be a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are prevalent in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

Also, they are helpful in a variety of fields. These include psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work. However, we will look at the different elements of a marketing case study in this article.

Case studies are based on evidence; they begin with a question or problem that requires an answer through research. The researcher then collects information using interviews or observations.

The researcher might even conduct an experiment to test an idea related to the case study. After this data is collected and analyzed, the researcher writes up their findings in an article called a case report or case study report.

Also, a case study focuses on a detailed description of an individual or group experience from beginning to end. A case study does not provide generalizations about the larger population but rather focuses on how an individual or group responded to an event.

Case studies may also involve multiple individuals or groups with similar experiences. Case studies are used for:

• Testing Hypotheses
• Exploring an Issue
• Developing new ideas, theories, Models, or, Concepts
• Helping you understand specific individuals or groups in detail

What Is a Marketing Case Study

The marketing case study is a persuasive document that uses real-world examples to demonstrate the value of your product or service. It’s a powerful tool for marketing, sales, and customer support teams as it enables them to share the results of their work and how it helped solve a customer’s problem.

A marketing case study is basically a good story. Like all good stories, it needs to have the following elements:

• A Hero – This is the main character who is the good guy.
• The Problem – A situation that puts our hero in a difficult situation.
• The Solution – The product or service that saves the day. Also, it makes the hero happy.

Approaching a case study like a story is something that will be exciting for marketers. This is because marketers are fond of creating memorable stories for their brands.

However, it is essential to remember that the readers of the case study must be able to connect with it. This also means that they should be able to visualize themselves in the main character’s shoes.

Why Should Companies Write a Case Study?

Writing a marketing case study is hard work. It is not as simple as writing a blog post. This is because a case study has a large number of data points. All of them have to be accurate. Also, when a firm intends to mention a client by name, they need the necessary approvals. This can be a time-consuming process.

However, there are many compelling reasons to create a marketing case study. Here, we look at those reasons in some detail.

Demonstrate the power of your product.

Case studies can be effective marketing tools because they show your audience what your product or service can do for them and are much harder to ignore than an ad or blog post.

Build customer loyalty.

Keeping in touch with happy customers will allow them to voice their opinion about your business. However, it will also allow them to reaffirm why they chose your business in the first place.

Enhance Sales.

When a salesperson has case studies to share, it’s an opportunity for them to talk about the benefits their product or service can have for the customer. Also, they can speak about the resounding reception of the product . This, in turn, leads to an increased volume of sales.

Multi-Format and multi-purpose content.

Testimonial quotes and data snippets from your customers make great calls to action on various pages of your website. These could be your homepage, product and service pages, landing pages, etc. You can also repurpose these into PDFs, ebooks, videos, and infographics.

An opportunity to tell your story.

Case studies allow you to share your story, showing readers that your products and methods are effective. This makes for a fantastic form of advertising because it’s not pushy or over-the-top.

Earn Trust.

Case studies help convert positive customer opinions into tangible data that prove your value. In fact, a vast majority of marketers trust this type of content.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study

This section will look at how to write a high-impact and persuasive marketing case study.

Clear Headline.

The headline should share the most critical information about the case study. It should be able to capture its essence in a single sentence.

Write about someone your customer can relate to.

One should know their target audience before working on a marketing case study. They must know the industry the readers are a part of.

Ultimately, the audience must understand that the author is knowledgeable about the industry. Also, they must understand that he knows the customer’s pain points and can provide a solution for them.

Provide a summary.

A marketing case study should start with a crisp summary. The history of the firm, the industry it is a part of, and its leading products or services must also be covered in the summary. Also, the summary should introduce the client.

Narrate the complete story.

You must have got the gist by now. A marketing case study is a fantastic opportunity to tell your story. Furthermore, it is essential to tell it well. As always, one can rely on the STAR framework to make a good business story.

S – Situation: What was the situation that your brand was facing? How did it affect the customer? And, how did it affect you?

T- Task: What did you have to do to fix the situation?

A- Analysis: What approach did you use to analyze the problem? Also, what are the steps to solve it?

R – Result: What were the results of your efforts? To what extent did you solve the problem?

One can also report aspects such as improvement in customer satisfaction. Also, regular follow-ups with a select group of customers can get their feedback on after-sales service. It helps to focus on the long-term and emotional benefits as well.

The case study should be easy to read.

A marketing case study cannot be in the form of continuous text. Otherwise, people will doze off while reading it.

Rather, it should contain a small paragraph, and one must make sure that the case study includes headers, tables, images, and text. This will help improve SEO. It will also make the case study easy to read.

One can include short videos, infographics, and other multimedia to make the case study even more compelling.

Use actual facts and figures.

When writing case studies, it is always better to use actual data . This lends credibility to a person’s work instead of vague terms like ‘increased sales’ or ‘tripled footfall.’

One must mention whether the footfall has grown from 100 to 300 or from 2000 to 6000. Also, one must use charts and graphs to convey the meaning and scale of the data. Finally, any number is meaningless without context. Always remember to present the data points with some reference to the context.

Outline clear strategies

When an organization sets a challenging goal and achieves the target, it calls for a celebration and a marketing case study.

One should always substantiate strategies when discussing the reasons behind the firm’s success. For instance, targeting only the middle of the funnel, customers saw conversions increase from 50 to 75 per month.

Experiment with different formats

Case studies need to be put into text formats all the time. One can play around with different formats to see what works best. It could be a video interview where the customer talks about his challenges.

However, the end objective of the case study remains the same irrespective of the format.

The problems of the customer and how your product solved them for him.

Case studies can also be in the form of brochures, webinars, or podcasts. Another advantage of different formats is that the content will appeal to a wider audience.

Case studies must be easy to find

The case studies must be presented in a prominent section on your website. Further, they have to be optimized for search. Also, all case studies must be promoted on social media and by email.

Marketing Case Study Examples

In this section, we will look at some case studies examples. These case studies demonstrate how to present a sticky situation and its solution in a wonderful manner.

Porch case study

This case study details a year of content marketing that resulted in 931 unique domain links, 23,000 monthly organic visits, and more. The content marketing agency Fractal worked with Porch to achieve these results.

This is a great way to demonstrate your ability to deliver the desired results without disclosing confidential information. Also, these case studies give confidence to other companies in the same industry. You can read the case study here.

IDEO case study

This case study shows that IDEO aims to transform the airport experience by putting passengers first. They have presented the facts exceptionally well. The case study explains how the firm helped Pearson International Airport respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The entire case study is divided into three parts: the challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Another good thing is that there are visuals and images to break the flow of text. You can find the case study here.

Chevrolet DTU case study

This case is an excellent example of how a well-known brand fuels the reader’s curiosity. Here, the initials DTU are used. Everybody was interested to know what the abbreviation stands for. Well, DTU is ‘Discover The Unexpected.’

A mix of images, videos, and bullet points sustains the reader’s interest. One of the best things about this case study is that only the name of the brand is used to catch the audience’s attention. You can read this case study here.

Omnichannel Challenge – Bitly Case Study

Bitly uses a PDF format for all its text-heavy case studies. The case study in question is one of an e-commerce company, Vissal. The entire case study consists of different sections, such as ‘The Goal’, and ‘Top Omnichannel Obstacles.’

Also, it includes images in ‘The Set Up’ and ‘The Launch.’ The PDF is available for download and opens up in a separate window.

The colors and text used follow Bitly’s brand guidelines. It shows that a PDF is an excellent format for a case study. However, it is essential to keep the case study short. This case study is available here .

Some disadvantages of case studies

People write case studies so that learning from one situation can be applied to other similar situations. However, that does not always happen. This is because each situation has its unique nature.

Also, case studies can become theoretical in nature. This is even though they are based on real situations.

Marketing Case Study Examples: Best 15 to Learn From

Do you want to showcase your products and services to prospects? A pleasant and appealing website and engaging videos are a good start, but is it enough? To find out, consider examining some marketing case study examples and determining if there are additional strategies you could use to showcase your offerings to potential customers better.

A great website, social media presence, and targeted messaging are all essential to growing your business. But gradually building authority in your niche by boosting your credibility is an altogether different affair. You need to spice things up to make a super impression on your future customers.

And that you can do with a convincing case study!

But simply finding a basic template online and duplicating it for your case study can never be enough. This article will give you the top 20 marketing case study examples that masterfully communicate with your audience, driving your message home.

What is a Marketing Case Study?

A marketing case study contains various information, quotes, statistics, etc. It is like telling a story of how your agency helped a brand solve a problem or excel in the market. In fact, a good case study must be filled up to the brim with quality research. Every result or quote must have a fact or statistics backing it up.

Furthermore, a marketing case study must not be unnecessarily elaborate. In other words, every sentence you put in it must be relevant to the target audience. If it is on point and precise, it is sure to rope in new customers for you.

Marketing case studies can be displayed on your company’s website. It works as proof of what you’ve done, how you’ve done it, and so on. Some companies also choose to make their marketing case studies a part of their sales presentation while pitching to new customers.

Either way, you choose to use it, a case study is an essential customer acquisition tool you must operate properly.

Why Are They Important?

• It provides formidable social proof to your company.
• It gives your target customer the complete picture of what to expect from your brand.
• A case study is a perfect tool for your company to build trust, as statistics and quotes from previous customers support it.
• There’s a range of different ways you can prepare a case study, from text-heavy and video-based to infographics.

At a time when 9 out of 10 consumers look for customer testimonials or other kinds of social proof before making a purchase, case studies are immensely vital.

Want to know how to create a great one? Here are some examples of a marketing case study done right!

Top 15 Examples of Marketing Case Study

1. the whole package by ideo.

IDEO is a design company that partnered up with H&M to help the latter remove plastic from their packaging. Their case study , ‘The Whole Package,’ is quite simple and direct. But when it comes to driving the point home, you can say it ticks all the boxes.

Furthermore, this IDEO case study has been neatly categorized into sections. Coupled with the masterful use of visuals with crisp and convincing copy, this marketing case study is an excellent example of a comprehensive one.

2. Chevrolet DTU by Carol H Williams

When your client is a world-renowned name, why hide it? That’s what this case study teaches us. In fact, what better social proof than showing the world look “the brand that billions of consumers trust chose us, why can’t you?”

Engaging subheadings throughout this Carol H Williams case study further make it a convenient read.

Remember, no matter how convincing your statistics or facts are, try not to intimidate the reader. Feel free to have many sections; prefer crisp pointers over fluffy paragraphs.

3. In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study by Switch

When it comes to performance marketing, many abbreviations and jargon are involved. Some readers might find it a major turn-off. This marketing case study by Switch masterfully shows how you can avoid sounding scary in this way.

This one dedicates a page to each of the results they got for their client. For instance, the Facebook Ads results have their own page, and it has been so simplified that even a non-marketer would understand. That’s what makes this case study stand out.

4. Gila Rivers by OH Partners

A picture speaks a thousand words. And this case study shows just how you can use pictures to prepare the perfect case study. Using pictures, OH Partners have communicated what they’ve done for their clients and what their future customers can expect regarding results.

The marketing case study is visually appealing, thanks to elegant pictures that make it easy on the eyes. Even if you have no prior knowledge of marketing or OH Partners, the case study’s style is backed up by convincing statistics, which helps to make it one of the top examples in the field.

5. Capital One on AWS by Amazon

This case study is for companies working for clients for a long time. This Amazon case study features several articles detailing how Capital One benefitted from AWS over the years.

Starting from 2016, these articles elaborate on every aspect of Capital One being on AWS. So, is there a client you have been serving for years? Have they benefitted from your services or product in various ways? If yes, this is an approach you can take.

6. Acoustic by Genuine

Simplicity, as they say, is often all you need to make a lasting impression. And this case study by Genuine is truly a masterpiece in simplicity. First, it goes directly to the point and uses minimal text to drive the message home.

With neatly divided sections, this marketing case study is as simple in the text as in the visuals. Neither the colors nor the visuals are shouting at the reader from the screen. What it teaches us? Well, you don’t need to write a lot or use loud visuals to communicate effectively with the target audience.

7. Customer Success Case Study by Convoso

This one might not be as simple in name or feel as the previous one, but it is as effective. How? Because as soon as you lay your eyes on this Convoso case study , you notice the 300% boost. And if you’re a potential customer looking for a similar, you can hardly ignore it.

Another striking characteristic of this one is its vivid use of colors. Even though this 11-page PDF might seem a bit lengthy to some, the easy-on-the-eye color palette makes it quite readable. So, don’t ignore the visual aspect is what this marketing case study example teaches us.

8. The Hunt Club Case Study by Happeo

This is a case study written entirely from the perspective of the customers. Yes! Every paragraph in this Happeo case study contains quotes from Hunt Club, the company that chose Happeo’s solution.

An elaborate embedded video further does the trick for this one. But if we were to glean one thing from this case study, it has to be the fact that Happeo has told its own success story in the words of the customer.

Can a case study be any more of a social proof? We think not!

9. NetApp Case Study by Evisort

The unique thing about this one is that it starts with an overview of the client. Evisort sets the groundwork for its message right at the beginning. Once they’ve informed us about their client’s nature, they gradually move on to the problem solved.

For one, this follows the marketing case study thumb rule of always focusing more on the client. Secondly, it prepares a solid base for the reader, helping her clearly understand what has been discussed in the coming segments.

But there’s another important thing about this Evisort case study . It tells the story of the solution focusing on a particular era, the pandemic in this case. You can also employ this strategy and give more context to the solution you provided to your client.

10. The Met by Fantasy

A complete redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

How to showcase a nice and responsive website you created for a client? The simplest way is to put snaps of the website in your case study. And that’s what this Fantasy case study has done so masterfully.

What this case study teaches us is that you don’t have to write a bunch of stuff or put in statistics everywhere. If the result you provided to your client can be showcased visually, why not use the case study to do just that?

In Conclusion

Marketing case studies are one of the best ways to build credibility and trust with potential customers. They also help you generate leads by showcasing your expertise and proving that you can deliver results. Most importantly, they can help you win over new clients by showing them what to expect from working with you — and how much better things will be when they do.

So, these were a range of marketing case study examples and what we can learn from each. Which one was your favorite? Is there a pattern you identified? To be clear, each of these examples was unique and innovative in its own way. You can go ahead and pick a style and focus for your case study.

In a nutshell, relevancy matters the most if you want your case study to expand your business. So, instead of blindly following any of the examples we have listed, make your own mark with a compelling marketing case study.

We wish you all the best in your customer acquisition and expansion efforts. And we hope this article was of great help to you.

Related posts:

Ranu Kumari is a Professional Writer and a Marketing enthusiast who currently runs her own Marketing Consultancy, LatitudeBOX. She has written promotional articles for multiple brands and has published her work in Scopus indexed journals. She is passionate about expressing her thoughts and ideas to connect with her readers in a voice that they understand.

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100+ Case Study Examples for Sales and Marketing

Browse through a wide range of case study templates from various industries.

Imagine you come home after a long, tiring week of work, and you decide to satiate your taste buds by ordering a delicious, exotic dish. What would be your further course of action? Let us guess - you pull out your phone, log in to your favourite on-demand food delivery platform, search for the dish you're looking for, and hit the order button. Oh, wait! We missed out a crucial action that most of us perform while ordering a palate from a new food outlet – Rating & reviews!  

The first instinct that each one of us has when we subscribe to a new product or service is to get validation or proof from others.

In this post, we talk about one such crucial marketing collateral that provides  proof  to your prospects – Case Studies.

What is a Case Study?

Case studies are an indispensable tool for providing proof of quality and utility. They help demonstrate exactly what you have done to help other customers or clients attain their goals. They're sure to draw potential clients because they establish the factor of faith in the ability of your products or services.

To some, case studies may seem dull and boring, but it remains an integral part of a content marketing strategy for almost every B2B company. A content marketing report states that 70% of B2B marketers believe case studies are an effective tool for the content marketing mix.

How long should your case study be? 

If you type this query into the Google search bar, the answer that pops up on your screen is 500 to 1500 words. Although this is fairly ideal, it is important to note that there is no hard and fast rule for the word limit of a case study. Like everything else in Marketing, the answer is - it depends. 

Depends on various factors like the industry you’re writing the case study for, the narrative you’re building, the audience you’ll cater to and the like. 

Case studies are primarily built to generate an in-depth understanding of why exactly prospects should choose your product. In today’s world, where all content consumers have an attention span of roughly 7 seconds (if not lesser) - getting them to read a case study that’s nothing less than 500 words requires skill, to say the least. 

The length of a case study depends on the following factors :

Target audience

Identifying the target audience for your case study is the first and foremost step of the writing process. Who will be reading this case study and how do you tailor it to fit their flow of reading? It’s no big secret that everyone’s attention span varies. (We hear you. Do people even have an attention span these days?) 

Thanks to the myriad of visual content available in abundance, going through a 50-word post, let alone a 500-word case study, might be an arduous task for most people. However, this massively depends on the target audience and the industry your client belongs to. 

Case studies provide deep insight into your product/service and give potential customers one, if not more, solid reasons to get onboard. 

Formulating your case study based on these parameters will result in the best outcomes. 

For example, if your product caters directly to the general public (B2C) , then your case studies have to be short, precise and to the point. It has to provide just the right amount of information to put forth about your company, the services you offer, its features and benefits. Hence, these case studies can be anywhere between 100-300 words. 

On the other hand, formulating a case study for a B2B audience will require more detailed insights, examples, solution-oriented steps, and overall contain highly compelling research. This is solely because the individuals reading our case studies will be established business professionals looking to invest a good amount in your product . These case studies can extend up to 1500 words . 

Purpose of the case study 

The second factor/question to keep in mind is, “Why are we writing this case study?”. Here we cannot help but think of the famous quote - “You can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” 

It’s safe to say that this quote is applicable to almost every situation in life. Especially while selling a product. Or, attempting to do so. In this stage, you need to take into consideration 3 very important factors :  

At which point of the sales process are we sending out this case study?

For starters, case study content changes according to the various points of the sales process it is being sent out during. The content required for a case study at the beginning of the sales process differs from the content required for a case study when the deal is about to be closed. 

Case studies sent out at the beginning of the sales process focus on the following :

• Recognition of your company/brand  
• An insight into your company & what you do 
• A generic overview of what your product offers 

Hence, these case studies can range anywhere from 300-500 words.

Case studies sent out at the end of the sales process focus on the following :

• Presenting a precise problem faced by a client
• Presenting how your company provided a solution for the same 
• The process
• Use-case specific insights

Hence, the sky’s the (word) limit with these case studies. The length that narrates to your prospect that your company is the best solution is the length you stop at. 

What do we want our readers to take away from this case study?

The length of your case study also majorly depends on the point you want to put forth in your case study. Are you trying to simply establish brand identity? Are you talking about a new campaign run by your company? Or is it a case study showcasing the work you did for a specific client? 

What medium are we sending the case study via? 

The medium through which your case study is being sent is a key point while determining the length of your case study. 

Let us throw in a quick example here. We are in the midst of our relentless online shopping phase and our package has finally arrived. Obviously, we can’t wait to go through the contents of the package (Because which order even is this?) - Doesn’t it make the unpacking process much easier when the packaging is precise and easy to open? Who wants loads of duct tape and clunky wrapping? It instantly puts us off, and we might even decide to open it later.  Similarly, the medium via which you send your case study and the presentation of it matters a lot. 

Here are some of the methods through which you can send your case study :

A good ol’ fashioned e-mail

“I’ll send across an email” is a phrase most of us have probably used more than our names. And, that’s fine. 

Sending your case studies and other documents through email has unmistakably been the go-to method for the longest time. Even so, sending your documents and case studies via email have its pros and cons. 

If you include a number of attachments, your prospects might have a hard time going back and forth between the document and email to open it up. The best option, in this case, is to include a single case study and make it crisp & concise in order to avoid shuffling between tabs. So, we’d say a single case study, about 500 words. 

A personalized storyboard

Personalized. Pretty. Extremely easy to go through. Nothing against emails, but imagine sending your case studies in a personalized collection that is exclusive to your reader, gives them a binge-worthy experience with your case studies, enables them to pick up exactly where they left off and much more. 

With a presentation like this, we’re sure the length of your case study isn’t going to stop readers from going through the contents of your case study.

Types of Case Studies

Case studies can be broadly classified into the following categories:

1. Third-Person Case Studies

An external agency primarily publishes this type of case study. This external research & consulting firm validates the solution provided by your company to your customers and publishes the same on its website.

2. Explanatory Case Studies

Explanatory case studies are primarily descriptive studies. They typically use one or two instances of a phenomenon or event to show the existing solution. Explanatory case studies primarily exist to familiarize the unfamiliar situation to prospects and give them a brief overview of the subject.

3. Instrumental Case Study

To gain insight into a phenomenon, an instrumental case study is deployed. The focus of this type of case study is not on the results but on the phenomenon. It tries to make the prospects discern the relationship between the phenomenon and its solution.

4. Implementation Case Study

This is perhaps the most important type of case study for a content marketer. It encompasses how your business went about executing the solution of a customer's challenge.

Case studies are the best example of marketing collateral used during the consideration stage and are used to showcase the success stories of your company. They can be written as single-page or multi-page documents.

Steps to writing a case study solution

Crafting the headline.

Headlines are the hellos in the world of writing. Just as a simple hello can help gain surface-level insight into a person, a headline establishes just that about a piece of written content. 

The first step to drafting a case study is also to pick a suitable headline. 

The headline of a case study has to include the following elements :

• The name of the company
• The use case
• The results
• Quantitative data (all about the numbers)

Let’s go with a fictional take on this - 

Let’s say you have a company, “Mattleberg Associates."

Mattleberg Associates offer consultative tools and guidance to understand, buy and adopt marketing technology tools for an enterprise. If Mattleberg Associates is to write a case study on how their product benefited a client of theirs, Acme Corporation , and upped their sales turnover by 70% , 

This is how the case study should ideally be titled : 

Acme Corp’s Sales Turnover Increased by 70% - Meet the Mattleberg MarTech Tool that made it possible. 

By glancing at this case study title, the reader gets an insight into the company (Mattleberg), the client (Acme Corp), the use case (Increasing sales turnover), the industry (Sales and Marketing) and the outcome (A 70% increase). 

Highlighting the challenge/situation 

In this part of the case study, the problem is made aware to the reader. This is where we let the reader know that “Hey, there was a grave situation taking place, and this is how it played out.”. 

In this part, you have to mention : 

• The challenge that was present
• The root cause of the problem 
• Statistics about the same 

Arriving at the solution

This part of your case study has to be your company’s stellar introduction.

In this part of the case study, you will include :

• How the client arrived at your company 
• The process of how the client fixed on your company (yay!)
• The executives involved in the process 

Behold! The results

Quantitative results .

This indicates the end of the case study. This is the part you indicate that Happily Ever After was made possible. Here is where you include all of the magical numbers that were a result of your company’s product/service, the remarkable results of the process and the outcome. 

Qualitative results

Remember when Spotify allowed 6500 of their employees to work from anywhere in the world? 

Now, fast forward to a year later; Spotify has released a statement saying their turnover rate dropped and they’re doing great! 

Here’s another example of how a qualitative result approach can be included in your case studies. This is the tie between quantitative and qualitative results. They go hand in hand. 

Tying this back to the topic, while writing a case study and mentioning the end results, it is important to also mention how the process eased the lives of the team, resulting in joy in the workplace and so on. This, in return, can directly result in quantitative results. :)

Best Practices to implement while writing a Case Study

More often than not, content marketers find it a herculean task to create a case study that is intriguing for their prospects. Here are 5 easy tips to make your case studies less boring, and more engaging.

1. Incorporate visuals in your case study

Multimedia can make your case studies more engaging and provide you with a means to connect with auditory and visual learners. Here are two ways in which you can incorporate multimedia in your case study:

• Include pictures, charts, and infographics to interpret a story out of the content-heavy data.
• Incorporate videos in your case studies and use them throughout your integrated marketing communication.

2. Prioritize firsthand knowledge over second-hand evidence

Case studies are stories. And stories can be narrated aptly only when you get real firsthand insights from the customer. Hence, to write a good case study, all you need is an excellent customer interview. Refrain from writing case studies based on resources such as testimonial quotes, videos, email, and so on.

It will only make your case studies time-consuming and difficult (or dare we say boring?).

3. Use slide-in call-to-action in lieu of pop-ups

Huge pop-ups can be annoying to the readers. Hence, marketers should try to use slide-in call-to-action that does the same job without distracting your prospects.

4. Don't be keen on listing the problem statement/challenge

Get into the shoes of your prospects while writing the challenge section. Most businesses often commit the mistake of writing the problem of a case study that caters to a narrow audience. To effectively hook a broader target audience , you should address the problem by considering the perspective of different prospects and write a detailed and compelling challenge . Your case study's first sentence should always address a broad business issue, and provide the reader with context.

5. Improve the tone of the customer quotes

Being a case study writer, you should not be transfixed on strictly reproducing all the customer quotes as it is - that is what a reporter does. As a case study writer, you should embellish the customer quotes in a way that makes their point effective. However, the altered quote should not drift away from the actual customer quote and should live up to the spirit of the customer's statement.

Examples of Case Studies

Here is a list of the finest examples of case studies across each sector with our commentary on a handpicked few to further ease your process of writing a case study.

To give you a holistic understanding of different types of case studies, we have collated the best templates from each industry.

• Aviation and Defense 
• Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
• Energy & Utility
• Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Manufacturing
• Technology and Services
• Telecommunications

Best Case Study Examples for Aviation, Aerospace & Defense Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Aviation, Aerospace and Defence sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. Electromagnetic Solutions | Leonardo

Type of case study : Explanatory

Leonardo, first, defined their electromagnetic solutions and then furnished an explanatory case study to further enlighten their target audience to the solution they offer. They provided their prospects with a lucid explanation of the phenomenon with their solution in this case study.

2. Indira Gandhi International Airport | Collins Aerospace

Type of case study: Implementation

This case study is one of the best templates you will find in the aviation & defence sector. Two reasons make it exceptional. First, Collins has tailored the case study in a way that it can collaborate with direct marketing efforts . The case study is brief, yet gives a clear explanation of how it went about executing the solution. Also, the testimonial Collins took from Delhi International Airport Ltd., explained in a nutshell, the outstanding results they produced.

Best Case Study Examples for BFSI Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the BFSI sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. Implementing a Complete Target-Date Fund Solution |  JPMorgan Chase

Type of case study: Explanatory

Writing a case study in the sector of financial services is tricky, to say the least. If you are looking to benchmark a case study, this should undoubtedly be the one. JPMorgan deep-dived to explain the needs of the client and listed out the top investment priorities. After that, the cast study introduced the unique solution offered to give their prospects a gist of the same. 

2. Global Inventory Management | Broadridge

Broadridge created a stellar case study by incorporating a testimonial, visuals, and an elaborate solution together. The cast study went one step ahead by talking about how it will utilize this opportunity to build Broadridge's future solutions.

Best Case Study Examples for Energy & utilites Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Energy & Utilities sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. Creating Value through Technology and Innovation | Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL)

Type of case study: Instrumental

This case study focuses more on the different technologies offered by CNRL. What makes this case study unique is that the brand has included various collaborations for each technology and clearly demarcated the status of each technique. The usage of visuals and quantifiable results is spot on!

2. City of Monterey Park | Engie

Engie has produced a phenomenal template for a case study in the energy sector. Prospects could better relate to this kind of a case study because it includes multiple testimonials alongside the images of the solution which can serve as the best catalyst for prospects in the consideration stage of the buyer journey.

Best Case Study Examples for Healthcare & Life Sciences Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Healthcare and Life-sciences sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. BD Vacutainer | Becton Dickinson and Company

BD did a fantastic job of quantifying its success in solid numbers. They have incorporated the same in their headline to make it a worthy read for a prospect. Furthermore, they included a separate "results" section which listed out the benefits and illustrated the same using a bar graph. These best practices help a prospect digest text-heavy content easily.

2. Helping Biopharma Companies Unravel the Many Facets of the Oncology Market | McKesson Corporation

This template is an excellent example of an instrumental case study in the healthcare sector. McKesson takes the onus on them to educate the healthcare industry on the oncology market. It provides vital insights into how the biopharma industry can leverage McKesson's resources and excel in oncology.

Best Case Study Examples for Logistics Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Logistics sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. Inventory Optimization Case Study | Neovia Logistics

Type of case study: Third-Person

This case study serves as a great template of collaboration with other organizations to deliver a customized solution for your customer. Neovia Logistics and SAP Service Parts Planning worked in unison to provide a top-notch solution for inventory management. This template makes a brilliant usage of coloured theme and an engaging dashboard to display the results lucidly.

2. Building a better distribution model to accommodate rapid growth | FedEx Corporation

FedEx adopts a customer-centric approach in this case study and explains the challenges faced by the customer in detail. It elaborately explains how the problems of temperature-sensitive products of the clients were dealt with. This type of case study can prove to be very useful as a marketing communication  for a client dealing in a similar sector.

Best Case Study Examples for Manufacturing Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Manufacturing sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. Twilight River Cruises | Mitsubishi Electric

The testimonial and the embedded hyperlinks (that redirects to their product range) make this case study stand apart from others. Mitsubishi Electric has ensured that the client furnishes a well-crafted testimonial that makes the prospects acquire faith in their prowess.

2. Danfoss' Digital Journey and Strategic Approach to MES | Siemens

This is, by far, the best template we have discovered in the manufacturing sector. It ticks all the boxes for writing a stellar case study – slide-in CTAs (call-to-action), integration with social media, an excellent testimonial, captivating visuals, and a consistent theme. You do not want to miss this out!

Best Case Study Examples for Technology & Services Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Technology & Services sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. FreshDesk - Case Study | Chargebee

The best thing about this case study is that Chargebee incorporated testimonials from different departments and individuals. The case study uses crisp headlines and explains the challenge in detail before jumping the gun to mention the results.

2. Aspire Systems Provides Data Integration Services  | Aspire Systems

For a technical product/software, it is important to know where to use technical keywords and where to use plain, simple language. Aspire Systems did a fantastic job of creating different sections for a summary (in plain language) and a tech snapshot (where they mention the suite of data management products). It also included an image of the system architecture to educate their prospects on the process and solutions.

Best Case Study Examples for Telecommunications Sector

While there are over 10+ example case studies that have been handpicked for the Telecommunications sector, we are highlighting only about 2 of them for a quick reference on why it works and most importantly, we like them.

1. Managed Network Services | Telkomtelstra

Incorporating video testimonials in the case study is one of the best practices to be followed to create a compelling case study; and, Telkomtelstra has done that precisely. The practice of integrating social media in your overall content marketing strategy never fails to fetch you brownie points!

2. Supporting the community with a mobilized workforce | Rogers Communications Inc.

Rogers Communications has adopted the strategy of assigning a dedicated page for case studies. It has also integrated social media and slide-in CTAs buttons, in this case study, for enhanced engagement. A unique practice that Rogers embraced in this case study was to mention the details of the current services with that particular client. You may want to consider this strategy while writing your upcoming case study!

Strategies to leverage the power of Case Studies 

On the same lines, let us now deep-dive into how content marketers can leverage the power of case studies to their full potential. Mentioned below are some of the strategies you can use to incorporate case studies into your organization's overall integrated marketing communications strategy.

1. Highlight the case studies on a dedicated page

When B2B customers search online for your goods and services, they will search for your company's websites as well as your rivals' websites. So make sure the case studies on your website are easy to find. Refrain from categorizing them in the section of "downloads" or "resources" list, or hiding them so profoundly that visitors need to find them on your search facility.

Offer multiple paths that will lead them directly to the stories of customers that most interest them. Feature your homepage with a recent case study. Ask your webmaster to set up a display that will generate a different case study each time the visitor clicks on a new page or returns to a given page.

Be sure to provide a link where more case studies can be found by the visitor, in case the story does not match the interests of the visitor.

2. Include case studies in white papers

Do you have a case study showing how a client used your product or service to solve a widespread problem in the industry? If so, you have the building blocks for an effective white paper . Case studies and effective white papers share the same basic structure: challenge/solution.

You will need to develop the problem section further, examine previous solutions and why they are not working, and present your solution as part of a generic class.

However, once you have described your solution, you can introduce your particular product by means of an abbreviated version of your case study.

3. Include case studies in press releases

The company press releases are the perfect platform to share customer stories with prospects, customers, partners, and employees. The case studies in your prospect press releases allow you to highlight your solutions and the different verticals that you represent.

This helps to develop trust over time. In addition, case studies are great for keeping partners informed about how customers use your solutions. You'll support their sales efforts by providing customers with new ideas that they can present. You'll also keep them excited about your partnership, as well as about your products and services.

4. Collaborate your direct marketing efforts with case studies

Many of the most popular all-time direct mail promotions start with a story. Stories are enthralling. They promise entertainment and news. Of course, they gain our attention. Hence, a well-written case study for a newsletter or a direct mail campaign can be an excellent lead material.

Moreover, with a lead drawn from a recent case study, you'll not only get the attention of your prospects right away but also establish credibility with a real-world illustration of what your company has done for others already.

5. Consolidate your SEO strategy with case studies

Case studies can be among the best content types to attract attention from search engines. Phrases of keywords are the SEO currency . And if well-written, it is most likely that your case studies will include several instances of keywords and phrases relevant to the product or service they feature.

Make sure you incorporate the links and meta tags to boost the search engine rankings. Google attaches great importance to links, so be sure to link back to your case studies from press releases, blog posts, and discussion forums that refer to them. Encourage your clients to link your website to their success stories.

Even meta tags can improve your search rankings. Ensure that the title and description tags are used well by including your target keywords in them.

6. Collaborate your case studies with your social media marketing strategy

Social media provides a range of platforms to distribute case studies to your target audience. You can post a link to your latest case studies on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms. Forums are another excellent platform way to promote your customer success.

Trade associations and LinkedIn Groups provide thousands of tightly focused discussions across the entire spectrum of interests in the industry. And most of these forums will let you post links, making it easy to reach specific audiences.

Case studies are vital building blocks for your brand’s social currency. With the right balance between data and a compelling narrative, case studies go a long way in positioning your brand as the ideal choice in the minds of your prospects.

So before you rule out this collateral as mundane and boring, ask yourself again - would you order from a restaurant that is not backed by good reviews and ratings?

Other interesting blogs that might help bolster your content marketing strategy:

100+ Best Examples of Press Release Templates

100+ Brochure Examples for Sales and Marketing

100+ Testimonial Examples for Sales and Marketing

The Best White Paper Examples for B2B Marketers      

• Case Study Templates
• Case Studies
• Marketing Collateral
• Content Marketing

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A Comprehensive Case Study on Amazon's Marketing Strategy

In today's digital age, Amazon has emerged as the market leader in e-commerce. Its success can largely be attributed to its innovative and effective marketing strategies . This comprehensive case study delves into the various aspects of Amazon's marketing strategy and explores the key factors that have contributed to its unparalleled growth and success.

Understanding Amazon's Marketing Strategy

The core principles of amazon's marketing.

At the heart of Amazon's marketing strategy lies a strong focus on customer satisfaction . The company's relentless pursuit of customer centricity has played a crucial role in its success. By consistently prioritizing the needs and preferences of its customers, Amazon has created a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for more.

Amazon's commitment to customer satisfaction goes beyond just providing quality products. The company understands that a positive customer experience begins with a user-friendly website interface . With a clean and intuitive design, Amazon ensures that customers can easily navigate through the vast selection of products and find exactly what they are looking for.

Furthermore, Amazon employs a data-driven approach to marketing . The company leverages advanced analytics and algorithms to understand customer behavior, identify trends, and personalize the buyer experience. This allows Amazon to target its marketing efforts with precision, ensuring maximum return on investment.

Through its data-driven approach, Amazon is able to gain valuable insights into customer preferences and shopping habits. By analyzing vast amounts of data, Amazon can identify patterns and trends, enabling the company to make informed decisions about product offerings and marketing strategies .

Related: Unveiling Home Depot's Winning Marketing Strategy

The Role of Customer Centricity in Amazon's Strategy

Amazon's customer-centric approach is evident in every aspect of its marketing strategy . From its user-friendly website interface to its hassle-free return policy, the company constantly strives to deliver exceptional customer experiences. By continuously adapting and improving its services based on customer feedback, Amazon has built a reputation for reliability and trustworthiness.

One of the ways Amazon demonstrates its commitment to customer centricity is through its hassle-free return policy. The company understands that customers may occasionally need to return or exchange a product, and Amazon makes the process as seamless as possible. This not only enhances the overall customer experience but also instills confidence in customers, knowing that their satisfaction is a top priority.

Additionally, Amazon utilizes customer data to create personalized product recommendations and targeted marketing campaigns. By understanding individual customer preferences and purchase history, Amazon can effectively cross-sell and upsell products, increasing customer satisfaction and revenue. This marketing strategy creates repeat customers and expand's the brand's reach for its own products and its sellers.

Amazon's personalized product recommendations are powered by sophisticated algorithms that analyze a customer's browsing and purchase history. By leveraging this data, Amazon is able to suggest products that are highly relevant to each customer's unique interests and preferences. This not only enhances the shopping experience, but also increases the likelihood of customers discovering new products they may not have otherwise considered.

Amazon also makes personalized marketing available to sellers through its advertising platform. Amazon sellers can create ads for their products that will be shown to people who search for products in the same category, or who buy similar products.

Amazon's marketing strategy revolves around customer satisfaction and data-driven decision making. By prioritizing the needs and preferences of its customers, and leveraging advanced analytics, Amazon has been able to build a loyal customer base and deliver exceptional shopping experiences. Through its customer-centric approach, Amazon continues to innovate and adapt, ensuring that it remains a leader in the e-commerce industry.

Related: Liquid Death Marketing Strategy Case Study: Slaying the Beverage Industry with Killer Branding and Marketing

Dissecting Amazon's SEO Strategy

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), Amazon is a master of the game. The company understands the importance of optimizing product listings with relevant keywords to ensure maximum visibility and sales. Its massive infrastructure of product landing pages, product categories, and interlinking between pages make for the perfect SEO play. But what exactly does Amazon do to achieve this?

Importance of Keywords in Amazon's SEO

Amazon's SEO strategy revolves around thorough keyword research . The company invests significant time and resources into identifying the most popular search terms used by customers. By incorporating these keywords strategically within product titles, descriptions, and backend fields, Amazon ensures that its products appear higher in search results. It also encourages sellers to leverage keyword strategies in their own product listings and advertising campaigns on the platform.

However, keyword optimization is just the tip of the iceberg. Amazon recognizes that positive reviews and ratings are equally important in boosting a product's search ranking and instilling trust in potential buyers. To encourage customer feedback, Amazon actively solicits reviews and provides a platform for customers to share their opinions.

By combining keyword optimization with a strong focus on customer reviews, Amazon creates a powerful SEO strategy that maximizes product visibility and drives sales.

Related: Exploring Five Guys' Marketing Strategy

How Amazon Optimizes Product Listings

Amazon goes above and beyond to optimize product listings and enhance their visibility. One of the key elements is the inclusion of high-quality product images. These images capture customer interest and provide a visual representation of the product. Additionally, informative descriptions play a crucial role in educating customers about the product's features and benefits.

But Amazon doesn't stop there. The company offers product videos and enhanced content features to provide customers with a comprehensive understanding of the product. These additional resources allow customers to make informed purchasing decisions and further increase the chances of a sale.

Moreover, Amazon leverages its vast customer review data to enrich product listings. By identifying and displaying relevant product information, such as frequently asked questions, customer-generated images, and comparisons with similar products, Amazon creates a dynamic and engaging shopping experience. This user-generated content aids in customer decision-making and adds a layer of authenticity to the product listings.

By combining keyword optimization, high-quality visuals, informative descriptions, and user-generated content, Amazon creates a compelling SEO strategy that not only boosts visibility but also enhances the overall shopping experience for customers.

Related: Dyson Marketing Strategy: A Look at Home Appliance Go-to-Market Strategy and Branding

Amazon's Advertising Tactics

Amazon, the e-commerce giant, employs various advertising strategies to help sellers promote their products and increase their visibility within the marketplace. One of the key tactics utilized by Amazon is its pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model.

Amazon's Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Through its advertising platform, Amazon offers sellers the opportunity to bid on relevant keywords, ensuring that their products appear prominently in search results and sponsored product listings. This targeted approach allows sellers to reach potential customers precisely when they are actively searching for similar products.

What sets Amazon's PPC advertising apart is its real-time performance tracking. Sellers can monitor the effectiveness of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize their advertising spend and adjust bidding strategies accordingly. This level of control ensures that sellers maximize their return on investment and achieve their desired outcomes.

Furthermore, Amazon provides sellers with valuable insights and analytics, allowing them to understand customer behavior, preferences, and trends. Armed with this information, sellers can refine their advertising strategies and tailor their offerings to meet the needs and expectations of their target audience.

Related: The Effective Lego Marketing Strategy: Building Success Brick by Brick

Sponsored Products and Brands on Amazon

In addition to its PPC advertising model, Amazon offers a comprehensive sponsored products and brands program. This program enables sellers to promote their products and gain increased visibility within Amazon's vast marketplace.

Sponsored products appear alongside organic search results, capturing the attention of potential customers and driving traffic to the seller's product page. By featuring their products in these prominent positions, sellers can significantly increase their chances of attracting interested buyers and generating sales.

Similarly, the sponsored brands feature allows sellers to showcase their brand logo, custom headline, and a selection of products in a highly visible ad placement. This brand-focused advertising not only helps sellers drive traffic to their product listings but also aids in building brand awareness and recognition among Amazon shoppers.

By strategically utilizing sponsored products and brands, sellers can effectively differentiate themselves from competitors and establish a strong presence on Amazon. With the ability to target specific keywords and display their products prominently, sellers can increase their visibility, attract more customers, and ultimately drive sales.

Amazon's advertising tactics, including its pay-per-click advertising model and sponsored products and brands program, provide sellers with powerful tools to promote their products and reach their target audience. With real-time performance tracking, data-driven decision-making, and the ability to showcase their brand, sellers can maximize their advertising efforts and achieve success on Amazon's platform.

Related: The Effective Marketing Strategy of IKEA

Amazon's Social Media Presence

The impact of social media on amazon's growth.

While Amazon's success primarily stems from its e-commerce platform, its social media presence has also played a significant role in its growth. Through various social media channels, Amazon engages with its customers and fosters a community of brand advocates. This direct and interactive approach strengthens customer relationships and builds brand loyalty.

One way Amazon utilizes social media to connect with its customers is by actively responding to their comments and inquiries. Whether it's addressing a customer concern or simply thanking them for their support, Amazon's social media team ensures that every interaction is meaningful and personalized. This level of engagement not only makes customers feel valued but also creates a sense of trust and reliability.

Moreover, social media provides Amazon with a platform to promote its products, offer exclusive deals, and share informative content. By leveraging the power of social media influencers and user-generated content, Amazon expands its reach and generates buzz around its offerings.

For instance, Amazon collaborates with popular influencers in various niches to showcase their products and services. These influencers, who have a large and dedicated following, help create brand awareness and drive traffic to Amazon's website. Additionally, Amazon encourages customers to share their experiences and opinions through user-generated content, such as reviews and testimonials. This not only provides valuable insights for potential customers but also acts as a form of social proof, further enhancing Amazon's credibility and reputation.

Related: Lululemon Marketing Strategy - A Closer Look

Amazon's Approach to Social Media Marketing

Amazon understands the importance of tailoring its social media marketing strategy to suit different platforms and target demographics. Whether it's creating visually appealing content for Instagram or utilizing Facebook's powerful ad targeting capabilities, Amazon deploys a multi-pronged approach to maximize its social media presence.

On Instagram, Amazon showcases its products through stunning visuals and creative storytelling. The platform's emphasis on aesthetics allows Amazon to highlight the unique features and benefits of its offerings, captivating users' attention and driving engagement. Additionally, Amazon utilizes Instagram's shopping features, enabling users to seamlessly purchase products directly from the app.

Furthermore, Amazon actively encourages user-generated content by incentivizing customers to share their experiences and opinions on social media. Through contests, giveaways, and customer spotlight features, Amazon taps into the power of word-of-mouth marketing and harnesses the influence of its satisfied customer base.

Amazon also recognizes the potential of video content in capturing users' attention and conveying its brand message effectively. The company leverages platforms like YouTube and TikTok to create engaging and informative videos that showcase its products in action. These videos not only entertain and educate viewers but also drive traffic to Amazon's website, ultimately leading to increased sales.

In addition to organic content, Amazon also invests in paid social media advertising to reach a wider audience. By utilizing Facebook's powerful ad targeting capabilities, Amazon can tailor its advertisements to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. This targeted approach ensures that Amazon's ads are shown to the most relevant audience, maximizing the return on investment and driving conversions.

Related: Uniqlo's Winning Marketing Strategy

The Power of Amazon Prime in Marketing

How amazon prime enhances customer loyalty.

Amazon Prime, Amazon's subscription-based membership program , has revolutionized customer loyalty in the e-commerce industry. By offering free and expedited shipping, exclusive access to deals, and a host of digital benefits such as Prime Video and Prime Music, Amazon has created an unparalleled value proposition for its customers.

With millions of Prime subscribers worldwide, Amazon enjoys a significant competitive advantage. The perks and convenience of Prime membership incentivize customers to consolidate their purchases on Amazon, further solidifying the company's market dominance.

The Role of Prime in Amazon's Sales Strategy

Amazon strategically leverages the power of Prime to drive sales and promote customer engagement. For instance, the Amazon Prime Day, an annual sales event exclusively for Prime members, generates tremendous buzz and boosts sales across various product categories.

Additionally, Prime's vast customer base provides Amazon with valuable data and insights, enabling the company to personalize its marketing strategy and offer targeted promotions. By understanding individual customer preferences and purchase patterns, Amazon can deliver highly relevant recommendations, driving repeat purchases and fostering long-term customer loyalty.

Final Thoughts on Amazon's Marketing Strategy

As this case study demonstrates, Amazon's marketing strategy is a carefully orchestrated combination of customer centricity, SEO tactics, advertising prowess, and social media mastery.

By staying true to its core principles, adapting to changing market dynamics, and embracing innovation, Amazon continues to dominate the e-commerce landscape, setting new benchmarks for success.

About the Author

Hi, I'm Justin and I write Brand Credential. I started Brand Credential as a resource to help share expertise from my 10-year brand building journey. ‍ I currently serve as the VP of Marketing for a tech company where I oversee all go-to-market functions. Throughout my career I've helped companies scale revenue to millions of dollars, helped executives build personal brands, and created hundreds of pieces of content since starting to write online in 2012.

As always, thank you so much for reading. If you’d like more personal branding and marketing tips, here are more ways I can help in the meantime:

• Connect with me on Instagram , TikTok , and LinkedIn .
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• Read my free book, “ The Personal Brand Blueprint: A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Branding in the Age of the Creator ”

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Round Up: Get Inspired by These 9 Digital Shopper Marketing Examples (with Sales Results)

We’ve rounded up the most inspiring digital shopper marketing case studies from brands and agencies that have boosted sales at in-store and ecommerce retailers.

And not just good-looking examples. All examples below have sales results showing how they moved the needle at retailers.

If you’re a shopper marketer or integrated marketing pro looking for inspiration for your next campaign, I hope this helps. Finding great shopper marketing examples out there, especially with results data, takes a good bit of hunting and sifting. I feel your pain. Gathering the info below took some time.

Moving More Budgets From In-store to Digital

You need good information to help you determine where best to put your shopper marketing budgets. This is especially true now as many shopper marketing budgets are moving in-store activities to digital activities.

And there are a lot of options out there. Paid social, display ads, rewarded video, influencer marketing, cross-promotion… To help make sense of this, I tried my best to tag each campaign with the type of marketing used. (If you think some of the tags could be better, give your suggestions in the chat on this page.)

So here is some inspiring work from a range of shopper marketing agencies and brands using a variety of digital shopper marketing activities and platforms.

I hope you find some inspiration.

1. Paid Social Media Ads for Shopper Marketing with Geo-targeting

Shopper Marketing Paid Social Media Geotargeting

Jun Group drove a 24% YOY increase in sales for a top sun care CPG brand at Walmart. Their campaign “geo-targeted the campaign to the brand’s key markets to reach outdoorsy families. We distributed summer-themed content across social media platforms and encouraged consumers to purchase the brand’s products at Walmart.”

2. Paid Social Media Ads for Shopper Marketing with Location, Behavioral and Purchase Data Targeting

Shopper Marketing Paid Social Media Geotargeting Behavioral Targeting Purchase Targeting Influencer Marketing

Another one from Jun Group. The program delivered a 35% in-store sales lift for featured tea products at Target.

“We leveraged location, behavioral and purchase data to reach the brand’s core shoppers at scale. We also partnered with food and lifestyle influencers to create and distribute recipes to inspire purchases.”

3. Retailer eCommerce Product Page Enhancements

Shopper Marketing eCommerce eCommerce Content

The Mars Agency helped sparkling water brand become a #1 new release on Amazon. They launched with enhanced content on Amazon to showcase different meal pairings and occasions.

4. Optimize Retailer eCommerce Channel

Shopper Marketing eCommerce eCommerce Optimization Paid Social Media

TPN helped a direct to consumer challenger brand in the luxury beauty space achieve a sustained growth rate of 30-50% MoM via optimizing an ecommerce channel and social media.

“TPN optimized the Amazon presence of Oars + Alps to raise brand awareness, grow overall sales, and further establish the brand story. The success of this strategy ultimately helped Oars + Alps gain significant shelf space at Target, a major retailer favored by this specific shopper.

“During the initial phase of our engagement, Oars + Alps enjoyed a sustained growth rate of 30-50% MoM. Today, the brand is a leader in the luxury beauty category, with a 4+ star rating on Amazon.”

5. Cross-Promotion Shopper Marketing Partnerships

Shopper Marketing Cross Promotion Partnerships In-store Shopper Marketing Out-of-store Shopper Marketing Banner Ads

Hangar 12 used cross promotion for a blue cheese brand to drive total sales increase in mid-single digits and both base and incremental sales increased over a 12-week period.

The goal was to drive brand awareness and increase trial.

Hangar 12’s solution included partnerships with both product (Frank’s Red Hot) and publisher (SeriousEats.com).

“After gathering appropriate shopper basket data to identify partners to help expand awareness, we collaborated with Frank’s Red Hot, a partner whose recipes would accentuate and complement blue cheese perfectly. Plus, it would bring our brand to the hot sauce aisle.

“We created an integrated marketing promotion for Treasure Cave to drive brand awareness and increase trial. Our campaign included online, in-store, and out-of-store elements as well as overlay additional media and support through a partnership with SeriousEats.com. Serious Eats helped with custom recipes, sponsored posts, and banner ads to encourage their Millennial audience to learn more about Treasure Cave cheeses.”

6. Video Marketing That Helps Shoppers Earn at Targeted Retailer

Shopper Marketing Video Marketing Mobile Marketing Rewarded Shopper Marketing Loyalty Card & Gift Card Marketing

NIVEA achieved a 5:1 return on ad spend for its promoted product line at targeted stores (15:1 brand-wide) with video marketing on Dabbl .

The brand experience included 2 videos, one that highlighted NIVEA’s “Rethink Soft” brand positioning and the second that focused specifically on the promoted product line. Consumers engaged further by giving their opinions on the products. All of these engagements took place within one continuous session averaging 76 seconds and used 100% of their screen.

NIVEA was able to get this high level of engagement by not interrupting consumers like traditional media ads. Instead, consumers chose to engage when it was right for them. In return, NIVEA helped their audience earn at the targeted retailer.

Brands and agencies reach Walmart, Target, Amazon, ShopRite and other retailer shoppers on Dabbl and help them earn the retailer’s gift cards or add to a loyalty card.

7. A Collection of Shopper Marketing Activities

Shopper Marketing Digital Advertising Retailer Partnerships Influencer Marketing Rewarded Shopper Marketing

Shoptology delivered 141% sales lift at Krogers with a mix of brand marketing and shopper marketing activities including digital advertising, retailer partnerships, influencer marketing and rewarded shopper marketing.

After defining the brand position and product differentiation of “pure convenience that make everyday desserts fun and easy”, Shoptology “took a multilayered approach, strategically choosing the media, partnering with retailer programs and bringing the “Layers of Fun” shopper campaign to life with everything from Shopkick to digital media to paid influencers and more.

“All retailers saw at least double-digit sales lifts for Friendly’s Sundae and Dessert Cups — even hitting triple digits at Kroger with a 141% sales lift””

8. Comprehensive Brand Marketing and Shopper Marketing

Shopper Marketing Paid and Organic Social Media Brand Strategy Experiential Marketing Website Grassroots Marketing Point of Sale Display Advertising Digital Display Advertising Integrated Promotions Paid Search SEO

The Amp Agency boosted sales +26% YOY for the Naked juice brand while maintaining its premium price. This, despite new competitors entering the space.

The Amp Agency delivered a comprehensive suite of brand marketing and shopper marketing activities for the brand including point of sale, integrated promotions and display ads.

Here’s how the agency summarized some of the key components:

Web Redesign Drives trial and weaves together Naked Juice’s beliefs, practices and products.

Display Ads Drives awareness and consideration by extending Naked’s values system communications into paid media.

Integrated Promotions Connects the community base while helping to sparking new product and flavor launches.

Grassroots Drives advocacy by delivering the Live Naked message to the doorstep of influencers and advocates.

Point of Sale Drives trial and repeat purchase by connecting brand values to consumers at retail.

Social Media Boosts advocacy and awareness via a curated editorial calendar that supplements authentic conversation with quality content.

9. Video Marketing That Helps Shoppers Earn at Targeted Retailer + Digital Coupon

Here’s another one using the Dabbl platform. Eight O’Clock Coffee saw their Barista Blends product line jump from 37% of sales to 87% of sales at the targeted retailer and delivered a 4:1 ROAS for the promoted products.

This was achieved via a single audience experience that combined both brand marketing and shopper marketing.

Retailer shoppers watched a product-line brand video, gave opinions on products and were offered a digital coupon that was instantly added to their retailer loyalty card with a tap of a button. Consumers spent an average 31 seconds with the experience which also delivered a 10.7% click through rate.

Like the NIVEA example above, these targeted retailer shoppers were not interrupted with ads. Instead, they chose when to engage with the brand and they earned value on their loyalty card for their time and attention.

I hope you’re as inspired by these digital shopper marketing case studies as I am. The common thread I’m seeing from these examples seems to be: choose a combination of marketing activities that achieve the simple formula of:

• Reach the right audience.
• Deliver brand marketing storytelling and engagement.
• Encourage shopper marketing activation.

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Email Marketing

Boost Your Business with the Best Email Marketing Platform

Jessica Lunk Digital Marketing Manager

May 16, 2024 4 min read

Email marketing isn’t a “nice to have” marketing strategy. It’s an essential tool for every business, no matter the size. With the right approach and the best email marketing platform , you can effectively reach your target audience , build customer relationships, and ultimately drive sales. In this article, we’re going to explore the importance of email marketing and provide an overview of the features and benefits of the top email marketing platforms available in the market.

But First, the Basics: What is Email Marketing?

Before diving into the world of email marketing platforms, let’s first understand what email marketing is and why it is crucial for businesses. Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy. It includes sending promotional messages or newsletters to a group of individuals via email. It allows businesses to directly reach and communicate with their audience, delivering personalized content , and ultimately driving engagement and conversions.

Email marketing is highly effective and cost-efficient. It’s extremely effective at engaging customers, promoting products or services, and building brand loyalty. Unlike other forms of marketing, email marketing doesn’t relying on intermediaries or algorithms. Furthermore, it offers a higher return on investment compared to other marketing channels .

The Quickstart Guide to Email Marketing

Choosing the right email marketing platform.

Now, let’s explore how to choose the best email marketing platform for your business. When selecting a platform, there are several factors to consider:

• Ease of use : Look for a platform that is user-friendly and intuitive, allowing you to easily create and manage email campaigns .
• Automation capabilities : Automation is a key feature in modern email marketing platforms. It allows you to set up triggered emails , personalized workflows, and targeted campaigns based on customer behavior.
• Email templates and customization options : A good email marketing platform should offer a wide range of customizable templates that allow you to also put your brand identity first, and allow you to create emails that are visually appealing.
• Integration with other tools : Consider whether the platform integrates with your existing CRM system, eCommerce platform, or other marketing tools to streamline your workflow and data management.

Additionally, look for platforms that provide advanced features such as A/B testing , analytics, and segmentation capabilities . These features will help you take your email marketing efforts to the next level and achieve better results.

Benefits of Using the Best Email Marketing Platform for Your Needs

Investing in the best email marketing platform can deliver numerous benefits for your business:

• Increase in customer engagement: With personalized and targeted emails, you can capture your audience’s attention and drive higher engagement rates. By delivering relevant content to your subscribers, you can nurture relationships and encourage them to take action.
• Improved lead generation: Effective email marketing campaigns can generate quality leads for your business. By leveraging automation and segmentation, you can send tailored messages to specific audience segments, increasing the chances of converting leads into customers.
• Enhanced targeting and personalization: The best email marketing platforms provide segmentation, allowing you to target groups of subscribers based on their demographics, behavior, or preferences. Personalization is key to building trust with your audience and driving higher conversion rates.
• Time and cost savings: Automation features offered by top email marketing platforms can save you valuable time and resources. By automating repetitive tasks such as welcome emails , abandoned cart reminders , or birthday greetings, you can focus on other important aspects of your business.

Case Studies: Successful Businesses Using Email Marketing Platforms

Let’s take a look at three case studies that demonstrate the power of email marketing platforms:

• Company A: Company A, an eCommerce retailer, experienced a 50% increase in sales after implementing an email marketing platform. By sending personalized recommendations based on customers’ purchase history and browsing behavior, they were able to drive repeat purchases and upsells .
• Company B: Company B, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider, built a loyal customer base through targeted email campaigns. By segmenting their subscribers based on industry and job role, they delivered tailored content that addressed specific pain points and challenges faced by their audience.
• Company C: Company C, a travel agency, optimized its email marketing strategy for higher return on investment. By analyzing campaign data and conducting A/B tests, they were able to identify the most effective subject lines , email designs , and call-to-action buttons. As a result, they achieved a higher conversion rate and increased revenue.

Email Marketing Metrics Handbook

Best practices for effective email marketing.

To make the most of your email marketing efforts, consider implementing the following best practices:

• Segmentation and targeting: We’ve mentioned it a few times, but dividing your email list into smaller segments based on demographics, preferences, or behavior allows you to send personalized content that resonates with each group.
• Compelling subject lines and content: Grab your subscribers’ attention with engaging and relevant subject lines. Additionally, create valuable content that addresses their pain points and offers solutions.
• Optimizing for mobile devices: Most of emails are opened on mobile devices, therefore it is essential to ensure that your emails are mobile-friendly. Use responsive design and test your emails across different devices and email clients.
• Testing and analyzing campaign performance: Continuously test different elements of your campaigns, like your subject lines, CTAs, and email designs. Analyze the results to identify what works best for your audience and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

The best email marketing platform can truly transform your business by helping you connect with your audience, drive engagement, and increase sales. By choosing a platform that aligns with your business needs and leveraging its advanced features, you can unlock the full potential of email marketing.

by Jessica Lunk

Digital Marketing Manager

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Artificial intelligence in strategy

Can machines automate strategy development? The short answer is no. However, there are numerous aspects of strategists’ work where AI and advanced analytics tools can already bring enormous value. Yuval Atsmon is a senior partner who leads the new McKinsey Center for Strategy Innovation, which studies ways new technologies can augment the timeless principles of strategy. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, he explains how artificial intelligence is already transforming strategy and what’s on the horizon. This is an edited transcript of the discussion. For more conversations on the strategy issues that matter, follow the series on your preferred podcast platform .

Joanna Pachner: What does artificial intelligence mean in the context of strategy?

Yuval Atsmon: When people talk about artificial intelligence, they include everything to do with analytics, automation, and data analysis. Marvin Minsky, the pioneer of artificial intelligence research in the 1960s, talked about AI as a “suitcase word”—a term into which you can stuff whatever you want—and that still seems to be the case. We are comfortable with that because we think companies should use all the capabilities of more traditional analysis while increasing automation in strategy that can free up management or analyst time and, gradually, introducing tools that can augment human thinking.

Joanna Pachner: AI has been embraced by many business functions, but strategy seems to be largely immune to its charms. Why do you think that is?

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Yuval Atsmon: You’re right about the limited adoption. Only 7 percent of respondents to our survey about the use of AI say they use it in strategy or even financial planning, whereas in areas like marketing, supply chain, and service operations, it’s 25 or 30 percent. One reason adoption is lagging is that strategy is one of the most integrative conceptual practices. When executives think about strategy automation, many are looking too far ahead—at AI capabilities that would decide, in place of the business leader, what the right strategy is. They are missing opportunities to use AI in the building blocks of strategy that could significantly improve outcomes.

I like to use the analogy to virtual assistants. Many of us use Alexa or Siri but very few people use these tools to do more than dictate a text message or shut off the lights. We don’t feel comfortable with the technology’s ability to understand the context in more sophisticated applications. AI in strategy is similar: it’s hard for AI to know everything an executive knows, but it can help executives with certain tasks.

When executives think about strategy automation, many are looking too far ahead—at AI deciding the right strategy. They are missing opportunities to use AI in the building blocks of strategy.

Joanna Pachner: What kind of tasks can AI help strategists execute today?

Yuval Atsmon: We talk about six stages of AI development. The earliest is simple analytics, which we refer to as descriptive intelligence. Companies use dashboards for competitive analysis or to study performance in different parts of the business that are automatically updated. Some have interactive capabilities for refinement and testing.

The second level is diagnostic intelligence, which is the ability to look backward at the business and understand root causes and drivers of performance. The level after that is predictive intelligence: being able to anticipate certain scenarios or options and the value of things in the future based on momentum from the past as well as signals picked in the market. Both diagnostics and prediction are areas that AI can greatly improve today. The tools can augment executives’ analysis and become areas where you develop capabilities. For example, on diagnostic intelligence, you can organize your portfolio into segments to understand granularly where performance is coming from and do it in a much more continuous way than analysts could. You can try 20 different ways in an hour versus deploying one hundred analysts to tackle the problem.

Predictive AI is both more difficult and more risky. Executives shouldn’t fully rely on predictive AI, but it provides another systematic viewpoint in the room. Because strategic decisions have significant consequences, a key consideration is to use AI transparently in the sense of understanding why it is making a certain prediction and what extrapolations it is making from which information. You can then assess if you trust the prediction or not. You can even use AI to track the evolution of the assumptions for that prediction.

Those are the levels available today. The next three levels will take time to develop. There are some early examples of AI advising actions for executives’ consideration that would be value-creating based on the analysis. From there, you go to delegating certain decision authority to AI, with constraints and supervision. Eventually, there is the point where fully autonomous AI analyzes and decides with no human interaction.

Because strategic decisions have significant consequences, you need to understand why AI is making a certain prediction and what extrapolations it’s making from which information.

Joanna Pachner: What kind of businesses or industries could gain the greatest benefits from embracing AI at its current level of sophistication?

Yuval Atsmon: Every business probably has some opportunity to use AI more than it does today. The first thing to look at is the availability of data. Do you have performance data that can be organized in a systematic way? Companies that have deep data on their portfolios down to business line, SKU, inventory, and raw ingredients have the biggest opportunities to use machines to gain granular insights that humans could not.

Companies whose strategies rely on a few big decisions with limited data would get less from AI. Likewise, those facing a lot of volatility and vulnerability to external events would benefit less than companies with controlled and systematic portfolios, although they could deploy AI to better predict those external events and identify what they can and cannot control.

Third, the velocity of decisions matters. Most companies develop strategies every three to five years, which then become annual budgets. If you think about strategy in that way, the role of AI is relatively limited other than potentially accelerating analyses that are inputs into the strategy. However, some companies regularly revisit big decisions they made based on assumptions about the world that may have since changed, affecting the projected ROI of initiatives. Such shifts would affect how you deploy talent and executive time, how you spend money and focus sales efforts, and AI can be valuable in guiding that. The value of AI is even bigger when you can make decisions close to the time of deploying resources, because AI can signal that your previous assumptions have changed from when you made your plan.

Joanna Pachner: Can you provide any examples of companies employing AI to address specific strategic challenges?

Yuval Atsmon: Some of the most innovative users of AI, not coincidentally, are AI- and digital-native companies. Some of these companies have seen massive benefits from AI and have increased its usage in other areas of the business. One mobility player adjusts its financial planning based on pricing patterns it observes in the market. Its business has relatively high flexibility to demand but less so to supply, so the company uses AI to continuously signal back when pricing dynamics are trending in a way that would affect profitability or where demand is rising. This allows the company to quickly react to create more capacity because its profitability is highly sensitive to keeping demand and supply in equilibrium.

Joanna Pachner: Given how quickly things change today, doesn’t AI seem to be more a tactical than a strategic tool, providing time-sensitive input on isolated elements of strategy?

Yuval Atsmon: It’s interesting that you make the distinction between strategic and tactical. Of course, every decision can be broken down into smaller ones, and where AI can be affordably used in strategy today is for building blocks of the strategy. It might feel tactical, but it can make a massive difference. One of the world’s leading investment firms, for example, has started to use AI to scan for certain patterns rather than scanning individual companies directly. AI looks for consumer mobile usage that suggests a company’s technology is catching on quickly, giving the firm an opportunity to invest in that company before others do. That created a significant strategic edge for them, even though the tool itself may be relatively tactical.

Joanna Pachner: McKinsey has written a lot about cognitive biases  and social dynamics that can skew decision making. Can AI help with these challenges?

Yuval Atsmon: When we talk to executives about using AI in strategy development, the first reaction we get is, “Those are really big decisions; what if AI gets them wrong?” The first answer is that humans also get them wrong—a lot. [Amos] Tversky, [Daniel] Kahneman, and others have proven that some of those errors are systemic, observable, and predictable. The first thing AI can do is spot situations likely to give rise to biases. For example, imagine that AI is listening in on a strategy session where the CEO proposes something and everyone says “Aye” without debate and discussion. AI could inform the room, “We might have a sunflower bias here,” which could trigger more conversation and remind the CEO that it’s in their own interest to encourage some devil’s advocacy.

We also often see confirmation bias, where people focus their analysis on proving the wisdom of what they already want to do, as opposed to looking for a fact-based reality. Just having AI perform a default analysis that doesn’t aim to satisfy the boss is useful, and the team can then try to understand why that is different than the management hypothesis, triggering a much richer debate.

In terms of social dynamics, agency problems can create conflicts of interest. Every business unit [BU] leader thinks that their BU should get the most resources and will deliver the most value, or at least they feel they should advocate for their business. AI provides a neutral way based on systematic data to manage those debates. It’s also useful for executives with decision authority, since we all know that short-term pressures and the need to make the quarterly and annual numbers lead people to make different decisions on the 31st of December than they do on January 1st or October 1st. Like the story of Ulysses and the sirens, you can use AI to remind you that you wanted something different three months earlier. The CEO still decides; AI can just provide that extra nudge.

Joanna Pachner: It’s like you have Spock next to you, who is dispassionate and purely analytical.

Yuval Atsmon: That is not a bad analogy—for Star Trek fans anyway.

Joanna Pachner: Do you have a favorite application of AI in strategy?

Yuval Atsmon: I have worked a lot on resource allocation, and one of the challenges, which we call the hockey stick phenomenon, is that executives are always overly optimistic about what will happen. They know that resource allocation will inevitably be defined by what you believe about the future, not necessarily by past performance. AI can provide an objective prediction of performance starting from a default momentum case: based on everything that happened in the past and some indicators about the future, what is the forecast of performance if we do nothing? This is before we say, “But I will hire these people and develop this new product and improve my marketing”— things that every executive thinks will help them overdeliver relative to the past. The neutral momentum case, which AI can calculate in a cold, Spock-like manner, can change the dynamics of the resource allocation discussion. It’s a form of predictive intelligence accessible today and while it’s not meant to be definitive, it provides a basis for better decisions.

Joanna Pachner: Do you see access to technology talent as one of the obstacles to the adoption of AI in strategy, especially at large companies?

Yuval Atsmon: I would make a distinction. If you mean machine-learning and data science talent or software engineers who build the digital tools, they are definitely not easy to get. However, companies can increasingly use platforms that provide access to AI tools and require less from individual companies. Also, this domain of strategy is exciting—it’s cutting-edge, so it’s probably easier to get technology talent for that than it might be for manufacturing work.

The bigger challenge, ironically, is finding strategists or people with business expertise to contribute to the effort. You will not solve strategy problems with AI without the involvement of people who understand the customer experience and what you are trying to achieve. Those who know best, like senior executives, don’t have time to be product managers for the AI team. An even bigger constraint is that, in some cases, you are asking people to get involved in an initiative that may make their jobs less important. There could be plenty of opportunities for incorpo­rating AI into existing jobs, but it’s something companies need to reflect on. The best approach may be to create a digital factory where a different team tests and builds AI applications, with oversight from senior stakeholders.

The big challenge is finding strategists to contribute to the AI effort. You are asking people to get involved in an initiative that may make their jobs less important.

Joanna Pachner: Do you think this worry about job security and the potential that AI will automate strategy is realistic?

Yuval Atsmon: The question of whether AI will replace human judgment and put humanity out of its job is a big one that I would leave for other experts.

The pertinent question is shorter-term automation. Because of its complexity, strategy would be one of the later domains to be affected by automation, but we are seeing it in many other domains. However, the trend for more than two hundred years has been that automation creates new jobs, although ones requiring different skills. That doesn’t take away the fear some people have of a machine exposing their mistakes or doing their job better than they do it.

Joanna Pachner: We recently published an article about strategic courage in an age of volatility  that talked about three types of edge business leaders need to develop. One of them is an edge in insights. Do you think AI has a role to play in furnishing a proprietary insight edge?

Yuval Atsmon: One of the challenges most strategists face is the overwhelming complexity of the world we operate in—the number of unknowns, the information overload. At one level, it may seem that AI will provide another layer of complexity. In reality, it can be a sharp knife that cuts through some of the clutter. The question to ask is, Can AI simplify my life by giving me sharper, more timely insights more easily?

Joanna Pachner: You have been working in strategy for a long time. What sparked your interest in exploring this intersection of strategy and new technology?

Yuval Atsmon: I have always been intrigued by things at the boundaries of what seems possible. Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s second law is that to discover the limits of the possible, you have to venture a little past them into the impossible, and I find that particularly alluring in this arena.

AI in strategy is in very nascent stages but could be very consequential for companies and for the profession. For a top executive, strategic decisions are the biggest way to influence the business, other than maybe building the top team, and it is amazing how little technology is leveraged in that process today. It’s conceivable that competitive advantage will increasingly rest in having executives who know how to apply AI well. In some domains, like investment, that is already happening, and the difference in returns can be staggering. I find helping companies be part of that evolution very exciting.

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