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How can you create case studies that really create the desired prospects and new customers for you? What needs to be considered? In this article you will learn about important benchmarks and best practices.

5. There are 2 dominant page layouts in case studies.

Readability is not just about the complexity of the language and its tone, but especially in a time-pressed society at least as much about the eye-friendliness of the content presented. Hence, I also analyzed the layouts being used in the case studies.

The findings show that there are largely two types of page layouts that are used in the majority of case studies analyzed.

The most frequently used layout is what I simply entitle the 1+1 layout. This layout consists of one broad column for the main text that makes up about 75-80% of the page’s width. On either the left or – most typically – the right side of the column, there is another very narrow column for annotations, citations key statements or metrics that are to be highlighted. This column takes up the remaining 15-20% of the page’s width.

The second most common page layout is the 2+1 design, in which 2 columns of 35-40% width are available for the main text and the +1 column takes up a narrow 15-20% of the page width and is typically found on the right side.

However, in the second layout, the role of the +1 column tends to change as it can no longer underline the closeby column, but rather underlines the message of the entire page or typically contains the key metrics of improvement or a statement by a satisfied client.

Not uncommon was a 3-column-layout that only includes main text and no +1 column for highlighting purposes. Personally, I would not recommend this layout for the +1 column is very effective for the time-pressed reader who gets key information at a glance.

While every company has to determine their preferred page layout they should

  1. Make sure they take reader-friendliness into account
  2. Create and stringently use a uniform layout for all their case studies in text form (facilitates creation and publication of new case studies)

6. Most case studies are 3 pages long.

There is not much more to be said about this. On average, a case study was 3 pages long, with some of them leaning on the longer side and utilizing 4 pages.

Quantitative analysis revealed an average of 3,22 pages, practically all of which contain images or colored text, as 3,09 pages on average contained color.

Transforming the length into words, an average page contained 358 words, an average case study was 1152 words long. Therefore: don’t go above 3 pages, the world is a busy place…

7. Case studies use more images than white papers.

Another important aspect of case studies is how images and illustrations are being used in order to underline the content being shared. Especially useful are illustrations that highlight the improvement of the before-and-after of implementing your solution in the client’s company.

But you may also use images of your satisfied clients or demonstrating your solution in action or a few general images to get the problem description across.

Comparing with The Big White Paper Study I conducted along the case study analysis, it became clear that case studies are more illustrated and accompanied by images than white papers are.

It may not be surprising to you, but I find it important to highlight. Case studies can be a bit more marketing-focused than white papers which are mainly trying to show thought leadership and present technical features or innovations.

You may choose to have a general “header-image-bar” as some companies use in their case study template, followed typically by 2+1 or 3 columns below, but images are shown on every page at the very top.

Always, however, keep the 2 questions in mind, asking yourself in this order:

  1. Could an image or illustration help us to communicate or illustrate this case study better and more effectively?
  2. What image or illustration could help us to communicate this information aspect better and more effectively?

8. Some companies only offer online, no downloadable versions of their case studies

Consider decision-making process; still it is PDF being printed out and shared, passed around. You are losing clients!

 

Conclusion

Case studies are undoubtedly one of the most effective and promising ways of using past successes to convince prospects and generate orders/clients. In order to realize their full potential, it is important to implement best practices in all aspects from case study creation, design, tone and of course marketing them.

Utilizing the 7 important learnings in this blog post, companies have a solid starting point from which they can conduct an audit of their current case study practices and potentially uncover some room for improvement.

The key lesson is to understand that video will not replace but complement and assist text. Even in a case video, the text to be communicated needs to be well-crafted.

How you present your case study on your website, how extensively you show your case and whether it is easy-to-follow and understand for your prospect will determine if you can convert them into a new and satisfied client.

If you want to get access to the full details of my case study analysis, including more best practices and a full list of benchmarks of the “optimal case study”, request your free download here.

Are you searching for professional support in this creation, optimization or marketing of your case studies? As a long-time experienced B2B copywriter and case study author, let me assist you in crafting your professional and high value case study. Contact me now to discuss next steps.