Case studies – a content marketing gold mine

One case study, so much content

Here’s the thing – people love to tell their own stories, especially if they’re success stories. So if your bank has clients who are running profitable small businesses, the chances are very good they’ve got some good tales to tell about their path to success.

Case studies are a great way to mine those stories. And if you, as their banking business partner, have played a significant role in their success, then they’re likely to be big fans, and fans are one of the best, cheapest and most effective forms of advertising.

When your clients are telling their own story, in their own words, it doesn’t come across as sales-y. Which means your audience is probably going to pay more attention to it – it’s a great word-of-mouth method.

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What content can you mine from a case study?

You’ve conducted the interview and written up the case study. Great. But if you stop there you’re missing out on a gold mine of other content marketing possibilities, such as:

• Infographic – why not use turn the case study into a visual? Illustrating how the client made use of some of your key tools and resources is a very effective way of getting the message across.
• Blog post – whoever’s writing the case study could also contribute a blog about their experience with the client, especially if they’ve been to visit them at the site of their business.
• Testimonials – extrapolate some of the best quotes from the case study interview and use them on your website.
• White papers – using the case study as inspiration and for reference, create a white paper around the key tools and resources the case study client uses in their business.

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Getting the best story

Yes, the client’s got a great story to tell. But it doesn’t hurt if you employ a few key tactics in order to get the best information out of them.

For instance, you need to identify the best person to talk to within the company. In most cases this will be the business owner. They’re the key driving force and they know the history of the company. They’ll also have the best stories about start up and growth.

Then you need to find the best person to actually conduct the interview. You want someone who can think like a journalist and ask key questions – the kind of questions that encourage the interview subject to be even more forthcoming.

The questions themselves should be prepared in advance, and it works best if they’re open-ended questions that prompt descriptive responses.

Remember, in addition to providing you with a wealth of content marketing ideas, case studies also benefit your clients. They’re getting their brand message out there as well – so it’s win-win!