marketing case study examples for students

Marketing Results

22 Marketing Case Study Examples (With Template)

February 17, 2016 by Will Swayne

Prospects who aren’t ready to buy – or who are “sitting on the fence” – tend to be resistant to even well-crafted marketing messages.  But a bunch of well aimed marketing case studies can often tip the scales in your favour.

“Sell benefits, not features” is good advice, but benefit-rich copy can actually deter prospects who haven’t reached the decision stage yet.

And too many benefits in the absence of marketing proof elements  can ring hollow in today’s increasingly sceptical marketplace.

We published our first marketing case study back in 2005 and I quickly realised the power of case studies as a versatile and effective marketing tactic.

Why are marketing case studies so effective?

Here are three reasons:

• Case studies show, they don’t tell. Telling you I can get you more qualified leads is one thing. Showing you how a similar company to yours got 145% more leads with 24% lower marketing costs is another.
• Prospects are typically curious to understand how others have achieved the results they desire. They will eagerly devour a well-constructed case study.
• Case studies are also a great tool for closing fence-sitting prospects. For many years I’ve asked prospects why they chose to work with us, and the most common response seems to be, “I was impressed by your case studies” , or “I saw you helped someone in my industry so I figure you can help us too” .

Now let’s look at how to structure and effectively promote a case study, and then some marketing case study examples for you to replicate.

Our Recommended Case Study Template

Here’s the case study structure we’ve adopted which has proven effective:

• Start with a major headline that summarises the key result achieved: e.g. “Investment Property Strategist Triples Leads In 6 Months” . This gets the prospect excited about reading on.
• Then introduce the background . In other words, the “Before” scenario.Don’t bore the reader with too many details about the history of the client. But DO provide an insight into the “trigger” that led to them seeking your assistance. e.g. “The client noticed smaller competitors starting to appear ahead of them on Google”. And,   DO talk about the negative effects of the “Before” state. E.g. “New customer acquisition that had previously been growing by 10% every quarter had flatlined for the last 12 months.”
• Now talk about the solution . Here’s where you explain what you did to achieve the outcomes. I like to list different services or solutions in the form of bullet points. Also, include significant details and facts and figures to add “richness” to the story. Where possible, demonstrate with images, screenshots or other proof elements. Emphasise anything you did differently to the standard approach, or anything that highlights your point-of-difference benefits.
• Now talk about your results . Results are the crux of any good case study.I like to go with a number of punchy bullet points, populated with specific numbers. E.g . “Lead volume up 75%… New customer volume from online sources up 145%… 1,540 more organic search engine visitors per month.”
• Include a testimonial from the client. What was their reaction to your work? The “Before-During-After” approach is a good structure for testimonials. A strong testimonial adds texture and credibility to the data in your core case study.
• End with a call-to-action . This can be relatively low-key. For example, “Contact us to explore how you can enjoy similar breakthrough results.”

You can see more examples of different implementations of this concept on our online marketing case studies page.

How To Promote Your Case Study

A case study that never gets read won’t help you.

Here are some of our favourite promotional methods:

• Optimise each case study for search engines . A good start is using a <title> tag on your case study pages in the format: “<INDUSTRY> <SERVICE> case study”. For example, “Accountant online marketing case study” or “Car sales lead generation case study” .   This will tend to rank you well for anyone searching for case studies about your industry.
• Send case studies to your email subscribers . These emails achieve high engagement both as broadcasts, and as “drip emails” within an automation sequence .
• Create a print booklet of case studies to send to prospects and clients via snail mail or distribute at trade shows.
• Case studies make great social media updates and can be recycled every few months using different headlines.

22 Marketing Case Study Examples

1. fuji xerox australia business equipment, tripled leads for 60% less marketing spend.

In 90 days, we doubled web lead flow with lower marketing costs.

Read the full case study here.

Paul Strahl , National e-Business Manager

2. Surf Live Saving Foundation

Surf lottery grows online revenue 47%.

Marketing Results delivered tangible business improvements, including 47% higher revenue from digital, year-on-year.

Yin Tang , Surf Live Saving Foundation

3. ABC Reading Eggs

Integrated search and conversion management for abc reading eggs.

Marketing Results have been instrumental in profitably expanding our ad spend, while removing waste.

Matthew Sandblom , Managing Director ABC Reading Eggs

4. MAP Home Loans

From 70 hour weeks to 40 hour weeks with 100% annual growth.

I now make twice as much money, have less stress and fewer hours.

Craig Vaunghan , Principal MAP Home Loans

5. Inkjet Wholesale

Online advertising roi doubles – in just three months.

We couldn’t be happier – conversion rates are up, costs are down, ROI has doubled.

Glenn Taylor , National Marketing Manager Inkjet Wholesale

6. Breaking Into Wall Street

Info-marketing business achieves 300% revenue growth with 7-figure profits.

Marketing Results provided the marketing support to grow my annual revenue 300%+. They don’t just advise – they implement.

Brian DeChesare , Founder Breaking Into Wall Street

7. LatestBuy

Brw fast 100 online retailer latestbuy.com.au boosts sales by 45.3%.

Revenue had flatlined… Now it is up by 45%, with over 80% of that due to conversion rate optimisation.

Shaun Campbell , Co-Owner LatestBuy.com.au

8. directSMS

More traffic, less cost, lead volume doubles.

More than doubled the number of qualified enquiries via our website for the same ad spend.

Ramez Zaki , Co-Founder directSMS

9. Business Coach and Author, Pure Bookkeeping

Successful marketing automation and 100.95% year on year growth.

50%+ of business comes directly through online channels and none of this would have happened without Marketing Results.

Peter Cook , Business Coach & Author Pure Bookkeeping

10. Positive Training Solutions

Higher rankings plus more, higher-quality leads.

Marketing Results excels in strategic and online marketing.

James Grima , Managing Director Positive Training Solutions

11. Geelong’s Gym

From 5-6 leads a month to 60-70. 10x increase.

We’ve gone from 5 – 6 leads per month to 60 – 70!

Gerard Spriet , Owner Geelong’s Gym

12. Super Finance – SMSF Property

A new pipeline delivering a steady flow of web leads.

Outstanding quality of web generated leads!

Yannick Ieko , Director Super Finance

13. College For Adult Learning – Training Organisation

300%+ more sales with 60% lower cost per sale.

I expect at least another 60% more leads and 80-90% more revenue by continuing to work with Marketing Results.

Rob Golding , Director College For Adult Learning

14. The Gourmet Guardian – Food Safety Programs

4 times more leads and a 269% revenue increase.

Your AdWords strategies have quadrupled leads, almost tripled revenue and reduced my dependence on contract work to zero.

Gavin Buckett , Managing Director The Gourmet Guardian

15. Quick Coach – Life Coaching Courses

More qualified sales plus a facebook roi of 1285%.

The results have been fantastic… I have had over 500 potential students opt in via Google wanting to change their lives and those of their clients.

Glen Murdoch , Founder & CEO Quick Coach

16. Investment House – Property Development

Clients lined up for everything we can find.

We have clients lined up for everything we can find.

Colin Ferguson , Managing Director Investment House

17. Cosmetic Surgery Lead Generation

257% increase in qualified lead volume.

In less than a year, our enquiry volume increased by over 257% while increasing the quality and conversion rate of those leads.

Dee Tozer , Managing Director Medici Clinics

18. All Suburbs Catering

61% roi gain in less than 5 months….

20% more enquiries for 34% less cost – a compounded gain of 61% in only 5 months.

Jeff Veale , Managing Director All Suburbs Catering

19. Trilogy Funding

549 qualified sales leads in 3 months.

549 qualified sales leads in 3 months.

Ed Nixon , Principal Trilogy Funding

20. Customized Stickers

Online revenue rockets by 800%.

With Marketing Result on our side, our website revenue has increased by over 800% in only 18 months.

Anthony Khoury , Managing Director Customized Stickers

21. Technoledge

Engaging ceos of ideal target companies.

We’re routinely seeing CEOs of Australian hi techs with turnover of $5 million to $50 million (our target audience) opting in and proceeding to self-qualify before they contact us for a meeting. This is what digital marketing is supposed to do.

Tracey James , Director Technoledge

22. First Aid Training

Specialist first aid training company doubles revenue in 6 months.

We’ve streamlined customer acquisition, increased customer lifetime value, and doubled our revenue in 6 months!

Dave Hundt , Director Kids First Aid

I encourage you to put these tips into action and see how they work for you.

What other ways have you used case studies effectively in your business?

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Marketing case study 101 (plus tips, examples, and templates)

Summary/Overview

If you’re familiar with content lines like, “See how our fancy new app saved Sarah 10 hours a week doing payroll,” you’ve encountered a marketing case study. That’s because case studies are one of the most powerful marketing tools, showcasing real-world applications and customer success stories that help build trust with potential customers.

More than 42% of marketers use case studies in their marketing strategy. Let’s face it — we love testimonials and reviews. People love hearing customer stories and experiences firsthand. In fact, 88% of consumers view reviews before making a purchase decision. Case studies work similarly by providing prospective customers with real-life stories demonstrating the brand’s success.

Case studies provide a more in-depth view of how your product solves an existing problem — something potential buyers can relate to and learn from.

In this article, we take a closer look at what marketing case studies are, why they’re important, and how you can use them to improve your content marketing efforts. You’ll also learn the key elements of a successful case study and how to turn a good case study into a great case study.

What is a marketing case study?

A case study is a narrative that documents a real-world situation or example. A marketing case study is a detailed examination and analysis of a specific strategy, initiative, or marketing campaign that a business has implemented. It’s intended to serve as an all-inclusive narrative that documents a real-world business situation and its outcome.

Marketing case studies are tools businesses use to showcase the effectiveness of a particular tool, technique, or service by using a real-world example. Companies often use case studies as sales collateral on websites, email marketing, social media , and other marketing materials. They provide readers with a firsthand look into how your product or service has helped someone else and demonstrate the value of your offering while building trust with potential customers.

Some common key components of a marketing case study include:

• Context: A case study begins by describing the business’s situation or problem. This often includes challenges, opportunities, or objectives.
• Strategy: An outline of the tactics or strategy utilized to address the business’s situation. This includes details such as the target audience, messaging, channels used, and other unique aspects of the approach.
• Implementation: Provide information about how the strategy was implemented, including timeline, resources, and budget.
• Results: This is arguably the most crucial part of a marketing case study. Present the results through data, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the impact of the strategy. The results section should highlight both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Challenges and Solutions: A great case study not only focuses on the successes but addresses any obstacles faced during the campaign. Make sure to address any challenges and how they were overcome or mitigated.
• Customer Feedback: Including testimonials or quotes from satisfied clients is a great way to add credibility and authenticity to a case study. Choose customer feedback that reinforces the positive outcomes of the strategy taken.
• Visuals: Compelling case studies include visuals such as graphs, charts, images, videos, and infographics to make the information presented more engaging and easier to understand.
• Analysis: An optional way to conclude a case study includes discussing key takeaways, insights, and lessons learned from a campaign.

Case studies can help you connect your product to the customer’s needs by providing a real world examples of success and encouraging conversions.

Benefits of marketing case studies

Some of the key benefits of using case studies in your marketing efforts include the following:

• Building trust and credibility. You build trust and credibility with potential clients or customers by demonstrating real world success stories. In-depth looks at how your products or services have helped other businesses or people achieve success can increase customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
• Learn best practices. Learn from strategies employed in successful case studies and apply similar approaches to future campaigns.
• Enhancing sales and conversions. By highlighting the real world results your products or services have delivered, case studies can be a powerful tool for boosting sales. They can help demonstrate the value of your offering and persuade your target audience to make a purchase.
• Explain how your business generates results. Case studies are a compelling way to share key takeaways with your target audience and showcase your brand.
• Use them as content marketing material. Use case studies as content for marketing purposes on websites, social media, and beyond.

Case studies can help your business stand out and achieve success. By highlighting the real world results you’ve delivered, you can use case studies to boost sales, build customer loyalty, and compellingly showcase your business.

Tips on how to write an effective marketing case study

Are you ready to write a compelling case study? Get started with these tips.

Develop a clear and compelling headline

You have about 10 seconds to communicate your value proposition to keep customer attention. Whether you’re designing a new landing page or making a long-term plan for your brand’s content marketing strategy , the headline is the most crucial part.

A compelling title should capture readers’ attention and make them want to read more. To craft a compelling headline:

• Understand your audience: Before crafting a headline, ensure you know your target audience — what are their pain points, interests, and needs?
• Highlight the most significant result: Focus on the most impactful result achieved in the case study. What was the primary outcome of the strategy implemented?
• Keep it brief: Keep your headline concise and to the point. Try to keep your headline under 12 words.
• Use action words: Incorporate action verbs such as “achieved,” “transformed,” or “boosted” to convey a sense of accomplishment.
• Include data: Numbers make your headline more credible. For example, if the case study achieved a 75% increase in sales, include that in the headline.
• Emphasize benefits: Focus on the positive changes or advantages the implemented strategy brought to the client or business. Use these as selling points in your headline.
• Make it unique and memorable: Avoid generic phrases to make your headline stand out from the competition.
• Use keywords wisely: Incorporate relevant keywords that align with the case study and your target audience’s search interest to improve search engine visibility through search engine optimization (SEO).
• Consider subheadings: If you cannot fit all the necessary information in a headline, consider adding a subheading to provide additional context or details.

Here are some examples of clear and convincing case study headlines:

• “Achieving a 150% ROI: How [XYZ] Strategy Transformed a Startup”
• “How Optimized SEO Tactics Skyrocketed Sales by 80%”
• “Mastering Social Media: How [ABC] Brand Increased Engagement by 50%”
• “The Power of Personalization: How Tailored Content Quadrupled Conversions”

Write relatable content

Almost 90% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers prefer influencers who they consider relatable. Relatability is part of building trust and connection with your target audience.

When writing your case study, make content that resonates with readers and speaks to their pain points. The best marketing doesn’t just increase conversion rates — it also serves your customers’ needs. To write content that really resonates with your target audience, make sure to:

• Understand your audience: To successfully write relatable content, you first need to understand your target audience — their interests, pain points, and challenges. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your content to their needs.
• Identify pain points: As mentioned above, identify challenges your target audience may face. Make sure to highlight how the product or service in the case study can effectively address these pain points.
• Tell a story: Create a narrative that follows a standard story arc. Start with a relatable struggle that the customer or business faced and describe its associated emotions.
• Use real customer feedback: Incorporate quotes or testimonials from actual customers or clients. Including authentic voices makes the content more relatable to readers because they can see real people expressing their experiences.
• Use relatable language: Write in a tone to which your audience can relate. Only include overly technical terms if your target audience solely consists of experts who would understand them.
• Use social proof: Mention any recognitions, awards, or industry acknowledgments that may have been received by the customer or business in the case study.
• Encourage engagement: Urge readers to share their own challenges or experiences related to the subject matter of the case study. This is a great way to foster a sense of community.

Outline your strategies with corresponding statistics

Whether you’re showing off the results your marketing team achieved with a new strategy or explaining how your product has helped customers, data and research make it easier to back up claims.

Include relevant statistics in your case study to provide evidence of the effectiveness of your strategies, such as:

• Quantitative data: Use numerical data to quantify results.
• Qualitative data: Use qualitative data, such as customer testimonials, to back up numerical results.
• Comparisons: Compare the post-campaign results with the pre-campaign benchmarks to provide context for the data.
• Case study metrics: Include specific metrics relevant to your industry or campaign if applicable. For example, in e-commerce, common metrics could include customer acquisition cost, average order value, or cart abandonment rate.

By incorporating relatable outcomes — such as cost savings from new automation or customer responsiveness from your new social media marketing campaign — you can provide concrete evidence of how your product or service has helped others in similar situations.

Use multiple formats of representation

People love visuals . It doesn’t matter if it’s an infographic for digital marketing or a graph chart in print materials — we love to see our data and results represented in visuals that are easy to understand. Additionally, including multiple representation formats is a great way to increase accessibility and enhance clarity.

When making a case study, consider including various forms of representation, such as:

• Infographics: Use infographics to condense critical information into a visually appealing, easy-to-understand graphic. Infographics are highly sharable and can be used across marketing channels.
• Charts: Use charts (bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, etc.) to illustrate statistical information such as data trends or comparisons. Make sure to include clear labels and titles for each chart.
• Images: Include relevant photos to enhance the storytelling aspect of your case study. Consider including “before and after” pictures if relevant to your case study.
• Videos: Short videos summarizing a case study’s main points are great for sharing across social media or embedding into your case study.
• Tables: Use tables to help organize data and make it easier for readers to digest.
• Data visualizations: Include data visualizations such as flowcharts or heatmaps to illustrate user journeys or specific processes.
• Screenshots: If your case study involves digital products, include screenshots to provide a visual walkthrough of how the product or service works.
• Diagrams: Use diagrams, such as a flowchart, to explain complex processes, decision trees, or workflows to simplify complicated information.
• Timelines: If your case study involves a timeline of specific events, present it using a timeline graphic.

Use a consistent design style and color scheme to maintain cohesion when incorporating multiple formats. Remember that each format you use should serve a specific purpose in engaging the reader and conveying information.

Get your case study in front of your intended audience

What good is a compelling case study and a killer call to action (CTA) if no one sees it? Once you’ve completed your case study, share it across the appropriate channels and networks your target audience frequents and incorporate it into your content strategy to increase visibility and reach. To get your case study noticed:

• Take advantage of your website. Create a dedicated section or landing page on your website for your case study. If your website has a blog section, consider including it here. Optimize the page for search engines (SEO) by including relevant keywords and optimizing the meta description and headers. Make sure to feature your case study on your homepage and relevant product or service pages.
• Launch email marketing campaigns. Send out the case study to your email subscriber list. Be specific and target groups that would most likely be interested in the case study.
• Launch social media campaigns. Share your case study on your social media platforms. Use eye-catching graphics and engaging captions to draw in potential readers. Consider creating teaser videos or graphics to generate interest.
• Utilize paid promotions. Use targeted social media and search engine ads to reach specific demographics or interests. Consider retargeting ads to re-engage visitors who have previously interacted with your website.
• Issue a press release. If your case study results in a significant industry impact, consider issuing a press release to share the exciting news with relevant media outlets or publications.
• Utilize influencer outreach. Collaborate with influencers who can share your case study with their followers to increase credibility and expand your reach.
• Host webinars and presentations. Discuss the case study findings and insights through webinars or presentations. Promote these events through your various marketing channels and make sure to encourage participation.
• Utilize networking events and conferences. Present your case study at industry-related conferences, trade shows, or networking events. Consider distributing printed or digital copies of the case study to attendees.
• Utilize online communities. Share the case study in relevant online forums and discussion groups where your target audience congregates.
• Practice search engine optimization (SEO). Optimize the SEO elements of your case study to improve organic search ranking and visibility.

Remember, the key to successfully promoting your case study is to tailor your approach to your specific target audience and their preferences. Consistently promoting your case study across multiple channels increases your chances of it reaching your intended audience.

Marketing case study examples

Let’s look at some successful marketing case studies for inspiration.

“How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with HubSpot”

Right away, they lead with compelling metrics — the numbers don’t lie. They use two different formats: a well-made video accompanied by well-written text.

The study also addresses customer pain points, like meeting a higher demand during the pandemic.

“How AppSumo grew organic traffic 843% and revenue from organic traffic 340%”

This case study from Omniscient Digital leads with motivating stats, a glowing review sharing a real user experience, and a video review from the AppSumo Head of Content.

The case study information is broken down into clearly marked sections, explaining the benefits to their target audience (startups) and providing plenty of visuals, charts, and metrics to back it up.

“How One Ecommerce Business Solved the Omnichannel Challenge with Bitly Campaigns”

Download this Bitly case study from their site to see the details of how this company made an impact.

Not only is it well designed, but it also tackles customer challenges right away. The most compelling types of case studies serve their audience by showing how the product or service solves their problems.

Bitly nails it by listing obstacles and jumping right into how the brand can help.

Marketing case study template

Use this basic template to better understand the typical structure of a business case study and use it as a starting place to create your own:

Case Study Title

Date: [Date]

Client or Company Profile:

• Client/Company Name: [Client/Company Name]
• Industry: [Industry]
• Location: [Location]
• Client/Company Background: [Brief client or company background information.]

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the client or company and any necessary context for the campaign or initiative.
• Problem statement: Describe the specific challenge or problem faced by the client or company before implementing the campaign or initiative.
• Strategy: Explain the strategy that was implemented to address the challenge. Include details such as target audience, objectives, goals, and tactics.
• Implementation: Provide a timeline of the strategy’s implementation, including key milestones and other notable considerations taken during execution.
• Outcomes: Present the qualitative and quantitative results achieved through the implemented strategy. Include relevant metrics, statistics, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Comparative data: Compare the post-campaign results to pre-campaign benchmarks or industry standards.

Analysis and Insights:

• Key insights: Summarize insights and lessons learned from the campaign and discuss the campaign's impact on the client or company’s goals.
• Challenges faced: Address any obstacles encountered during the campaign and how they were mitigated or overcome.

Conclusion:

• Conclusion: Summarize the campaign’s overall impact on the client or company. Highlight the value that was delivered by the implemented strategy and the success it achieved.
• Next Steps: Discuss potential follow-up actions, recommendations, or future strategies.

Testimonials:

• Include quotes or testimonials from the clients or customers who benefitted from the campaign.
• Incorporate relevant visuals to illustrate key points, findings, and results.

The above template is a great way to get started gathering your ideas and findings for a marketing case study. Feel free to add additional sections or customize the template to match your requirements.

Craft a compelling marketing case study for your business

Are you ready to make your marketing case study shine? With Adobe Express, you can make high-quality infographics and presentations that take your case studies to the next level.

Choose from our library of designed templates, or make it yourself with powerful tools and a library of ready-to-use graphic elements.

Get started with Adobe Express today to make compelling marketing case studies that engage your audience and drive conversions.

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Business growth

Marketing tips

16 case study examples (+ 3 templates to make your own)

I like to think of case studies as a business's version of a resume. It highlights what the business can do, lends credibility to its offer, and contains only the positive bullet points that paint it in the best light possible.

Imagine if the guy running your favorite taco truck followed you home so that he could "really dig into how that burrito changed your life." I see the value in the practice. People naturally prefer a tried-and-true burrito just as they prefer tried-and-true products or services.

To help you showcase your success and flesh out your burrito questionnaire, I've put together some case study examples and key takeaways.

What is a case study?

A case study is an in-depth analysis of how your business, product, or service has helped past clients. It can be a document, a webpage, or a slide deck that showcases measurable, real-life results.

For example, if you're a SaaS company, you can analyze your customers' results after a few months of using your product to measure its effectiveness. You can then turn this analysis into a case study that further proves to potential customers what your product can do and how it can help them overcome their challenges.

It changes the narrative from "I promise that we can do X and Y for you" to "Here's what we've done for businesses like yours, and we can do it for you, too."

16 case study examples 

While most case studies follow the same structure, quite a few try to break the mold and create something unique. Some businesses lean heavily on design and presentation, while others pursue a detailed, stat-oriented approach. Some businesses try to mix both.

There's no set formula to follow, but I've found that the best case studies utilize impactful design to engage readers and leverage statistics and case details to drive the point home. A case study typically highlights the companies, the challenges, the solution, and the results. The examples below will help inspire you to do it, too.

1. .css-yjptlz-Link{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;-webkit-transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;outline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;outline:1px solid transparent;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='ocean']{color:#3d4592;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='ocean']:hover{color:#2b2358;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='ocean']:focus{color:#3d4592;outline-color:#3d4592;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='white']{color:#fffdf9;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='white']:hover{color:#a8a5a0;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='white']:focus{color:#fffdf9;outline-color:#fffdf9;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='primary']{color:#3d4592;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='primary']:hover{color:#2b2358;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='primary']:focus{color:#3d4592;outline-color:#3d4592;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='secondary']{color:#fffdf9;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='secondary']:hover{color:#a8a5a0;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-color='secondary']:focus{color:#fffdf9;outline-color:#fffdf9;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-weight='inherit']{font-weight:inherit;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-weight='normal']{font-weight:400;}.css-yjptlz-Link[data-weight='bold']{font-weight:700;} Volcanica Coffee and AdRoll

People love a good farm-to-table coffee story, and boy am I one of them. But I've shared this case study with you for more reasons than my love of coffee. I enjoyed this study because it was written as though it was a letter.

In this case study, the founder of Volcanica Coffee talks about the journey from founding the company to personally struggling with learning and applying digital marketing to finding and enlisting AdRoll's services.

It felt more authentic, less about AdRoll showcasing their worth and more like a testimonial from a grateful and appreciative client. After the story, the case study wraps up with successes, milestones, and achievements. Note that quite a few percentages are prominently displayed at the top, providing supporting evidence that backs up an inspiring story.

Takeaway: Highlight your goals and measurable results to draw the reader in and provide concise, easily digestible information.

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This Airtable case study on Taylor Guitars comes as close as one can to an optimal structure. It features a video that represents the artistic nature of the client, highlighting key achievements and dissecting each element of Airtable's influence.

It also supplements each section with a testimonial or quote from the client, using their insights as a catalyst for the case study's narrative. For example, the case study quotes the social media manager and project manager's insights regarding team-wide communication and access before explaining in greater detail.

Takeaway: Highlight pain points your business solves for its client, and explore that influence in greater detail.

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My favorite part of Figma's case study is highlighting why EndeavourX chose its solution. You'll notice an entire section on what Figma does for teams and then specifically for EndeavourX.

It also places a heavy emphasis on numbers and stats. The study, as brief as it is, still manages to pack in a lot of compelling statistics about what's possible with Figma.

Takeaway: Showcase the "how" and "why" of your product's differentiators and how they benefit your customers.

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Zapier's case study leans heavily on design, using graphics to present statistics and goals in a manner that not only remains consistent with the branding but also actively pushes it forward, drawing users' eyes to the information most important to them. 

The graphics, emphasis on branding elements, and cause/effect style tell the story without requiring long, drawn-out copy that risks boring readers. Instead, the cause and effect are concisely portrayed alongside the client company's information for a brief and easily scannable case study.

Takeaway: Lean on design to call attention to the most important elements of your case study, and make sure it stays consistent with your branding.

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In true OpenAI fashion, this case study is a block of text. There's a distinct lack of imagery, but the study features a narrated video walking readers through the product.

The lack of imagery and color may not be the most inviting, but utilizing video format is commendable. It helps thoroughly communicate how OpenAI supported Ironclad in a way that allows the user to sit back, relax, listen, and be impressed. 

Takeaway: Get creative with the media you implement in your case study. Videos can be a very powerful addition when a case study requires more detailed storytelling.

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GitHub's case study on Shopify is a light read. It addresses client pain points and discusses the different aspects its product considers and improves for clients. It touches on workflow issues, internal systems, automation, and security. It does a great job of representing what one company can do with GitHub.

To drive the point home, the case study features colorful quote callouts from the Shopify team, sharing their insights and perspectives on the partnership, the key issues, and how they were addressed.

Takeaway: Leverage quotes to boost the authoritativeness and trustworthiness of your case study. 

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Contentful's case study on Audible features almost every element a case study should. It includes not one but two videos and clearly outlines the challenge, solution, and outcome before diving deeper into what Contentful did for Audible. The language is simple, and the writing is heavy with quotes and personal insights.

This case study is a uniquely original experience. The fact that the companies in question are perhaps two of the most creative brands out there may be the reason. I expected nothing short of a detailed analysis, a compelling story, and video content. 

Takeaway: Inject some brand voice into the case study, and create assets that tell the story for you.

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Asana's case study on Zoom is longer than the average piece and features detailed data on Zoom's growth since 2020. Instead of relying on imagery and graphics, it features several quotes and testimonials. 

It's designed to be direct, informative, and promotional. At some point, the case study reads more like a feature list. There were a few sections that felt a tad too promotional for my liking, but to each their own burrito.

Takeaway: Maintain a balance between promotional and informative. You want to showcase the high-level goals your product helped achieve without losing the reader.

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I've always been a fan of Mailchimp's comic-like branding, and this case study does an excellent job of sticking to their tradition of making information easy to understand, casual, and inviting.

It features a short video that briefly covers Hickies as a company and Mailchimp's efforts to serve its needs for customer relationships and education processes. Overall, this case study is a concise overview of the partnership that manages to convey success data and tell a story at the same time. What sets it apart is that it does so in a uniquely colorful and brand-consistent manner.

Takeaway: Be concise to provide as much value in as little text as possible.

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The gaming industry is notoriously difficult to recruit for, as it requires a very specific set of skills and experience. This case study focuses on how Workday was able to help fill that recruitment gap for NVIDIA, one of the biggest names in the gaming world.

Though it doesn't feature videos or graphics, this case study stood out to me in how it structures information like "key products used" to give readers insight into which tools helped achieve these results.

Takeaway: If your company offers multiple products or services, outline exactly which ones were involved in your case study, so readers can assess each tool.

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I'm personally not a big KFC fan, but that's only because I refuse to eat out of a bucket. My aversion to the bucket format aside, Contentful follows its consistent case study format in this one, outlining challenges, solutions, and outcomes before diving into the nitty-gritty details of the project.

Say what you will about KFC, but their primary product (chicken) does present a unique opportunity for wordplay like "Continuing to march to the beat of a digital-first drum(stick)" or "Delivering deep-fried goodness to every channel."

Takeaway: Inject humor into your case study if there's room for it and if it fits your brand. 

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Twilio does an excellent job of delivering achievements at the very beginning of the case study and going into detail in this two-minute read. While there aren't many graphics, the way quotes from the Intuit team are implemented adds a certain flair to the study and breaks up the sections nicely.

It's simple, concise, and manages to fit a lot of information in easily digestible sections.

Takeaway: Make sure each section is long enough to inform but brief enough to avoid boring readers. Break down information for each section, and don't go into so much detail that you lose the reader halfway through.

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Salesforce created a video that accurately summarizes the key points of the case study. Beyond that, the page itself is very light on content, and sections are as short as one paragraph.

I especially like how information is broken down into "What you need to know," "Why it matters," and "What the difference looks like." I'm not ashamed of being spoon-fed information. When it's structured so well and so simply, it makes for an entertaining read.

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Benchling is an impressive entity in its own right. Biotech R&D and health care nuances go right over my head. But the research and digging I've been doing in the name of these burritos (case studies) revealed that these products are immensely complex. 

And that's precisely why this case study deserves a read—it succeeds at explaining a complex project that readers outside the industry wouldn't know much about.

Takeaway: Simplify complex information, and walk readers through the company's operations and how your business helped streamline them.

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The concision of this case study is refreshing. It features two sections—the challenge and the solution—all in 316 words. This goes to show that your case study doesn't necessarily need to be a four-figure investment with video shoots and studio time. 

Sometimes, the message is simple and short enough to convey in a handful of paragraphs.

Takeaway: Consider what you should include instead of what you can include. Assess the time, resources, and effort you're able and willing to invest in a case study, and choose which elements you want to include from there.

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I may be biased, but I'm a big fan of seeing metrics and achievements represented in branded graphics. It can be a jarring experience to navigate a website, then visit a case study page and feel as though you've gone to a completely different website.

The case study is essentially the summary, and the blog article is the detailed analysis that provides context beyond X achievement or Y goal.

Takeaway: Keep your case study concise and informative. Create other resources to provide context under your blog, media or press, and product pages.

3 case study templates

Now that you've had your fill of case studies (if that's possible), I've got just what you need: an infinite number of case studies, which you can create yourself with these case study templates.

Case study template 1

If you've got a quick hit of stats you want to show off, try this template. The opening section gives space for a short summary and three visually appealing stats you can highlight, followed by a headline and body where you can break the case study down more thoroughly. This one's pretty simple, with only sections for solutions and results, but you can easily continue the formatting to add more sections as needed.

Case study template 2

For a case study template with a little more detail, use this one. Opening with a striking cover page for a quick overview, this one goes on to include context, stakeholders, challenges, multiple quote callouts, and quick-hit stats. 

Case study template 3

Whether you want a little structural variation or just like a nice dark green, this template has similar components to the last template but is designed to help tell a story. Move from the client overview through a description of your company before getting to the details of how you fixed said company's problems.

Tips for writing a case study

Examples are all well and good, but you don't learn how to make a burrito just by watching tutorials on YouTube without knowing what any of the ingredients are. You could , but it probably wouldn't be all that good.

Have an objective: Define your objective by identifying the challenge, solution, and results. Assess your work with the client and focus on the most prominent wins. You're speaking to multiple businesses and industries through the case study, so make sure you know what you want to say to them.

Focus on persuasive data: Growth percentages and measurable results are your best friends. Extract your most compelling data and highlight it in your case study.

Use eye-grabbing graphics: Branded design goes a long way in accurately representing your brand and retaining readers as they review the study. Leverage unique and eye-catching graphics to keep readers engaged. 

Simplify data presentation: Some industries are more complex than others, and sometimes, data can be difficult to understand at a glance. Make sure you present your data in the simplest way possible. Make it concise, informative, and easy to understand.

Use automation to drive results for your case study

A case study example is a source of inspiration you can leverage to determine how to best position your brand's work. Find your unique angle, and refine it over time to help your business stand out. Ask anyone: the best burrito in town doesn't just appear at the number one spot. They find their angle (usually the house sauce) and leverage it to stand out.

Case study FAQ

Got your case study template? Great—it's time to gather the team for an awkward semi-vague data collection task. While you do that, here are some case study quick answers for you to skim through while you contemplate what to call your team meeting.

What is an example of a case study?

An example of a case study is when a software company analyzes its results from a client project and creates a webpage, presentation, or document that focuses on high-level results, challenges, and solutions in an attempt to showcase effectiveness and promote the software.

How do you write a case study?

To write a good case study, you should have an objective, identify persuasive and compelling data, leverage graphics, and simplify data. Case studies typically include an analysis of the challenge, solution, and results of the partnership.

What is the format of a case study?

While case studies don't have a set format, they're often portrayed as reports or essays that inform readers about the partnership and its results. 

Related reading:

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Hachem Ramki

Hachem is a writer and digital marketer from Montreal. After graduating with a degree in English, Hachem spent seven years traveling around the world before moving to Canada. When he's not writing, he enjoys Basketball, Dungeons and Dragons, and playing music for friends and family.

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Blog Graphic Design 15+ Professional Case Study Examples [Design Tips + Templates]

15+ Professional Case Study Examples [Design Tips + Templates]

Written by: Alice Corner Jan 12, 2023

Have you ever bought something — within the last 10 years or so — without reading its reviews or without a recommendation or prior experience of using it?

If the answer is no — or at least, rarely — you get my point.

Positive reviews matter for selling to regular customers, and for B2B or SaaS businesses, detailed case studies are important too.

Wondering how to craft a compelling case study ? No worries—I’ve got you covered with 15 marketing case study templates , helpful tips, and examples to ensure your case study converts effectively.

Click to jump ahead:

• What is a Case Study?

Business Case Study Examples

Simple case study examples.

• Marketing Case Study Examples

Sales Case Study Examples

• Case Study FAQs

What is a case study?

A case study is an in-depth, detailed analysis of a specific real-world situation. For example, a case study can be about an individual, group, event, organization, or phenomenon. The purpose of a case study is to understand its complexities and gain insights into a particular instance or situation.

In the context of a business, however, case studies take customer success stories and explore how they use your product to help them achieve their business goals.

As well as being valuable marketing tools , case studies are a good way to evaluate your product as it allows you to objectively examine how others are using it.

It’s also a good way to interview your customers about why they work with you.

Related: What is a Case Study? [+6 Types of Case Studies]

Marketing Case Study Template

A marketing case study showcases how your product or services helped potential clients achieve their business goals. You can also create case studies of internal, successful marketing projects. A marketing case study typically includes:

• Company background and history
• The challenge
• How you helped
• Specific actions taken
• Visuals or Data
• Client testimonials

Here’s an example of a marketing case study template:

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, business case studies can be a powerful resource to help with your sales, marketing, and even internal departmental awareness.

Business and business management case studies should encompass strategic insights alongside anecdotal and qualitative findings, like in the business case study examples below.

Conduct a B2B case study by researching the company holistically

When it comes to writing a case study, make sure you approach the company holistically and analyze everything from their social media to their sales.

Think about every avenue your product or service has been of use to your case study company, and ask them about the impact this has had on their wider company goals.

In business case study examples like the one above, we can see that the company has been thought about holistically simply by the use of icons.

By combining social media icons with icons that show in-person communication we know that this is a well-researched and thorough case study.

This case study report example could also be used within an annual or end-of-year report.

Highlight the key takeaway from your marketing case study

To create a compelling case study, identify the key takeaways from your research. Use catchy language to sum up this information in a sentence, and present this sentence at the top of your page.

This is “at a glance” information and it allows people to gain a top-level understanding of the content immediately. 

You can use a large, bold, contrasting font to help this information stand out from the page and provide interest.

Learn  how to choose fonts  effectively with our Venngage guide and once you’ve done that.

Upload your fonts and  brand colors  to Venngage using the  My Brand Kit  tool and see them automatically applied to your designs.

The heading is the ideal place to put the most impactful information, as this is the first thing that people will read.

In this example, the stat of “Increase[d] lead quality by 90%” is used as the header. It makes customers want to read more to find out how exactly lead quality was increased by such a massive amount.

If you’re conducting an in-person interview, you could highlight a direct quote or insight provided by your interview subject.

Pick out a catchy sentence or phrase, or the key piece of information your interview subject provided and use that as a way to draw a potential customer in.

Use charts to visualize data in your business case studies

Charts are an excellent way to visualize data and to bring statistics and information to life. Charts make information easier to understand and to illustrate trends or patterns.

Making charts is even easier with Venngage.

In this consulting case study example, we can see that a chart has been used to demonstrate the difference in lead value within the Lead Elves case study.

Adding a chart here helps break up the information and add visual value to the case study. 

Using charts in your case study can also be useful if you’re creating a project management case study.

You could use a Gantt chart or a project timeline to show how you have managed the project successfully.

Use direct quotes to build trust in your marketing case study

To add an extra layer of authenticity you can include a direct quote from your customer within your case study.

According to research from Nielsen , 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer and 70% trust recommendations even if they’re from somebody they don’t know.

So if you have a customer or client who can’t stop singing your praises, make sure you get a direct quote from them and include it in your case study.

You can either lift part of the conversation or interview, or you can specifically request a quote. Make sure to ask for permission before using the quote.

This design uses a bright contrasting speech bubble to show that it includes a direct quote, and helps the quote stand out from the rest of the text.

This will help draw the customer’s attention directly to the quote, in turn influencing them to use your product or service.

Less is often more, and this is especially true when it comes to creating designs. Whilst you want to create a professional-looking, well-written and design case study – there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

These simple case study examples show that smart clean designs and informative content can be an effective way to showcase your successes.

Use colors and fonts to create a professional-looking case study

Business case studies shouldn’t be boring. In fact, they should be beautifully and professionally designed.

This means the normal rules of design apply. Use fonts, colors, and icons to create an interesting and visually appealing case study.

In this case study example, we can see how multiple fonts have been used to help differentiate between the headers and content, as well as complementary colors and eye-catching icons.

Marketing case study examples

Marketing case studies are incredibly useful for showing your marketing successes. Every successful marketing campaign relies on influencing a consumer’s behavior, and a great case study can be a great way to spotlight your biggest wins.

In the marketing case study examples below, a variety of designs and techniques to create impactful and effective case studies.

Show off impressive results with a bold marketing case study

Case studies are meant to show off your successes, so make sure you feature your positive results prominently. Using bold and bright colors as well as contrasting shapes, large bold fonts, and simple icons is a great way to highlight your wins.

In well-written case study examples like the one below, the big wins are highlighted on the second page with a bright orange color and are highlighted in circles.

Making the important data stand out is especially important when attracting a prospective customer with marketing case studies.

Use a simple but clear layout in your case study

Using a simple layout in your case study can be incredibly effective, like in the example of a case study below.

Keeping a clean white background, and using slim lines to help separate the sections is an easy way to format your case study.

Making the information clear helps draw attention to the important results, and it helps improve the  accessibility of the design .

Business case study examples like this would sit nicely within a larger report, with a consistent layout throughout.

Use visuals and icons to create an engaging and branded business case study

Nobody wants to read pages and pages of text — and that’s why Venngage wants to help you communicate your ideas visually.

Using icons, graphics, photos, or patterns helps create a much more engaging design. 

With this Blue Cap case study icons, colors, and impactful pattern designs have been used to create an engaging design that catches your eye.

Use a monochromatic color palette to create a professional and clean case study

Let your research shine by using a monochromatic and minimalistic color palette.

By sticking to one color, and leaving lots of blank space you can ensure your design doesn’t distract a potential customer from your case study content.

In this case study on Polygon Media, the design is simple and professional, and the layout allows the prospective customer to follow the flow of information.

The gradient effect on the left-hand column helps break up the white background and adds an interesting visual effect.

Did you know you can generate an accessible color palette with Venngage? Try our free accessible color palette generator today and create a case study that delivers and looks pleasant to the eye:

Add long term goals in your case study

When creating a case study it’s a great idea to look at both the short term and the long term goals of the company to gain the best understanding possible of the insights they provide.

Short-term goals will be what the company or person hopes to achieve in the next few months, and long-term goals are what the company hopes to achieve in the next few years.

Check out this modern pattern design example of a case study below:

In this case study example, the short and long-term goals are clearly distinguished by light blue boxes and placed side by side so that they are easy to compare.

Use a strong introductory paragraph to outline the overall strategy and goals before outlining the specific short-term and long-term goals to help with clarity.

This strategy can also be handy when creating a consulting case study.

Use data to make concrete points about your sales and successes

When conducting any sort of research stats, facts, and figures are like gold dust (aka, really valuable).

Being able to quantify your findings is important to help understand the information fully. Saying sales increased 10% is much more effective than saying sales increased.

While sales dashboards generally tend it make it all about the numbers and charts, in sales case study examples, like this one, the key data and findings can be presented with icons. This contributes to the potential customer’s better understanding of the report.

They can clearly comprehend the information and it shows that the case study has been well researched.

Use emotive, persuasive, or action based language in your marketing case study

Create a compelling case study by using emotive, persuasive and action-based language when customizing your case study template.

In this well-written case study example, we can see that phrases such as “Results that Speak Volumes” and “Drive Sales” have been used.

Using persuasive language like you would in a blog post. It helps inspire potential customers to take action now.

Keep your potential customers in mind when creating a customer case study for marketing

82% of marketers use case studies in their marketing  because it’s such an effective tool to help quickly gain customers’ trust and to showcase the potential of your product.

Why are case studies such an important tool in content marketing?

By writing a case study you’re telling potential customers that they can trust you because you’re showing them that other people do.

Not only that, but if you have a SaaS product, business case studies are a great way to show how other people are effectively using your product in their company.

In this case study, Network is demonstrating how their product has been used by Vortex Co. with great success; instantly showing other potential customers that their tool works and is worth using.

Related: 10+ Case Study Infographic Templates That Convert

Case studies are particularly effective as a sales technique.

A sales case study is like an extended customer testimonial, not only sharing opinions of your product – but showcasing the results you helped your customer achieve.

Make impactful statistics pop in your sales case study

Writing a case study doesn’t mean using text as the only medium for sharing results.

You should use icons to highlight areas of your research that are particularly interesting or relevant, like in this example of a case study:

Icons are a great way to help summarize information quickly and can act as visual cues to help draw the customer’s attention to certain areas of the page.

In some of the business case study examples above, icons are used to represent the impressive areas of growth and are presented in a way that grabs your attention.

Use high contrast shapes and colors to draw attention to key information in your sales case study

Help the key information stand out within your case study by using high contrast shapes and colors.

Use a complementary or contrasting color, or use a shape such as a rectangle or a circle for maximum impact.

This design has used dark blue rectangles to help separate the information and make it easier to read.

Coupled with icons and strong statistics, this information stands out on the page and is easily digestible and retainable for a potential customer.

Case Study Examples Summary

Once you have created your case study, it’s best practice to update your examples on a regular basis to include up-to-date statistics, data, and information.

You should update your business case study examples often if you are sharing them on your website .

It’s also important that your case study sits within your brand guidelines – find out how Venngage’s My Brand Kit tool can help you create consistently branded case study templates.

Case studies are important marketing tools – but they shouldn’t be the only tool in your toolbox. Content marketing is also a valuable way to earn consumer trust.

Case Study FAQ

Why should you write a case study.

Case studies are an effective marketing technique to engage potential customers and help build trust.

By producing case studies featuring your current clients or customers, you are showcasing how your tool or product can be used. You’re also showing that other people endorse your product.

In addition to being a good way to gather positive testimonials from existing customers , business case studies are good educational resources and can be shared amongst your company or team, and used as a reference for future projects.

How should you write a case study?

To create a great case study, you should think strategically. The first step, before starting your case study research, is to think about what you aim to learn or what you aim to prove.

You might be aiming to learn how a company makes sales or develops a new product. If this is the case, base your questions around this.

You can learn more about writing a case study  from our extensive guide.

Related: How to Present a Case Study like a Pro (With Examples)

Some good questions you could ask would be:

• Why do you use our tool or service?
• How often do you use our tool or service?
• What does the process of using our product look like to you?
• If our product didn’t exist, what would you be doing instead?
• What is the number one benefit you’ve found from using our tool?

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The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Case Studies

Everything you need to know about creating effective marketing case studies that will help you convert more leads.

FREE DOWNLOAD: CASE STUDY TEMPLATES

Showcase success using compelling case studies.

Updated: 12/02/21

Published: 02/16/16

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and imagine you were considering purchasing a new product.

Would you be more inclined to:

A) Chat with a salesperson — while trying to block out the tiny voice in your head reminding you that they’re working on commission?

B) Review a case study about a customer who used that product to solve a problem similar to yours?

Probably option B, right? That’s because we put more trust in word-of-mouth marketing than we do salespeople.

The way people consume information has changed, and buyers have all the resources they need to make decisions about what to purchase. Companies can either continue marketing the old, less effective way … or they can embrace these changes and let their customers do the work for them through testimonials, reviews, word-of-mouth marketing, and marketing case studies.

Customers trust other customers — the companies that recognize this will benefit in the long run and grow better.

Plenty of companies have already proven how beneficial marketing case studies can be. They are the most popular form of self-promotional marketing used by marketing agency executives in the U.S. Additionally, 88% of surveyed B2B marketers say that customer case studies are considered to be their most impactful content marketing tactic.  

While chatting with a salesperson can be helpful, and even preferable for some, it’s clear that having marketing case studies on your website can be beneficial. Case studies answer potential customers’ questions, demonstrate success, build company-wide credibility, increase conversions , and most importantly, eliminate bias so your customer can make a confident decision to buy your product.

What Is a Marketing Case Study?

Marketing case studies analyze the ways that a customer uses a product or service. They describe a challenge the customer faced, the solutions they considered, and the results they experienced after their purchase. Strong case studies can compel others to buy a product.

Benefits of Case Studies

Converting Leads with Case Studies

Choosing a Case Study Format

Conducting a Case Study Interview

Benefits of Marketing Case Studies

The use of marketing case studies is beneficial to companies of all sizes and customers of all backgrounds. Well-crafted marketing case studies provide potential customers with engaging content that excites them to buy your product.

They Tell a Relatable Story

Case studies often involve an interview with a customer that has had success using your product. Before choosing a customer for an interview, consider who you’re targeting. Your case studies should appeal to your buyer persona .

When your target customer feels connected to your case studies, they will feel more confident in their purchase.

Consider this: You’re buying a new software for your team. You have a few possible options in mind, so you head to their respective websites to do your own research. The first two options sound good on paper (or rather, on screen), but you want a solution you can really trust. Something that is preferably not written by the company itself.

The third site you go to has a landing page that includes a few case studies. One of the case studies features an interview with an employee at a company similar to yours. You listen to that person describe challenges that they faced prior to getting the software — challenges that sound a lot like the ones you and your team currently face. The interviewee then talks about the ways that their software purchase resolved their pain points.

Wouldn’t the case study you found on the third website make you feel confident that the software could help your team, too?  

The key to creating relatable case studies is considering your buyer personas. That means considering demographics, company size, industry, etc. and selecting a person that the majority of your potential customers will feel a connection.

They Demonstrate Success

Take a look at HubSpot’s case study landing page . Check out the wide range of case studies listed. Notice how these case studies cover all types of industries, a wide variety of locations, different company sizes, and more.

If there are so many companies using HubSpot — to solve a vast array of challenges — then wouldn’t you assume HubSpot has a solid product that you could trust, too?

Case studies demonstrate success by showing potential customers that current customers — who once had challenges similar to their own — solved their pain points by making a purchase.

They Help Build Credibility

Credibility is what gives the people around you a reason to trust you.

For example, let’s say you’re looking at a product on Amazon , and you scroll down to the customer review section. You find that almost everyone has given the product a five-star rating or has written a positive comment about their experience. These comments and ratings build credibility for that product and brand.

Marketing case studies help your company build credibility. They also convince prospects to give your product a try when they see how many people already trust you, love your products, and believe in your mission.

They Help You Convert Leads

Case studies are a bottom-of-funnel strategy that will help you convert more leads . If a prospect is on the fence about your product, case studies are the marketing technique that will push them closer to that purchase decision.

For example, if a potential customer visits your website and they watch (or read) multiple case studies explaining the ways that customers have had success with your product, then they too may feel excited to become a customer.  

If that same prospect just left your competitor’s website where there were no case studies, your solution then becomes an easy sell … and your competitor becomes obsolete.

Marketing case studies retain value over long periods of time — meaning the same study has the potential to convert leads for years . Unless you have a revamp or a complete update of the product being referred to in your case study, it can remain on your website as long as you see fit.

Marketing Case Study Template

Now that we’ve reviewed the reasons why you should have case studies on your site, you might be wondering how to actually create a marketing case study.

First, it’s no secret that video content is more effective than written content. So, if you can create a video case study, do it. If not, be sure to include images throughout your written case study to break up the text and provide visual stimulation for readers.

Second, remember one size does not fit all when it comes to creating case studies. They vary in length, format, content, and style based on what experience you want to provide for your potential customers.

Keep this in mind as we go through the following example … some of the content here might work perfectly in your case study, and some might need to be modified.

If you need some guidance, check out HubSpot’s Case Study Creation Kit .

1. Choose Your Case Study Format

To determine which format you want to use for your case study, think about what type of content would be most beneficial for your buyer personas. You should consider what challenges your buyer personas might face, what types of industries they work in, their locations, and their business demographics.

Two commonly used marketing case study formats to consider include an exposé and a transcription.

An exposé is an interview technique that covers specific details about a topic, event, or individual. If you look back at the case studies on the HubSpot landing page , you’ll see the exposé format in action. The director, or author, is conducting the interview, leading conversation, and asking the interview subject questions about their interactions with HubSpot.

Tip: When you’re recording a video interview for your case study, make sure the interview subject repeats your question before providing an answer.

For example, if you ask them, “What challenge did our product help you overcome?” you don’t want them to simply say “organizational challenges.” The editing process will cut your voice out of the interview, and their response won’t make sense. Instead, make sure they answer all questions as a complete statement such as, “This product helped us overcome several organizational challenges.”

Transcription

This is a simpler case study format. It’s a transcription of an interview with your customer , meaning there is typically a significant amount of text for potential customers to read through.

Be sure to include the interview questions throughout this type of case study so readers know exactly what the interview subject is referring to. Lastly, feel free to pair your transcription with a series of images or even video to break up the text.

2. Conduct the Interview

The interview is the most important part of the case study … and quality matters. Strong interviews and videos take time . It’s not unusual to conduct a one to two-hour interview just to get a solid two minutes of video to use in your case study.

During the interview, you should ask your customers about their lives prior to purchasing your product, what it was like to acquire your product, and how their company’s future has changed because of their purchase.

If possible, record the interview. If not, be sure to use a transcription or audio recording device to ensure accurate quotes and statements throughout your case study.

Here are some sample questions for you to consider:

Ask about the customer’s life prior to your product.

• Who are you? What is your title? What does your company do?
• What challenges were you experiencing that made you realize you needed a solution?
• Why was finding a solution to this challenge important?

Ask what it was like finding and purchasing your product.

Capture general commentary — information that anyone could understand — from your interview subject in this section so potential customers can relate no matter their background or experience.

• How did you find our product? What was your experience like while purchasing our product?
• Ask about your customer’s criteria during their search for a solution. What was crucial versus what was nice to have?
• What were the results that came from using our product? How did our product solve your challenge?
• Ask for numerical results and hard data. Get proof of these from your interview subject (or even your own company if you have records).
• What were you able to start doing as a result of our product working for you? What are the intangible results of our product?

Ask about the impact that the product has had on your customer’s life.

• How did our product change your view of your company’s future?
• What are you excited about moving forward?
• What would your future be like without our product?

After conducting your interview, it’s time to actually put your case study together.

Edit your interview down to the most important, relevant information for potential customers to learn about your product. Cut that hour-long video interview down to a minute or two of the best clips.

If your interview is going to become a written case study, include the very best quotes. Make it easy to read by separating your information with the help of headers, bulleted lists, images , and bold or italicized text.

3. Incorporate Your Case Study in Your Marketing and Sales Processes

Determine how to best use the case study in your marketing and sales processes. Here are a few ideas:

Create a case study library.

By creating a case study library on a landing page — similar to the HubSpot landing page or this page by Fractl — you provide your potential customers with an easy way to learn about your products and company as a whole.

Source : Fractl

A case study library or landing page will prevent potential customers and leads from having to dig around on your website for any product information they’re searching for. If this information is not easily accessible, they could lose interest, become frustrated, leave your website, or even find an alternative solution on a competitor’s site.

Case study landing pages and libraries also help build credibility, look official, and typically bring in a lot of traffic — both through people searching for your company’s website and organic search.

According to Fractl , their case study landing page is the second most-visited page on their entire website. Additionally, it is their fourth most-visited page through organic search. Lastly, they’ve seen a huge boost in converting visitors to leads since the creation of their case study landing page — half of Fractl’s leads view at least one of their case studies.  

Surround your case studies with social proof.

If so many people are saying it’s true, then it must be true — this is how companies use the theory of social proof to their advantage.

Social proof theories say that people let the actions, behaviors, and beliefs of those around them impact their own. For example, some theories say most people would answer “yes” to the question: “If all of your friends jumped off of a bridge, would you?”

Social proof — or in this case, your friends all jumping off of the bridge — influences people to make decisions based on the expectations and behaviors of the people around them, even if their decision would be different if they were alone.

Companies use social proof in the form of customer reviews, logo walls (that is, the logos of companies that have purchased their products), or long-form videos. Social proof acts as a supplement to the information in a case study.

By showing potential customers how your products have changed the lives of other individuals, teams, and companies, prospects are more likely to buy into your claims and believe your product could help them, too.

Add product overviews to the case study section on your site.

If you’re editing down your case study interview and realize your interviewee said something vague or made a comment that a potential customer may not necessarily understand, you can add a product overview or reference guide next to that case study.

For example, imagine HubSpot is conducting a case study interview and an interview subject goes into detail about the specific functions of Workflows . A potential customer may not know much about HubSpot’s Workflows, so a detailed discussion about their features may not be relatable and could even raise some questions.

By including an overview or description of Workflows next to the case study where the product was mentioned, HubSpot can provide clarity for the viewer. You will also avoid making potential customers feel confused or uninterested.

Keep your sales team in the loop.

Once your case study is complete, you should notify your sales team so they can use them when reaching out to potential customers. They will be able to incorporate this information into their sales enablement kits — which include the technologies, processes, and content that allows them to sell efficiently and effectively.

By learning about the ways that real customers are using and benefiting from the products they are selling, sales teams can share relatable stories with potential customers and leads. These will help build trust and, most importantly, increase sales.

To help your sales team narrow the vast amount of information that typically comes from an in-depth case study, provide them with key takeaways that they can share with potential customers and leads. These key takeaways should include information about the interviewee’s background, title, and experience level and details about their company’s size, industry, and potential annual revenue.

This data will allow the sales team to tailor the information they share with potential customers and leads, organize it for future conversations, and make more efficient and impactful sales.

4. Determine How Many More Case Studies You Need

As I mentioned, every company is different and every product they sell is unique. Not every company will need the same number of case studies on their website to have an impact. To determine the right number of case studies for your company, think about the following tips.

Cover all of your bases.

A good rule of thumb is to have at least one to three case studies for each of your buyer personas.

To do this, cover a range of industries and types of companies, and interview people of different backgrounds, titles, demographics, and experience levels. You should make sure there is something for everyone who visits your website.

If your company targets customers all over the world and has offices located around the globe, this is especially important to consider. Think about what works for your buyer personas, your company’s location, and your goals when deciding how many case studies you need.

Sometimes, less is more.

Having an extensive list of case studies sounds like something everyone should have … right?

Not always. Think about it this way — if your company is on the smaller side and is relatively new, there’s a chance you haven’t given your customers much time with your products yet. There is also a chance that you don’t yet have a wide range of customers.

If your company then takes the time to create dozens of case studies, potential customers may feel you are being inauthentic and even unconvincing. It may also be a waste of resources that you can’t quite afford as a new business.

To be effective, try to make every one of your case studies relatable and helpful for your personas. Cover multiple use cases in each of your case studies when possible. You’ll not only simplify your own life, but you also keep your case study library clean and impactful.

Case studies are powerful marketing tools. They tell your potential customers relatable stories, demonstrate your company’s success, and help you build credibility. Case studies will help you reach your audience in a way that no sales pitch, email, newsletter, or advertisement will.

Plus, if your company made such a positive impact on a customer that they want to share their experience with others, why not broadcast that story?

Now it’s time to start creating content that matters to your potential customers and converts more leads.

Don't forget to share this post!

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[Updated] 8 Best marketing case study examples

Social listening and consumer intelligence will knock your marketing campaigns out of the park. No question.

Don’t believe me?

The following types of case studies speak for themselves about why you should… listen. Show me the success stories!

Table of content

• Grubhub | Consumer insights feed the soul
• UNICEF | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights
• University of Sydney | Proves the value of social media
• Bella&Brava | Image recognition sees all 
• HelloFresh | Social listening is the secret ingredient 
• Hong Kong Airlines | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success
• Bonduelle | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions
• Lion & Lion and Rimmel | Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

Grubhub marketing case study | Consumer insights feed the soul

When the world went into lockdown, food delivery services became an essential part of all our lives. But how to do it safely?

Based in the US, Grubhub is a food ordering and delivery platform that connects consumers with local restaurants and takeaways. To understand what people wanted and meet their new demands, the brand turned to consumer insights.

COVID-19 brought the world to its knees. People feared for their health and for their income. The challenge for Grubhub was how to address consumer concerns with regard to a restricted household budget, disinfection protocols, the mechanics of safe food delivery, and more.

Using our consumer intelligence platform, the Grubhub team monitored for diners' negative experiences, and countered with positive experiences.

When Grubhub's Belly Dance ad first aired on TV, it fell below expectations, receiving low engagement. Suddenly, in January 2021, the commercial became a viral meme, receiving over 40K mentions on social media in one month.

Working with Talkwalker, the brand created a strategy as to how to join this growing conversation .

Think you can make a commercial better than us? Prove it. Add your own music to it or suggest a song, then tweet it with #DeliverTheRemix . You could have your song featured in our commercial and win a YEAR of free food. Ends 1/19. No purch nec. 50 US/DC, 18+. Rules in bio. pic.twitter.com/cRxIFKAji9 — Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 16, 2021

As the campaign became more successful, the team launched the #DeliverTheRemix contest, asking followers to help choose the next song in the “Belly Dance” ad. Consumers loved it, creating a ton of fun and creative pieces of content.

To understand how Grubhub was able to turn negative community sentiment and drive a brand-amplifying strategy , read the Grubhub marketing case study.

Download the Grubhub marketing case study

UNICEF marketing case study | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been bombarded with misinformation about the virus and the various vaccines. As this case study shows, we look at how UNICEF MENARO developed a communication strategy to battle the fake news that threatened to undermine the vaccine program in the Middle East and North Africa.

The pandemic caught us by surprise, and we lacked a reliable source of truth. This issue was exacerbated with the release of the vaccine, when we suffered a further deluge of fake news that fed the rising anti-vaccine mood.

It became critical for organizations promoting the vaccine to understand the concerns of the public , enabling them to put peoples' fears to rest. And build trust in vaccines.

For UNICEF MENARO this meant using Talkwalker's consumer intelligence platform to track misinformation keywords , along with mentions of COVID-19 in online conversations in the MENA region to see just how serious the situation was.

Sentiment analysis was used to find the overall sentiment around vaccines, with results showing that net sentiment was low, proving vaccine hesitancy.

The net sentiment around vaccines from December 2020 - April 2021 demonstrated the overall negative view of vaccines.

To shift the sentiment, UNICEF in MENA activated the voices of community members to engage with people and allay their vaccine fears.

UNICEF'S communication strategy delivered a data-driven narrative using strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and real-life testimonies. Short-form videos that were a strong part of the strategy, with the video for the #MaskUp campaign receiving over 136K mentions between April 2020 and May 2021.

Number of mentions of #MaskUp in the MENA region during the past 13 months.

UNICEF continues to play a key role in monitoring conversation around the pandemic, whether it's positive or negative. 

To understand more about how UNICEF used consumer intelligence to battle fake news , and the successful campaigns it launched, check out our UNICEF marketing case study.

Download the UNICEF marketing case study

University of Sydney marketing case study | Proves the value of social media

The secret to a successful social media strategy is ensuring it's aligned with your business goals.

This marketing case study explores how the University of Sydney used a combination of Hootsuite and Talkwalker and increased sentiment, engagement, and video views.

The university was looking to boost its reputation for research, entice a more diverse range of top-level students, and build a brand that would stand out in a crowd. A forward thinking university, social media would inevitably play a big part, so much so, it already had a Social Squad using Hootsuite, Talkwalker, and Adobe.

What did the squad do? Bringing the various faculty teams together, it created a social media strategy that aligned content, goals, and reporting across it's 36 official social channels.

Sentiment analysis and social media listening enabled the university to measure and manage its brand reputation . Collecting insights that informed the campaign strategy and boosted sentiment through social media communication.

When sentiment turned negative during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Stay Strong India campaign brought about a 30% increase in net sentiment score.

“The insights that Talkwalker provides us have been incredible and have really informed our campaign strategy. Providing these insights to our stakeholders demonstrates what social media can do for our brand and helps us secure investment to increase our budgets and grow our team.” Liz Grey | Social Media | University of Sydney

In the past, when content was shared across multiple channels without a plan, reporting results was hard. The introduction of Hootsuite Impact meant that the team could efficiently report on engagement, campaign performance, and ROI.

A year into its successful social media strategy, the university continues to collect student insights, and is looking to recruit influencers to meet new goals.

For more details on how the university used social media to improve its reputation, download our University of Sydney marketing case study.

Download the University of Sydney marketing case study

Bella&Brava marketing case study | Image recognition sees all

I love pizza, you love pizza. 

With a whopping 106.2K mentions on July 9th, 2019 on Twitter alone, it’s clear that everyone loves posting about pizza.

Data found using Talkwalker’s QuickSearch .

The most popular emojis used when it comes to discussing pizza.

When Venice-based pizzeria Bella&Brava wanted to open restaurants in new locations, it partnered with digital consultancy company OpenKnowledge to harness the power of social media.

Using Talkwalker’s proprietary image recognition technology , OpenKnowledge analyzed data from user-generated content - UGC - created by the consumers Bella&Brava were looking to feed. Their hip, young target audience.

Using image recognition, photos of pizzas posted on social media platforms - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - were identified, along with background scenes and objects. 

The consumer insights collected from social networks helped Bella&Brava make critical business decisions . Which cities to open in? Which brand partnerships to explore? How will cultural differences influence the design of each new menu?

Read Bella&Brava’s marketing case study to see how social listening and consumer insights will put your brand ahead of your competitors, purely by listening to consumers and meeting their demands .

Download the Bella&Brava marketing case study

“In the digital age, there are two types of organisations: those that collect data and those that transform it into opportunities” Ilaria Baietti, Director - Brand Interaction, OpenKnowledge

Speed up the growth of your business by closing the gap between your brand and consumers. Boom!

HelloFresh marketing case study | When social listening is the secret ingredient 

When HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit company, was struggling with social media data, it was time to call Talkwalker. .

Previously, the brand had been manually collecting social media data. This was not only  time consuming, but vital information was being missed .

Humans are great, but when you consider the amount of social data out there…

It was time to freshen up HelloFresh’s marketing strategy with social listening.

“At HelloFresh, data is at the center of everything we do. It was only natural for us to turn to social listening to improve the performance and efficiency of our marketing and communications teams. Talkwalker has allowed us to unlock access to a much larger conversation around our brand than ever before.” Jordan Schultz, Social Media Manager, HelloFresh

Talkwalker’s consumer intelligence platform was able to identify consumer insights , then translate into meaningful data. Moving forward, HelloFresh identified more than 400% more mentions per month.

With all these new insights to hand, HelloFresh began to develop a crisis management plan.

Take a look at our HelloFresh marketing case study, for more details

Download the HelloFresh marketing case study

Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success

This is a case study from a few years back, so pre pandemic. But it remains a landing page that converts, bigly.

What’s every traveler’s dream and every airline’s nightmare?

When a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was mispriced at $561, consumers rushed to make the most of this mistake, with the Hong Kong Airline marketing team scrabbling for their oxygen masks.

The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions, engagement and reach.

What were their options in the face of this PR crisis ? Search for the nearest exit? Or, buckle up and go along for what was sure to be a bumpy ride? 

Hong Kong Airlines decided to take another route. They chose to breeze right through it.

Luckily, they were prepared because of social listening and consumer intelligence. By using the insights from Talkwalker’s social media data and sentiment analysis , they were able to plan accordingly and protect their brand reputation .

“When we see what is happening in “real time” on social media we are better prepared to make timely and informed decisions and communicate those decisions well. Social listening and analytics tools are critical to success. In this case, we managed to turn what could have been a damaging issue, into a fantastic PR opportunity. With 4,900% more engagements created in a one week period.” Dennis Owen, General Manager of Branding and Social Media, Hong Kong Airlines

Read the Hong Kong Airlines case study to learn how they used social media data from competitors, and sentiment analysis to inform their strategic decisions. All while keeping long term customers and potential customers happy.

Download the Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study

Bonduelle marketing case study | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions

Bonduelle, a major French brand in the FMCG/CPG industry, was in the grips of optimizing its online brand strategy. The company that specializes in providing frozen and canned vegetables daily to over 100 countries, wanted to ensure that all its consumer data was readily available across its entire company.

The problem?

Data silos in Bonduelle.

Each department was collecting its own data and interpreting it, without a platform from which to share the information with other teams. This is a common issue. The State of Social Intelligence Report points out that 31% of organizations offer their teams limited access to social data.

The crucial information was hidden away in the dark depths of the team’s computer folder – unable to be used across departments to identify added benefits.

Social listening held the key to knocking down these data walls. It brought together information from online, social media, and traditional press all on one platform . Allowing Bonduelle to find the topics that were being discussed alongside their products or services, images associated with the brand, their high-performing influencers, and how to protect their brand reputation from negative comments.

Talkwalker offered the perfect solution, giving the brand the opportunity to build their own dashboard and choose who would have access to the data.

Read Bonduelle’s marketing case study to learn more about how it...

• Determined positioning based on data maturity scale in report
• Identified its progress in terms of data maturity
• Created necessary systems and teams for scalable processing of data
• Introduced the chief data officer role to maximize the value of data as it progresses

Download the Bonduelle marketing case study

Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study ­| Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

When faced with the relaunch of the British cosmetics brand Rimmel in Malaysia, the brand’s digital marketing agency, Lion & Lion, turned to social media.

With the increasing demand for authenticity and inclusivity, the beauty industry has been opting for social media and specifically, influencer marketing instead of traditional advertising methods. 

Makes sense!

It’s a trend that resonates with Gen Z . Econsultancy states that 65% of this group rely on social media to find and choose beauty products. 

Rather than listening to marketers telling you what to buy, social media, blog posts and influencers become the cool friend with the inside scoop on the latest makeup trend. So, it’s no surprise that cosmetics brands are turning to social media marketing and social listening for consumer insights into what people really want.

In a country where the k-beauty brands dominate the shelves, the first step was to make Rimmel stand out in the crowd. 

The data showed that consumers trust that beauty is more than skin deep. It’s all about being confident. It’s all about being confident. They want bold, experimental makeup to create distinctive looks.

Rimmel then launched the #MakeUpYourOwnRules marketing campaign which championed self-expression and all-inclusive beauty that radiates confidence.

“As a result, we saw an increase in branded search and share-of-voice, and gained around 3x of our initial market share target within the first year of launch” Cheska Teresa, Managing Director, Lion & Lion in Malaysia  

For more details on how Lion & Lion took full advantage of social listening and consumer intelligence for Rimmel, read Lion & Lion’s marketing case study.

Download the Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study

Drive your marketing with consumer intelligence

There you have it. 8 of our best marketing case study examples. Download them all to discover how some of the world's biggest brands use our consumer intelligence platform to drive their marketing strategies to success . Our industry-leading platform turns social and owned data into powerful and easy to action consumer insights. Don’t get left behind…

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What Is a Case Study in Marketing and How to Build One (Examples)

A marketing case study allows you to illustrate and explain how you achieved enormous success in a specific situation.

For instance, last year, Jacob McMillen wrote about how Pronto used Crazy Egg to increase leads by 24 percent .

That’s a big number.

It’s not a full case study , but it demonstrates the goal of a marketing case study. You want to shock your audience, then explain exactly how you achieved your results — preferably with proof.

You might have read lots of case studies over the years without realizing your business could benefit from them. Lots of entrepreneurs are put off by the hard work and long hours required to build a marketing case study.

However, think about how many leads you might convert by proving your track record, establishing trust, and attracting traffic through SEO .

Let’s look at how marketing case studies can impact your business, discuss how to write one, and check out a few examples.

What Is a Case Study in Marketing?

A case study in marketing is a document or web page that includes several basic parts:

• Description of the subject : Explain your customer’s or client’s history and pain points.
• Subject’s goal : Identify your customer’s or client’s goal for the project so readers understand what to expect.
• Hypothesis for strategy : Tell your audience what you expected to happen after you implemented your strategy for the customer or client.
• Implementation of strategy : Take the reader through the step-by-step process you used to help your customer or client.
• Results of strategy : Deliver the results in as much detail as possible, preferably with a quote from the client or customer.
• Concluding findings : Explain what this case study has taught your specifically and how it can help other people.

You don’t have to include every category, but the more detail you add, the more effective your marketing case study becomes.

Most of the time, you’re conducting a case study for your own business. You want to show the world how your product or service has helped a customer in a huge way.

For that reason, it helps to know you’ll perform a case study from the beginning. In other words, try not to reverse-engineer a case study from a great result. Instead, track your arrangement with your customer throughout the process.

The Importance of Creating Case Studies to Convert Leads into Customers

Think of a marketing case study as a lure. It’s a way to dangle amazing results in front of your leads so they’ll decide to convert .

Imagine that you’re a customer who’s trying to decide between two businesses, each of which offers time management software. One company has a marketing case study that illustrates how it helped a customer save four hours per week. The other company has no case study.

Which company would you trust most?

You can use that consumer logic to inform your business decisions. Thinking like a customer can help you achieve new insights into marketing.

Creating a marketing case study gives you an edge that your competitors might have. It can also help your leads make more informed decisions.

Too many businesses copy their competitors or other businesses. Instead, you should spend time being more creative and innovative. Below is a video by Neil Patel that illustrates why you need to quit copying digital marketing strategies.

If you’re bold enough to be different, you can convert more leads. A marketing case study gives you that opportunity because nobody else can duplicate it.

Why is it so important to build trust?

Anybody can throw testimonials on their site by Ron R. and Jennifer K. Anyone can also make them up.

Trust is tenuous in the digital marketing world. If you can’t create it, you likely won’t convert leads into customers.

Think about all the companies that have experienced data hacks. Their stocks plummeted, consumer sentiment turned ugly, and profits dwindled. That’s because consumers lost trust.

Similarly, any company can make bold claims about its products or services. Consumers have become numb to superlative-littered copy and hyped-up videos. They want to see evidence.

If you can prove that your product or service delivers powerful results, you’ll gain your leads’ trust.

Marketing case studies show how you tackled a problem and overcame it on behalf of your customer or client. It’s that simple. The more detail you give, the more authority you create for your company — and the more your leads will trust your expertise.

4 Case Study Examples

Before we tell you how to build a case study, let’s look at a few examples to get you warmed up. Each of these marketing case studies illustrates the power behind the medium.

They’ll also show you how different case studies can look depending on design, detail, results, and goals.

The Shopify case study by HubSpot demonstrates how a narrative can be woven from a company’s journey. When Loren Padelford became head of sales, he immediately identified weak spots in Shopify’s sales cycle, so he decided to adopt HubSpot.

This case study highlights the ways in which Shopify used HubSpot’s email plugin to save time and improve communication flow. There’s a quote from Padelford in the case study, which can add even more impact in terms of building trust among leads.

Here, we have a fairly vague result. The company — specifically Padelford — claims to have achieved great success with HubSpot’s tools, but there aren’t any concrete numbers to back that up.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach, though, as long as your customer or client can offer a raving quote.

Ecommerce marketing case studies can become extremely valuable. In this case, Bit.ly used a more traditional template for a marketing case study. The PDF document includes several sections that take you through the process of how Vissla improved its omnichannel marketing with Bit.ly.

The results were that Vissla was able to visualize and centralize data in one place. They gained greater control over their social media marketing, which resulted in faster and better improvements in the content they shared.

There’s also a quote from Vissla’s media marketing manager, Keegan Fong: “Bitly Campaigns offers us a whole new way to look at our marketing channels. By giving us an easy-to-use dashboard that instantly displays the results of our multichannel promotions, we can see what kinds of content work on what channel, which channels we should be investing in the most, and what we need to do to optimize our content.” [ For Social: @vissla ]

3. Viperchill

There’s a great marketing case study from Viperchill that you’ll want to check out. It’s a quick, fun read that explains how the author created a squeeze page that generated more than 700 leads and results in a conversion rate of 64 percent.

Notice that he used hard numbers. Sometimes, it’s impossible to boil results down to a figure or percentage, but if you can, do so. People comprehend real numbers faster than lengthy text explanations.

4. MarketingSherpa

This MarketingSherpa case study is super detailed and describes the process by which MarketingSherpa helped a natural foods company boost revenue by 18 percent with a site redesign. You see the entire project from start to finish.

You’ll notice that there are lots of visuals. Since this marketing case study focused on design, visuals were imperative. Let your business and its niche guide the way in which you construct your case study.

How to Create a Case Study Marketing Strategy That Converts

Now that you’ve looked through a few case studies, how do you create a marketing case study of your own?

It starts with a case study marketing strategy that’s designed to convert leads. You don’t want to choose just any project. It should be geared toward other businesses or customers who might benefit from your business.

Let’s take it step by step.

1. Choose a success story that is closely related to your potential customer

You might notice that many companies publish numerous marketing case studies. There’s a reason for that.

Each case study targets a different segment of the company’s target audience. Let’s say that you sell shoes, purses, and hats. A case study about shoes won’t interest someone who’s shopping for hats.

You can either choose a project that has already concluded or one that is starting or underway. It’s always best to start at the beginning, but if you’re anxious, you can take the reverse-engineering route.

Decide which segment of your target audience you want to appeal to first. Next, select a case study subject closely related to that segment. You want your marketing case study to resonate with the leads you most want to convert.

2. Identify the key points of the case study and use storytelling

Decide what parts of the case study you want to highlight. These details will likely appear in the marketing case study’s headline as well as throughout the rest of the text.

For instance, if you helped a customer boost revenue by 200 percent, that’s a highly relevant detail. You’ll want to spotlight it in the headline and several times in the content so you keep it fresh in readers’ minds.

You might have several key points. Think about the struggles your customer was facing before you stepped in, how you approached the solution, and why alternatives weren’t working. When you can provide numbers, do so.

Once you’ve identified those key points, start weaving them into a narrative. Make it exciting! Add sensory details, frustration points, and colorful anecdotes.

A marketing case study shouldn’t sound dry. It needs to engage the reader so he or she keeps going until the end.

If possible, intersperse the copy with images. Make them relevant and easy to see on the screen. Let the images help supplement the story you’ve woven.

3. Highlight the great results

As mentioned above, results are paramount. If you can express them in numeric form, so much the better.

Consider creating a custom graphic to serve as the featured image on your post. That way, people can share the image on social. Add the amazing result to the text on the image to entice people to click.

The point here is to capture attention. If people are willing to pay attention to you, then you’ve won the first part of the battle. As long as you maintain that attention, you have a good chance of converting the lead.

4. Explore different types of design

Design can prove fundamental to a marketing case study’s success. If you’re publishing it as a blog post, break it up with H2s, H3s, and H4s to guide the reader through the story. Add images and leading lines to keep the visitor engaged.

Remember that color matters. Consider using colors for text and images that correlate with your customers’ color scheme or with your own site’s palette.

5. Ask for feedback! What does your potential customer want to learn?

Don’t let the conversation stop at the end of your marketing case study. Open up the forum for more insights.

Invite readers to ask you direct questions about your business, products, services, or methods. Not only that, but respond to those comments. Take each one as a gift.

These comments might tell you what type of case study you should create next or allow you to cement a conversion by answering objections or questions.

Marketing case studies can improve your conversion rate , but you have to put in the time and effort. Yes, a polished case study requires work, but if you can secure sales from its publication, why wouldn’t you give it your full attention?

Remember that trust matters when it comes to converting leads into customers . If you don’t have trust, you’ll lose your leads to your competitors.

A great marketing case study demonstrates your track record. It builds a case for leads to use your products or services over someone else’s.

What are you waiting for? Start creating your first marketing case study now.

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How to Write a Marketing Case Study (With Examples)

Learn exactly what a marketing case study is, how to write one that stands out, and review some examples of existing, successful studies.

As any big brand like MailChimp, Spotify and IMB will tell you, case studies are a huge part of solidifying your brand as thought leaders.

A case study is a win: you share the success of a customer as a result of your company’s actions. At SimpleTexting we call them our Success Stories , but no matter the name, the structure is the same — how company A worked with B to achieve XYZ. 

In this article we’ll cover everything from the basics to real-life examples.What exactly is a marketing case study, what constitutes a good one, and most importantly, how do you build one?

Let’s get started.

What is a Marketing Case Study?

According to Curata , “a case study in the context of marketing is an analysis of a project, campaign or company that identifies a situation, recommended solutions, implementation actions, and identification of those factors that contributed to failure or success.”

Sure, it’s a bit wordy, but at its core marketing case studies share information with prospective customers or clients about how your product offered a solution.

It doesn’t need to be dry reading. It doesn’t even need to be a report (although it can be). The key with a case study is that it should read like a story—only the beginning, middle, and end are all replicable business takeaways.

Case studies are for businesses of all sizes. They can be just as effective for small and medium-sized businesses as they are for enterprise businesses. Here’s why you should be investing time in building case studies.

Why Write a Marketing Case Study?

Before we dive into the instructions, let’s take a second to explore why a business would invest the time and effort into writing a case study. After all, why share your big marketing secrets with the world, what do you get out of the deal?

Simply put, you get the chance to share your story. Case studies, after all, are just stories showcasing your products and methods. They make for pretty spectacular advertising because, to a reader, it doesn’t feel like they’re being marketed to.

92% of customers prefer that media messages sound like a story. By using case studies you’re appealing to the logical, casual consumer who wants to know the “who, what, where, when, and why” that drives them to buy without any of the extra fuss. Case studies are the perfect medium to package it all.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study

As mentioned, every good case study maintains one singular focus: how one company used another to achieve its goal(s). This means most marketing case studies tend to take on an easily understandable problem-solution structure.

Let’s take a look at what you need to create a successful case study.

Components of a Marketing Case Study

Using the ingredients above, assemble them in this order to create a basic marketing case study:

• Write a title : Don’t worry about spoiling the ending. With case studies you want your title to let readers know right away how a campaign ended.  A case study title should include the name of the company or brand being examined, if their campaign went well or poorly for them and a solid metric that demonstrates exactly how well or how poorly they performed. For example: “ SimpleTexting Cut Down Product Onboarding Process by 30% Through Video Instruction. “
• Introduce the subject: Every marketing case study should open with a brief historical overview of the company. What have they struggled with in the past that led to them developing this campaign? Who is their target audience, what do they sell?  Even if your subject is obscure, you want to build a sense of relatability to your readers: so be sure to structure from general to specific. After all, you want readers outside just your industry to take away value.
• Identify your subject’s problems : Avoid leaving your readers feeling underwhelmed by presenting your subject’s problems early on in your case study. What are they trying to build, fix, or change? These problems are what will ultimately establish the subject’s goal, a one or two-sentence overview of the outcomes they’d like to see.
• Spell out your strategies and tactics : The real meat to your case study occurs here. This portion of your study is where you describe what actions you specifically took to try and reach your goals: What did you expect to happen when you tried “X, Y, and Z”?  Your case study can write this all out in paragraph form if you want it to read with some fluidity, or you can simply bullet out your strategies below each goal. Examples of good strategies for a common marketing pain point, such as building a social media following, include: connecting with influencers, developing original creative content, and developing paid advertising parameters.
• Share your results with visuals : At this point, you’ll want to follow up with the preview you set in your title and share with readers how things went. If you saw success, how much and where? If you didn’t were you able to pinpoint where things went wrong? Spare no detail as you write out what worked and what didn’t, and be sure to provide replicable detail (it may be what inspires your reader to become a customer!). Some common metrics commonly found in case studies include: web analytics and traffic, backlinks generated, keyword rankings, shares or other social interactions. Graphics like charts, bolded quotes, and graphs are good opportunities to visually demonstrate your data.
• Wrap it up with a conclusion : Know the difference between reemphasizing and repeating. When writing a conclusion you shouldn’t sound like an echo, repeating exactly what you said in your introduction. Instead, you want to draw emphasis back to your key points and call your readers to action. Let them know what they can do right now to get connected and see this same success (or avoid its failure).  If you’re writing a case study for marketing purposes, this is where you sell yourself and your product.

Marketing Case Study Examples

You’ve certainly heard enough from us to this point. Now it’s time to see what all of these tips and tricks look like in action. `

A plethora of marketing case study examples are out there, each one with a different objective: educational, sales-driven, industry leadership, and more.

To give you a well-rounded picture, we’ll share some of our favorite marketing case studies with you so you can see it all in action for yourself.

1. Surf Live Saving Foundation

The Surf Life Saving Foundation rolled out an innovative new framework for their brand known as the surf lottery. Despite the size of the initiative they were able to break down their process on a share of voice campaign with a great deal of clarity. Why we like this case study : It provides actionable and replicable examples of how their objectives were received.

2. StyleHaul & Asana

Organizational application Asana also finds itself in a competition-heavy environment. They are one of many SaaS productivity programs available. They needed to give their brand more of a voice to edge out against competitors offering near-identical products. The problem that needed solving in this success story is relatable to businesses all around the world, and ASANA’s use of it is a showcase of why they’re leaders in what they do.

Why we like this case study : It’s storytelling at its finest and perfectly demonstrates the subtle advertising concept.

3. Red Sox and CTP

This is a great example of a marketing agency showcasing its history of work with a high-profile client (the Boston Red Sox). It explores their entire body of work on a dynamic landing page. Why we like this case study : It demonstrates what a multi-media approach to a digital case study should strive to be.

4. SimpleTexting & U.S. Hunger

We couldn’t talk the talk without walking the walk. We have a range of varied case studies on our Success Stories page, but one of our absolute favorites is the results from U.S. Hunger.

U.S. Hunger was looking for a way to reach those who need them most – including those without internet access.

Why we like this case study: Not only does it highlight the incredible work of U.S. Hunger, it also shows how much can be accomplished through SMS. It spins a new light on SMS marketing and shows the wider impact of accessible communication. 

Marketing Case Studies are Key to Brand Trust

As a business looking to grow, you need to prove to prospective customers and clients why they should invest in you. Whether it’s a service or a product, case studies are viable ways of showing that what you do works and discussing how you achieved it.

The most impactful case studies aren’t always the ones with big names attached to them. They’re the best stories, the best solutions, and the ones that the most people can relate to.

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Meghan Tocci

Meghan Tocci is a content strategist at SimpleTexting. When she’s not writing about SaaS, she’s trying to teach her puppy Lou how to code. So far, not so good.

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How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

• Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
• Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
• Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
• Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
• Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

• Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
• Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
• Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
• Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

• An engaging headline
• A subject and customer introduction
• The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
• The solution the customer used to solve the problem
• The results achieved
• Data and statistics to back up claims of success
• A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

• Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
• Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
• Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
• Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
• Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
• Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

• Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
• Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
• Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
• Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
• Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

• Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
• Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
• Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

• Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
• Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
• Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
• Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

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5 Unique Digital Marketing Case Studies that Every Business Professional Should See

Published on: July 15, 2021

Businesses often rely on digital marketing to increase their brand awareness and bring in new customers. However, if the marketing efforts aren't effective, they can turn into a waste of time and money. In many ways, effective digital marketing is a process of trial and error. For this reason, a digital marketing case study can be a valuable source of guidance for today's business students and professionals, enabling them to learn from the results of others rather than having to start their own trial-and-error process from the beginning. As a business administration degree student, understanding and evaluating real-world marketing tactics is key to developing a solid foundation for your business career. With that in mind, let's take a look at five unique digital marketing case studies that you can use to inspire new ideas and hone your own future digital advertising strategy.

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Case Study #1: Fanatics Boosts Traffic Through Content Marketing

When Fanatics—an e-commerce store focused on selling sports apparel and other sports-related products—decided that it needed to provide customers with more reasons to engage with the company website,  it turned to content marketing as a solution . Fanatics chose a three-pronged approach for their content marketing campaign, one that included timely sports articles meant to coincide with current sporting events, evergreen content related to various events throughout sports history, and articles that capitalize on new trends and developments in the world of sports as they happen.

This strategy of producing both evergreen and trending content enabled Fanatics to establish itself as a desirable news and entertainment resource for sports fans all over the country. Thanks almost entirely to their content marketing campaign, Fanatics saw a 1,100% increase in organic search engine traffic along with a 230% increase in the number of ranking keywords on their website. The company's content marketing efforts also enabled it to publish high-profile features on popular sites such as Yahoo Sports, The Score, and USA Today.

Case Study #2: Wholesaler Drives Visibility and Conversions with Social Media Marketing

Case study #3: amazon leverages crm to become e-commerce giant.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process of managing interactions with customers to facilitate beneficial outcomes. Much more than simple customer management, CRM uses data processing to divide customer lists into a wide range of segments and formulate various interactions designed to speak to the needs and desires of each specific segment. If you would like a case study of a company that has leveraged innovative CRM with outstanding results, you need not look any further than the e-commerce giant Amazon.

As one of the first companies to really leverage CRM to its full potential, Amazon developed a CRM strategy that takes into consideration every possible interaction that the company has with its customers—from the user interface of the Amazon website to customer service interactions to data mining used for targeted marketing emails. Through this emphasis on CRM, Amazon has managed to create one of the most customer-friendly experiences you will find in the e-commerce sphere—and the results of these efforts are obvious. In 2020 alone, Amazon was able to boast a staggering $386 billion in revenue.

Case Study #4: The American Egg Board Boosts Organic Traffic Through SEO

Case study #5: revecent increases conversion rate with holistic ppc campaign optimization.

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What Is A Marketing Case Study? See Examples And Write Yours

• by Ranu Kumari

There are several instances in life when a person can learn from observing the world around him, which also applies to organizations. When a firm wants to understand a product’s or strategy’s success or failure, they turn to case studies. There are several types of case studies out there. Some of them are – a marketing case study, a finance case study, or a case study in innovation.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject. This could be a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are prevalent in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

Also, they are helpful in a variety of fields. These include psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work. However, we will look at the different elements of a marketing case study in this article.

Case studies are based on evidence; they begin with a question or problem that requires an answer through research. The researcher then collects information using interviews or observations.

The researcher might even conduct an experiment to test an idea related to the case study. After this data is collected and analyzed, the researcher writes up their findings in an article called a case report or case study report.

Also, a case study focuses on a detailed description of an individual or group experience from beginning to end. A case study does not provide generalizations about the larger population but rather focuses on how an individual or group responded to an event.

Case studies may also involve multiple individuals or groups with similar experiences. Case studies are used for:

• Testing Hypotheses
• Exploring an Issue
• Developing new ideas, theories, Models, or, Concepts
• Helping you understand specific individuals or groups in detail

What Is a Marketing Case Study

The marketing case study is a persuasive document that uses real-world examples to demonstrate the value of your product or service. It’s a powerful tool for marketing, sales, and customer support teams as it enables them to share the results of their work and how it helped solve a customer’s problem.

A marketing case study is basically a good story. Like all good stories, it needs to have the following elements:

• A Hero – This is the main character who is the good guy.
• The Problem – A situation that puts our hero in a difficult situation.
• The Solution – The product or service that saves the day. Also, it makes the hero happy.

Approaching a case study like a story is something that will be exciting for marketers. This is because marketers are fond of creating memorable stories for their brands.

However, it is essential to remember that the readers of the case study must be able to connect with it. This also means that they should be able to visualize themselves in the main character’s shoes.

Why Should Companies Write a Case Study?

Writing a marketing case study is hard work. It is not as simple as writing a blog post. This is because a case study has a large number of data points. All of them have to be accurate. Also, when a firm intends to mention a client by name, they need the necessary approvals. This can be a time-consuming process.

However, there are many compelling reasons to create a marketing case study. Here, we look at those reasons in some detail.

Demonstrate the power of your product.

Case studies can be effective marketing tools because they show your audience what your product or service can do for them and are much harder to ignore than an ad or blog post.

Build customer loyalty.

Keeping in touch with happy customers will allow them to voice their opinion about your business. However, it will also allow them to reaffirm why they chose your business in the first place.

Enhance Sales.

When a salesperson has case studies to share, it’s an opportunity for them to talk about the benefits their product or service can have for the customer. Also, they can speak about the resounding reception of the product . This, in turn, leads to an increased volume of sales.

Multi-Format and multi-purpose content.

Testimonial quotes and data snippets from your customers make great calls to action on various pages of your website. These could be your homepage, product and service pages, landing pages, etc. You can also repurpose these into PDFs, ebooks, videos, and infographics.

An opportunity to tell your story.

Case studies allow you to share your story, showing readers that your products and methods are effective. This makes for a fantastic form of advertising because it’s not pushy or over-the-top.

Earn Trust.

Case studies help convert positive customer opinions into tangible data that prove your value. In fact, a vast majority of marketers trust this type of content.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study

This section will look at how to write a high-impact and persuasive marketing case study.

Clear Headline.

The headline should share the most critical information about the case study. It should be able to capture its essence in a single sentence.

Write about someone your customer can relate to.

One should know their target audience before working on a marketing case study. They must know the industry the readers are a part of.

Ultimately, the audience must understand that the author is knowledgeable about the industry. Also, they must understand that he knows the customer’s pain points and can provide a solution for them.

Provide a summary.

A marketing case study should start with a crisp summary. The history of the firm, the industry it is a part of, and its leading products or services must also be covered in the summary. Also, the summary should introduce the client.

Narrate the complete story.

You must have got the gist by now. A marketing case study is a fantastic opportunity to tell your story. Furthermore, it is essential to tell it well. As always, one can rely on the STAR framework to make a good business story.

S – Situation: What was the situation that your brand was facing? How did it affect the customer? And, how did it affect you?

T- Task: What did you have to do to fix the situation?

A- Analysis: What approach did you use to analyze the problem? Also, what are the steps to solve it?

R – Result: What were the results of your efforts? To what extent did you solve the problem?

One can also report aspects such as improvement in customer satisfaction. Also, regular follow-ups with a select group of customers can get their feedback on after-sales service. It helps to focus on the long-term and emotional benefits as well.

The case study should be easy to read.

A marketing case study cannot be in the form of continuous text. Otherwise, people will doze off while reading it.

Rather, it should contain a small paragraph, and one must make sure that the case study includes headers, tables, images, and text. This will help improve SEO. It will also make the case study easy to read.

One can include short videos, infographics, and other multimedia to make the case study even more compelling.

Use actual facts and figures.

When writing case studies, it is always better to use actual data . This lends credibility to a person’s work instead of vague terms like ‘increased sales’ or ‘tripled footfall.’

One must mention whether the footfall has grown from 100 to 300 or from 2000 to 6000. Also, one must use charts and graphs to convey the meaning and scale of the data. Finally, any number is meaningless without context. Always remember to present the data points with some reference to the context.

Outline clear strategies

When an organization sets a challenging goal and achieves the target, it calls for a celebration and a marketing case study.

One should always substantiate strategies when discussing the reasons behind the firm’s success. For instance, targeting only the middle of the funnel, customers saw conversions increase from 50 to 75 per month.

Experiment with different formats

Case studies need to be put into text formats all the time. One can play around with different formats to see what works best. It could be a video interview where the customer talks about his challenges.

However, the end objective of the case study remains the same irrespective of the format.

The problems of the customer and how your product solved them for him.

Case studies can also be in the form of brochures, webinars, or podcasts. Another advantage of different formats is that the content will appeal to a wider audience.

Case studies must be easy to find

The case studies must be presented in a prominent section on your website. Further, they have to be optimized for search. Also, all case studies must be promoted on social media and by email.

Marketing Case Study Examples

In this section, we will look at some case studies examples. These case studies demonstrate how to present a sticky situation and its solution in a wonderful manner.

Porch case study

This case study details a year of content marketing that resulted in 931 unique domain links, 23,000 monthly organic visits, and more. The content marketing agency Fractal worked with Porch to achieve these results.

This is a great way to demonstrate your ability to deliver the desired results without disclosing confidential information. Also, these case studies give confidence to other companies in the same industry. You can read the case study here.

IDEO case study

This case study shows that IDEO aims to transform the airport experience by putting passengers first. They have presented the facts exceptionally well. The case study explains how the firm helped Pearson International Airport respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The entire case study is divided into three parts: the challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Another good thing is that there are visuals and images to break the flow of text. You can find the case study here.

Chevrolet DTU case study

This case is an excellent example of how a well-known brand fuels the reader’s curiosity. Here, the initials DTU are used. Everybody was interested to know what the abbreviation stands for. Well, DTU is ‘Discover The Unexpected.’

A mix of images, videos, and bullet points sustains the reader’s interest. One of the best things about this case study is that only the name of the brand is used to catch the audience’s attention. You can read this case study here.

Omnichannel Challenge – Bitly Case Study

Bitly uses a PDF format for all its text-heavy case studies. The case study in question is one of an e-commerce company, Vissal. The entire case study consists of different sections, such as ‘The Goal’, and ‘Top Omnichannel Obstacles.’

Also, it includes images in ‘The Set Up’ and ‘The Launch.’ The PDF is available for download and opens up in a separate window.

The colors and text used follow Bitly’s brand guidelines. It shows that a PDF is an excellent format for a case study. However, it is essential to keep the case study short. This case study is available here .

Some disadvantages of case studies

People write case studies so that learning from one situation can be applied to other similar situations. However, that does not always happen. This is because each situation has its unique nature.

Also, case studies can become theoretical in nature. This is even though they are based on real situations.

Marketing Case Study Examples: Best 15 to Learn From

Do you want to showcase your products and services to prospects? A pleasant and appealing website and engaging videos are a good start, but is it enough? To find out, consider examining some marketing case study examples and determining if there are additional strategies you could use to showcase your offerings to potential customers better.

A great website, social media presence, and targeted messaging are all essential to growing your business. But gradually building authority in your niche by boosting your credibility is an altogether different affair. You need to spice things up to make a super impression on your future customers.

And that you can do with a convincing case study!

But simply finding a basic template online and duplicating it for your case study can never be enough. This article will give you the top 20 marketing case study examples that masterfully communicate with your audience, driving your message home.

What is a Marketing Case Study?

A marketing case study contains various information, quotes, statistics, etc. It is like telling a story of how your agency helped a brand solve a problem or excel in the market. In fact, a good case study must be filled up to the brim with quality research. Every result or quote must have a fact or statistics backing it up.

Furthermore, a marketing case study must not be unnecessarily elaborate. In other words, every sentence you put in it must be relevant to the target audience. If it is on point and precise, it is sure to rope in new customers for you.

Marketing case studies can be displayed on your company’s website. It works as proof of what you’ve done, how you’ve done it, and so on. Some companies also choose to make their marketing case studies a part of their sales presentation while pitching to new customers.

Either way, you choose to use it, a case study is an essential customer acquisition tool you must operate properly.

Why Are They Important?

• It provides formidable social proof to your company.
• It gives your target customer the complete picture of what to expect from your brand.
• A case study is a perfect tool for your company to build trust, as statistics and quotes from previous customers support it.
• There’s a range of different ways you can prepare a case study, from text-heavy and video-based to infographics.

At a time when 9 out of 10 consumers look for customer testimonials or other kinds of social proof before making a purchase, case studies are immensely vital.

Want to know how to create a great one? Here are some examples of a marketing case study done right!

Top 15 Examples of Marketing Case Study

1. the whole package by ideo.

IDEO is a design company that partnered up with H&M to help the latter remove plastic from their packaging. Their case study , ‘The Whole Package,’ is quite simple and direct. But when it comes to driving the point home, you can say it ticks all the boxes.

Furthermore, this IDEO case study has been neatly categorized into sections. Coupled with the masterful use of visuals with crisp and convincing copy, this marketing case study is an excellent example of a comprehensive one.

2. Chevrolet DTU by Carol H Williams

When your client is a world-renowned name, why hide it? That’s what this case study teaches us. In fact, what better social proof than showing the world look “the brand that billions of consumers trust chose us, why can’t you?”

Engaging subheadings throughout this Carol H Williams case study further make it a convenient read.

Remember, no matter how convincing your statistics or facts are, try not to intimidate the reader. Feel free to have many sections; prefer crisp pointers over fluffy paragraphs.

3. In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study by Switch

When it comes to performance marketing, many abbreviations and jargon are involved. Some readers might find it a major turn-off. This marketing case study by Switch masterfully shows how you can avoid sounding scary in this way.

This one dedicates a page to each of the results they got for their client. For instance, the Facebook Ads results have their own page, and it has been so simplified that even a non-marketer would understand. That’s what makes this case study stand out.

4. Gila Rivers by OH Partners

A picture speaks a thousand words. And this case study shows just how you can use pictures to prepare the perfect case study. Using pictures, OH Partners have communicated what they’ve done for their clients and what their future customers can expect regarding results.

The marketing case study is visually appealing, thanks to elegant pictures that make it easy on the eyes. Even if you have no prior knowledge of marketing or OH Partners, the case study’s style is backed up by convincing statistics, which helps to make it one of the top examples in the field.

5. Capital One on AWS by Amazon

This case study is for companies working for clients for a long time. This Amazon case study features several articles detailing how Capital One benefitted from AWS over the years.

Starting from 2016, these articles elaborate on every aspect of Capital One being on AWS. So, is there a client you have been serving for years? Have they benefitted from your services or product in various ways? If yes, this is an approach you can take.

6. Acoustic by Genuine

Simplicity, as they say, is often all you need to make a lasting impression. And this case study by Genuine is truly a masterpiece in simplicity. First, it goes directly to the point and uses minimal text to drive the message home.

With neatly divided sections, this marketing case study is as simple in the text as in the visuals. Neither the colors nor the visuals are shouting at the reader from the screen. What it teaches us? Well, you don’t need to write a lot or use loud visuals to communicate effectively with the target audience.

7. Customer Success Case Study by Convoso

This one might not be as simple in name or feel as the previous one, but it is as effective. How? Because as soon as you lay your eyes on this Convoso case study , you notice the 300% boost. And if you’re a potential customer looking for a similar, you can hardly ignore it.

Another striking characteristic of this one is its vivid use of colors. Even though this 11-page PDF might seem a bit lengthy to some, the easy-on-the-eye color palette makes it quite readable. So, don’t ignore the visual aspect is what this marketing case study example teaches us.

8. The Hunt Club Case Study by Happeo

This is a case study written entirely from the perspective of the customers. Yes! Every paragraph in this Happeo case study contains quotes from Hunt Club, the company that chose Happeo’s solution.

An elaborate embedded video further does the trick for this one. But if we were to glean one thing from this case study, it has to be the fact that Happeo has told its own success story in the words of the customer.

Can a case study be any more of a social proof? We think not!

9. NetApp Case Study by Evisort

The unique thing about this one is that it starts with an overview of the client. Evisort sets the groundwork for its message right at the beginning. Once they’ve informed us about their client’s nature, they gradually move on to the problem solved.

For one, this follows the marketing case study thumb rule of always focusing more on the client. Secondly, it prepares a solid base for the reader, helping her clearly understand what has been discussed in the coming segments.

But there’s another important thing about this Evisort case study . It tells the story of the solution focusing on a particular era, the pandemic in this case. You can also employ this strategy and give more context to the solution you provided to your client.

10. The Met by Fantasy

A complete redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

How to showcase a nice and responsive website you created for a client? The simplest way is to put snaps of the website in your case study. And that’s what this Fantasy case study has done so masterfully.

What this case study teaches us is that you don’t have to write a bunch of stuff or put in statistics everywhere. If the result you provided to your client can be showcased visually, why not use the case study to do just that?

In Conclusion

Marketing case studies are one of the best ways to build credibility and trust with potential customers. They also help you generate leads by showcasing your expertise and proving that you can deliver results. Most importantly, they can help you win over new clients by showing them what to expect from working with you — and how much better things will be when they do.

So, these were a range of marketing case study examples and what we can learn from each. Which one was your favorite? Is there a pattern you identified? To be clear, each of these examples was unique and innovative in its own way. You can go ahead and pick a style and focus for your case study.

In a nutshell, relevancy matters the most if you want your case study to expand your business. So, instead of blindly following any of the examples we have listed, make your own mark with a compelling marketing case study.

We wish you all the best in your customer acquisition and expansion efforts. And we hope this article was of great help to you.

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Ranu Kumari is a Professional Writer and a Marketing enthusiast who currently runs her own Marketing Consultancy, LatitudeBOX. She has written promotional articles for multiple brands and has published her work in Scopus indexed journals. She is passionate about expressing her thoughts and ideas to connect with her readers in a voice that they understand.

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Lessons from the Field: Analyzing Successful Marketing Case Studies

Discover valuable insights and strategies from real-life marketing case studies in this informative article.

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, success stories serve as valuable lessons. Case studies, in particular, provide real-world examples and insights that can shape marketing strategies, campaigns, and tactics. They offer a window into the strategies employed by successful brands, allowing marketers to extract valuable insights and apply them to their own endeavors. In this article, we will delve into the importance of case studies in marketing, identify key elements of successful case studies, explore how to extract valuable insights from them, and discuss the application of those insights to improve marketing strategies.

Understanding the Importance of Case Studies in Marketing

Case studies play a vital role in the development of marketing strategy. They provide marketers with evidence of what works in real-world scenarios, allowing them to learn from others' successes and avoid their mistakes. Additionally, case studies offer an opportunity to understand the challenges faced by various organizations and how they overcame them.

The role of case studies in marketing strategy development

Case studies serve as a foundation for marketing strategy development. By analyzing successful marketing case studies, marketers can gain a deeper understanding of the tactics and approaches that have proven effective in the past. This knowledge enables them to make informed decisions and craft strategies that are more likely to succeed.

For example, let's consider a case study on a popular clothing brand that successfully launched a new product line. By examining the marketing strategies employed, such as influencer collaborations and targeted social media campaigns, marketers can draw valuable insights. They can learn about the importance of creating a buzz around the launch, leveraging the power of social media influencers, and engaging with their target audience in a meaningful way.

Furthermore, case studies provide marketers with a comprehensive view of the marketing landscape. They showcase different industries, markets, and target audiences, allowing marketers to broaden their perspective. This exposure to diverse case studies helps marketers identify innovative strategies and adapt them to their specific business needs.

How case studies provide real-world examples and insights

Case studies bring marketing theories and concepts to life by showcasing their application in real-world scenarios. They provide concrete examples of marketing strategies, tactics, and campaigns that have achieved measurable success. Whether it's a social media campaign that went viral or a targeted content marketing strategy, case studies offer a wealth of insights into what works and how it can be replicated.

Let's delve into a case study on a startup that successfully disrupted the market with a unique marketing approach. This case study highlights the importance of thinking outside the box and taking calculated risks. By analyzing the strategies employed by the startup, marketers can gain valuable insights into unconventional marketing methods that can create a buzz and differentiate their brand from competitors.

Furthermore, case studies provide an opportunity to learn from failures as well. By examining unsuccessful marketing campaigns, marketers can identify pitfalls to avoid and gain a deeper understanding of what does not work in certain contexts. This knowledge is invaluable in refining marketing strategies and avoiding costly mistakes.

Moreover, case studies offer a glimpse into the ever-evolving digital landscape. With the rapid advancement of technology, marketers need to stay updated on the latest trends and tools. By studying case studies that showcase successful digital marketing campaigns, marketers can gain insights into emerging platforms, innovative techniques, and effective ways to engage with digitally-savvy consumers.

In conclusion, case studies are an essential tool for marketers to enhance their understanding of successful marketing strategies and gain insights into real-world examples. By analyzing case studies, marketers can make informed decisions, craft effective marketing strategies, and stay ahead in the dynamic and competitive marketing landscape.

Identifying Key Elements of Successful Marketing Case Studies

To truly benefit from analyzing case studies, it is essential to identify their key elements. By understanding what makes a case study successful, marketers can find valuable lessons and apply them to their own marketing initiatives.

Case studies are a powerful tool for marketers to gain insights and learn from the successes of others. They provide a real-life example of how a marketing strategy was implemented and the results that were achieved. However, not all case studies are created equal. Some are more effective than others in conveying the key lessons and inspiring marketers to take action.

Defining the objectives and target audience of the case study

Successful case studies clearly define their objectives and target audience. These two factors shape the entire narrative of the case study, ensuring that it aligns with the intended lessons and resonates with the readers who can benefit from it.

When defining the objectives of a case study, marketers should consider what specific insights they want to gain and what actions they hope to inspire. This clarity of purpose will guide the selection of case study subjects and the analysis of their strategies.

Similarly, identifying the target audience is crucial for crafting a case study that speaks directly to the right people. Marketers should consider who will benefit the most from the lessons shared in the case study and tailor the language, examples, and recommendations accordingly.

Selecting the right case study subjects for analysis

The choice of case study subjects is crucial. Marketers should select case studies that closely align with their industry, target market, or specific marketing challenges they face. By analyzing case studies that are relevant and relatable, marketers can extract insights that are directly applicable to their own marketing strategies.

When selecting case study subjects, marketers should consider not only the industry or market segment but also the specific challenges or goals they are facing. For example, if a marketer is struggling with social media engagement, analyzing a case study of a successful social media campaign can provide valuable insights and inspiration.

Furthermore, it is important to consider the credibility and reliability of the case study subjects. Marketers should look for case studies that have been well-documented and have credible sources of information. This ensures that the insights gained from the analysis are based on accurate and trustworthy data.

Analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies

Case studies have a distinct structure and format. Successful case studies often follow a storytelling approach, clearly outlining the problem, the strategy employed, the tactics used, and the results achieved. Analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies can help marketers present their own strategies in a compelling and engaging manner.

When analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies, marketers should pay attention to the flow of the narrative. Is the story easy to follow? Does it build tension and create anticipation? Is the resolution satisfying? These elements contribute to the overall impact of the case study and can make it more memorable and persuasive.

In addition, marketers should consider the use of visuals and supporting data in successful case studies. Visuals such as charts, graphs, and images can help illustrate key points and make the case study more visually appealing. Supporting data, such as statistics and metrics, can add credibility and provide evidence of the effectiveness of the strategies employed.

By analyzing the structure and format of successful case studies, marketers can gain insights into how to present their own strategies in a way that captures the attention of their audience and effectively communicates the key lessons.

Extracting Valuable Insights from Marketing Case Studies

Once marketers have identified successful case studies, the next step is to extract valuable insights that can inform their own marketing initiatives. This involves examining the strategies employed, understanding the impact of market research and data analysis, and learning from innovative and creative marketing campaigns.

Identifying successful marketing strategies and tactics

Case studies provide an opportunity to identify successful marketing strategies and tactics that have proven effective in specific scenarios. By analyzing these strategies, marketers can gain inspiration and adapt them to their own campaigns to achieve similar results.

Understanding the impact of market research and data analysis

Market research and data analysis play a crucial role in successful marketing case studies. These studies often highlight the importance of gathering and analyzing relevant data to inform marketing decisions. By understanding how market research and data analysis contribute to successful marketing, marketers can leverage these tools to enhance their own strategies.

Learning from innovative and creative marketing campaigns

Successful case studies often showcase innovative and creative marketing campaigns that have captured audience attention. By analyzing these campaigns, marketers can learn valuable lessons about creativity, resourcefulness, and out-of-the-box thinking. These insights can then be applied to their own marketing initiatives to create impact and differentiate their brands.

Applying Lessons Learned to Improve Marketing Strategies

Deriving insights from case studies is only valuable if they can be effectively applied to improve marketing strategies. This involves implementing successful case study findings into marketing plans, adapting strategies to fit different industries and target markets, and measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies based on case study insights.

Implementing successful case study findings into marketing plans

Successful case study findings should not remain mere insights but should be transformed into actionable plans. Marketers should incorporate these findings into their marketing strategies and campaigns, adapting them to suit their own unique circumstances. By implementing successful case study findings, marketers can increase the likelihood of achieving desirable outcomes.

Adapting strategies to fit different industries and target markets

While case studies provide valuable insights, it's crucial to adapt them to fit different industries and target markets. What works for one brand may not necessarily work for another. Marketers should carefully consider the nuances of their own industry and target market and tailor strategies accordingly. By intelligently integrating case study learnings with industry context, marketers can maximize effectiveness.

Measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies based on case study insights

An effective marketing strategy is one that can be measured and evaluated. Once marketers have applied case study insights to their own strategies, they should establish clear metrics to assess their effectiveness. By measuring the impact of their strategies, marketers can continuously refine and optimize their marketing efforts based on the lessons learned from the case studies they have analyzed.

Storing Templates in the HIVO Platform

In addition to analyzing case studies for insights, marketers can also streamline their marketing processes by utilizing digital asset management platforms like HIVO. One valuable feature of HIVO is the ability to store templates.

Templates provide marketers with a consistent and efficient way to execute marketing campaigns. With HIVO, marketing teams can easily access and use pre-designed templates for various marketing materials, such as landing pages, social media ads, email campaigns, and more.

By storing templates in the HIVO platform, marketers can ensure brand consistency, save time on design iterations, and maintain quality control over the marketing materials. The ability to store templates simplifies the marketing workflow, enhances collaboration among team members, and allows for better scalability in marketing campaigns.

In conclusion, analyzing successful marketing case studies is a valuable practice for marketers seeking to improve their strategies. By understanding the importance of case studies, identifying key elements of successful case studies, extracting valuable insights, and applying those lessons learned, marketers can enhance their marketing outcomes and drive success in their campaigns. Additionally, leveraging digital asset management platforms like HIVO, with features such as template storage, can further streamline marketing processes and improve efficiency.

9 Creative Case Study Presentation Examples & Templates

Learn from proven case study presentation examples and best practices how to get creative, stand out, engage your audience, excite action, and drive results.

9 minute read

helped business professionals at:

Short answer

What makes a good case study presentation?

A good case study presentation has an engaging story, a clear structure, real data, visual aids, client testimonials, and a strong call to action. It informs and inspires, making the audience believe they can achieve similar results.

Dull case studies can cost you clients.

A boring case study presentation doesn't just risk putting your audience to sleep—it can actuallyl ead to lost sales and missed opportunities.

When your case study fails to inspire, it's your bottom line that suffers.

Interactive elements are the secret sauce for successful case study presentations.

They not only increase reader engagement by 22% but also lead to a whopping 41% more decks being read fully , proving that the winning deck is not a monologue but a conversation that involves the reader.

Let me show you shape your case studies into compelling narratives that hook your audience and drive revenue.

Let’s go!

How to create a case study presentation that drives results?

Crafting a case study presentation that truly drives results is about more than just data—it's about storytelling, engagement, and leading your audience down the sales funnel.

Here's how you can do it:

Tell a story: Each case study should follow a narrative arc. Start with the problem, introduce your solution, and showcase the results. Make it compelling and relatable.

Leverage data: Hard numbers build credibility. Use them to highlight your successes and reinforce your points.

Use visuals: Images, infographics, and videos can enhance engagement, making complex information more digestible and memorable.

Add interactive elements: Make your presentation a two-way journey. Tools like tabs and live data calculators can increase time spent on your deck by 22% and the number of full reads by 41% .

Finish with a strong call-to-action: Every good story needs a conclusion. Encourage your audience to take the next step in their buyer journey with a clear, persuasive call-to-action.

Visual representation of what a case study presentation should do:

How to write an engaging case study presentation?

Creating an engaging case study presentation involves strategic storytelling, understanding your audience, and sparking action.

In this guide, I'll cover the essentials to help you write a compelling narrative that drives results.

What is the best format for a business case study presentation?

4 best format types for a business case study presentation:

• Problem-solution case study
• Before-and-after case study
• Success story case study
• Interview style case study

Each style has unique strengths, so pick one that aligns best with your story and audience. For a deeper dive into these formats, check out our detailed blog post on case study format types .

What to include in a case study presentation?

An effective case study presentation contains 7 key elements:

• Introduction
• Company overview
• The problem/challenge
• Your solution
• Customer quotes/testimonials

To learn more about what should go in each of these sections, check out our post on what is a case study .

How to motivate readers to take action?

Based on BJ Fogg's behavior model , successful motivation involves 3 components:

This is all about highlighting the benefits. Paint a vivid picture of the transformative results achieved using your solution.

Use compelling data and emotive testimonials to amplify the desire for similar outcomes, therefore boosting your audience's motivation.

This refers to making the desired action easy to perform. Show how straightforward it is to implement your solution.

Use clear language, break down complex ideas, and reinforce the message that success is not just possible, but also readily achievable with your offering.

This is your powerful call-to-action (CTA), the spark that nudges your audience to take the next step. Ensure your CTA is clear, direct, and tied into the compelling narrative you've built.

It should leave your audience with no doubt about what to do next and why they should do it.

Here’s how you can do it with Storydoc:

How to adapt your presentation for your specific audience?

Every audience is different, and a successful case study presentation speaks directly to its audience's needs, concerns, and desires.

Understanding your audience is crucial. This involves researching their pain points, their industry jargon, their ambitions, and their fears.

Then, tailor your presentation accordingly. Highlight how your solution addresses their specific problems. Use language and examples they're familiar with. Show them how your product or service can help them reach their goals.

A case study presentation that's tailor-made for its audience is not just a presentation—it's a conversation that resonates, engages, and convinces.

How to design a great case study presentation?

A powerful case study presentation is not only about the story you weave—it's about the visual journey you create.

Let's navigate through the design strategies that can transform your case study presentation into a gripping narrative.

Add interactive elements

Static design has long been the traditional route for case study presentations—linear, unchanging, a one-size-fits-all solution.

However, this has been a losing approach for a while now. Static content is killing engagement, but interactive design will bring it back to life.

It invites your audience into an evolving, immersive experience, transforming them from passive onlookers into active participants.

Which of these presentations would you prefer to read?

Use narrated content design (scrollytelling)

Scrollytelling combines the best of scrolling and storytelling. This innovative approach offers an interactive narrated journey controlled with a simple scroll.

It lets you break down complex content into manageable chunks and empowers your audience to control their reading pace.

To make this content experience available to everyone, our founder, Itai Amoza, collaborated with visualization scientist Prof. Steven Franconeri to incorporate scrollytelling into Storydoc.

This collaboration led to specialized storytelling slides that simplify content and enhance engagement (which you can find and use in Storydoc).

Here’s an example of Storydoc scrollytelling:

Bring your case study to life with multimedia

Multimedia brings a dynamic dimension to your presentation. Video testimonials lend authenticity and human connection. Podcast interviews add depth and diversity, while live graphs offer a visually captivating way to represent data.

Each media type contributes to a richer, more immersive narrative that keeps your audience engaged from beginning to end.

Prioritize mobile-friendly design

In an increasingly mobile world, design must adapt. Avoid traditional, non-responsive formats like PPT, PDF, and Word.

Opt for a mobile-optimized design that guarantees your presentation is always at its best, regardless of the device.

As a significant chunk of case studies are opened on mobile, this ensures wider accessibility and improved user experience , demonstrating respect for your audience's viewing preferences.

Here’s what a traditional static presentation looks like as opposed to a responsive deck:

Streamline the design process

Creating a case study presentation usually involves wrestling with an AI website builder .

It's a dance that often needs several partners - designers to make it look good, developers to make it work smoothly, and plenty of time to bring it all together.

Building, changing, and personalizing your case study can feel like you're climbing a mountain when all you need is to cross a hill.

By switching to Storydoc’s interactive case study creator , you won’t need a tech guru or a design whizz, just your own creativity.

You’ll be able to create a customized, interactive presentation for tailored use in sales prospecting or wherever you need it without the headache of mobilizing your entire team.

Storydoc will automatically adjust any change to your presentation layout, so you can’t break the design even if you tried.

Case study presentation examples that engage readers

Let’s take a deep dive into some standout case studies.

These examples go beyond just sharing information – they're all about captivating and inspiring readers. So, let’s jump in and uncover the secret behind what makes them so effective.

What makes this deck great:

• A video on the cover slide will cause 32% more people to interact with your case study .
• The running numbers slide allows you to present the key results your solution delivered in an easily digestible way.
• The ability to include 2 smart CTAs gives readers the choice between learning more about your solution and booking a meeting with you directly.

Light mode case study

• The ‘read more’ button is perfect if you want to present a longer case without overloading readers with walls of text.
• The timeline slide lets you present your solution in the form of a compelling narrative.
• A combination of text-based and visual slides allows you to add context to the main insights.

Marketing case study

• Tiered slides are perfect for presenting multiple features of your solution, particularly if they’re relevant to several use cases.
• Easily customizable slides allow you to personalize your case study to specific prospects’ needs and pain points.
• The ability to embed videos makes it possible to show your solution in action instead of trying to describe it purely with words.

UX case study

• Various data visualization components let you present hard data in a way that’s easier to understand and follow.
• The option to hide text under a 'Read more' button is great if you want to include research findings or present a longer case study.
• Content segmented using tabs , which is perfect if you want to describe different user research methodologies without overwhelming your audience.

Business case study

• Library of data visualization elements to choose from comes in handy for more data-heavy case studies.
• Ready-to-use graphics and images which can easily be replaced using our AI assistant or your own files.
• Information on the average reading time in the cover reduces bounce rate by 24% .

Modern case study

• Dynamic variables let you personalize your deck at scale in just a few clicks.
• Logo placeholder that can easily be replaced with your prospect's logo for an added personal touch.
• Several text placeholders that can be tweaked to perfection with the help of our AI assistant to truly drive your message home.

Real estate case study

• Plenty of image placeholders that can be easily edited in a couple of clicks to let you show photos of your most important listings.
• Data visualization components can be used to present real estate comps or the value of your listings for a specific time period.
• Interactive slides guide your readers through a captivating storyline, which is key in a highly-visual industry like real estate .

Medical case study

• Image and video placeholders are perfect for presenting your solution without relying on complex medical terminology.
• The ability to hide text under an accordion allows you to include research or clinical trial findings without overwhelming prospects with too much information.
• Clean interactive design stands out in a sea of old-school medical case studies, making your deck more memorable for prospective clients.

Dark mode case study

• The timeline slide is ideal for guiding readers through an attention-grabbing storyline or explaining complex processes.
• Dynamic layout with multiple image and video placeholders that can be replaced in a few clicks to best reflect the nature of your business.
• Testimonial slides that can easily be customized with quotes by your past customers to legitimize your solution in the eyes of prospects.

Grab a case study presentation template

Creating an effective case study presentation is not just about gathering data and organizing it in a document. You need to weave a narrative, create an impact, and most importantly, engage your reader.

So, why start from zero when interactive case study templates can take you halfway up?

Instead of wrestling with words and designs, pick a template that best suits your needs, and watch your data transform into an engaging and inspiring story.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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Digital Marketing Case Studies: 35 Examples for Online Success

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How would you like to read the best digital marketing case studies ever published?

More importantly, how would you like to copy the best practices for online marketing that are based on real-world examples and not just theory.

If that sounds, good then you’ll get a lot of value out of this post.

Below, you’ll find a list of the top 35 online marketing case studies along with the results and key findings from each example. There are 5 sections in total covering the different aspects of digital marketing, including content marketing, SEO, PPC, social media, email, video, and affiliate. Within each section is also a link to find even more expert insights and data examples on that particular topic.

By studying these Internet marketing case study examples and applying the lessons learned in your own digital campaigns, you can hopefully achieve similar results to speed up your online success.

Table of Contents

Digital Marketing Case Studies

Content marketing case studies, appsumo grew organic traffic 843% & revenue 340%  – omniscient digital marketing case study.

In this digital marketing case study, you’ll find out how Omniscient Digital used a four-part approach to grow AppSumo’s organic website traffic by 843% and the revenue from that traffic by 340$. Includes details on the research process, strategy development, content production, and building links to those web pages.

From 0 to 100,000 Visitors Per Month  – Optimist Digital Marketing Case Study

This online marketing case study example shows you how Optimist took a startup called College Raptor from 0 to 100,000 organic sessions per month. It focuses on the big-picture strategy that was used to achieve that result and explains why it worked. This is a good case study example that demonstrates what successful content creation and promotion look like for startup businesses.

American Kennel Club Increased Online Traffic by 30%  – Contently Digital Marketing Case Study

If you’re in the animal niche and looking for good Internet marketing case studies that can help you grow your website with content creation, then this article by Contently can help. Inside, you’ll learn how the company used a digital content strategy to increase website traffic by 30% for the American Kennel Club. This method attracted both new puppy owners and seasoned dog lovers and resulted in $26.6 million in content value.

3,532 New Beta Users for alwaysAI  – Beacons Point Digital Marketing Case Study

Beacons Point is a digital marketing agency that partners with B2B companies in software and technology to execute results-driven online campaigns. In this case study example, you’ll learn how Beacons Point discerned the right market for alwaysAI, a software company, to target prospects with the content they wanted, and transform the audience into an avid user base using a well-researched Internet strategy and content planning process. As a result, alwaysAI gained 3,532 new beta users, 20,000 monthly website sessions, and a 2,021% increase in traffic within just 10 months.

Online Marketing Strategy Drives 452% Increase In Organic Traffic  – Top Rank Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll learn how Top Rank Marketing used a combination of several digital marketing resources (e.g., content, SEO, social media, and influencers) to help Introhive get more organic traffic to its site to create a higher demand for its SaaS product and improve the brand’s overall digital visibility. This online marketing campaign increased organic search traffic by 452% and raised the average session duration by 155%.

Check out the full list of 15+ Content Marketing Case Studies here .

SEO Marketing Case Studies

How i increased my organic traffic 652% in 7 days  – backlinko digital marketing case study.

Learn how Brian Dean from Backlinko used the “Skyscraper Technique 2.0” to increase his organic SEO traffic to one of his web pages by 652%. It’s also the same approach that helped a brand new post hit the #1 spot on Google within a few weeks. This online marketing case study example is full of screenshots, key findings, and guided steps for you to follow.

From 126 to 121,883 Unique Visitors In Under 6 Months  – Ahrefs Digital Marketing Case Study

This digital marketing case study example focuses on Northmill, a Fintech company founded in Stockholm. It reveals how you can analyze your top business competitors to develop higher-quality SEO content that can gain a large amount of traffic and convert those readers into customers. Read this case study to find out exactly what Northmill did during the search engine optimization campaign to go from 126 unique visitors to 121,883 in under 6 months.

From 0 to 75,000 Visits A Year  – Ryan Darani Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll get complete details on the challenges, limits, budgets, and timeframes for a client in the property industry that went from 0 clicks per day to 300-400 on average with only 60 pieces of content on the website. This is a good SEO marketing case study for any business that’s on a tight budget.

How We 4x’d Traffic and Doubled Revenue in E-Commerce  – Diggity Marketing Case Study

This is one of the best digital marketing case studies for e-commerce using SEO. Inside, you’ll learn how an e-commerce client grew its traffic by 417% in 8 months. You’ll get the exact SEO strategies deployed, content improvements, and backlink marketing tactics. The results speak for themselves: an extra $48,000 in additional monthly revenue was achieved for a total of 112% increase in overall revenue using a strategic online marketing strategy.

6-Step Process That Generated 150,732 Visits  – Robbie Richards Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll learn a repeatable 6-step process that one digital marketer used to get his client to #1 in Google using SEO. This strategy helped him outrank major digital media brands like Mashable, and increase organic website traffic by 11,065% in just 6 months.

Check out the full list of 25+ SEO Case Studies here .

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing Case Studies

32% increase in return on internet marketing ad spend  – adshark case study.

Learn how Adshark helped dogIDS, an e-commerce manufacturer and retailer of personalized dog collars and tags, achieve a high return on investment (ROI) for their pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns by analyzing historical search terms, categories, and product performance. This case study example demonstrates how Adshark segmented dogIDs Google Shopping campaigns in a way that allowed for better online bid and budget management.

49% Decrease In CPA  – Captivate Search Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll find out how Captivate Search, an Internet marketing agency, helped the Women’s Institute for Health (WIFH) in Atlanta, Georgia, decrease their cost per acquisition (CPA) from $98 to $50 with a strategic PPC optimization in Google Adwords.

20% Increase In Subscribers for Forbes  – Adventure Media Digital Marketing Case Study

Forbes Magazine has been in circulation for over 100 years; however, with print subscriptions on the decline, the company had to get strategic about bringing in new digital customers. The top goals for this online marketing case study were to increase the number of paid subscriptions. In addition to PPC optimization to attract a broad range of ages, income levels, and genders, Adventure Media also used a strategic video marketing campaign to bring in a new wave of college graduates.

139% ROI for a UK Clothing Brand  – Click Consult Digital Marketing Case Study

Boohoo is a British online fashion retailer that has been recognized by top consumer titles like Reveal, Heat, and Cosmopolitan magazines. When Boohoo came to Click Consult, the retailer had been running its own paid digital marketing campaigns for 18 months and seeing poor results (PPC revenue had fallen by 26% YOY). In this example case study, you’ll learn how Click Consult achieved a 139% ROI on online ad spend and a 431% increase in UK non-branded PPC revenue.

ROAS Up 3,197% for Natural Nutrients  – PPC Geeks Digital Marketing Case Study

Discover how PPC Geeks improved the Google Ads campaigns for Natural Nutrients and achieved a dramatic increase in revenue (5,789%) and ROAS (3,197%) year over year. Example paid marketing strategies include granular campaign extension, single keyword ad groups, ad copy A/B testing, KPI-focused ROAS, conversion rate optimization, and more.

Check out the full list of 20+ PPC Case Studies here .

Social Media Marketing Case Studies

793,500+ impressions for semrush on twitter – walker sands digital marketing case study.

Semrush is a global leader in digital marketing software; however, the company needed a strategic partner to help distinguish its brand from competitors, drive a higher engagement rate among its target audience, and build brand loyalty. In this case study, you’ll find out how Walker Sands implemented a premium Twitter microcontent program for Semrush that focused on three things: using humor, embedding the brand in trending conversations, and focusing on the audience’s interests over marketing messages. The result was an increase of more than 793,500 impressions, 34,800 engagements, and a 4.4% average engagement rate.

Viral Oreo Super Bowl Tweet – Digiday Digital Marketing Case Study

During Super Bowl XLVII, the lights went out in the stadium and the Oreo brand went viral with a single tweet that said “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.” Read the historical account of that famous digital marketing moment from the people who lived through it so you can gather insights on how to be better prepared for your future online marketing campaigns that you can take advantage of in real-time.

Facebook Posting Strategy That Lead to 3X Reach & Engagement – Buffer Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll find out how Buffer cut its Facebook posting frequency by 50% but increased the average weekly reach and engagement by 3X. Hint: The strategy had to do with creating fewer, better-quality posts, that were aimed at gaining higher engagement.

Achieving a 9 Million Audience by Automating Pinterest SEO – Digital Marketing Case Study

This is a good digital marketing case study example for marketers who use Pinterest. Discover how Chillital went from 0 to 9 million engaged audience members and 268 million impressions. You’ll learn about the step-by-step research process of finding where your audience lives and breathes content, get a detailed analysis of how the author used Pinterest to generate brand awareness, and learn about using community-driven content promotion to scale online results.

5X Increase In App Installs – Bumble Digital Marketing Case Study

Find out how Bumble, a dating app, used TikTok more effectively for social media marketing by following the mantra, “Don’t Make Ads, Make TikToks”. This case study in digital marketing resulted in a 5X increase in app installs and a 64% decrease in cost-per-registration.

Check out the full list of 20+ Social Media Case Studies here .

Email Marketing Case Studies

Collecting 100,000 emails in one week  – tim ferris show digital marketing case study.

This digital marketing case study on email has it all: tips, templates, and code to create a successful email campaign. Discover how Harry’s, a men’s grooming brand, launched its brand online and how it collected nearly 100,000 email addresses in one week. You’ll learn everything they did using the marketing power of the Internet and email so you can try to replicate the results.

The Science Behind Obama’s Campaign Emails  – Bloomberg Digital Marketing Case Study

President Obama’s election has been cited as one of the best digital marketing campaigns in history. And a big part of that success was from strategic email campaigns. Most of the $690 million dollars Obama raised online came from fundraising emails. In this case study example, you’ll learn about the rigorous experimentation conducted by a large team of analysts and the strategies that made this Internet campaign so successful.

Increasing Open Rates from 20% to 29%  – Pipedrive Digital Marketing Case Study

This is one of the best digital marketing case studies on email that any business can learn from no matter the size of the email list. Inside, you’ll find out how Pipedrive used one simple tactic to increase open rates from 20% to 29% that can work with any email software.

25% Reduction In Churn for Peacock  – Braze Digital Marketing Case Study

This is one of the top online marketing case studies that prove why you shouldn’t send out a one-size-fits-all message to your mailing list. It’s a great case study to read about using a year-in-review email campaign to increase user consumption. As a result, Peacock experienced a 25% reduction in customer churn over 30 days, 6% free-to-paid upgrade rates, and a two-point lift in return rate when it came to returning to the service to view content.

The Amazon Email Experience  – Vero Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study example by Vero, you’ll get a complete analysis of Amazon’s email experience for the user. It takes you from the initial subscriber welcome message to email receipts, shipping updates, thank you content, invites, Black Friday deals, the review email, and more. There are loads of data in this case study and useful tips you can gain and use for your own email campaigns to have better success.

Check out the full list of 15+ Email Marketing Case Studies here .

Video Marketing Case Studies

8,000 video views on linkedin – biteable digital marketing case study.

During the rise of #OpenToWork movement that hit the world during the COVID layoff, one digital marketer named Katie got creative to make herself stand out from the crowd for potential employers. Find out how Katie approached video in digital marketing to amass 800 video views, 54 comments, and 100 new connections. This case study includes simple tips you can also use to get noticed on LinkedIn with the power of video.

163 Million Views On YouTube – Dove Digital Marketing Case Study

Dove launched an online marketing campaign called “Dove Real Beauty Sketches”, which was a three-minute YouTube film about how women view themselves. The goal was to ignite a global conversation about the definition of beauty, and this case study proves how video in Internet marketing helped Dove reach their goal. During its launch, the video received 163 million global views, topped the Cannes YouTube Ads Leaderboard, and won the Titanium Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Find out how a combination of great content, YouTube Brand Channels, YouTube Ads, and Google Ads led to this beautiful success.

Dollar Shave Club Viral Video – Making a Video Marketer Case Study

The ultra-famous Dollar Shave Club was a club that no one had heard about before the release of a single video. And within 72 hours, the brand went insanely viral and had more than 12,000 orders for its product. In this case study, you’ll get a complete analysis of the video that made the Dollar Shave Club one of the most talked about companies in Internet marketing that profits from selling $1 razors.

How Artists and Songs Go Viral – EDMProd Digital Marketing Case Study

Although it’s impossible to guarantee that a musical artist or song will go viral, there is a lot to be learned from examples that have gone viral. In this case study, you’ll discover the common threads in every viral music marketing campaign so you can try to use the same strategies for your own music or apply them to an online business.

10X Increase In Video Views – Vireo Video Digital Marketing Case Study

In this example, you’ll find out how Vireo Video helped the “We Are The Davises” YouTube channel 10X its video views. The digital marketing strategy and execution succeeded in driving over 1.2 million subscribers and over 60 million monthly views within 4 months. Inside, you’ll learn about the initial challenges, strategy solutions, and results.

Affiliate Marketing Case Studies

Going from zero to $10k in monthly revenue  – contentellect digital marketing case study.

Follow the steps Contentellect has taken to grow an affiliate marketing website from $0 to $10k a month in under 24 months. Includes a breakdown of the monthly costs, income, and traffic.

Zero to $20k/month In a Year  – Side Hustle Nation Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll learn how the owners of Finvsfin.com scaled their affiliate website from $0 to $20,0000 per month in one year. Includes strategies on keyword research, how to structure content, ways to attract backlinks, optimization tactics to grow traffic, and more.

How I Made $16,433 With One Product  – BloggersPassion Digital Marketing Case Study

This case study example explains how the site owner made $16,433 from a single affiliate product. The information and steps revealed in this digital marketing case study can be applied to any niche.

Amazon Site Earns $2,000/Month with 100 Articles  – Fat Stacks Digital Marketing Case Study

This is one of the best online marketing case studies for affiliate marketers. Dom Wells from Human Proof Designs posted complete details on the Fat Stacks Blog with example content types, content timelines, link types, and link timelines to help other affiliates improve their sites to make more money on the Internet.

Amazon Site Grows from $0 to $4500+ In 4 Months  – NichePie Digital Marketing Case Study

In this case study, you’ll learn how NichePie took a famous affiliate marketing website called 10Beasts to $4,500 in monthly earnings in just 4 months. The site then went on to make $40,000 by month 8 and kept growing. Luqman Khan, the owner, eventually sold the affiliate site for over half-a-million dollars. Inside this Internet marketing case study example, you’ll get important insights into the keyword research process, site structure, content setup, SEO, and link building process. This article also includes a lot of screenshots to help you follow along with the online journey to success.

Check out the full list of 10+ Affiliate Marketing Case Studies here .

What Is a Digital Marketing Case Study?

A digital marketing case study is an in-depth study of digital marketing in a real-world context. It can focus on one digital marketing tactic or a group of strategies to find out what works in online marketing to provide quantifiable results on the Internet.

Are Case Studies Good for Digital Marketing?

Case studies are good for digital marketing because you can learn about how to do digital marketing in an effective way. Instead of just studying the theory of digital marketing, you can learn from real examples that applied online methods to achieve success.

Digital Marketing Case Study Examples Summary

I hope you enjoyed this list of the best digital marketing case studies that are based on real-world results and not just theory.

As you discovered, the digital marketing case study examples above demonstrated many different ways to implement an effective online strategy. By studying the key findings from these Internet marketing examples, and applying the methods learned to your own business, you can hopefully achieve the same positive outcome.

New online marketing case studies are being published every month and I’ll continue to update this list as they become available. So keep checking back to read the current sources of information on digital marketing.

Marketing case study examples with solutions for students

Cracking marketing case studies is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires a mix of theoretical knowledge and practical expertise to understand the scenarios. These case studies contextualize standard market practices.

Reading and solving these studies gives you a deeper understanding of how an actual industry functions, Remember, the more you practice, the better you get. So, without further ado, here are some effective marketing case study examples and solutions you can check out.

Case Study 1 – Coca-Cola collaborates with App Annie.

Coca-Cola is a beloved beverage brand enjoying worldwide recognition and profit. Other than its trademark soft drinks, the company also has several sister brands under its name. Over the years, Coca-Cola has developed into a tech-savvy, modern business, thanks to its innovation strategies.

The latest app developed by Coca-Cola includes the Coca-Cola Freestyle for customers, Coke Notify Service Request for retailers. Read the case study titled  “Coca-Cola relies on App Annie to amaze and delight its customers”  for more details.

The study describes the significant challenges faced by the brand and how it overcomes them with remarkable success. Towards the end, you also learn about the future prospects of the company.

Ideal solution format:

• Explain the background of Coca-Cola, and why is it such a relevant brand.
• List down the various sister brands and companies under Coca-Cola.
• Discuss the innovation strategies that the brand adopts
• Explain the three significant apps launched by Coca-Cola
• Summarize the challenges faced by Coca-Cola
• Talk about App Annie Intelligence and its benefits.
• Discuss how App Annie contributes to better customer engagement.

Case study 2 – Zomato’s new deep discounting strategy

Zomato is a popular Food Service Aggregators in India (FSAs) known for its online delivery and user-friendly interface. Recently, in an attempt to improve business, Zomato introduced some heavy discounts for its client base. The new Zomato Gold was part of this campaign.

Customers who subscribed to Zomato Gold could access free meals, drinks, and discounts in certain restaurants. The company partnered with numerous eateries to execute this plan. However, 15th August 2019, hundreds of restaurants decided to log out of this marketing campaign. This was because the heavy discounts led to a loss of revenue and profits.

Zomato co-founder, Deepinder Goyal tried to appease the partners by launching a new model. This response was soon rejected as the core issue of discounts remained unresolved. The led to an impasse between the two parties, leaving Zomato vulnerable to takeovers.

This was just a gist of the  case study on Zomato’s deep discounting strategy . Read through the details of the report, analyze the stats, and establish your take on the situation.

Ideal solution format

• Reinstate the given facts (the discount strategy)
• Establish the main objectives of the case study
• Explain what Zomato Gold includes
• Summarize the central problem (Zomato’s loss of partners)
• Talk about why and how the discount strategy affects restaurant owners

Case study 3 – Raymond’s experiment with khadi

Raymond is a significant textile business worldwide known for its fabric quality and fitting suits. The brand now plans to customize its fabric to suit the Indian market. For this, the market experts narrow down to the traditional Indian material- “Khadi”.

Khadi is a hand-woven, light, and comfortable fabric with some rich cultural and historical significance. Raymond, in its latest marketing strategy, tried to integrate Khadi in modern fashion. The marketing team adopted innovative advertising ideas to make their product more appealing and relatable.

This case study titled  “Raymond: Giving a new spin to Khadi”  discusses the deal between the company and the govt. Body. Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC) is an organization that overlooks the production and distribution of khadi in India.

The case study highlights how Raymond breaks the general perception of Khadi, presenting differently. It also outlines the practical challenges faced by the brand to successfully launch the khadi line.

Ideal Marketing case study solution format

• Begin with a short introduction
• List down the traditional textile advertising strategies.
• Discuss the new marketing strategy of Raymond
• Talk about the cultural and historical importance of khadi.
• Outline the challenges Raymond would face
• Explore the deal between Raymond and KVIC
• End the case study with a brief on how Raymond would change pre-conceived notions around khadi

Marketing case study examples with solutions

What makes a good marketing case study.

Most marketing studies included as your coursework are either success stories or hypothetical scenarios. The case revolves around a company or an individual. The premise is also quite simple, with new details being added in the story as it progresses.

Every case study has three distinct parts- an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The ending is not a resolution, though but a problem that the reader must solve. Students usually develop a hypothesis and then use the given facts to prove or disprove their argument.

Here is a stepwise guide to writing a good marketing case study solution.

Begin with a catchy headline

Marketing case studies are both informative and intriguing. They aim to educate the reader by building upon facts and drawing certain conclusions from them.

Begin the case study with a unique headline that sums up the purpose of the passage in a nutshell. Include the name of the company and basic gist of the case study in the heading. A creative title also piques the reader’s interest and makes for an exciting read.

Set the background

The introductory paragraph must outline the context of the case study. You cannot dive headway into the research without providing some background for the reader. Talk about the company, the industry it’s set in and the growth of the brand.

Once you have described the basic premise of the case study, you can explain the other details. Setting the background adds some clarity to your case study. You can present the core issues and questions in the main body of the study.

Summarize the key points

The next step is to give a summary of everything you find relevant in the case study. For this, I recommend my students to read the case study multiple times and get the basic gist of it. This makes it easier to filter out information and use it for your analysis.

Most case studies have the solution hidden inside the problem. You just need to be observant enough to identify it. Summarizing the central points of the study also puts things into perspective.

An in-depth analysis

Once you have all the key points listed out, you can discuss them in detail. The in-depth analysis gives you the space to apply marketing theories to prove/disprove your arguments. It is here that you can present your unique take on the case, provided it is objective, logical, and valid.

You can also add a few footnotes and annotations to enrich your research. Refer to other similar cases, papers and studies conducted by credible institutions. You can draw from their approach, improvise it to propose a robust solution.

Throw in some numbers

Merely restating the facts and having a hypothesis is not enough to crack a marketing case study though. You also need to back it up with numbers, figures, and some charts. These infographics present the data in a visually appealing way.

Statistics also solidify your arguments, making for a convincing case. Putting together a compelling case study is not an easy job. It is a combination of theoretical research and stats.

A logical resolution

The last part or conclusion of the case study attempts to wrap up the argument. It is not necessary to have a definitive ending. You can keep it open-ended, giving the reader the freedom to interpret the case their way.

Ensure that your marketing case study reaches a rational conclusion where you address each question. It is also a section where you reinstate the points previously mentioned. You can devote this space to estimate the scope of the company in brief.

Need for marketing case studies

Marketing case studies give you a glimpse of the real-life scenarios. Every curriculum covers both theoretical and practical aspects of the subject. With case studies, you observe how technical knowledge is applied to realistic situations.

It also improves your analytical abilities and problem-solving skills. You get better at handling and sorting through information. Plus, you also learn about the importance of research credibility and critical thinking.

Ensure that you add proper references and citation at the end of your analysis, though. I suggest students follow APA or Harvard style referencing as it is better suited to statistical research.

Quick links and references

Listed below are a few quick links and reference material that students can read through to know more about the topic. These links come from academic journals and government websites.

Marketing case study examples:  ICMR marketing case studies

Case study solution guidelines:  Writing a Case Study Analysis by Ashford Writing Centre

Citations and referencing:  Harvard referencing guide

Citation generator:  CiteFast

The bottom line

Cracking a marketing case study is not a one-step process. It requires a lot of practice and reading. I have picked a few case-study examples with solutions you can check out. I hope that these samples would clear some concepts for you. Good luck!

6 Engaging Market Research Activities for Your Students

• May 21, 2024
• Teaching Tips

Market research is foundational for understanding customer needs, identifying market opportunities, and fostering growth. Developing research skills is crucial for students to be well-prepared for future marketing careers. Here are six essential strategies for market research, including necessary skills, expert insights, and practical classroom exercises.

1. Use Multiple Data Sources

Skills Needed: Analytical thinking, data synthesis, and strategic vision

Using multiple data sources allows researchers to triangulate information, ensuring accurate and reliable insights. This approach is critical in validating assumptions, reducing risk, and ensuring market strategies align with consumer behavior.

Shannon Listopad , owner of November Consulting , emphasized that gathering data from multiple sources is essential to form a comprehensive view of the market. This means collecting information through surveys, focus groups, industry reports, social media, and more. “Get a comprehensive view of how your offering fits in the market dynamics, and always keep in mind the overarching goals of your business,” Shannon advised. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with data, so researchers must focus on synthesizing it to align with business goals.

Activity Idea: Divide students into teams and assign each a different data source to analyze (e.g., consumer surveys, competitor analysis, market reports). Each team will create a summary report that identifies market trends and gaps. Once they’ve finished, have students present their findings to the class to build a complete market analysis.

2. Create Detailed Customer Personas

Skills Needed: Empathy, demographic analysis, and communication

Customer personas help marketers understand their audience’s unique needs, crafting relatable strategies that resonate. Your campaigns might miss the mark without a clear picture of whom you’re marketing to. Research from Single Grain confirms that creating personas can make websites 2-5 times more effective for targeted users.

Ryan Esco , the CMO of FireRock Marketing , recommended creating detailed customer personas to understand specific demographics and their pain points. Go the extra mile by detailing psychological and behavioral characteristics, such as motivations, behaviors, and preferences, to ensure marketing strategies are relevant and meaningful.

“By crafting detailed profiles that go beyond basic demographics to include behaviors, preferences, and pain points, we’ve been able to tailor marketing strategies that resonate deeply, driving engagement and conversion,” Ryan said. “A specific instance of this was our work with a local retail client looking to expand online; by understanding their core customers’ online shopping behaviors and preferences, we developed a digital marketing strategy that significantly increased their online sales within just a few months.”

Activity Idea: Assign students to build customer personas based on a hypothetical product or service. Have them research relevant demographic data, conduct surveys or interviews, and create personas that incorporate realistic profiles. Each student or group should present their personas and explain how marketing strategies could be tailored for each segment.

3. Analyze Customer Behavior Online

Skills Needed: Digital literacy, pattern recognition, and competitive analysis

As digital marketing becomes increasingly data driven, understanding consumer behavior online helps refine campaigns, improve SEO strategies, and strengthen brand positioning. Behavioral analysis often improves customer retention rates and engagement, as shown in a study from Harvard Business Review .

Magee Clegg , the CEO of Cleartail Marketing , encouraged new professionals starting out in market research to leverage online behavior analysis. Understanding consumer journeys involves analyzing keywords, SEO performance, and reviews to shape the marketing strategy effectively. He also advised watching the competitive landscape closely to identify untapped opportunities and differentiate the brand.

“We increased a client’s revenue by 278% in just 12 months by deeply analyzing their target market’s online behavior and tailoring the marketing strategy to match these insights,” Magee said. “This involved not only keyword research and SEO optimization but also creating targeted content and ad campaigns that addressed the specific needs and pain points of their potential customers.” “For marketing professionals looking to improve their skills, I’d stress the importance of integrating customer feedback into your market research process,” he continued. “It provides invaluable insight into what your audience truly values and how you can better serve their needs.”

Activity Idea: Provide students access to a digital analytics tool or publicly available data from social media platforms and instruct them to analyze consumer behavior online. They should identify trends, keywords, and insights that could shape a marketing campaign.

4. Develop Empathy for Customers

Skills Needed: Active listening, critical thinking, and interpersonal communication

Empathy is one of the most critical skills for marketing professionals in this current digital age. Empathy allows for a deeper understanding of customer needs and pain points. It drives innovation and leads to more authentic and effective marketing strategies.

Matthew Montez , the founder of The MBC Group , believes in developing empathy through direct customer engagement via interviews and social media listening. He recommended “putting yourself in the shoes of the people you’re aiming to serve” to understand rational and emotional drivers.

“Embrace the iterative nature of market research,” Matthew added. “Your understanding of your customers should evolve as you test assumptions, gather more data, and refine your product or service. This ongoing process is not only critical for the initial launch but also for sustaining growth and adapting to changing market conditions.”

Activity Idea: Have students conduct one-on-one interviews with consumers or hold focus groups about a hypothetical product. Then, have them write a brief report reflecting on the insights gained from these interactions and how their findings might shape a marketing strategy.

5. Conduct In-Depth Customer Interviews

Skills Needed: Interviewing techniques, qualitative analysis, and open-mindedness

In-depth interviews uncover customer motivations and challenges that aren’t immediately apparent through surveys or focus groups. This qualitative insight can help refine products, services, and marketing messages.

“In my experience, one of the most important steps in conducting effective market research is talking directly to your potential customers,” shared Jason Hunt , the CMO and cofounder of Merged Media . “There’s no substitute for in-depth customer interviews. When my company was developing a new software product, we spent months interviewing current and prospective clients to understand their pain points, workflows, and needs. Those conversations shaped the product in ways we never could have anticipated.”

Jason’s advice to young professionals is to meet with real people, ask open-ended questions, and listen to the answers with an open mind. “You need to understand both the rational and emotional drivers behind customer behavior,” he said. “Immerse yourself in the customer experience as much as possible. That’s the only way to gain the kind of insight that leads to truly innovative products and services.”

Activity Idea: Have students draft a set of open-ended questions and conduct mock interviews with their classmates. Encourage active listening and have students analyze responses to identify recurring themes. They can then discuss how their findings could influence product design or marketing.

6. Highlight the Unique Value Proposition

Skills Needed: Competitive analysis, value differentiation, and persuasive communication

Differentiating your product is critical in a crowded marketplace. A clear UVP helps consumers quickly understand the benefits and drives purchase decisions.

According to HubSpot , a well-crafted UVP improves customer engagement and conversion rates: “Your value proposition is a unique identifier for your business. Without it, buyers won’t have a reason to purchase what you sell. They may even choose a competitor simply because that business communicates its value proposition clearly in its marketing campaigns and sales process.”

Activity Idea: Provide students with case studies of successful product launches or a hypothetical scenario to identify a product’s unique attributes. They should draft a UVP statement that aligns these attributes with customer needs and present how they would incorporate it into a marketing strategy.

More Market Research Classroom Materials: The Market Research Bundle

If you like these activity ideas, consider checking out the Market Research Bundle . With the bundle, your students learn the process of conducting market research from start to finish. The “ Market Research Essentials” courseware contains time-saving resources for educators and covers how to define research objectives, develop surveys, use sampling techniques, perform data analysis, and present results, among other relevant research topics.

Students can also put classroom concepts to work with the Stukent ® Market Research Simternship™ . This simulation puts students in the role of a research analyst at Buhi Supply Co., a simulated e-commerce company. Over 12 unique rounds, students will analyze focus groups, identify key findings, create surveys, and visualize data.

To learn about Stukent’s first-in-the-world Simternships and courseware and to get FREE instructor access to Stukent materials, visit  our website .

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