Case Study
Definition
A case study tells one story properly rather than many stories vaguely. The conventional structure is customer, situation, approach, result, and a quote from someone on the client side. Length runs from a single page to eight; the short ones get read. What separates a case study from a testimonial is specificity — a named company, a described starting point, and an outcome stated in whatever units the work was measured in. Many companies keep them as PDFs for the sales team to send and as web pages for search engines to find, which means the same content lives in two places and one of them usually goes stale.
Why It Matters
Buyers read case studies to find themselves. A prospect in logistics wants the logistics one, and if the only story on your site is about a bank they will decide you do not work in their industry. That is why a set of studies published as separate pages, each findable on its own, does more than one combined document — somebody searching for their exact problem can land directly on the story that matches it. Approval is the hard part. The usual failure is a study written, sent for sign-off and never published because the contact at the client changed job, so keep the approval narrow and write something that can be approved.
How It Works
Interview the client, write the draft, get it signed off, then publish. On the web side a case study is a plain page: a heading, a short summary of the outcome, the story in three or four sections, and a link to whatever comes next. Add a printable version only if sales actually asks for one. Because the page has a stable address, you can put a UTM parameter on the link a salesperson sends and see in the analytics whether it was opened before the follow-up call. Keep the client's logo as an SVG file or a compressed PNG rather than the 4000-pixel master their brand team sent over.
Real-World Example
An agency publishes a two-page study at northwind-rollout.99helpers.site once the client's marketing lead signs it off by email. The page leads with the outcome, carries the detail below it, and ends with a single link to the contact page. The salesperson sends the link rather than an attachment, and the agency can see the page was opened four times on the afternoon before the second meeting. When the client rebrands a year later, the logo is swapped on the page and every link already in circulation shows the new one.
Common Mistakes
- ✕Anonymising until the story is unrecognisable — 'a leading European retailer' reads as invented, and the reader discounts the numbers along with the name
- ✕Writing only about the largest client — most prospects are not that size, and a story they cannot imagine themselves in persuades nobody
- ✕Publishing case studies as files only — a document is harder to link into, harder to skim on a phone, and gives the reader nothing to click at the end
Related Terms
Whitepaper
A whitepaper is a long-form document that argues a position or explains a technical approach in depth. In business marketing it is usually the thing offered in exchange for an email address.
One-Pager
A one-pager is a single page that says what something is, who it is for and what to do next. Companies use it as a summary for investors or partners; products use it as a spec sheet a salesperson can hand over.
Online Proposal
A pitch, quote or scope document published at a web address and sent as a link rather than an attachment. The client opens it in a browser; you keep the ability to correct it after sending.
UTM Parameter
A tag added to the end of a URL to record where a visit came from. Analytics tools read the tag and group the visit under the campaign you named.
Web Analytics
Measuring who visits a site and what they look at. The two methods — a script running in the visitor's browser, or counting each request as it is served — produce different numbers, and neither of them is wrong.
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