The importance of case stories

It's part of human nature - everybody loves a good story

What better way to sell to potential customers than to have existing customers promote your company?

One of the most powerful ways to prove that your company has something to offer is a case story: showing off your products and services and how real people enjoy using them every day. A single customer story can be a more effective marketing tool than piles of carefully researched data.

Case stories are based on actual achievements - happy customers, completed implementations or perhaps just new customers taking the first steps toward success. They offer current, real-life examples that demonstrate the unique benefits of your products and services and how your company has created a competitive edge for your customers. And they act as powerful proof that your company's products and services lead the market.

What can you do with a case story?
There are a number of ways that a case story can be used as an effective marketing tool:

• Publish it on your web site
• Send it to industry publications and PR agencies
• Produce a professional printed version as brochure material
• Publish it in your company newsletter
• Use it at trade fairs
• Add it to your portfolio of sales and marketing material
• Use it for internal sales learning or internal news flashes

Nothing sells like success
Leading companies know that case stories sell. If you've ever had to sell your company's products or services, you probably know it too. And any sales rep will tell you that a good case story is a great sales clincher.

We sampled 150 companies operating in Denmark, 55 of which had case stories on their websites. The number of case stories for these companies ranges from one to over 30. The sample involved only companies in categories considered to have the most interesting case story potential: advertising, IT, consulting, manufacturing and pharmaceutics.

Percentage of companies using case stories by industry

 

Industry	% of companies using case stories	Average number of stories
Advertising	55%	10
IT	50%	15
Pure consulting	65%	20
Manufacturing	35%	8
Pharmaceutics	15%	5

 

These figures show that Danish companies are using case stories to sell their products and services. And we found that the most successful companies were those that used case stories most.

Getting it done
But how often will sales reps also tell you that they just don't have enough case stories? Gathering the right information and writing up case stories is time consuming. Unless you have dedicated resources, most stories just don't get written.

That's because it takes a lot to write a good case story. It takes a committed team to research, plan and write attention-grabbing narratives. It takes dynamic, in-depth interviewing conducted by someone who understands your industry-specific issues and can bring out memorable quotes from your customers.

Effortless case stories
Through its specialized service offering, Customercase.com, Eye for Image provides a total service to help you produce case stories fast. We can handle all the necessary processes, keeping your involvement to a minimum. Our customers appreciate the thoroughness, quality and speed with which we handle the case story process.

As Jakob Nielsen, sales manager at MSN Denmark, puts it, "Thanks for your efforts in writing the last case story. It will be a great addition to our sales tools. I'm looking forward to you starting on the next story."

We have written case stories and testimonials about companies all over the world within almost every industry. Just one example is how we've helped Sun Microsystems.

Handling the complete case story process for Sun Microsystems
Sun wasn't getting the quality and quantity of case stories it needed for effective marketing. The leading computer company preferred not to dedicate internal resources to the task, but were also not satisfied with the quality or speed of their previous external copywriters.

Eye for Image stepped in to deliver fast, flawless, in-depth finished case stories, at a rate of up to one per week.

With great technology writers and the ability to handle direct client contact with Sun Microsystems' representatives and customers, Eye for Image has made the case story process virtually effortless for the computer giant. Eye for Image handles the whole case story process, from interviewing Sun's customers to researching Sun products to writing the complete copy and obtaining customer approval.

Learn more about our case story offerings and see samples at: www.customercase.com