How to Write Technical Case Studies: Captivate Prospects with Compelling Narratives

Ah, the case study: One of the most important pieces of marketing content for a business, and yet all too often, also the most boring. The problem with this is, lose a reader and you lose a customer. It doesn’t have to be this way! In this guide, I’m going to show you how to write technical case studies that prospects will actually want to read. An attractive, inspiring, and convincing case study that turns readers into customers – that's the goal.

A case study is a self-contained story about how a real customer overcame their problems using your products or services. Notice how I used the word "story." Marketers are often obsessed with the notion of “storytelling” (usually without actually telling stories), but a good case study is a story with a protagonist (your customer) who has a problem but who wins out in the end. This guide will provide you with the essential components of how to write technical case studies that resonate with your target audience.

By the end of a case study, the reader should be able to visualize themselves as the hero of their own story. They should be able to relate to the problems of your featured customer, and see themselves achieving their own goals by using your product or service. This article is your roadmap on how to write technical case studies that convert.

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Because they’re really effective at converting leads into customers. Here are some of the many benefits of a good case study:

Builds Trust: Demonstrates real-world success, building credibility with potential customers. In 2023, studies showed that 78% of B2B buyers used case studies to make purchasing decisions (Source: Content Marketing Institute).
Showcases Value: Highlights the specific benefits and ROI of your product or service. By clearly outlining the value, you help to demonstrate how your solutions can translate to financial success for your customers.
Generates Leads: Attracts qualified leads by showcasing solutions to common problems. In fact, a report from 2022 indicated that case studies ranked as one of the most effective methods for generating leads, with 67% of respondents claiming lead generation success (Source: Demand Gen Report).
Supports Sales: Provides sales teams with powerful tools to overcome objections and close deals. They provide concrete evidence to alleviate customer concerns and show value to the company.
Improves SEO: Optimized case studies can attract organic traffic to your website. A good case study that solves a relevant problem can improve SERP ranking.
Reinforces Customer Relationships: Highlights customer success, building brand loyalty. Publicly showcasing success stories helps to reinforce a positive association between customers and your company.

A case study can accomplish what it needs to in a single page. Of course, case study lengths vary by industry; a kitchen remodeling business could probably tell their whole story in pictures while a software invoicing solution, not so much. But here are some guidelines to follow around case study length:

Short-Form: (1-2 pages) Ideal for quick reads and highlighting specific achievements.
Mid-Form: (3-5 pages) Allows for a more in-depth exploration of the problem, solution, and results.
Long-Form: (6+ pages) Suitable for complex solutions and detailed analysis.

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A case study is an on-brand, data-driven, objective resource for potential customers to gain confidence in your business. Here is what they are not.

Sales pitches: Focus on the customer’s journey and results, not just your product.
Technical manuals: Avoid overly technical jargon and focus on the business impact.
Generic testimonials: Provide specific details and quantifiable results.

Now that we’re clear on what a marketing case study is (and isn’t), as well as why you should be producing them, let’s talk about how to write a technical case study worth reading. The elements of a case study include:

Headline & Subtitle: Grab attention and highlight the key takeaway.
Executive Summary: Provide a brief overview of the problem, solution, and results.
Customer Background: Introduce the customer and their industry.
Problem Statement: Clearly define the challenge the customer faced.
Solution: Describe how your product or service addressed the problem.
Implementation: Explain how the solution was implemented.
Results: Present quantifiable data and customer quotes to demonstrate success.
Future Plans: Outline the customer’s future goals and how your solution will continue to support them.
Call to Action: Encourage readers to take the next step.

Let’s go into the details on each one of the steps above, using a fictional example. Our business is Kumbo Digital and our client is Currigate.

1. Headline & Subtitle

This should be like a newspaper headline that gives the most important information. A subtitle with supporting details or a customer quote is optional.

Headline:

Currigate Plugs $12k in Profit Leaks with Kumbo Digital

Subtitle (Example):

"Our staff are less bogged down to the point where they’re asking to take on more clients—which is unheard of." – Melanie Grigham, VP of Operations, Currigate.

2. Executive Summary

There should be a section at the top with the important details. This includes a brief overview of the entire case.

Problem: Currigate, a software service offering customizable subscription packages, struggled with inefficient invoicing processes that led to profit leaks and weakened customer service.
Solution: Kumbo Digital implemented a custom data integration dashboard to streamline invoicing and improve customer engagement.
Results: Currigate identified $12,403 worth of overages, reduced invoicing time from days to hours, and improved customer relationships.

3. Customer Background

Share one to two sentences with your customer’s name, industry, location, and a highlight.

Currigate is a software service that offers highly customizable subscription packages to banks, brokers, and investors in the mortgage lending market. Their customizable software is a powerful tool used for lending and banking systems.

4. Problem Statement

Explain the issue the customer was facing or the goal they were having a hard time reaching—as well as the negative outcomes.

While this high level of customization is what sets Currigate apart from its competitors, it also requires multiple applications with disparate data and heavy manual work. Account owners were spending so much time manage invoicing, there was little left over to build relationships with clients, stay on top of overages, and upsell. This was leading to leaks in profitability and a weakening of customer service.

Include customer quotes as well as any hesitancies they had with using a product or service like yours.

“We were getting in our own way,” said Melanie Grigham, Currigate’s VP of Operations. “Our customer relationships were starting to falter, and we knew we had to do something. But the thought of manipulating just one of our data sources—let alone all seven—was scary. There were so many random connections in place and so much confidential information, we couldn’t risk it all breaking.”

5. Solution

Share how the customer found your business and why they chose you.

Grigham learned about Kumbo Digital through none other than Google research and decided to get in touch. “The thought of explaining the whole thing felt daunting, but I was relieved to hear [the rep] finishing my sentences for me!”

6. Implementation

Include which specific product or service they chose, how it was implemented, and how the customer used it. Stay brief!

After learning the details of the situation, the Kumbo team proposed a custom solution that would integrate all of the data sources into one dashboard. “I was hesitant at first, but they showed me a small scale example which helped me to understand a little more about how it would work. I appreciated their patience with me as I took some time to make a decision.”

Grigham finally went with it. The dashboard took three weeks to implement and the data migration took just under a day.

7. Results

Share how the client used your product/service, what the results were, and the benefits. Include direct quotes and clear evidence (statistical data, before-and-after images, time-lapse videos, etc.)

With the new platform, Currigate’s account managers could access all seven data sources—as well as generate, track, send, and approve invoices—all in one place. Time spent invoicing went from days to hours, freeing up time for them to engage with customers and work toward strategic goals. “Our staff are less bogged down to the point where they’re asking to take on more clients—which is unheard of.”

The redesigned and simplified product catalog (206 product codes instead of 1,024) has also made it easier for them to upsell as well as recommend combinations for specific needs. “Sometimes our new clients don’t know what they want, and this is perfect for giving them a starting point.”

In addition, Currigate was able to identify $12,403 worth of overages they wouldn’t have caught otherwise. “Now, we can be sure that their customers are being billed appropriately (which is great for us) and receiving the services best fit for their dynamic needs (which is great for them). It’s a win-win.” Data from 2020-2024 also suggests a 30% rise in customer satisfaction reported by Currogate post Kumbo implementation (Source: Currogate internal customer surveys).

8. Future Plans

Share where the client is headed, any additional quotes or praise, and/or their advice for similar potential clients.

Today, Currigate’s unique subscription model is as strong as ever. It’s even considering opening up to new markets. “We never thought we’d reach this point so soon—we thought new markets was years down the line,” said Melanie. When asked what advice she had for other businesses like hers, she talked about mixing faith and facts. “You’ve got to do your research to find a trusted provider, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to a leap of faith, and sometimes you just have to do it.”

9. Call to Action

Finish off with a CTA to contact your business and/or a link to view more case studies.

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Alright, so that was a basic example of a case study, but there’s more to it than just the words that comprise it. Here are eight tips to write a great case study that prospects will want to read and that will help close deals.

Tip 1: Make it Easy for the Client

Just like when asking for reviews, it’s important to make the process as clear and easy as possible for the client. When you reach out, ask if you can use their story of achievement as a case study for your business.

Make the details as clear as possible, including:

Timeline: How much time will you need from them?
Topics: What areas will you cover?
Approval Process: Who will review and approve the final case study?

The clearer the picture you paint for them, the more receptive they’ll be to sharing their time with you.

Tip 2: Don’t Hold Out on the Good Stuff

While a good case study is like a story, you don’t want to hold out on your reader until the end. You want them to know the results right off the bat, then they can read further to find out how those results were achieved.

Tip 3: Get Creative With Your Angle

Apart from kitchen remodeling and website makeovers, it can be hard to make a case study compelling. But there is always room for creativity.

The more compelling your angle, the better the story. The better the story, the more engaging your case study will be.

Tip 4: Make Sure Your Angle is Relatable

Your angle is the “hook” that will catch your audience’s attention, but it’s essential that ALL prospects can relate to and identify with the problems encountered by your case study’s “protagonist.” This means catering to your core demographics and target markets, and solving the problems most commonly experienced by your customers.

Tip 5: Make it Skimmable, Visual, and Organized

We already know that case studies aren’t the most exciting reads, so don’t make it worse by throwing a bunch of text and numbers onto a page. A good case study is skimmable, visual, and organized.

The case study is clean, organized, and skimmable.

Whatever format you go with, use it for all of your case studies. This will not only help you to streamline the process but also make it easier for prospects to digest the information.

Tip 6: Make Your Client the Hero

Your company should always be positioned as a helping hand that helped the real hero of the story—your client—overcome their obstacle. There are two reasons this approach is so effective. Firstly, you want your audience to visualize themselves as the protagonist of the case study. This is much more difficult if you won’t stop talking about how great your company or product is. Secondly, adopting a more humble tone can help increase your credibility in the mind of the reader.

Notice the client is the hero of the story.

Tip 7: Let Your Protagonist Tell the Story

As a storyteller, it’s your job to craft a compelling narrative about how your featured client triumphed over the forces of evil using your product or service, but that doesn’t mean your protagonist doesn’t have their own voice.

Let them tell the story in their own words and then incorporate direct quotes into your narrative. This will break up your text, increase credibility, and make your protagonist a tangible character that readers can relate to. Take an interview style format and use paraphrasing and annotations so the text isn’t repetitive. Set up the segue and create room for your client’s quote, and let them do the rest.

Tip 8: Don’t Get Discouraged by the Numbers

Yes, we want to create a useful, helpful resource for prospective customers, but let’s be real—nobody’s winning a Pulitzer for a case study, and it won’t be going viral on social media, no matter how well-written it is.

Case studies are little more than tools to be used by either self-motivated prospects researching your company, or by sales professionals as tools to help convince prospects to convert. Nothing more. They’re designed for audiences that are already strongly considering becoming your customers, which is a smaller but more qualified group of people than your general audience. Recent data suggests that traffic stemming from case studies is 43% more likely to lead to a conversion than other forms of content marketing (Source: Hubspot Analysis - 2024).

So don’t be disheartened if your case study content doesn’t attract as much traffic or engagement as your best or even average content. They’re not meant to. But that doesn’t mean you should stop creating them or start obsessing over how to improve them.

Technical Case Studies In Action

Here are some business case study examples that put the tips in this guide into play.

LocaliQ

Call us biased, but LocaliQ’s case study format is pretty rad.

Mailchimp

What we like about it:

After the “Good Dye Young” example earlier, how could we not include another Mailchimp case study?

Wrike

Wrike takes the case study snapshot to the next level in this example.

Slintel

Our final marketing case study example comes from Slintel, a go-to-market intelligence software.

Conclusion

To make things easy for you, I’ve compiled the tips and examples into a marketing case study template, in document form, that you can use to write your own.

No two businesses are alike, and case studies vary widely in terms of style, tone, and format. One thing that all marketing case studies share, however, is their purpose – to convince prospects that doing business with you is a good idea. With these case study steps, tips, examples, and templates, you’ll be well on your way to producing stories your prospects will actually want to read.

FAQs

Q: How long should a technical case study be?

A: The length of a technical case study depends on the complexity of the project and the target audience. However, a good rule of thumb is to aim for 1,500 to 2,500 words. Keep it concise and focus on the most important details. While there is no ideal length, focus on clarity.

Q: What are the key elements of a technical case study?

A: The key elements of a technical case study include: the problem statement, the solution implemented, the results achieved, and the customer's perspective. Ensure that you provide enough technical details to demonstrate the effectiveness of your solution.

Q: How can I make my technical case study more engaging?

A: To make your technical case study more engaging, use visuals, customer quotes, and storytelling techniques. Focus on the customer's journey and highlight the impact of your solution on their business. Also use concise, easy-to-understand language.

Q: How can I get customer approval for a technical case study?

A: To get customer approval for a technical case study, be transparent about your intentions, explain the benefits of participating, and give them the opportunity to review and approve the final version. Also ensure you're willing to make changes based on their feedback.

Q: How can I promote my technical case study?

A: To promote your technical case study, share it on your website, social media channels, and email newsletters. You can also submit it to industry publications and use it as a sales tool. Consider creating a video version as well.