Since 81% of shoppers research before they buy, you need to give customers what they’re looking for before they buy. What are they looking for?
With high-dollar decisions on the line, they’re looking for proof (i.e., ROI).
Customers have two questions when researching your company before they buy:
- Does it work?
- Will it work for me?
As a business owner, your challenge is to prove that it does.
The 2016 B2B Content Marketing Report surveyed 600 marketers and found that “case studies” were the most effective content type (55 percent) for their businesses. Case studies beat out “best practices” (53 percent) and “how-to guides” (47 percent).
Why case studies work
Case studies prove to customers that your product or service will work for them by using three psychologically potent persuasion tactics: stories, social proof, and data.
1. Our brains are wired for stories.
Studies of storytelling show that a well-constructed narrative can release oxytocin, the bonding hormone that helps form trust, in the brain.
E-commerce giant Shopify hires full-time storytellers to write longform case studies for its brand. An analysis of one of their endearing case studies shows an in-depth profile of the business owners accompanied by fourteen photos. Four. Teen. Photos. That’s a lot.
You come away from the case study feeling as if you were just standing in the shop and having a conversation with the owners, Lichia and Christopher.
2. Our brains crave social proof.
Ever wonder why, on nearly every website, you find a band of logos spread across a section of the homepage?
Companies do this to leverage the multiple source effect, an important principle of social proof which states that our minds are more likely to believe a proposition when it is stated independently by multiple sources.
Uber for Business, Box, and Salesforce all use recognizable logos and real faces of well-known clients to deploy the multiple source effect on their websites.
3. Our brains like logical numbers.
While words can be bent or generalized to prove a point, numbers can’t lie. Because they’re either 100% true or 100% false, they’re the building blocks of mathematics and the sciences. They’re irrefutably logical and plain.
The dueling blue whales of tech, Facebook and Google, rely on numbers more than anything else for their case studies.
An exploration of Facebook’s case studies demonstrates how important numbers really are. Sitting prominently at the top of every success story are three numerical data points of results, in large font, relating to money, time, and reach.
Google’s marketing case studies are similar. Each case study opens with “Results” in the form of numbers and closes with them again, reinforcing quantifiable success.
Why do they do this? Because numbers are concrete and universal demonstrations that the product or service worked.
Build your case studies with these 4 crucial parts
When researching how big brands like Snap, Inc. and Amazon write case studies, I noticed a pattern. They all had four similar parts. You can follow the same format to create a case study that uses the psychological principles above to convert.
- Background – Describe your client. Who are they? What do they do? Pick your most well-recognized names to build social proof. Remember to make it short and simple. Facebook puts the focus completely on the client here.
- Problem – What problem did your client have? Google calls this the “Challenge.” Snapchat labels it “Objective.” Others simply say “Goals.” The point is you need to build a sense of tension. Every great story has drama… clarify that something is wrong.
- Solution – What did your company do to solve the problem? Again, the terms vary. Google calls this “Approach” and Snapchat calls it “Strategy.” Facebook calls it “Their Solution.” Describe the unique solution your company provided for the client.
- Results – Finish strong with bold numbers. What results did your company achieve for your client? Focus on revenue, time, and audience growth here. Also, I noticed every big brand included at least one quote or testimonial from a specific person on the client team.
Follow this science-backed formula for your case studies and use the same effective copywriting strategies as Facebook, Google, and Shopify to tell your customer success stories. Do this and it will prove to your prospects that your product/service works and that it will work for them.
TLDR; Tell a story using numbers and faces to leverage psychology in your brand’s case studies.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.