case study customer success

28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

Published: March 08, 2023

Putting together a compelling case study is one of the most powerful strategies for showcasing your product and attracting future customers. But it's not easy to create case studies that your audience can’t wait to read.

In this post, we’ll go over the definition of a case study and the best examples to inspire you.

What is a case study?

A case study is a detailed story of something your company did. It includes a beginning — often discussing a conflict, an explanation of what happened next, and a resolution that explains how the company solved or improved on something.

A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies with solutions typically contain quotes from the customer. This means that they’re not just ads where you praise your own product. Rather, other companies are praising your company — and there’s no stronger marketing material than a verbal recommendation or testimonial. A great case study is also filled with research and stats to back up points made about a project's results.

There are myriad ways to use case studies in your marketing strategy . From featuring them on your website to including them in a sales presentation, a case study is a strong, persuasive tool that shows customers why they should work with you — straight from another customer. Writing one from scratch is hard, though, which is why we’ve created a collection of case study templates for you to get started.

Fill out the form below to access the free case study templates.

Free Case Study Templates

Showcase your company's success using these three free case study templates.

• Data-Driven Case Study Template
• Product-Specific Case Study Template
• General Case Study Template

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

There’s no better way to generate more leads than by writing case studies . But without case study examples to draw inspiration from, it can be difficult to write impactful studies that convince visitors to submit a form.

Marketing Case Study Examples

To help you create an attractive and high-converting case study, we've put together a list of some of our favorites. This list includes famous case studies in marketing, technology, and business.

These studies can show you how to frame your company offers in a way that is both meaningful and useful to your audience. So, take a look, and let these examples inspire your next brilliant case study design.

These marketing case studies with solutions show the value proposition of each product. They also show how each company benefited in both the short and long term using quantitative data. In other words, you don’t get just nice statements, like "This company helped us a lot." You see actual change within the firm through numbers and figures.

You can put your learnings into action with HubSpot's Free Case Study Templates . Available as custom designs and text-based documents, you can upload these templates to your CMS or send them to prospects as you see fit.

1. " How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with the Help of HubSpot ," by HubSpot

What's interesting about this case study is the way it leads with the customer. That reflects a major HubSpot cornerstone, which is to always solve for the customer first. The copy leads with a brief description of why the CEO of Handled founded the company and why he thought Handled could benefit from adopting a CRM. The case study also opens up with one key data point about Handled’s success using HubSpot, namely that it grew to 121 locations.

Notice that this case study uses mixed media. Yes, there is a short video, but it's elaborated upon in the other text on the page. So while your case studies can use one or the other, don't be afraid to combine written copy with visuals to emphasize the project's success.

Key Learnings from the HubSpot Case Study Example

• Give the case study a personal touch by focusing on the CEO rather than the company itself.
• Use multimedia to engage website visitors as they read the case study.

2. " The Whole Package ," by IDEO

Here's a design company that knows how to lead with simplicity in its case studies. As soon as the visitor arrives at the page, they’re greeted with a big, bold photo and the title of the case study — which just so happens to summarize how IDEO helped its client. It summarizes the case study in three snippets: The challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Immediately, IDEO communicates its impact — the company partnered with H&M to remove plastic from its packaging — but it doesn't stop there. As the user scrolls down, the challenge, impact, and progress are elaborated upon with comprehensive (but not overwhelming) copy that outlines what that process looked like, replete with quotes and intriguing visuals.

Key Learnings from the IDEO Case Study Example

• Split up the takeaways of your case studies into bite-sized sections.
• Always use visuals and images to enrich the case study experience, especially if it’s a comprehensive case study.

3. " Rozum Robotics intensifies its PR game with Awario ," by Awario

In this case study, Awario greets the user with a summary straight away — so if you’re feeling up to reading the entire case study, you can scan the snapshot and understand how the company serves its customers. The case study then includes jump links to several sections, such as "Company Profile," "Rozum Robotics' Pains," "Challenge," "Solution," and "Results and Improvements."

The sparse copy and prominent headings show that you don’t need a lot of elaborate information to show the value of your products and services. Like the other case study examples on this list, it includes visuals and quotes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the company’s efforts. The case study ends with a bulleted list that shows the results.

Key Learnings from the Awario Robotics Case Study Example

• Create a table of contents to make your case study easier to navigate.
• Include a bulleted list of the results you achieved for your client.

4. " Chevrolet DTU ," by Carol H. Williams

If you’ve worked with a company that’s well-known, use only the name in the title — like Carol H. Williams, one of the nation’s top advertising agencies, does here. The "DTU," stands for "Discover the Unexpected." It generates interest because you want to find out what the initials mean.

They keep your interest in this case study by using a mixture of headings, images, and videos to describe the challenges, objectives, and solutions of the project. The case study closes with a summary of the key achievements that Chevrolet’s DTU Journalism Fellows reached during the project.

Key Learnings from the Carol H. Williams Case Study Example

• If you’ve worked with a big brand before, consider only using the name in the title — just enough to pique interest.
• Use a mixture of headings and subheadings to guide users through the case study.

5. " How Fractl Earned Links from 931 Unique Domains for Porch.com in a Single Year ," by Fractl

Fractl uses both text and graphic design in their Porch.com case study to immerse the viewer in a more interesting user experience. For instance, as you scroll, you'll see the results are illustrated in an infographic-design form as well as the text itself.

Further down the page, they use icons like a heart and a circle to illustrate their pitch angles, and graphs to showcase their results. Rather than writing which publications have mentioned Porch.com during Fractl’s campaign, they incorporated the media outlets’ icons for further visual diversity.

Key Learnings from the Fractl Case Study Example

• Let pictures speak for you by incorporating graphs, logos, and icons all throughout the case study.
• Start the case study by right away stating the key results, like Fractl does, instead of putting the results all the way at the bottom.

6. " The Met ," by Fantasy

What's the best way to showcase the responsiveness and user interface of a website? Probably by diving right into it with a series of simple showcases— which is exactly what Fantasy does on their case study page for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They keep the page simple and clean, inviting you to review their redesign of the Met’s website feature-by-feature.

Each section is simple, showing a single piece of the new website's interface so that users aren’t overwhelmed with information and can focus on what matters most.

If you're more interested in text, you can read the objective for each feature. Fantasy understands that, as a potential customer, this is all you need to know. Scrolling further, you're greeted with a simple "Contact Us" CTA.

Key Learnings from the Fantasy Case Study Example

• You don’t have to write a ton of text to create a great case study. Focus on the solution you delivered itself.
• Include a CTA at the bottom inviting visitors to contact you.

7. " Rovio: How Rovio Grew Into a Gaming Superpower ," by App Annie

If your client had a lot of positive things to say about you, take a note from App Annie’s Rovio case study and open up with a quote from your client. The case study also closes with a quote, so that the case study doesn’t seem like a promotion written by your marketing team but a story that’s taken straight from your client’s mouth. It includes a photo of a Rovio employee, too.

Another thing this example does well? It immediately includes a link to the product that Rovio used (namely, App Annie Intelligence) at the top of the case study. The case study closes with a call-to-action button prompting users to book a demo.

Key Learnings from the App Annie Case Study Example

• Feature quotes from your client at the beginning and end of the case study.
• Include a mention of the product right at the beginning and prompt users to learn more about the product.

8. " Embracing first-party data: 3 success stories from HubSpot ," by Think with Google

Google takes a different approach to text-focused case studies by choosing three different companies to highlight.

The case study is clean and easily scannable. It has sections for each company, with quotes and headers that clarify the way these three distinct stories connect. The simple format also uses colors and text that align with the Google brand.

Another differentiator is the focus on data. This case study is less than a thousand words, but it's packed with useful data points. Data-driven insights quickly and clearly show how the value of leveraging first-party data while prioritizing consumer privacy.

Key Learnings from the Think with Google Case Study Example

• A case study doesn’t need to be long or complex to be powerful.
• Clear data points are a quick and effective way to prove value.

9. " In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study ," by Switch

Switch is an international marketing agency based in Malta that knocks it out of the park with this case study. Its biggest challenge is effectively communicating what it did for its client without ever revealing the client’s name. It also effectively keeps non-marketers in the loop by including a glossary of terms on page 4.

The PDF case study reads like a compelling research article, including titles like "In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study," "Scenario," and "Approach," so that readers get a high-level overview of what the client needed and why they approached Switch. It also includes a different page for each strategy. For instance, if you’d only be interested in hiring Switch for optimizing your Facebook ads, you can skip to page 10 to see how they did it.

The PDF is fourteen pages long but features big fonts and plenty of white space, so viewers can easily skim it in only a few minutes.

Key Learnings from the Switch Case Study Example

• If you want to go into specialized information, include a glossary of terms so that non-specialists can easily understand.
• Close with a CTA page in your case study PDF and include contact information for prospective clients.

10. " Gila River ," by OH Partners

Let pictures speak for you, like OH Partners did in this case study. While you’ll quickly come across a heading and some text when you land on this case study page, you’ll get the bulk of the case study through examples of actual work OH Partners did for its client. You will see OH Partners’ work in a billboard, magazine, and video. This communicates to website visitors that if they work with OH Partners, their business will be visible everywhere.

And like the other case studies here, it closes with a summary of what the firm achieved for its client in an eye-catching way.

Key Learnings from the OH Partners Case Study Example

• Let the visuals speak by including examples of the actual work you did for your client — which is especially useful for branding and marketing agencies.
• Always close out with your achievements and how they impacted your client.

11. " Facing a Hater ," by Digitas

Digitas' case study page for Sprite’s #ILOVEYOUHATER campaign keeps it brief while communicating the key facts of Digitas’ work for the popular soda brand. The page opens with an impactful image of a hundred people facing a single man. It turns out, that man is the biggest "bully" in Argentina, and the people facing him are those whom he’s bullied before.

Scrolling down, it's obvious that Digitas kept Sprite at the forefront of their strategy, but more than that, they used real people as their focal point. They leveraged the Twitter API to pull data from Tweets that people had actually tweeted to find the identity of the biggest "hater" in the country. That turned out to be @AguanteElCofler, a Twitter user who has since been suspended.

Key Learnings from the Digitas Case Study Example

• If a video was part of your work for your client, be sure to include the most impactful screenshot as the heading.
• Don’t be afraid to provide details on how you helped your client achieve their goals, including the tools you leveraged.

12. " Better Experiences for All ," by HermanMiller

HermanMiller sells sleek, utilitarian furniture with no frills and extreme functionality, and that ethos extends to its case study page for a hospital in Dubai.

What first attracted me to this case study was the beautiful video at the top and the clean user experience. User experience matters a lot in a case study. It determines whether users will keep reading or leave. Another notable aspect of this case study is that the video includes closed-captioning for greater accessibility, and users have the option of expanding the CC and searching through the text.

HermanMiller’s case study also offers an impressive amount of information packed in just a few short paragraphs for those wanting to understand the nuances of their strategy. It closes out with a quote from their client and, most importantly, the list of furniture products that the hospital purchased from the brand.

Key Learnings from the HermanMiller Case Study Example

• Close out with a list of products that users can buy after reading the case study.
• Include accessibility features such as closed captioning and night mode to make your case study more user-friendly.

13. " Capital One on AWS ," by Amazon

Do you work continuously with your clients? Consider structuring your case study page like Amazon did in this stellar case study example. Instead of just featuring one article about Capital One and how it benefited from using AWS, Amazon features a series of articles that you can then access if you’re interested in reading more. It goes all the way back to 2016, all with different stories that feature Capital One’s achievements using AWS.

This may look unattainable for a small firm, but you don’t have to go to extreme measures and do it for every single one of your clients. You could choose the one you most wish to focus on and establish a contact both on your side and your client’s for coming up with the content. Check in every year and write a new piece. These don’t have to be long, either — five hundred to eight hundred words will do.

Key Learnings from the Amazon AWS Case Study Example

• Write a new article each year featuring one of your clients, then include links to those articles in one big case study page.
• Consider including external articles as well that emphasize your client’s success in their industry.

14. " HackReactor teaches the world to code #withAsana ," by Asana

While Asana's case study design looks text-heavy, there's a good reason. It reads like a creative story, told entirely from the customer's perspective.

For instance, Asana knows you won't trust its word alone on why this product is useful. So, they let Tony Phillips, HackReactor CEO, tell you instead: "We take in a lot of information. Our brains are awful at storage but very good at thinking; you really start to want some third party to store your information so you can do something with it."

Asana features frequent quotes from Phillips to break up the wall of text and humanize the case study. It reads like an in-depth interview and captivates the reader through creative storytelling. Even more, Asana includes in-depth detail about how HackReactor uses Asana. This includes how they build templates and workflows:

"There's a huge differentiator between Asana and other tools, and that’s the very easy API access. Even if Asana isn’t the perfect fit for a workflow, someone like me— a relatively mediocre software engineer—can add functionality via the API to build a custom solution that helps a team get more done."

Key Learnings from the Asana Example

• Include quotes from your client throughout the case study.
• Provide extensive detail on how your client worked with you or used your product.

15. " Rips Sewed, Brand Love Reaped ," by Amp Agency

Amp Agency's Patagonia marketing strategy aimed to appeal to a new audience through guerrilla marketing efforts and a coast-to-coast road trip. Their case study page effectively conveys a voyager theme, complete with real photos of Patagonia customers from across the U.S., and a map of the expedition. I liked Amp Agency's storytelling approach best. It captures viewers' attention from start to finish simply because it's an intriguing and unique approach to marketing.

Key Learnings from the Amp Agency Example

• Open up with a summary that communicates who your client is and why they reached out to you.
• Like in the other case study examples, you’ll want to close out with a quantitative list of your achievements.

16. " NetApp ," by Evisort

Evisort opens up its NetApp case study with an at-a-glance overview of the client. It’s imperative to always focus on the client in your case study — not on your amazing product and equally amazing team. By opening up with a snapshot of the client’s company, Evisort places the focus on the client.

This case study example checks all the boxes for a great case study that’s informative, thorough, and compelling. It includes quotes from the client and details about the challenges NetApp faced during the COVID pandemic. It closes out with a quote from the client and with a link to download the case study in PDF format, which is incredibly important if you want your case study to be accessible in a wider variety of formats.

Key Learnings from the Evisort Example

• Place the focus immediately on your client by including a snapshot of their company.
• Mention challenging eras, such as a pandemic or recession, to show how your company can help your client succeed even during difficult times.

17. " Copernicus Land Monitoring – CLC+ Core ," by Cloudflight

Including highly specialized information in your case study is an effective way to show prospects that you’re not just trying to get their business. You’re deep within their industry, too, and willing to learn everything you need to learn to create a solution that works specifically for them.

Cloudflight does a splendid job at that in its Copernicus Land Monitoring case study. While the information may be difficult to read at first glance, it will capture the interest of prospects who are in the environmental industry. It thus shows Cloudflight’s value as a partner much more effectively than a general case study would.

The page is comprehensive and ends with a compelling call-to-action — "Looking for a solution that automates, and enhances your Big Data system? Are you struggling with large datasets and accessibility? We would be happy to advise and support you!" The clean, whitespace-heavy page is an effective example of using a case study to capture future leads.

Key Learnings from the Cloudflight Case Study Example

• Don’t be afraid to get technical in your explanation of what you did for your client.
• Include a snapshot of the sales representative prospects should contact, especially if you have different sales reps for different industries, like Cloudflight does.

18. " Valvoline Increases Coupon Send Rate by 76% with Textel’s MMS Picture Texting ," by Textel

If you’re targeting large enterprises with a long purchasing cycle, you’ll want to include a wealth of information in an easily transferable format. That’s what Textel does here in its PDF case study for Valvoline. It greets the user with an eye-catching headline that shows the value of using Textel. Valvoline saw a significant return on investment from using the platform.

Another smart decision in this case study is highlighting the client’s quote by putting it in green font and doing the same thing for the client’s results because it helps the reader quickly connect the two pieces of information. If you’re in a hurry, you can also take a look at the "At a Glance" column to get the key facts of the case study, starting with information about Valvoline.

Key Learnings from the Textel Case Study Example

• Include your client’s ROI right in the title of the case study.
• Add an "At a Glance" column to your case study PDF to make it easy to get insights without needing to read all the text.

19. " Hunt Club and Happeo — a tech-enabled love story ," by Happeo

In this blog-post-like case study, Happeo opens with a quote from the client, then dives into a compelling heading: "Technology at the forefront of Hunt Club's strategy." Say you’re investigating Happeo as a solution and consider your firm to be technology-driven. This approach would spark your curiosity about why the client chose to work with Happeo. It also effectively communicates the software’s value proposition without sounding like it’s coming from an in-house marketing team.

Every paragraph is a quote written from the customer’s perspective. Later down the page, the case study also dives into "the features that changed the game for Hunt Club," giving Happeo a chance to highlight some of the platform’s most salient features.

Key Learnings from the Happeo Case Study Example

• Consider writing the entirety of the case study from the perspective of the customer.
• Include a list of the features that convinced your client to go with you.

20. " Red Sox Season Campaign ," by CTP Boston

What's great about CTP's case study page for their Red Sox Season Campaign is their combination of video, images, and text. A video automatically begins playing when you visit the page, and as you scroll, you'll see more embedded videos of Red Sox players, a compilation of print ads, and social media images you can click to enlarge.

At the bottom, it says "Find out how we can do something similar for your brand." The page is clean, cohesive, and aesthetically pleasing. It invites viewers to appreciate the well-roundedness of CTP's campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team.

Key Learnings from the CTP Case Study Example

• Include a video in the heading of the case study.
• Close with a call-to-action that makes leads want to turn into prospects.

21. " Acoustic ," by Genuine

Sometimes, simple is key. Genuine's case study for Acoustic is straightforward and minimal, with just a few short paragraphs, including "Reimagining the B2B website experience," "Speaking to marketers 1:1," and "Inventing Together." After the core of the case study, we then see a quote from Acoustic’s CMO and the results Genuine achieved for the company.

The simplicity of the page allows the reader to focus on both the visual aspects and the copy. The page displays Genuine's brand personality while offering the viewer all the necessary information they need.

• You don’t need to write a lot to create a great case study. Keep it simple.
• Always include quantifiable data to illustrate the results you achieved for your client.

22. " Using Apptio Targetprocess Automated Rules in Wargaming ," by Apptio

Apptio’s case study for Wargaming summarizes three key pieces of information right at the beginning: The goals, the obstacles, and the results.

Readers then have the opportunity to continue reading — or they can walk away right then with the information they need. This case study also excels in keeping the human interest factor by formatting the information like an interview.

The piece is well-organized and uses compelling headers to keep the reader engaged. Despite its length, Apptio's case study is appealing enough to keep the viewer's attention. Every Apptio case study ends with a "recommendation for other companies" section, where the client can give advice for other companies that are looking for a similar solution but aren’t sure how to get started.

Key Learnings from the Apptio Case Study Example

• Put your client in an advisory role by giving them the opportunity to give recommendations to other companies that are reading the case study.
• Include the takeaways from the case study right at the beginning so prospects quickly get what they need.

23. " Airbnb + Zendesk: building a powerful solution together ," by Zendesk

Zendesk's Airbnb case study reads like a blog post, and focuses equally on Zendesk and Airbnb, highlighting a true partnership between the companies. To captivate readers, it begins like this: "Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend."

The piece focuses on telling a good story and provides photographs of beautiful Airbnb locations. In a case study meant to highlight Zendesk's helpfulness, nothing could be more authentic than their decision to focus on Airbnb's service in such great detail.

Key Learnings from the Zendesk Case Study Example

• Include images of your client’s offerings — not necessarily of the service or product you provided. Notice how Zendesk doesn’t include screenshots of its product.
• Include a call-to-action right at the beginning of the case study. Zendesk gives you two options: to find a solution or start a trial.

24. " Biobot Customer Success Story: Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida ," by Biobot

Like some of the other top examples in this list, Biobot opens its case study with a quote from its client, which captures the value proposition of working with Biobot. It mentions the COVID pandemic and goes into detail about the challenges the client faced during this time.

This case study is structured more like a news article than a traditional case study. This format can work in more formal industries where decision-makers need to see in-depth information about the case. Be sure to test different methods and measure engagement .

Key Learnings from the Biobot Case Study Example

• Mention environmental, public health, or economic emergencies and how you helped your client get past such difficult times.
• Feel free to write the case study like a normal blog post, but be sure to test different methods to find the one that best works for you.

25. " Discovering Cost Savings With Efficient Decision Making ," by Gartner

You don't always need a ton of text or a video to convey your message — sometimes, you just need a few paragraphs and bullet points. Gartner does a fantastic job of quickly providing the fundamental statistics a potential customer would need to know, without boggling down their readers with dense paragraphs. The case study closes with a shaded box that summarizes the impact that Gartner had on its client. It includes a quote and a call-to-action to "Learn More."

Key Learnings from the Gartner Case Study Example

• Feel free to keep the case study short.
• Include a call-to-action at the bottom that takes the reader to a page that most relates to them.

26. " Bringing an Operator to the Game ," by Redapt

This case study example by Redapt is another great demonstration of the power of summarizing your case study’s takeaways right at the start of the study. Redapt includes three easy-to-scan columns: "The problem," "the solution," and "the outcome." But its most notable feature is a section titled "Moment of clarity," which shows why this particular project was difficult or challenging.

The section is shaded in green, making it impossible to miss. Redapt does the same thing for each case study. In the same way, you should highlight the "turning point" for both you and your client when you were working toward a solution.

Key Learnings from the Redapt Case Study Example

• Highlight the turning point for both you and your client during the solution-seeking process.
• Use the same structure (including the same headings) for your case studies to make them easy to scan and read.

27. " Virtual Call Center Sees 300% Boost In Contact Rate ," by Convoso

Convoso’s PDF case study for Digital Market Media immediately mentions the results that the client achieved and takes advantage of white space. On the second page, the case study presents more influential results. It’s colorful and engaging and closes with a spread that prompts readers to request a demo.

Key Learnings from the Convoso Case Study Example

• List the results of your work right at the beginning of the case study.
• Use color to differentiate your case study from others. Convoso’s example is one of the most colorful ones on this list.

28. " Ensuring quality of service during a pandemic ," by Ericsson

Ericsson’s case study page for Orange Spain is an excellent example of using diverse written and visual media — such as videos, graphs, and quotes — to showcase the success a client experienced. Throughout the case study, Ericsson provides links to product and service pages users might find relevant as they’re reading the study.

For instance, under the heading "Preloaded with the power of automation," Ericsson mentions its Ericsson Operations Engine product, then links to that product page. It closes the case study with a link to another product page.

Key Learnings from the Ericsson Case Study Example

• Link to product pages throughout the case study so that readers can learn more about the solution you offer.
• Use multimedia to engage users as they read the case study.

Start creating your case study.

Now that you've got a great list of examples of case studies, think about a topic you'd like to write about that highlights your company or work you did with a customer.

A customer’s success story is the most persuasive marketing material you could ever create. With a strong portfolio of case studies, you can ensure prospects know why they should give you their business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

7 Pieces of Content Your Audience Really Wants to See [New Data]

How to Write a Case Study: Bookmarkable Guide & Template

How to Market an Ebook: 21 Ways to Promote Your Content Offers

How to Write a Listicle [+ Examples and Ideas]

What Is a White Paper? [FAQs]

What is an Advertorial? 8 Examples to Help You Write One

How to Create Marketing Offers That Don't Fall Flat

20 Creative Ways To Repurpose Content

16 Important Ways to Use Case Studies in Your Marketing

11 Ways to Make Your Blog Post Interactive

Showcase your company's success using these free case study templates.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

What Is a Case Study & Customer Success Story?

Learn the definition of a business case study, its meaning, benefits & use in marketing. Get best methods to research, write & design business case studies.

Dominika Krukowska

10 minute read

Short answer

What is a business case study.

A case study, also called customer success story, is a product marketing document used to show how your clients solved a business problem with the aid of your product or service. Case studies include statistics, quotes, and concrete examples with the goal of credibly demonstrating your capability to deliver results.

Bad case studies are not just ineffective - they lead to lost sales

A poorly done business case study can be a real bottleneck in your marketing funnel.

Sure, you have to have them; they're a non-negotiable part of the buying process. But if they're not compelling, you might as well not waste your time on it.

It’s bad enough that it’s hard to make a case study that gets results. But making a weak case study can actually cause you to look less attractive than the competition and cost you leads and sales.

Sometimes more is less.

This post is your roadmap to transforming your case studies from forgettable fillers to customer magnets. And ultimately, turning more prospects into customers.

Let's jump in!

What are the benefits of case studies in business and marketing?

Case studies are an essential part of any well-oiled marketing engine. They demonstrate real-life applications, showcase your unique value, build trust, address concerns, and connect with your audience.

Let’s get a bit into detail.

Demonstrating real-life applications: Business case studies show your product or service in action, offering a peek into how it can be used in real-world situations. It's like offering a test drive before asking customers to commit.

Showing your unique value: Customer success stories let your product or service shine. They illustrate exactly what you bring to the table and why customers should choose you over anyone else.

Building trust: Think of business case studies as your brand's personal advocate. They show how you've helped others succeed, which makes potential customers more likely to trust you with their business.

Easing concerns and objections: Got customers sitting on the fence? Business case studies can gently nudge them towards you by addressing common doubts or worries. It's about showing potential customers that you can deliver what they need.

Connecting with your audience: A good business case study is like a mirror—your potential customers should be able to see themselves in it. It's all about tapping into their hopes, their worries, and their needs.

What to include in a case study?

A successful business case study is the product of a strategic blend of essential components. Each one carries its weight, shaping a narrative that is both engaging and impactful.

Introduction: Set the stage with a one-liner summarizing your unique value proposition. Tailor it to grab your readers' attention and pique their curiosity.

Company overview: Give your audience a snapshot of your customer's business, helping them understand who they are and what they do.

The problem/challenge: Dive into the nitty-gritty of the issue your customer was facing (from their perspective), making it relatable to your audience.

Your solution: Detail how your product or service swooped in as the game-changing solution, addressing the customer's problem.

Results: Showcase the impressive outcome of your solution, demonstrating tangible success that can't be ignored. Back it up with relevant data and metrics.

Customer quotes/testimonials: Add authenticity and credibility to your case study with direct quotes from the customer who experienced the transformation first-hand.

Next steps: Conclude with a call to action, guiding the reader on what to do next, whether it's contacting your company or booking a product demo.

Here's an example of a case study designed according to this structure:

UX Case study

This template for case studies in UX and UI comes with tons of space for text and many visual elements such as charts, timelines, or graphs. This one is perfect for those case studies in which you need to explain the process in greater detail.

What makes a good case study?

A good case study follows a story format of problem-solution-impact. It includes key details of the client’s problem, how they solved it with the help of your product, and the impact it brought them.

8 critical components of a successful case study:

• Talking from the client’s perspective
• Addressing well-defined business problem
• Telling the WHY, not just the WHAT and the HOW
• Giving concrete example
• Backing the story with statistics and facts
• Weaving quotes and testimonials into the story
• Making the content interactive
• Including a call to action

In principle, a top-tier business case study is more than a testimonial.

Think of it as a blockbuster movie, where your customer is the hero Luke Skywalker, the problem is the looming death star, and your solution is the trusted guide Obi-Wan Kenobi.

This gives readers an engaging narrative that not only captures interest but also propels action.

Now let's take a look behind-the-scenes. at the key elements that make a good business case study.

1. Story from the client’s perspective

The key to a captivating case study lies in whose story you're telling. Let your customer be the hero, not your product or service. By focusing on their journey, you'll create a narrative that resonates with your audience, making them more invested in the outcome.

A great example is Adobe’s case study with Under Armour :

In this case study, Adobe tells the story of how Under Armour used Adobe Experience Manager Assets to streamline and enhance their creative asset management. The case study is presented from Under Armour's point of view, providing a customer-centric perspective.

2. Common but well-defined business problem

The best case studies revolve around relatable, well-articulated problems. The issue should be common enough for your audience to identify with, yet specific enough to avoid being generic.

Shoot for the sweet spot that makes a specific segment of your prospective clients say, "That sounds like us!"

A great example is Slack’s case study with HubSpot :

HubSpot, a well-known inbound marketing , sales, and service software provider, grappled with the challenge of maintaining internal communication and collaboration across a rapidly expanding global team.

This case study by Slack outlines how they addressed HubSpot's problem - a common issue faced by many growing businesses.

3. Tell the WHY, not just the WHAT and the HOW

The magic of a compelling case study lies in the mystery of 'why' your solution works. It's crucial to share what happened and how, but digging into the reasons behind the decisions and outcomes adds mystery to your story and keeps your audience intrigued.

An example of this is Marketo’s case study with Panasonic :

In this business case study, Marketo digs into why Panasonic decided to implement a new marketing automation solution.

The case study doesn't just focus on the solutions Marketo provided, but also highlights the reasons behind Panasonic's decision, adding depth to the narrative.

4. Concrete examples

Details make your case study relatable and tangible. Incorporate specifics - who did what , when , where , and how . These concrete examples help your audience visualize the scenario, making your narrative more compelling and memorable.

Zendesk's case study with LendingClub presents concrete examples:

It follows how LendingClub used Zendesk's customer service software to improve their customer support operations.

The case study offers a clear narrative about the problems LendingClub faced, the solutions provided by Zendesk, and the impact these solutions had on LendingClub's business.

Numbers lend authority and credibility that words often cannot. They provide concrete evidence of your solution's impact, creating a stronger case for your product or service.

But remember, these stats should be significant, reliable, and, most importantly, show real impact on your customer’s bottom line.

Here's an example of a great animated numbers slide:

6. Quotes and testimonials

There's nothing like a testimonial from a happy customer to boost your credibility. Direct quotes add a personal touch and authenticity to your case study, making it more believable and trustworthy.

Here’s a great testimonial example from Hotjar:

7. Interactive design

Incorporating interactive design elements will make your case studies stand out, but more importantly, drive high-engagement.

Use eye-catching graphics, use clickable elements like tabs, videos, and menus, include live graphs, animated flipbooks , and so on. Use these elements tactically in order to break up your text into digestible chunks and make your content easier to read and to navigate.

Here’s an example of an interactive business case study:

Marketing case study

White glove delivery with a focus on process optimization explained by a compelling story.

8. Call to action

A good case study doesn't just end; it leads your reader to the next step. Be it trying your product, booking a demo, getting in touch with your team, or reading another case study - your call to action should be clear, compelling, and easy to follow.

Here’s what a clear, singular call to action should look like:

If you want to learn more practical tips, check out our post on how to create a business case study that converts .

How to use a case study in business and marketing?

Often underestimated and underused , business case studies have the power to leverage real-life narratives to shape opinions, influence decision-making, and ultimately, drive conversions.

Let me show you how you can use that power to your advantage.

1. Used as sales collateral

In the world of sales, your case study can be the difference between a polite “we’ll consider it” and a bought-in “show me how it works!”

Picture this: you're reaching out to potential clients, and you slip in a case study showcasing how you've helped a similar business overcome a common hurdle. It's not just a pitch, it's proof you can do it.

But the magic doesn't stop there. Weave these real-life success stories into your sales presentations , and watch as they accelerate your pipeline.

They provide tangible evidence of your value proposition, helping you remove objections, demonstrate value, and differentiate yourself in a crowded market.

2. Used as marketing collateral

I) Use on your website:

On the marketing front, case studies can significantly boost your self-serve conversion rate . By featuring them on your website, you're offering visitors a peek into your track record of success - letting them feel like they're missing out.

II) Add to brochures and product catalogs:

Just sprinkle in a few case studies, and you've just added an extra layer of credibility.

III) Leverage social media:

Share your case studies on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, to promote your business; and start a conversation around your brand.

IV) Include in PPC campaigns on Google AdWords:

Add case studies as site links to give potential customers another reason to click. It's like saying, "Don't just take our word for it, see how we've helped businesses like yours."

Here’s an example of what it looks like:

Obstacles for creating business case studies & how to overcome them

Creating captivating business case studies is essential, but let's be real: it's not a walk in the park.

So let's buckle up and navigate the most common roadblocks and learn how to steer around them.

Hurdle 1: Spotting the right stories feels like finding a needle in a haystack.

Hold on there! Locating customers ready to share their success tales might seem daunting, but it's not mission impossible. Here's the deal: people love to share success.

How to get clients to share their success stories

Collaborate with your customer success team to identify delighted or triumphant clients

Seek out customers who are scoring high with a good NPS score

Team up with sales to single out recent renewals or upsells

Engage with super active customers on social media

Ask your team during meetings about any standout customers

Reach out to customers who have spoken at your events

Connect with Customer Advisory Board members

Do this and you're bound to uncover some star storytellers.

Hurdle 2: Customers might not want to get involved.

Let's flip the script! Instead of begging for a favor, portray this as an opportunity for customers to amplify their industry status.

Make it a hassle-free and rewarding experience for them. Provide data, draft points for discussion, and be their cheerleader throughout the journey.

Remember, appreciation is infectious. A heartfelt thank you can turn a one-time participant into a long-term advocate.

Hurdle 3: It’s a mammoth task.

Creating business case studies can feel like a marathon, particularly when you're juggling multiple roles.

Delegating the task to an experienced industry writer can save your team a ton of time and energy. You might find the right person within your network, or you might need to explore industry-specific job boards.

Creating a structured timeline and using a shared tool can help keep everyone on track and in the loop.

Here's how to streamline the process of creating a case study:

Extend an invitation to the potential customer

Connect them with the lead writer

Conduct an internal review of the first draft before sending it to the customer

Incorporate their feedback into the second draft

Get final approval for the final draft

Publish and promote your case study!

How to design a business case study?

Your case study design supports the text like your body language supports what you’re saying when you talk. It adds that extra layer of emotional meaning you can't quite put into words.

Luckily, even if you're not a design expert, there are tools to help you add that extra emotional depth to your content. Let’s review a few tools that help you design your case study.

Design using a website builder

If you’d prefer to get hands-on with your design, website builders like Wix or Squarespace offer a versatile platform for creating a business case study from scratch.

They provide a blank canvas and a wealth of design elements, giving you the liberty to choose each piece and place it just where you want it.

It takes time and a keen eye for design to make all the elements come together seamlessly, but the end result can be rewarding.

Design using a case study maker

A case study maker gives you pre-set elements ready for use. All you need to do is drop in your content, and the tool takes care of the aesthetics and user experience.

It's a much more efficient way to create a case study with all its unique building blocks than using a website builder.

We know, since we see how fast our users create astounding case studies using our own case study creator. Try for yourself .

Don’t design - use a template

Templates provide an immediate and easy to work with structure for your design and content.

But beyond that, our gallery of interactive case study templates gives you time-tested designs we know have high-engagement and killer conversion (based on more than 100K reading sessions we’ve analyzed).

Grab a template - and you can skip the long design process, save time, money and frustration, and simply start creating.

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.

Found this post useful?

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Get notified as more awesome content goes live.

(No spam, no ads, opt-out whenever)

You've just joined an elite group of people that make the top performing 1% of sales and marketing collateral.

Create your best case study to date

Try Storydoc interactive case study creator for 14 days free (keep any presentation you make forever!)

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Web Scraping
• For Small Business

How to Turn a Case Study into a Customer Success Story [+ Tips from HubSpot Marketers]

• May 12, 2024
• by Steven Austin

In the age of the self-educating buyer, customer success stories have emerged as one of the most powerful tools in the modern marketer‘s arsenal. Far more than a simple testimonial or dry case study, a well-crafted success story takes the reader on an emotional journey, builds trust and credibility, and paints a vivid picture of how your solution can transform their business.

Consider these statistics:

• 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations ( Search Engine Land )
• Customer testimonials and case studies are considered the most effective content marketing tactics by nine out of ten B2B marketers ( Content Marketing Institute )
• 72% of B2B buyers say positive reviews and testimonials increase their trust in a business ( B2B News Network )

Clearly, showcasing your successful customers is no longer a nice-to-have. It‘s a critical component of an effective inbound marketing strategy. But creating customer success stories that resonate requires more than just slapping together a few quotes and metrics. It demands a strategic, journalistic approach.

The Anatomy of a Compelling Customer Success Story

Before we dive into the step-by-step process, let‘s deconstruct what makes an impactful customer success story. The best examples typically include:

A relatable main character: The featured customer should mirror your target buyer persona so readers can easily see themselves in their shoes.

A clear challenge or pain point: Articulating the customer‘s struggle sets the stage for your solution to swoop in and save the day. Go beyond surface-level problems and dig into the emotional and business impact.

A turning point: Walk through the customer‘s journey to finding a solution, building up to the "aha" moment when they discovered your offering. This helps readers envision a path forward for themselves.

Specific, tangible results: Quantify the customer‘s success with hard numbers wherever possible. Time saved, revenue generated, leads converted, etc. Use charts and visualizations to drive the point home.

A heroic narrative: Frame the story as a triumph over adversity. Position the customer as the hero and your brand as the wise mentor that helped them slay their dragon. A little melodrama goes a long way.

An authentic, relatable voice: Let the customer tell much of the story in their own words. Avoid jargon and corporate speak. The more conversational and unscripted the content feels, the more trusted it will be.

Aspirational outcomes: Paint a picture of how life is better for the customer now. Explore second and third-order effects, like being seen as an innovator or earning a promotion. Help the reader imagine a transformed future state.

Engaging multimedia: Keep readers hooked with eye-catching images, headshots, videos, infographics, interactive elements, and other visual aids.

Some of the most impressive customer success stories in the wild include:

HubSpot : Known for its visually immersive and data-driven case studies, HubSpot often includes video interviews, custom graphics, and detailed "Before & After" breakdowns. ( Example )

Salesforce : The CRM giant takes a journalistic approach, hooking the reader with bold headlines and compelling customer quotes. They also make smart use of callout boxes and sidebar content. ( Example )

Zendesk : This customer service platform turns case studies into interactive stories, complete with animated graphics, integrated videos, and clickable chapters. The immersive experience pulls you in. ( Example )

The common thread? All of these brands go beyond just the facts. They bring the customer‘s experience to life with strong storytelling, stunning visuals, and a clear, linear narrative.

A Step-by-Step Process for Crafting Compelling Success Stories

With those best practices in mind, here‘s a proven framework for turning your satisfied customers into potent success stories:

Step 1: Identify Your Best-Fit Customers to Spotlight

Not every customer will make for a persuasive case study. Look for clients that align closely with your ideal buyer persona across dimensions like:

• Industry/vertical
• Company size and stage
• Use case and business model
• Pain points and objectives
• Brand cachet and reach

Partnering with your customer success team can uncover clients that have seen outstanding results or have a unique story to tell. Some companies even build advocacy and success story participation into their contracts, setting expectations up front.

Step 2: Conduct Thorough, Revealing Interviews

With customers selected, it‘s time to extract the juicy details that will power your story. Schedule an in-depth interview with your chosen customer. But don‘t just run down a list of boilerplate questions.

Approach the conversation like a journalist. Ask open-ended questions that invite reflection and storytelling. Probe into their world before discovering your solution – the frustrations, the late nights, the spiraling costs. Trace their journey to finding an answer and unpack their decision-making process. And of course, dig into the specifics of how they‘re using your product and the transformative results they‘ve seen.

Complement this by interviewing relevant internal stakeholders – the account executive, the onboarding specialist, the customer success manager. They can often fill in details and anecdotes that the customer may gloss over.

The most revealing insights often emerge from going off-script, so don‘t be afraid to let the discussion meander. The more comfortable and candid the customer feels, the more authentic and trusted the final story will be.

Step 3: Craft a Compelling, Customer-Centric Narrative

With pages of raw interview notes, it‘s time to distill it all down into a gripping story. Remember, the customer is the hero of this journey, not your brand. Structure the narrative through their eyes:

1. Set the stage : Paint a vivid picture of the customer‘s state of affairs before finding your solution. Bring their challenges and frustrations to life with colorful quotes and anecdotes. Help the reader feel the weight of the problem.

2. Introduce the quest for a solution : Describe the customer‘s search for an answer to their thorny problem. This might include other solutions they tried or almost went with. Build up the suspense to the turning point when they discovered your offering.

3. Detail the experience and impact : Walk through the customer‘s journey with your solution. What was the onboarding process like? How are they using key features and functions? Call out major milestones and aha moments. Most importantly, dig into the concrete results and ROI – cost savings, time reductions, revenue growth, etc. Use data points, visualizations, and side-by-side comparisons to concretize the impact.

4. Envision a transformed future state : Don‘t stop at the hard results. Explore how life is different for the customer now that they‘ve slain their proverbial dragon. Maybe they‘re seen as a hero within their own company. Maybe they‘re less stressed and able to spend more time strategizing vs. putting out fires. Help the reader picture their own transformation. Seed aspirational visions of promotions earned, industry accolades won, and new frontiers conquered.

5. Tie it all together : End with a powerful customer quote that sums up the entire journey and leaves the reader inspired to embark on their own quest. Resist the urge to make it about your product. Let the customer‘s story and results speak for themselves.

Once you‘ve nailed the narrative flow, bring the story to life with eye-catching design. Incorporate images, videos, infographics, and interactive elements (more on that below). A stunning visual experience is just as critical as the writing itself.

Step 4: Amplify and Repurpose the Story Across Channels

With an amazing success story created, it‘s time to put it to work across your marketing and sales channels. Some effective promotion tactics include:

• Featuring the story on a dedicated customer stories page on your website
• Breaking the story into bite-sized social media posts and graphics
• Including story excerpts and links in lead nurturing emails
• Equipping your sales team to share the story in prospect conversations
• Pitching the story to relevant industry publications and influencers
• Featuring the customer in webinars, podcasts, and speaking engagements
• Paid promotion via targeted social and display ads

Don‘t be afraid to get creative with the formats and channels. The more touchpoints and environments you can inject the story into, the more mileage you‘ll get.

Just be sure to make it easy for readers to take the next step after consuming the content. Include clear calls-to-action to explore your offering, request a demo, download a related resource, etc.

Step 5: Integrate Customer Insights Into Your Broader Strategy

Crafting customer success stories shouldn‘t happen in a vacuum. The insights you uncover in the process should be a key input into your product roadmap, your marketing messaging, your sales playbooks, even your company vision.

For example, if multiple customers rave about a particular feature, double down on promoting it. If they all describe a similar "aha" moment, turn that into a core part of your brand story. If they consistently raise the same objections during the buying process, arm your sales team to proactively overcome them.

Over time, patterns will emerge across your customer success content. It might become obvious that a particular buyer persona or use case is an untapped goldmine. Or that customers in a certain industry consistently see the highest ROI. Or that a key product gap is holding back even your happiest clients.

Regularly analyze your success stories at a macro level to identify these trends and opportunities. Bring together leaders from marketing, sales, product, and customer success to align on how to act on them. The organizations that will thrive in the future will be those that put customer success at the center of everything they do.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Mistakes

For all their potential impact and upside, customer success stories are also easy to get wrong. Some common traps marketers fall into include:

• Focusing too much on their own product/solution instead of the customer‘s experience and outcomes
• Not digging deep enough into the customer‘s initial state and key turning points in their journey
• Getting too in the weeds with technical details and losing sight of the big picture narrative
• Neglecting to build a compelling visual experience to accompany the written story
• Gating the content behind a lead capture form instead of making it freely accessible for maximum reach and impact
• Failing to get the customer‘s explicit sign-off and approval before publishing anything
• Letting the story sit in a corner of the website instead of aggressively promoting and repurposing it

The key is to always put yourself in the audience‘s shoes. Is this a story you‘d want to read? Does it teach you something new? Does it inspire you to take action? If not, keep iterating and polishing.

The Future of Customer Success Storytelling

As the B2B buying process continues to evolve, so too will the way marketers approach customer success stories. Some trends and predictions to watch for in the coming years:

• Greater focus on video and interactive formats : As attention spans shrink and digital noise grows, B2B brands will invest more in bringing customer stories to life through engaging video content, animations, and interactive web experiences. Static PDFs and walls of text won‘t cut it.
• The rise of customer-led content : Forward-thinking companies will start to give customers the keys to the storytelling car, empowering them to share their experiences more directly and authentically. This might include inviting customers to publish their own blog posts, letting them take over the brand‘s social media for a day, or featuring them in live video AMAs and fireside chats.
• Increased personalization and ABM alignment : Organizations will get more sophisticated at tailoring customer success stories to specific accounts, personas, and industries as part of their account-based marketing initiatives. Imagine a customized microsite for each major target account featuring relevant case studies, testimonials, and value propositions.
• More robust customer advocacy programs : Companies ahead of the curve will turn ad hoc case study creation into always-on customer advocacy programs. This includes building a have ongoing processes for identifying advocates, capturing their stories, and activating them as influencers and contributors across a range of channels and initiatives.
• Tighter integration with customer success and sales : The smartest organizations will work to break down the silos between marketing, sales, and customer success. All three functions will collaborate closely on surfacing success stories, aligning them to the buyer‘s journey, and leveraging them in ongoing customer communications.

Embracing the Power of Proof

At the end of the day, customer success stories are really about one thing: giving prospects the confidence to take a leap of faith. In a world where buyers are increasingly skeptical and risk-averse, showcasing successful customers who‘ve walked the same path is a powerful way to build trust and grease the wheels of conversion.

But crafting these stories in a way that resonates takes work. It requires a shift from simply listing out facts and figures to digging for the deeper human truths. It means embracing transparency and letting customers drive the narrative. And it demands thinking beyond one-and-done assets to fuel an entire engine of customer advocacy.

The brands that master this will be the ones that don‘t just win more deals. They‘ll turn customers into true partners and create a virtuous cycle of retention and growth. And they‘ll ultimately leave their competitors in the dust.

So don‘t just think of customer success stories as another box to check. Treat them as a pillar of your marketing strategy and a window into the soul of your brand. Your future customers will thank you.

Get inspired.

Omni Hotels boosts conversions 4X by ditching cookies for Display & Video 360’s PAIR

From its roots in grand historic hotels to its collection of modern resort destinations, Omni Hotels & Resorts has been shaping the hospitality landscape for decades. With over 40 locations spanning across North America, Omni has continued to build upon its rich legacy that blends time-honored elegance with personalized experiences, offering guests a taste of genuine luxury. To navigate the privacy-focused landscape, Omni partnered with PMG, MiQ, and LiveRamp, adopting Google's Display & Video 360 Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR) solution to deliver relevant ads without compromising user data. This resulted in a remarkable 4X increase in ad conversion rates compared to traditional cookie-based methods, demonstrating success in delivering relevant experiences while respecting user privacy.

Get the latest, delivered.

Our monthly newsletter puts the latest success stories, insights, and product news right into your inbox.

• Ads Data Hub
• Analytics 360
• Campaign Manager 360
• Connected TV
• Custom Bidding
• Display & Video 360
• Google Cloud
• Google Marketing Platform
• Search Ads 360
• Tag Manager
• Tag Manager 360

No matching results

Enterprise Brand SAS embraces custom bidding to strategically reach connected TV viewers

Sky TV Italia uses Display & Video 360 together with Campaign Manager 360 to boost video performance

Reckitt US boosts its connected TV strategy with Display & Video 360

Mitsubishi Motors Canada uses propensity modeling to increase conversion rate

Riot Games uses Google Marketing Platform to level-up their player base

Men in Green cuts their creative production time in half with Ads Creative Studio

McDonald’s Hong Kong uses Google Analytics 4 to increase in-app orders by 550%

Uber Eats delivers a 10% increase in campaign reach with Display & Video 360

Charlotte Tilbury Beauty reduces CPA by 29% with Custom Bidding

Claro Shop uses Google Analytics 4 to increase in-app purchases in time for the holiday season

Square improves conversion measurement securely with Server-Side Tagging

Banco Azteca increases financial product sales by 178% with Google Marketing Platform

How The North Face used Tag Manager 360 to increase conversions by 3X

How PepsiCo moved from mass demographic marketing to a consumer-centric marketing approach

Nemlig gathers new insights and grows conversions by 40%

Líder drives in-app purchases at a lower CPA with Google Analytics

How OMD and the Guardian used Programmatic Guaranteed to increase efficiency for their direct deals.

How first-party data helped Deckers Brands see which customer trends were taking off

United Overseas Bank drives 3x increase in applications with Google Marketing Platform

Deckers Brands drives business growth with Google Marketing Platform and Google Cloud

TUI UK drives 13% higher return on ad spend by investing in digital maturity

Adidas uses Display & Video 360’s connected TV solutions to show the world it is “Ready for Change”

Samsung increases return on ad spend by over 2x with data-driven creatives

412 Food Rescue uses the new Google Analytics to cut reporting time by 50%

Salesforce unlocks marketing insights faster with Google Analytics 360

L'Oréal Taiwan uses predictive insights to reach the right customers

L’Oréal Taiwan increases offline revenue 2.5x with Google Cloud and Google Marketing Platform

Mondelēz International improves cross-functional collaboration with Campaign Manager 360

Booking.com Evolves Their Measurement with Ads Data Hub

Essence Develops New Measurement Solutions for Customers with Ads Data Hub

How Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage maximized reach and reduced waste

Nestlé UK Drives Incremental Reach with Audio Ads

Groupe Renault boosts sales and reduces cost per lead with Google and Salesforce

Toyota Canada sees 6X boost in conversions using Google Marketing Platform and Google Cloud

How Samsung found success in Indonesia’s smartphone-savvy market

SAS increases online bookings by 34% in partnership with Google

How did L’Oréal make one creative idea work 100K+ different ways? With a little help from Display & Video 360, Studio and GWD.

Rituals Grows Their Brand with Google Marketing Platform

Rituals Boosts Sales by 85% with Google Marketing Platform

With Display & Video 360, Google Media Lab brings the best of programmatic to its linear TV ad buys

Australia’s Qantas uses Display & Video 360 to reach frequent flyers with relevant ads

Major League Baseball speeds up its marketing game with Google Marketing Platform

Columbus efficiently boosts conversions with a Search Ads 360 Smart Bidding strategy

adidas brings teams together around insights with Google Marketing Platform

Scotiabank boosts mobile conversions with Google Search Ads 360

BookIt moves new users through the funnel with insights-driven creative

OMD revs up high-value traffic for Nissan with Google Display & Video 360

Dune London teamed up with NMPi to boost its Google Shopping revenue by 72%

Scotiabank makes a winning investment with Google Display & Video 360

Moncler hits 72% rise in revenue with Google Marketing Platform’s full stack digital marketing solution

iProspect boosts Thon Hotels' revenue 147% with Google Search Ads 360

IPG Mediabrands improves time spent on Le Petit Marseillais website

L’Oréal Paris puts a fresh face forward with Google Display & Video 360

Walks of Italy boosts revenue and ROI with data-driven attribution and automated bidding

Avon paints a pretty picture with native ad engagement from Google Display & Video 360

Zoopla increases leads with Google Search Ads 360

Audi’s dynamic creative ads reinforce car customization possibilities

IKEA boosts ad spend ROI through Google Search Ads 360

Jellyfish increases agency efficiency with Google Search Ads 360

Using Google Marketing Platform, Novartis customer experience is the picture of health on a global scale

AIDA Cruises speeds ahead with scaled insights and efficiencies from Google Marketing Platform

With Google Tag Manager 360, GoPro discovers freedom and adventure in marketing

Jobs2Careers doubles conversions and increases workflow efficiency using Google Tag Manager

Airbnb improves vendor data collection to 90% with Google Tag Manager

Rail Europe accelerates page load speed by 20%

More From Forbes

Customer case studies: how to capture and tell a customer story.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Chad is the VP of Marketing and Communications at  JotForm , a leading software for creating and publishing online forms. 

One of the most significant communications lessons I’ve learned working at a business-to-business (B2B) software company is that our customers are a lot more interesting than we are. 

It’s the truth. 

Our customers are scrappy entrepreneurs following their dreams. They’re nonprofits making a difference in their communities. They’re universities educating the next generation of difference-makers. 

Our company gives them a tool to create online forms. It’s important, sure, but objectively less interesting on the surface. 

That’s why developing customer case studies is so crucial to our marketing and communications efforts. We get to be woven into their success stories. The narrative changes from explaining how to use our product to telling a great story about an interesting brand that happens to use our product. 

Here are some ways to perfect the ultimate customer case study for your brand. 

1. Cherry-pick really good customers to participate.

Apple Confirms iPhone Upgrade With 2 Key New Features Is Here In Days

‘house of the dragon’ season 2, episode 2 recap and review: ‘i love you brother’, disney forced to reveal unequal pay on star wars show ‘the acolyte’.

Your best customers are likely to want to be a part of a case study with no reciprocity. They’re your advocates, your brand ambassadors. They believe in what you do and want to help more people discover your company. 

You’ll know who they are by the way they respond when you reach out. They’ll say things like “I’d love to participate. You save me so much time!” 

Discovering them might take a little bit of work. If you have a customer service team, they’ll be a valuable resource since they regularly receive product feedback. Once you land on a winning customer, find a way to capture their enthusiasm and share it with your audience. 

2. Create videos.

You can do case studies a number of ways, but nothing beats a video. If your customer is passionate about what you do, it’ll show in a video. And that’s priceless for your brand. 

At JotForm, we want a customer to meet one of three criteria before we commit to featuring them in a case study video. The brand should be visually captivating, should use our software in a way that we specifically want to highlight or should be such a large brand that we’d feature it regardless of how our software is used. Sometimes we get a mix of the above, which is always great. 

When it comes to interviewing your customers for a video case study, be sure to ask open-ended questions that get them talking casually. A journalism professor of mine gave me good advice that applies to interviews for case studies as well: Ask basic questions. Ask your customers questions you already know the answer to in order to get them speaking freely. 

Asking a customer to be in a video is a big ask. It requires them to step away from their day jobs to be interviewed. So be prepared to offer them some sort of incentive. In our case, we typically offer to share all of the b-roll we take of their office to use in their own promotional materials. That tends to do the trick. 

3. Use statistics to illustrate their success.

Customers won’t always have the hard numbers for how many hours, dollars or headaches you save them. But if they do, use them. Then turn those numbers into graphics that you can use in testimonial videos, social media graphics, blog posts and other mediums. 

Your potential customers make purchasing decisions based on numbers, so having them handy will make the choice much clearer. 

4. Pitch targeted publications. 

Customer stories aren’t just compelling to your prospective customers; they’re interesting to reporters as well. 

It’s never a bad idea to tell your customer success story to the media, especially when it aligns neatly with their readership. We’ve even had a little luck getting new product announcements into the media by way of customer stories. The publications sometimes want to interview the customer on their own, so make sure you check with your case study subjects early on to see if they’d also be willing to speak to reporters about their experience using your product. 

5. Plan to retell their story in future content. 

Customer case studies are evergreen content. There’s no expiration date. Two years after producing a great customer story, it’s still going to be useful to your marketing efforts. Find ways to share existing case studies on a recurring basis on social media, and inject links to case studies in new blog posts. Find different mediums, such as infographics or landing pages, to tell the stories in a different way. 

Case studies are something we’ve devoted a lot of resources to doing well. We hired a full-time videographer and, to date, have produced more than 25 customer case study videos, in addition to countless other videos for our blog. 

They have helped us attract more customers and get valuable press coverage, and they have even been a big morale booster for our employees, who get to see real-life examples of companies using the products they create. 

Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. By viewing our content, you are accepting the use of cookies. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country we will assume you are from the United States. View our privacy policy and terms of use.

• Customer Engagement
• Customer Journeys
• Customer Relationship Management
• Employee Experience
• Loyalty Programs
• Social Media

So, You Want to Write a Case Study?

Education Services Group

JULY 27, 2021

You’ve done incredible, meaningful work with your customer , and they clearly love you, your product, and your company. Getting customers to that stage is really the ultimate goal of Customer Success , so this is a moment to be celebrated (cheers!) The part Customer Success plays in the story. and documented.

5 Examples of Customer Success Marketing for SaaS Teams

MAY 20, 2021

So how can marketing teams create content and messaging to improve customer success and drive retention? In this post, we’re sharing some great examples of customer success marketing — marketing activities and features specifically designed to help existing customers be successful with your product.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

• How to Optimize Call Monitoring: Automate QA and Elevate Customer Experience

MORE WEBINARS

Trending Sources

• InMoment XI
• IntouchInsight
• Experience Investigators by 360Connext
• C3Centricity

6 Top Chatbot Examples: AI Customer Service Bots in Action

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

If you’re here because you’re trying to figure out what a customer service chatbot is capable of and how it can help your customers and company grow, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s explore the top 6 chatbot examples of 2020. One of the best chatbot examples is from the healthcare industry.

What Is Customer Success?

AUGUST 21, 2020

As competitors become more customer -savvy and customers continue to raise the bar of their expectations, keeping customers happy is no longer the icing on the cake—it is now a main and necessary ingredient for business success , and it comes about primarily through the creation of customer value. CS Defined.

Customer Advocacy: How to Get Your Customers and Customer Success Team Invested

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Customer Advocacy: How to Get Your Customers and Customer Success Team Invested. At ChurnZero’s virtual RYG, we held a panel discussion with Customer Success leaders who offered up their best advice on how to get both your customers and your team invested in your customer advocacy program.

Customer Success Manager Salary Best Practices

CSM Practice

MAY 28, 2020

What is the average Customer Success Manager Salary? More and more SaaS businesses are realizing the value of having a customer success team to ensure the continued success of their customers . Popular Customer Success Manager Salary Plans.

Customer Success & Marketing Success

AUGUST 29, 2021

When you think of customer success and marketing, you may be thinking that those two areas of the business—and their related strategies—aren’t very related. But the reality is that the entire company can benefit from having a solid customer success strategy and a customer -centric mindset.

Compensation Plans for Customer Success Managers

ClientSuccess

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

In this post, I’ll address the most frequent question I’m asked by customer success leaders—what is the best compensation plan for Customer Success Managers (CSMs)? Compensation Plans for Customer Success Managers (CSMs). Download Customer Success Compensation Models Image.

Searching For New Customer Success Software? What You Need to Know!

OCTOBER 4, 2022

As a customer success department manager or leader, you’re constantly looking for new tools and solutions to help your team reach the highest output possible. Here are some considerations to take into account when looking for a new customer success platform: 1. So, how are you supposed to choose??

How to build a durable growth engine with Digital Customer Success

SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

There are plenty of unexpected challenges in SaaS right now, as the looming recession becomes a reality, but Customer Success (CS) organizations in particular are adopting digital tactics to overcome and endure these challenges. . Set your customers up for success from day zero with a welcome email that does serious work.

How Should You Define Customer Success?

AUGUST 14, 2020

In customer success , your customers define their own victories. No one-size-fits-all finish line exists that clients must strive to cross, and there is no Harvard Business School concept of accomplishment you can award your customer before resting on well-earned laurels. Creating Better Customers , by Definition.

Customer Success Webinar: 5 Top Mistakes In Building Your Customer Success Strategy

MARCH 20, 2019

ClientSuccess will host Dave Blake , our Founder and CEO, for this month’s customer success webinar series: Top 5 Mistakes in Building Your Customer Success Strategy. Dave will walk attendees through common mistakes customer success leaders make as they build out their customer success strategy.

Customer Success: Roles Within a B2B Enterprise

JANUARY 14, 2020

To accomplish that, you need a well-structured customer success team with clearly defined roles within the company. The customer success (CS) team is in charge of engaging current customers and ensuring they have a positive experience. Thinking Critically About Customer Success Roles.

How to Turn NPS Feedback Into Reviews, Recommendations and Referrals

JUNE 28, 2022

Referral programs can prove to be even more effective, as in this case a loyal customer will get part of the revenue, so they are more than willing to promote the brand. Another example is Uber, which offers a free ride to the referrer and the referee. How customers can help your business grow.

11 Examples of Exceptional Customer Service From Companies That Walk the Walk

Promoter.io

JANUARY 18, 2018

The post 11 Examples of Exceptional Customer Service From Companies That Walk the Walk appeared first on Promoter.io Maybe it was a pizza restaurant that threw in an extra order of breadsticks to show you that they appreciate your repeat business. Or, maybe it was a software company that built […].

Drive early ‘Time-To-Value’ through Customer Success

CustomerSuccessBox

DECEMBER 27, 2021

Customer Success is a proactive function that aims to provide exactly that. First, let’s understand TTV and what role it plays in an efficient Customer Success function. Time-To-Value(TTV) is the time taken by your customer to derive value from your product after subscribing to it. It is a Customer Success metric.

Everything you need to know about Customer Success Software.

JUNE 20, 2022

Now that you’ve chosen to read this article, I suppose you are already aware of the weightage that the Customer Success function holds for your SaaS business. And when it comes to delivering the right customer success function to your clients you are as good as the tool you use. What is a Customer Success Software?

What is the role of a Customer Success Manager ?

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

The searches for the keyword ‘ Role of a Customer Success Manager ’ have been increasing since the last few years. As companies around the world are getting aware of the importance of Customer Success , the demand for seasoned Customer Success Managers (CSMs) is also increasing exponentially. Why is it so?

How to Write a SaaS Case Study: A Step-by-Step Guide (+ Template)

SmartKarrot

JULY 26, 2022

To write a SaaS case study , you must remember certain pointers. You need to engage customers and readers about how the product or company solves business problems and improves growth. A SaaS case study is a narrative or story of how one has successfully delivered and implemented a solution with a client for results.

10 Ways Customer Success Can Break Through Silos

AUGUST 10, 2021

In a dream world, Customer Success , sales, marketing, product, and support organizations all work together to weave the beautiful tapestry this is your customer experience. In the real world, where most of us live, this is, unfortunately, rarely the case . Develop a formalized “sales to Customer Success ” handoff process.

Top 7 Customer Success Email Templates that your team needs!

APRIL 3, 2022

Customer Success ensures that your customers remain happy customers . Its objective is to guarantee that your customers get the most value from your product. Sending an email with the appropriate intent at the right time is essential to a good customer success email. Customer Success Email Templates.

4 Powerful Ways to Promote Your Customer Academy & Inspire Long-term Learning

JUNE 13, 2024

Your customers won’t view your academy in the same light as the microwave, but you should still anticipate some adoption hurdles in both the short- and long-term. Three primary reasons: Your customers have always defaulted to help centers and their Customer Success Managers (CSM) for support and strategic guidance.

Who Owns Your Customer Communication? Marketing or Customer Success?

JUNE 4, 2019

So who’s in charge of communicating with customers , marketing or Customer Success ? Customer Success and marketing teams need to work together to optimize the customer experience and turn customers into brand advocates. Capture and Share Customer Success Stories. The short answer is both.

Recorded Customer Success Webinar: 5 Strategies of Top Performing Customer Success Teams

AUGUST 18, 2018

ClientSuccess hosted Jamey Jeff, Managing Director of Customer Success Solutions of Coastal Cloud , for this month’s customer success webinar series: 5 Standout Strategies of Top Performing Customer Success Teams. The webinar covered five standout strategies of top performing customer success teams.

May 05 – Customer Success Jobs

MAY 5, 2023

Role: VP of Customer Success Location: Washington, DC, United States (Remote) Organization: Analyst1 As a VP of Customer Success , you’ll create and grow a high-performance customer success team to aid in the expansion and scaling of the company. Strong commitment to ongoing learning.

Correlation vs. Causation in Customer Success

OCTOBER 31, 2018

I think this question of causation or correlation is super relevant as the industry analyzes the impact of Customer Success . How do we quantify the impact of Customer Success ?”. How do we justify the need for Customer Success ?”. What’s the ROI of Customer Success ?”.

Open the Channels of Communication with Your Customers

JULY 22, 2022

Leveraging customer success technology can help you implement the best practices that will enable you to efficiently engage and retain customers , as well as key stakeholders. . Let Totango help through our extensive SuccessBLOC library and easy-to-use customer success tools.

Customer Success for Services Companies

Kapta Customer Success

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Up until now, Customer Success (CS) strategies have primarily lived in the software and technology fields. As a leading provider of Customer Success software, we’re always looking for new ways that Customer Success strategies can be integrated into any company’s existing customer relationship systems.

CE to Showcase AtomIQ for Oracle Cloud ERP Users to Rapidly Design, Build & Deploy Enterprise Mobile Apps

Circular Edge

MARCH 4, 2024

To learn more, schedule a one-on-one meeting and engage with digital resources, visit [link] Ascend Read More “What AtomIQ delivers is a low-code/no-code development platform that enables organizations to deploy one universal app with a modern UI to realize unified user experiences across their ERP and beyond.

6 Key Takeaways From ‘Managing Friction Between Customer Success and Other Company Departments’ Panel

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Is your Customer Success team: Butting heads with Sales during onboarding. Getting bombarded by Marketing for unrestricted customer access. Put simply, Customer Success does a lot of things for a lot of people. ChurnZero vRYG panelists included: Sana Farooq , Director of Customer Success , FloQast.

Feb 21 – Customer Success Jobs

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

To provide high levels of customer satisfaction, recruit and train the best customer success managers. When required, set an example for your direct reports by working directly with clients and showing them what best-in-class looks like in terms of operational efficiency and client communication.

What Is CSAT and How Can It Help You Improve Satisfaction?

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

You can use CSAT to measure different items throughout each stage of your customer journey. For example , you can measure satisfaction with: Your purchasing process. A customer escalation experience. These are just some examples . A variation of this strategy is reaching out to customers and asking for case studies .

The Ultimate Guide to CSM Compensation Plans

MAY 22, 2020

More and more SaaS businesses are realizing the value of having a customer success team to ensure the continued success of their customers . Successful customers are more likely to renew and pay more through renewals and expansion, ensuring a steady revenue growth for SaaS businesses. Customer Health Score.

5 Must-Ask Questions for Customer Success Calls

DECEMBER 18, 2017

Simply put, you can ask them “12 months from now, how will you determine whether this is a successful investment for you?” “What do we do better than other vendors, and are there any examples when we’ve exceeded expectations?” Ask for feedback, both positive and negative. “What can we do better?”

Understanding the Connection Between Customer Success and Renewals

JUNE 29, 2019

Even though customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition — arguably even more so — most companies spend the majority of their focus on customer acquisition. So how do you put your efforts into keeping your existing customers happy? And how can Customer Success strategies help you get there?

Customer Success and Product Team Collaboration

JANUARY 15, 2021

A healthy Customer Success and Product team relationship is essential for high performing, high growth companies. Most software companies can point to areas of coordination between Success and Product and this is an excellent starting point. But for the sake of your long-term success –aim higher.

The Customer Success Hub Effect: A Conversation with Paul Piazza

APRIL 20, 2017

Paul Pizza is a veteran in the Customer Success space with his experience starting in the late 1990’s when most didn’t even know what the term meant. Back when Paul first started working with customers , “ Customer Success ” was considered a hybrid between account management and customer service.

How to turn NPS Promoters into Brand Advocates?

SurveySensum

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

Email Campaigns: Create email campaigns with exclusive discounts for returning customers . Brand example : Amazon excels at fostering customer loyalty. Take the HubSpot Partner Program for example . When one of their referrals becomes a HubSpot customer , these partners earn a commission. Surprising, right?

Onboarding The First Member of Your Customer Success Team

NOVEMBER 16, 2016

In my previous article, I covered how to hire your first Customer Success Manager. Some of the questions you may ask yourself when onboarding a new hire into Customer Success are: What does success look like in this role? When should they start talking to customers ? Increased Customer Engagement.

How to Sell Customer Success Software to the C-Suite: A Guide for Customer Success Leaders

APRIL 6, 2021

If you are a customer success leader who’s being forced to use a sales tool that wasn’t built for you in the first place, we get you. how to sell your customer success tool to them. how to sell your customer success tool to them. The Impact of selling a customer success software to the C-suite.

Guest Blogging for Amity!

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Sharing the ideas of other Customer Success Professionals can help give our community a whole new perspective on the Customer Success world! We are looking for original articles that offer best practices, guides, and tips on the topic of Customer Success . Customer Success Topics We Cover.

What impact is your Customer Success team having?

JANUARY 13, 2016

Issue 71 - What impact is your Customer Success team having? Your customers are going through a journey with you. Your Customer Success team plays an important role in how they experience the journey. So how do you make sure that your Customer Success team is making the required impact along the way?

How to Get Hired as a Customer Success Director

APRIL 16, 2019

In January, as a result of a merger, I started to search for a customer success leadership position. Some companies are calling their CSMs Customer Success Directors (CSD) instead. Just to add to the confusion, you will sometimes see “Manager, Customer Success ,” which is a people manager.

3 Essential Reports That Will Answer Your Product Usage Questions

MARCH 11, 2020

Gainsight PX was built for SaaS companies, so our product analytics features are meant to surface critical, useful insights that recurring revenue companies can use to grow and retain customers . Here are three essential reports in Gainsight PX, the questions they answer, and examples of their application. Read the full case study here.

Stay Connected

Join 134,000+ Insiders by signing up for our newsletter

• Participate in Customer Experience Update
• 2019 Customer Experience Update Summer Reading List
• Stay At Home Reading List
• Add a Source
• Add a Resource
• See All 
• 2018 Customer Experience Update MVP Awards
• 2019 Customer Experience Update MVP Awards
• 2020 Customer Experience Update MVP Awards
• 2021 Customer Experience Update MVP Awards
• 2022 Customer Experience Update MVP Awards
• Sun. Jun 23
• Fri. Jun 21
• Thu. Jun 20
• Wed. Jun 19
• Jun 15 - Jun 21
• Customer Experience
• Customer Service
• Voice of Customer
• More Topics 

Input your email to sign up, or if you already have an account, log in here!

Enter your email address to reset your password. a temporary password will be e‑mailed to you., be in the know on.

Customer Experience Update

Expert insights. Personalized for you.

We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 134,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.

Get the good stuff

Subscribe to the following Customer Experience Update newsletters:

You must accept the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions to proceed.

You know about us, now we want to get to know you!

Check your mail, we've sent an email to . please verify that you have received the email..

We have resent the email to

Let's personalize your content

Use social media to find articles.

We can use your profile and the content you share to understand your interests and provide content that is just for you.

Turn this off at any time. Your social media activity always remains private.

Let's get even more personalized

Choose topics that interest you., so, what do you do.

Are you sure you want to cancel your subscriptions?

Cancel my subscriptions

Don't cancel my subscriptions

Changing Country?

Accept terms & conditions.

It looks like you are changing your country/region of residence. In order to receive our emails, you must expressly agree. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails.

You appear to have previously removed your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions.

We noticed that you changed your country/region of residence; congratulations! In order to make this change, you must accept the Aggregage Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Once you've accepted, then you will be able to choose which emails to receive from each site .

You must choose one option

Please choose which emails to receive from each site .

• Update All Sites
• Update Each Site

Please verify your previous choices for all sites

Sites have been updated - click Submit All Changes below to save your changes.

We recognize your account from another site in our network , please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.

You must accept the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions to proceed.

This is not me

• Content Writing Services
• Get in Touch

How 8 Customer Marketers Measure Case Study Success

Updated April 2022: Successful B2B SaaS case studies take time and effort to produce from everyone involved—including your customers—which means it’s crucial to evaluate whether these sales tools are performing well enough to make the content creation process worth your while. 

However, determining case study success is often easier said than done because many SaaS companies use both quantitative and qualitative metrics to evaluate a home run versus a dud, and gathering this data can be challenging.

In this blog post, we’ll share insights on this tricky issue directly from customer marketing leaders in the SaaS industry, as we dig into what case study success looks like for 8 customer marketers.

Case study success: why is it so hard to measure?

Your B2B SaaS case studies can only be successful if they have impact, and to have impact, these stories must be shared.

Content creators rely on others within their organizations, such as social media marketers and sales reps, to get these stories in front of potential customers, which makes it hard to keep track of the content’s success.

Even when these case studies do get promoted online , it’s easy for them to get lost in a sea of competing content.

Say your case study catches a prospect’s eye on LinkedIn and they click through to your website to read it.

Even at that point, it’s tough to determine case study success because metrics such as page views and time spent on a page track the level of consumption of a story, but not how it was received by readers, which is highly subjective, or how it might go on to influence a deal. 

No cohesive view of case study success

Case study success is something that every customer marketer is aiming for. But it’s extremely hard to get a cohesive view of how case studies perform.

While some SaaS marketers report receiving anecdotal feedback on case studies from sales colleagues, this is a rare occurrence.

Other customer marketers feel they have no concrete view into how often case studies are used in sales conversations.

Metrics can be deceiving because there’s no way to know how often a sales rep has saved the content to their desktop and emailed it to a lead. 

Finally, technology poses another challenge. One SaaS marketer describes case studies as an engine that powers other components of marketing and sales, which often use different MarTech stacks. As a result, the variety of places marketers need to look for metrics makes the evaluation process time consuming.

With a multitude of tools being used, it becomes tricky to get a cohesive view of the impact of your case studies, and you’ll often be missing key pieces of data required to gain a full picture.

Case in point

In December of 2023, we conducted a survey of 115 SaaS marketers and found that 38% of SaaS companies say they don’t measure case study performance at all  because they lack the time, resources or know-how to do so.

The rest of the respondents use a wide variety of marketing tactics to evaluate case studies.

Read the full report here:   2022 SaaS Case Studies Trends & Tactics Report

Case studies: why is it important to measure performance?

Without setting and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) for your case studies, you’ll have a harder time developing strategy and allocating budget for them.

It’ll also be more difficult for you to analyze your competition and demonstrate accountability to your boss. Establishing KPIs will enable you to get a sense of your wins and opportunities for improvement.

Knowing which of your case studies are performing best can help inform your next steps, such as promoting these heavy hitters far and wide.

Many customer marketers are creating so much content on a quarterly basis that it’s tough to build awareness of each individual piece due to information overload.

Sales teams are being bombarded with emails and messages, and sometimes case studies get lost in the shuffle. Identifying priority content based on performance can help solve this problem.

When it comes to the laggards, this content is just as crucial to pay attention to. By optimizing these stories for better performance , you can make them work harder for your SaaS company and generate more conversions, rather than focusing your resources and efforts on creating new content from scratch.

8 customer marketers weigh in on how to measure case study success

There doesn’t seem to be any research available online that speaks to how SaaS marketers measure case study success. So, we spoke directly to 8 customer marketers in the B2B SaaS space to find out how they measure the performance of their case studies. Here’s what we learned:

Andrew Sevillia, Director, Customer Marketing, Sage Intacct

“Case study success for me is if I can capture the story, then my PR team can pitch it and it gets picked up by one of the industry or business publications we work with. Another big success is when these case studies get used by our demand gen or sales staff, and when the stories help to either attract prospective customers or to speed up the sales cycle.” — See Andrew’s LinkedIn profile

Matt Arout, Senior Customer Advocacy Manager, Google

“We use Looker to measure case study success! Looker can be used to tie multiple data sources together to build a dashboard. We have a content dashboard that gives real time insights on how content is performing via Google Analytics, email campaign performance, social performance and overall influence on our pipeline.” — See Matt’s LinkedIn profile

Meaghan Britain, Senior Customer Marketing Manager, CPA Global

“We measure the landing page and channel performance of case studies. We gate several case studies, so we can track individual channel KPIs such as social impressions, as well as landing page metrics such as page visits, form fills/downloads and video views.” — See Meaghan’s LinkedIn profile

Sam Shepler, CEO, Testimonial Hero

“Given that about 80% of marketing content goes unused by sales, if sales is using a case study, that’s a good thing. They wouldn’t be using it if it wasn’t working. Another way we measure case study success is by checking to see if the story has influenced deals in the pipeline. If deals are being closed, and your sales leaders are thanking you and telling your CEO they’re getting exactly what they needed from you, that’s all the measurement you need.” — See Sam’s LinkedIn profile

Jeanne Talbot, Director, Customer Marketing, CloudBees

“The mistake many make is trying to measure the impact of case studies instead of thinking about the impact of the campaigns that the story, video, quote, etc. supports. Everything we create in customer marketing supports other elements of the marketing function.” — See Jeanne’s LinkedIn profile

Kyle Yantis, Former Customer Advocate Associate, Ellucian

“We use Marketo and Eloqua dashboards to measure email campaigns. We also track click rates on our website through Google Analytics, and case studies that were included in RFPs by comparing closed/won rates.” — See Kyle’s LinkedIn profile

Lauren Turner, Customer Marketer, UserTesting

“Time to close is also a great metric to track. The case study may not be the thing that gets the deal signed, but it can help remove objections and get the process done more smoothly. We also look to increase the SEO value of our other assets by embedding as many relevant links into case studies as we can that point to related blogs, white papers, and other content in an effort to drive traffic.” — See Lauren’s LinkedIn profile

Senior Customer Marketing Leader

“We monitor downloads from our website and minutes spent on pages. We also analyze the traffic of won deals to see which assets influenced our customers’ decisions during the entire sales process. I’d love to get to a place where we measure which specific case studies were shared against each opportunity, but we aren’t there yet. This would require a field on the opportunity records in Salesforce, for example.” —Senior customer marketing leader who prefers to remain nameless

As you’ve probably gathered by now, there’s no specific “right” way to measure case study success. However, by sharing knowledge and discussing what works for each of us and what doesn’t, we can all learn from one another.

Give your SaaS case studies a boost

The stakes are high when it comes to creating excellent case studies—and we can help. Check out our case study writing service .

As the founder of Uplift Content, Emily leads her team in creating done-for-you case studies, ebooks and blog posts for high-growth SaaS companies like ClickUp, Calendly and WalkMe. Connect with Emily on Linkedin

Sign up for the Content Huddle newsletter

Learn from Emily’s 17 years of aha moments, mistakes, observations, and insights—and find out how you can apply these lessons to your own marketing efforts.

You can unsubscribe any time. Visit our  Terms of Use  for information on our privacy practices.

• Web Design & Development
• Website Optimization
• Company Overview
• Content Chemistry
• Chicago Cause

How Can We Help? Let’s Talk!

How to Write a Customer Success Story

“Will I be glad I bought this product?” “Will this service or company get me the results I have in mind?”

I suspect you go through these mental gyrations nearly every time you’re about to part with your money. And I’m going to guess it’s been a long time since you made an important buying decision without doing some due diligence tapping into references, reviews, ratings and such.

For obvious reasons, you want to know how those that came and spent before you made out. You want to feel a little uptick on the confidence meter before reaching for your credit card.

In marketing today we file customer success stories, its clinical-sounding equivalent, “case studies,” testimonials and the references, reviews, and ratings I already mentioned as forms of social proof. They’re not the only forms of social proof, but they can be all-powerful pieces of your brand’s persuasion mosaic.

We’ll focus on customer success stories here and now. Why create them? How do you write them? How do you make them an effective weapon in your digital arsenal?

What’s even better than a happy customer?

You’re probably ahead of me now. You know the answer to my question is a happy customer willing to share his or her story is the bee’s knees.

In fact, according to Demand Gen Report’s 2017 Content Preferences Survey , buyers use case studies more than any other content to inform their purchasing decisions.

Note: We’re looking at B2B here. If yours is a B2B business you only need to know customer case studies have the potential to be the most persuasive content you can create.

Customer success stories are easy to write

Most things you write are far more open-ended than customer success stories. What goes in a white paper, ebook, report, webinar or brochure? These content formats have some common staples or standards but vary immensely.

Not so much with customer success stories. Readers will have some fairly specific expectations so success stories are generally formulaic. I’ve been writing them for 20-plus years and adhering to the same rules all the while.

Here’s what you need:

1. Headline

Write it last. After your story comes together, you’re likely to easily recognize your silver bullet. Chances are you’ll want to include:

• The customer’s brand name or name
• Your brand name
• The most compelling benefit
• And possibly, a data point

Headline examples and templates

• How [Company] Used [Solution] to Build an Award-Winning App in Record
• [Company] Saves [Amount] a Year After Switching to [Product]

A gallery of customer success stories on the Salesforce website serves up examples of the effective headline elements mentioned above.

2. Highlights

Assume a large portion of your readers will be skimmers. Satisfy their skimming needs with:

• A brief “at a glance” synopsis of your entire story (which should go near the top)
• Important facts that can be used as callouts
• Infographic treatments of such facts

This success story by inPowered features infographic-style data points right after the headline. Effective stuff.

3. Company profile

If you’re creating a success story about an über popular company such as Google, Nike, Amazon, etc., you may jump into your challenge/solution sections a bit faster. That said, with gigantic brands, you may choose to set the stage with details about the specific department of the company.

With most customers you should assume readers would benefit from some basic background material, which may include:

• Company name
• Headquarters, locations
• Size (sales, employees, market leadership, etc.)

When appropriate, you could also toss in some information about the featured spokesperson such as their name, title, accolades, credits, etc.

In any case, make your profile brief. Even if your customer is Facebook or Starbucks, this is not the most exciting part of the story. The goal of the profile is to make the customer feel relevant to the reader based on something: size, market, product category, etc.

I wrote the story above for Brightcove. Its company profile is on the long side but attempts to connect with other video marketers.

4. Challenge

In one form or another, the journalistic portion of your case study begins with the challenge the customer faced. As is the case with all great stories, you need to establish the obstacle the protagonist faces.

For B2B, such challenges are bound to be about:

• Saving time
• Saving money
• Making money
• And derivatives thereof: reducing risk, expanding, hiring, simplifying a process, etc.

In consumer markets, the potential challenges might be about anything, but should be emotional things:

This list, of course, can be long and more specific than my groovy hippie list above, but most benefits are bound to fall into one of these buckets.

There’s not much in the way of eye candy in this customer success story example, but I want to reiterate the simplicity and power of the challenge/solution/results format.

5. Solution (and buying process)

The middle act of your story is how the customer came to discover, buy and use your product. This information could be interesting or not, so make smart decisions about what to include.

It’s likely to be uninteresting to hear about nitty gritties like internal politics, RFPs, budget battles, etc. However, it might be interesting for readers to learn about:

• A product/service they were replacing or bought and found disappointing
• The trials and tribulations of making your product work (yes, transparency is a good thing)
• What caused them to realize they needed a solution like yours

6. The result(s)

If we’re to stick with basic story construction, we’re in the third act now: the resolution—the happy ending. Happy endings have happy characters.

• Dig into benefits here and be wary of getting too far into the weeds with features.
• If you do get into features, keep ‘em simple and attach them to benefits.
• Get specific whenever possible.
• Capture emotions.

Potential bonus sections of Act III:

• Future plans (e.g. The business is going to expand its use of the product. The consumer can’t stop telling her friends.)
• Surprises (e.g. The customer knew X, but after purchasing, he discovered Y and Z.)
• An invitation… Imagine your customer’s so satisfied she offers to show and tell others more about your solution.

Make the customer the star of your story

I’ve said it a thousand times: people like to read about people. And note I’ve yet to describe what you’re doing as a “sales success story.” It shouldn’t be.

Your brand is not the hero of your customer success story; your customer is.

Resist the temptation to make your story sound like a data sheet or press release about your offering. Write about how and why the customer uses your product. Aim to have readers see themselves in your story.

The best way to put your customer at the center of your story is to ask them to help tell it. Contact satisfied customers and ask for permission to feature them. Consider the following:

• Is the customer realizing the benefits of your solution?
• Does the customer have a strong grasp of the product?
• Can you make the story come to be without a lot of red tape?
• Is the customer likely to share the story?

GlobalWebIndex presents a tidy collection of case studies that do a good job of highlighting the voice of the customer with callout quotes.

You’ve identified the perfect customer. Now, try to make it easy on him or her.

• Request a brief interview.
• Do your homework.
• Deliver a preview of the questions you’re likely to ask.
• Offer to show the story to your customer prior to publication for approval.

And, finally, when the interview comes to be, ask open-ended questions intended to get your customer talking, such as:

Colorize your story

I’ve been writing customer success stories a long while—including the pre-web years. In the print days, the goal was often to make them two-sided one-sheets. Many I’ve done since, for PDF distribution or web-based publication, have been similar in length, say 500 to 1,000 words.

Today, they’re often shorter. In any case, my point is though the case study is a relatively black and white journalistic exercise, the good ones feature some color, both figuratively and literally. Where space allows, colorize yours.

• Gather short action-oriented and authentic customer quotes.
• Grab and use images where possible: the product in use, screenshots, people.
• Present data/stats that can be made into callouts or mini-infographics.
• Offer video testimonials,
• Include the customer’s logo.

This example from an impressive portfolio of customer success stories from Help Scout includes a great quote, authentic image, and logo. What you see sits atop their case study page, making for a compelling appetizer. I haven’t shown it here, but the Threadless story (and many others) also includes short videos.

Simplify and re-use your story

You can expand the value of the long-from customer stories you create by repurposing them into more succinct forms suitable for a variety of channels.

Create “shotgun” versions of your customer success stories for the short attention span clan. I’ve seen extremely brief versions applied well in many scenarios:

• As sidebars in ebooks, whitepapers, and brochures
• As slides in webinars and presentations
• Web pages, online carousels, sliders, grids and tabs
• And even posters…

Very cool idea (I found on Behance ): OpenText had customer success story posters designed to be displayed in their headquarters to (1) show employees the company’s cool new branding and (2) remind them customers do amazing things with their products.

Have you seen the Orbit portfolio? The visitors don’t just chow-down web pages there; each entry is a customer story and portfolio page tastefully rolled into one.

Promote your stories far and wide

Finally, it’s smart to use your company’s social channels to promote your success stories. Find engaging snippets and pieces of visual content that will quickly catch your audience’s attention. For social outlets, brief excerpts, such as pull-quotes and relevant graphics can make for compelling short stories on their own.

Another strategy is to partner with the subject of the story in your promotional efforts. Consider asking customers if they’d be willing to share your finished content—or pieces of it—via their own social channels.

In most cases, customers will value the work you’ve done and jump at the chance to promote their successes to their audiences.

Wait, more practical insights? Yes, please!

How to Create an AI Marketing Persona: 8 Prompts For Deep Insights

Andy Crestodina

AI for Thought Leadership: 5 Prompts That Get You Halfway There

How to Update Old Posts for SEO: Best Practices, 5 examples …and One Big Mistake

There is more where this came from…

The best articles from this blog are available all in one place – our book. Now on it’s 6th edition.

Content Chemistry, The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing , is packed with practical tips, real-world examples, and expert insights. A must-read for anyone looking to build a content strategy that drives real business impact. Check out the reviews on Amazon .

Buy now direct $29.95

Join over 16,000 people who receive web marketing tips every two weeks

By signing up you agree to our  Privacy Policy .

Azure case studies and customer stories

See how organizations all over the world are optimizing their costs and gaining new capabilities on Azure

Organizations in all industries and of all sizes—from startups to Fortune 500—are putting Azure AI to work

Explore Azure customer success stories by industry

See how healthcare organizations are enhancing care by improving patient engagement, provider collaboration, and operations.

Financial services and banking

Discover how financial companies transform customer experience, build trust, and optimize risk management on Azure.

Manufacturing

Find new ways to drive business transformation and keep pace with customer needs by seeing how manufacturers are innovating on the cloud.

Explore Azure retail customers' innovations for creating tailored, multichannel experiences and optimizing supply chains.

Find out how governments of all sizes are serving citizens more effectively and securely—while managing costs.

Learn how game developers are using Azure to build, launch, and scale their games across platforms.

Contact Azure Sales

Start a chat session, call us, or have us call you—your choice.

Try Azure for free

Get popular services free for 12 months and 45+ other services free always—plus $200 credit to use in your first 30 days.

10 Lessons We Learned About Telling Customer Stories

“I can’t wait to see how this SaaS company has been the missing link all along! ” said no one, ever.

Does anyone really want to read another success story about how a software company changed a customer’s life?

But testimonials, case studies, and customer success stories are ubiquitous across industries. Everywhere you look, companies are investing in written testimonials and marketing videos to showcase how much better off a customer is after finding their product.

Surely there has to be value in sharing them.

Try the customer support platform your team and customers will love

Teams using Help Scout are set up in minutes, twice as productive, and save up to 80% in annual support costs. Start a free trial to see what it can do for you.

Why bother telling customer success stories?

A few months ago, we began focusing on our customer stories. While attending industry conferences and hosting small in-person events, we’d heard interest from customers in learning about how other customers were using Help Scout . We were also hearing from customers about new ways they were using the product that we hadn’t evangelized before — like how their team was transitioning from a shared email inbox to a multiple mailbox approach, or was working with Zapier in creative ways to connect to other productivity tools like Asana .

While companies have marketing teams behind their websites, stories from the actual folks who are using the products bring these messages to light in a different way than traditional copy. “Customer stories help our prospects with three distinct things,” says Tim Thyne, Head of Sales and Partnerships at Help Scout.

First, they help reassure them that Help Scout is indeed a good fit for their business and use case — they’re evaluating a few solutions in the space, so seeing specific use cases really helps them visualize the solution for their business. Second, they give them a leg to stand on when pitching the idea to other stakeholders. Third, learning how others have solved problems with Help Scout gives them a framework on how to approach getting started.

Head of Sales and Partnerships at Help Scout

In “ Use Stories from Customers to Highlight Your Company’s Purpose ,” Harvard Business Review’s Erica Keswin shares that these customer success stories can ultimately become part of your company’s mission statement:

Stories make us all pay closer attention to what matters. Start paying attention to the stories unfolding in your organization, and figure out how to help the best ones spread. Because people have a lot to say, and if we’re smart, we’ll start listening.

So the question of whether or not to tell customer success stories is solved: you should. Now — how do you move it from “See how we stay SaaS-y” to something people actually want to read?

10 lessons for telling customer success stories

Here’s what I’ve learned about how to tell a compelling customer story.

1. It’s not about you

Approaching the project of telling customer stories, I thought I was coming at it from the right angle. It was simple, really: Anyone who was reading these stories wanted to know how Help Scout could change their lives, too, right?

I prepared a set of questions that would serve as a guide through the interviews, such as:

How do you use Help Scout’s workflows?

What are your favorite features — @mentions, Tags, etc.?

But after a second look at how a few of the stories were shaping up, it was clear that approach wasn’t working. What was so wrong with it?

It’s that my toolkit was inherently biased. I was using these probing questions as a way to get answers out of customers quickly — I was grateful for their time and didn't want to waste it — but the reality was, I was injecting my point of view by asking these types of questions.

While the solution and how the tool is used is definitely helpful — not talking about how the product is used at all isn’t helpful for anyone — when telling stories, there has to be a bigger focus on the customer.

2. Start with the customer’s mission

Instead of following customer problem + your solution = success story, think about how your company’s solution fits with the customer’s mission. Yes, this means the onus is on you to learn more about your customers.

A few questions to consider as you get started:

What about this particular company’s background attracted them to Help Scout?

What would perfect customer support look like?

How can you draw a parallel in your company’s mission and the customer’s?

Take BeerMenus, for example: They help people find beers and browse menus for beer stores, restaurants and bars nearby. But aside from the functional elements, the company credits its success to doubling down on their core values: respect for small business owners and all customers, and, of course, love of beer. Our goal was to make sure these ideas were elevated in the opening of their story.

3. Take thorough notes before developing themes

When a customer tells you their story, avoid the temptation to simultaneously create the story’s framework. Instead, concentrate first on meticulous note-taking. Then, for the second round, go through, pull the key themes, and see where the supporting facts fit.

If you’re trying to create the framework and final story as the customer is speaking, there’s the potential to exclude an “add on” item that the customer could later delve into — all because you’re focused on the framework in your mind, and subsequently modeling a story based on your ideal instead of the customer’s true story.

Hiten Shah , Co-Founder at Quick Sprout , shares how he approaches customer research interviews: Take thorough notes during the customer interview, then find the core themes within your notes.

It’s better to finish all the interviews before analyzing them. Why? By separating the interviewing and the analysis, you avoid spreading yourself too thin between two different tasks. And when you try to analyze what you hear while doing the interviews, it’s another way to introduce bias into your learnings. You also give yourself time to step away and let your mind subconsciously process the interviews, which will give you better results when you start analyzing later.

4. Don’t throw out all templates just yet

While including features in your questions sometimes injects your own bias, that doesn’t mean you should toss out using an organizational template altogether.

After taking notes and identifying key themes from your interview with the customer, an outline is a great way to organize your content before editing, while still giving room to identify any areas that you’d like to follow up on and quickly see if there are any areas that are repetitive.

Background — what’s the company mission?

What does ideal customer support or customer service mean to you?

How is Help Scout used?

Any standout features or integrations?

5. Be comfortable with (some) silence

No, not to the point where you think a call has dropped — but remember that it might take a minute or two to remember the highlights they’ve had with your product.

Avoid filling the void with suggestions of what other customers have said — give them space to think it through! I made a personal note to do more of this during customer story writing. (And dating. But that’s for a different blog post.)

One of the biggest highlights of your piece might come as a comment about a previous thought. Listen for these details, and wait for them to form. When I was interviewing Director of Marketing and Business Development Diana Murray at ASAP Accounting and Payroll , for example, she started talking about Help Scout’s Saved Replies feature:

“The Saved Replies feature is really key in our world. We’re dealing with explaining very complex information like payroll data, or wage requirements, or laws.”

But then she turned to Docs :

“...and in addition to Saved Replies, the Help Center, ASAP’s Knowledge Base, has also been a huge time saver when communicating information repetitively. We currently store and update over 250 articles, from best practices articles, to new client transition, and general business resources.”

… which became a story about how both features have helped all areas of ASAP’s business succeed:

“We’ve gotten traffic from some of these best practice articles in search engines, which has led users back to our site. Having Help Scout has definitely had a ripple effect for us to succeed in all areas of our business.”

6. Complement written stories with visuals

Once the narrative is complete, see how else you can bring these stories to life, whether it’s imagery, supporting infographics, or video. If you don’t have an in-house team, video agencies and video production firms can team up with you to bring the customer story to life. (We love collaborating on marketing videos with Boston-based Video Pilgrim — in them, we’ve found an incredible partner who understands our company mission and can draw that out on film).

If video isn’t an option, there’s still a ton you can do to humanize your success stories through photography and visuals. Content marketer Jeff Bullas shares that you should publish images and photos as part of marketing tactics — and that articles with images will get 94 percent more total views .

Here’s the shot list template we love to use whenever we’re sourcing the photography session, or as a guide when requesting photos from our customer:

2-4 posed portrait + landscape style images of the interviewee(s)

2-4 images of the interviewee(s) at work

2-3 shots of the interviewee(s) with their team

7. Follow up about specifics and metrics

Once you’ve nailed the elements of the piece — the top features the customer is addressing and the solutions they provide — you can start digging into where you need to follow up for more information. Coupling qualitative statements with metrics make them that much stronger.

Of course, the customer’s time is precious, so it’s great to do these in a single email or follow-up call. For example, during our customer calls with OnePageCRM and NW Maids, one of the recurring themes was that using Help Scout has made their teams more productive. The follow-up emails helped us assign quantitative metrics:

8. Keep content that didn’t make it into the story

At the start of every customer story, we feature a header image and quote, which can later be used as social promotion.

There’s also quite a bit of content and strong testimonials that might not make it to the customer story. Trying to cram everything into a story isn’t helpful — it becomes a laundry list of feature highlights with no narrative arc, and that’s dry to read. But don’t dismiss all that extra content altogether.

Change the framework from “oh-look-at-all-this-excess-copy” to “let’s-do-something-with-this-copy,” and extract more value from content you’ve already produced by experimenting with customer story promotion.

For our customer story on Threadless , we found more ways to share beyond the written testimonial, each highlighting different angles, like how to set up automated workflows to assign conversations:

9. Share customer stories with current customers

Customer case studies are great for potential customers who are looking through your site and curious to see how your product is being used. But there’s another audience who might not be leveraging the product the same way and could benefit from learning new use cases: your current customers.

We include snippets of customer stories in our monthly release notes, coupled with a link to an article on our Docs site , so we can share company backgrounds and use cases and provide additional information for folks who want to try and execute the same on their own.

10. Be grateful that this is part of your job

Hearing time and time again about how much your company is making a difference to people all over the world? It doesn’t get better than that.

So be generous with gratitude. These folks are taking the time out of their day to talk to you about how much they love your company. You get to showcase it to the world. And that’s pretty awesome.

Like what you see? Share with a friend.

Nadia basil.

Nadia is a product marketer and Help Scout alum.

We've got more to share

The Supportive Weekly

For the customer service obsessed

In the Works

For founders and growing companies

Your privacy matters! Help Scout only uses this info to send content and updates. You may unsubscribe anytime. View our privacy policy for more.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY

Aureus academy builds new experiences with salesforce.

Fisher & Paykel builds human-centric experiences with Salesforce

Looking to grow your business? Look to these Trailblazers.

AXA Singapore

See all the Trailblazers who are succeeding with Salesforce.

Filter stories.

• Business Services
• Communications
• Consumer Goods
• Financial Services
• Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Manufacturing
• Media and Entertainment
• Transportation
• Hospitality
• Professional Services
• Sales Cloud
• Service Cloud
• Marketing Cloud
• Commerce Cloud
• Salesforce Platform
• CRM Analytics
• Experience Cloud
• Financial Services Cloud

Business Size

• Small Midsize Business

Business Type

Customer success group.

• Signature Success Plan
• Premier Success Plan

Questions? We’ll put you on the right path.

Ask about Salesforce products, pricing, implementation, or anything else — our highly trained reps are standing by, ready to help.

What is the Difference between Success Stories and Case Studies?

Julian lumpkin.

• September 1, 2020
• Using Case Studies

Success Stories and Case Studies are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, there are small but important differences between the two types of B2B marketing content. This article identifies those differences so you can determine which type of content is right for you and your business.

What are Success Stories?

Success Stories are similar to Client Testimonials in that they showcase a client’s high opinion of your company. They identify why the client likes your company, what your company did well, and the specific reasons why the client would recommend you.

However, a Success Story is more formally presented than a Client Testimonial. It’s usually a short, high-quality video or a well-designed one-page PDF. You can think of a Success Story as a lite version of a Case Study.

Click here for an example of one of our Success Stories.

What are Case Studies?

In short, Case Studies contain everything that Success Stories do, but they offer a lot more context. They describe what the client was dealing with, what solution your company installed, and why that solution made such a difference to the client. Case Studies prove the business case for the relationship and allow readers (i.e., your prospects) to really understand how your solution works for another organization.

A Case Study is longer than a Success Story, and its word count can vary anywhere from 500 to 1,500 words. Great Case Studies leverage quotes through the text and often use visuals to illustrate points.

Click here to review our library of the Case Studies we’ve created for our clients.

Whether you prefer Success Stories or Case Studies, both documents are powerful pieces of marketing content that foster trust and engagement between you and your prospects. But creating either content type can be a complicated, in-depth process. If you need help creating yours, reach out to us at [email protected] —we’re happy to help!

Julian has focused his career on B2B sales and sales management, specifically bringing new technologies to market. After years as an elite sales rep, he began leading teams, specifically focused on coaching sales reps on how to be direct, credible, and respected throughout the sales process. Julian conceived of and designed SuccessKit when running an 18 person sales-team at Axial, a b2b startup, as a way to help sales reps have better conversations by utilizing customer success examples and other content more effectively.

Recent Posts

Best Professional Services Case Study Examples

How to Edit a Video Testimonial

Best B2B SaaS Case Study Examples

It’s All About Mindset (w/Alice Heiman) [PODCAST]

The Power of Simplifying Your Messaging (w/Nick Verity) [PODCAST]

Going on a Trip Abroad, Starting a Business (w/Luke Komiskey) [PODCAST]

The Business of Podcasting, and How to Market Organically (w/Jeremy Shere) [PODCAST]

How to Better Use Videos for Your B2B Brand and Building a Video Business (w/Alex Sheridan) [PODCAST]

Optimizing Your Business for Scale (w/Jay Roy) [PODCAST]

How to Write a Case Study

Leave a comment, 2 thoughts on “ what is the difference between success stories and case studies ”.

• Pingback: The Indian Millionaire Mindset Key Strategies for Financial Success
• Pingback: Case Studies and Success Stories

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

What people are saying

Milo Sindell President, Skyline G

“If you’re looking for Case Studies, this is a really nice little organization to partner with. Our experience, frankly, has been excellent.”

Franklyn Peart Co-Founder, CentreStack

“We’re already recommending SuccessKit to our customers.”

John Morgan Director of Marketing, Elemental Machines

“The SuccessKit team has been great. We can tell them, ‘ABC Company had this problem,’ and they will document our solution.”

Don Mennig CEO, Evolve IP

“Julian and his team have done an excellent job for us. Definitely recommend working with them for Case Studies. ”

David Bohram Director of Marketing, Tax Guard

“I didn’t think it’d be successful to outsource Case Studies, but Julian and his team made it so easy.”

Erin Wathen Director of Branding and Events, Assure

“I really appreciate how SuccessKit takes the reins and produces such great results, allowing us to focus on what we need to do to grow the business.”

Damon Baker CEO, Lean Focus

“SuccessKit’s Case Studies give us a distinct advantage over our competition when prospects are comparing service providers.”

Chris Connor Sales Manager, SwervePay

“We’ve really appreciated the work that Julian and his team have done for us.  Very happy with the results.”

Shawn O’Daniels CEO, CSN

“SuccessKit figured out how to show the world what we do for our clients. I am blown away by the Case Study .”

James Dirksen CEO, DeepSurface Security

“This is just about the best Case Study I’ve ever seen.”

Christopher Levy CEO, BuyDRM

“The Case Study SuccessKit created for us was elite.”

Kendall Kunz CEO, Forms On Fire

“SuccessKit made it easy for clients to see what other clients see, and it’s led to more sales.”

Phil Curtolo Vice President of Sales, Software Consulting Services

“SuccessKit takes the pain and suffering out of creating quality Case Studies.”

Luke Anemone CEO, COMMANDO

“Working with SuccessKit has been pivotal in growing our client base and giving potential advertisers really good content about what we can do.”

Linze Kay Lucas Business Analyst and SEO Consultant, Stellium SEO

“I cannot speak highly enough about my experience working with SuccessKit. They were completely respectful of my client’s time and needs, as well as my own.”

Joanie Berkery Marketing Director, Adapex

“SuccessKit really helped us build the framework and presentation for our Case Study.”

Troy Stein VP, Customer Advocacy, TechSmith

“Quality results. Authentic storytelling and quotes. Easy to work with. I’m signing up for more.”

Julie Matheney Associate Director of Digital Marketing, Feathr

“I highly recommend the SuccessKit team to anyone who’s looking to produce Case Studies.”

Robin Smith Founder and President, ASK-CRM

“We are definitely recommending SuccessKit to the peers that we work with and our existing clients.”

Ace Rosenstein President, Bravo Business Media

“I recommend SuccessKit due to the efficiency and the extreme price to value.”

Ari Haas Founder, Dijy

“The SuccessKit team knows what they’re doing. It’s easy to work with them, the end result is a beautiful product, and all parties involved feel super comfortable.”

Sidney Rogers Marketing Manager, Groove Technology Solutions

“The SuccessKit team is very professional, and they ensure that they take care of everything in a timely manner.”

Ashlyn Burgett Director of Marketing, Dedicated IT

“The SuccessKit team makes the Case Study process painless, and they have the expertise to create high-quality content that is invaluable to sales and marketing teams.”

Carly Brightwell Head of Marketing, North Labs

“If you need Case Studies for your business, we highly recommend SuccessKit. We recieved exactly want we asked for!”

Luke Komiskey Founder and Managing Director, DataDrive

“I love working with the SuccessKit team because they make it really easy for me to focus on my business while they produce Case Studies that drive our brand forward.”

Have a question? Reach out to us directly.

• Request a Demo

Lotteries Employ Facebook to Improve Player Loyalty: Two Optimove Case Studies   

Discover the success of the kentucky lottery and pennsylvania lottery.

• Realtime Marketing
• Company News

See the difference control groups make in this guide

• Download Now

Why it Matters:

These case studies from Kentucky and Pennsylvania Lotteries showcase the benefits of using A/B testing and CRM segmentation on Facebook, directly leading to increased player engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved ROI. Understanding and implementing these innovative strategies can drive similar success in other lottery brands. 

Stay in touch

Be the first to know all about the latest Marketing tips & tricks, Industry special insights and more

The Big Picture   

• Discover how Kentucky Lottery strategically employed A/B testing and CRM segmentation on Facebook, reshaping its advertising approach for improved player engagement and acquisition.  
• Explore the game-changing strategies that transformed Pennsylvania Lottery’s Facebook ads, including smart CRM segmentation strategies to optimize player loyalty and return on investment (ROI.)    

The Case Studies  

Both Lotteries used a control group that was an evergreen broad prospecting audience consisting of demographic and some interest and behavioral customer segments .   

How to treat every campaign like a marketing experiment

• Download Now >>

Case Study 1 – Kentucky Lottery  

#1 – A/B Testing on Facebook   

Kentucky Lottery conducted an A/B test on Facebook to determine the effectiveness of using a lookalike audience rather than a broad-interest audience for its advertising efforts.   

#2 – Utilization of CRM Segmentation    

Kentucky Lottery’s goal was to Leverage high-value player segmentation, employing data available in Optimove to create a customized lookalike audience and comparing it against the existing series of their Facebook advertising acquisition-focused ads.   

The test was for a first-time deposit offer – as shown in the image above. The test group used Optimove’s high-value player segments, composed of approximately 138K existing players (before match rates on Facebook) with the highest future value of all player accounts.  

#3 – Concerns and Challenges   

Kentucky Lottery Outlined the attributes of the ideal lottery player, guiding the brand’s demographic and interest audience strategies. However, a deeper consideration revealed that CRM segmentation, which relies on historical player behavior, plays a pivotal role. Relying solely on past data may not capture current trends or shifts in player demographics.  

#4 – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)  

The KPI was cost-per-result (purchase conversion). The secondary metrics tracked and evaluated were registration conversion, impressions, and clicks. The lookalike audience was more effective in reaching and engaging users than broad acquisition audiences, and the 20% higher reach indicated greater responsiveness of the lookalike audience to the content or advertisement.   

Additionally, there was a 256% increase in clicks, suggesting a significantly higher clickthrough rate for the lookalike audience and reflecting a strong resonance between the content and the preferences or characteristics of this audience. The 31% increase in registrations and 3% increase in purchases demonstrate that lookalike audiences, not only clicked more frequently, but also took desired actions aligning with the campaign’s objectives.     

#5 – Test Results  

Kentucky Lottery enhanced its acquisition strategy by crafting lookalike audiences using high-value players. This approach ensures that advertising investments are strategically directed towards initially engaging higher-quality players. Simultaneously, the broad prospecting audience remains instrumental in capturing the interest of potential players in the consideration phase of their journey, thereby creating a synergistic and comprehensive approach to player acquisition.  

Case Study 2 – Pennsylvania Lottery  

Pennsylvania Lottery ran an A/B test on Facebook to measure the efficiency of employing a lookalike audience versus a broad-interest audience. The test group used Optimove’s high-value player segments, composed of approximately 46,000 existing players with the highest future value of all player accounts.       

They used player data to create a customized audience like high-value players and test it against the current ad series, mainly the Welcome Offer. The lottery brand used Facebook to create CRM segments with similar lookalike traits to those of high-value players. Exclusion lists ensured ads were served to people not registered with the Pennsylvania Lottery.   

As shown above, the creative featured the progressive jackpot game Cave Quest, promoting various welcome offers.    

Before executing the A/B test on Facebook, several concerns were raised over the experiment’s integrity, particularly the potential duplication of audiences between the test and control groups. Another concern was the impact on the control group’s performance by excluding the lookalike audience. Lastly, the prospect of increased costs incurred by a successful test group posed a financial dilemma.  

Pennsylvania Lottery’s KPIs included cost-per-first-time deposit (CPFTD), return on ad spend (ROAS), deposit conversion, and average first-time deposit. The test group demonstrated outstanding performance, achieving a remarkable 60% decrease in the cost-per-first-time deposit, a substantial 67% reduction in the cost-per-deposit, and an impressive 42% increase in conversion rates compared to the control group.   

The Guide to Control Groups in Marketing

Optimize your marketing efforts with our guide and gain access to a free uplift calculator.

Although the control group boasted a slightly higher average first-time deposit by about 2%, the test group proved more profitable overall based on primary KPIs such as CPFTD, ROAS, and deposit conversion.   

Pennsylvania Lottery’s assessment of the future value of customers within the Optimove platform indicated a substantial increase during the test period, jumping from $266-$353 to a solid $412-$442 during the test period. Therefore, separating the lookalike audience from the broad prospecting audience significantly boosted the performance of this lottery brand.  

In Summary   

Kentucky and Pennsylvania Lotteries used A/B testing on Facebook to compare lookalike and broad-interest audiences, achieving significant results. Kentucky Lottery utilized Optimove’s high-value player segmentation for customized lookalike audiences, while Pennsylvania Lottery targeted unregistered users using CRM segments. Challenges included Kentucky’s concern over outdated data and Pennsylvania’s issues with audience duplication and costs. Kentucky achieved a 256% increase in clicks, and Pennsylvania reduced the cost-per-first-time deposit by 60%.  

Lottery brands should consider employing these strategies to boost player loyalty and ROI. For more insights, request a demo.       

Jeff Laniado

Jeff Laniado has led iGaming sales for Optimove in the US and Canada for over four years, working with top operators in sports betting, iCasino, DFS, sweepstakes, and lottery. He is responsible for managing many of the US-focused iLottery partnerships. Jeff has more than a decade of experience in sports, gaming, and promotional marketing strategy and sales.

Get new blogs directly in your inbox

Related blogs, the platform duel: web vs. mobile in social casino gaming.

For the better part of this decade, mobile has reigned supreme in social gaming, and the trend is on the rise. Recent research suggests that the mobile share of all social casino games on both platforms is 20%-98%, with an average of 65% mobile versus 35% Web. This average is growing in favor of mobile … Continued

If CDP and MMH Are Not Born Together, It Can Ruin the Customer Experience

Why it matters: Marketers must prioritize aligning a Customer Data Platform (CDP) with a Multichannel Marketing Hub (MMH) to enhance Customer-Led Marketing. The article warns of risks due to disconnected data, such as fragmented journeys and inefficient campaigns. It emphasizes the impact of misfired messages on customer experiences, urging marketers to adopt integrated CDP/MMH solutions … Continued

6 New Year’s Resolutions for Great B2C Marketing

Hello, 2023! 2022 has been a whirlwind of a year for both B2B and B2C brands out there. Large, medium, and small enterprises included.   As we step into the new year, opportunities for growth and success arise as companies approach what is expected to be a challenging year.  Here are some best practices for B2C … Continued

Get a personalized tour of Optimove

Let us show you how to go from tens to hundreds of segments

• Skip to main content
• Skip to search
• Skip to footer

Products and Services

Customer Stories

Sports and entertainment

The nfl relies on cisco.

Cisco's network security blocks cyberattacks for the NFL and customers around the world.

The road to the big game calls for the best protection

From securing stadiums, broadcasts, and fans to protecting the largest live sporting event in America, Cisco is proud to be an official cybersecurity partner of the NFL.

Having worked together during Super Bowl LVI in 2022 and Super Bowl LVII in 2023, Cisco and the NFL have forged a legacy of an unforgettable experience for fans, teams, and stadium partners.

During the Super Bowl, the NFL uses a collection of integrated Cisco security solutions to provide:

• Phishing, malware, and ransomware protection

Threat intelligence

• End-to-end visibility across the network

Incident commanders from Talos Incident Response (CTIR), as well as members of our customer experience team, support the NFL on site before, during, and after the Big Game.

Cisco looks forward to continuing its partnership with the NFL during the 2023–2024 season.

The NFL (National Football League) is one of the world's preeminent sports leagues, with more than US$18 billion in revenue and hundreds of millions of fans in the United States and around the world.

Provided 100% uptime for the live gameday event for 100 million viewers

Faultless data protection

Protected the personal and financial data of ticket holders

Elevated experience

Delivered a consistent gameday experience for players, staff, and fans

Repeatable playbook

Developed a repeatable security platform and playbook to secure future games and events

An attractive target for threat actors

Winning games in the NFL takes preparation and a great game plan, and winning teams are masters of in-game adjustments, recognizing threats from opponents, quickly reacting, and overcoming adversity.

That's part of the reason Cisco and the NFL will join forces once again for the 2023–2024 season. Like a veteran defensive coordinator, Cisco has earned the NFL's trust when it comes to cybersecurity. "If you think about it from a threat perspective, the Super Bowl could be a very big billboard for some attacker," NFL Chief Information Security Officer Tomás Maldonado said. After all, if a hacker takes over the screen and announces a bomb threat hoax to a full stadium, chaos would ensue. Understandably, cybersecurity goes beyond protecting data and devices; it extends to the physical safety of every player, staff member, and fan.

Putting together the playbook

During Super Bowl LVII Cisco's integrated, end-to-end cybersecurity identified, analyzed and triaged nearly nine thousand intrusion events, blocked more than 400,000 connections from blocklisted regions, and blocked almost 17,000 security intelligence events.

Working with Cisco to protect mission-critical gameday operations is the solution Maldonado was looking for. "I need more transparency and visibility into what kind of threats we're seeing. I need to work with a partner that can understand the scale and the gravity of the situation and is able to complement and be adaptable and amenable for what we're trying to implement. [Cisco] understands what we were trying to design and accomplish," Maldonado said.

Security Resilience and Super Bowl Sunday—a conversation with Tomás Maldonado, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the NFL

An all-star security lineup

"What we're trying to do is slow down the bad actors, make it more difficult and challenging for them to try to attack the scoreboard or try to impact what's happening on the field," Maldonado said of the main goal of game day cybersecurity operations. "With Cisco by our side, we were confident that we can quickly anticipate any issues and deliver the seamless gameday experience that our players, staff, and fans have come to expect."

The right tools and the right team are key in making sure things run smoothly, avoiding disruptions to the game, and safeguarding the data and devices that make mission-critical gameday operations possible.

"We try to reduce the footprint or vector of attack by making very specific design choices around how individuals will connect to our environment and who's allowed to connect to our environment," Maldonado said.

To protect their environment on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL used a collection of integrated security solutions working in tandem:

• Cisco Umbrella combines several security technologies into one, cloud-delivered solution, protecting users from internet-based risks on or off the network. Umbrella prevents phishing, malware, and ransomware and safeguards connections to cloud applications without sacrificing performance.
• Cisco Secure Firewall helps organizations to obtain end-to-end visibility and simplified security management across distributed and hybrid networks. It provides superior threat detection and prevention for the modern network.
• With Cisco Secure Malware Analytics, organizations can uncover exactly what a piece of malware is doing, how large of a risk it poses, and how to mitigate it. Secure Malware Analytics rapidly inspects files and suspicious behavior to help speed up incident investigations.
• Cisco security technologies are fed timely, in-depth intelligence by Cisco Talos , the world's largest commercial threat intelligence organization. Incident commanders from Talos Incident Response, as well as members of our Customer Experience team, were on site with the NFL for the whole game.

A more resilient playing field

From mom-and-pop shops to startups and all the way to the NFL, Cisco Secure Chief Technology Officer TK Keanini reminds us that, "everybody is a target." Bad actors don't discriminate when it comes to targeting and taking advantage of an organization's vulnerabilities. In the face of increasingly sophisticated, modern threats, every organization needs to create a foundation of security resilience to be ready for the unpredictable.

Keanini went on to say that while every business isn't orchestrating Super Bowl-level events, the risk is still real, and you don't need to be a company with a million pairs of eyeballs on your work to benefit from networking and cloud security. "You be you. Cisco's job is to be a partner in making sure that you can be you, securely."

Solution components

Secure web gateway

Effectively protect your users everywhere in minutes with fast, flexible, cloud-delivered security.

Improve security with intelligent control points, unified, dynamic policies, and threat visibility.

Malware analysis

Keep malware at bay with advanced sandboxing and threat intelligence in one simple solution.

Count on Cisco's security experts to see, act, and collectively respond to threats immediately to strengthen your defense.

Testimonial

Understanding the gravity of the situation.

"I need to work with a partner that can understand the scale and the gravity of the situation and is able to complement and be adaptable and amenable for what we're trying to implement. [Cisco] understands what we were trying to design and accomplish."

Tomás Maldonado, Chief Information Security Officer

National Football League

More for you

Our customer stories transcend geography and sector to offer universal lessons in achievement.

Technology has changed how we live and work

Leading organizations are innovating with Cisco solutions to connect, secure, and transform.

Organizations like yours rely on Cisco

Each industry has its own challenges that require tailored solutions.

You are a changemaker, innovator, and discoverer

We want to help you share your story. Learn more about how you can build your organization's profile—and your own—as you expand your network.

Let's build the bridge to possible

Trials and demos.

See firsthand how our products and technologies can support your business and technical needs.

Cisco Secure

Defend against threats and safeguard the most vital aspects of your business

MSME Day 2024: Leveraging Power and Resilience of Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to Accelerate Sustainable Development and Eradicate Poverty in Times of Multiple Crises

• Documentation

In its resolution A/RES/71/279, the United Nations General Assembly designated 27 June as “Micro-, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Day” to raise public awareness of the tremendous contributions of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to sustainable development. Further, the General Assembly, invited Member States to facilitate the observance of the Day by fostering policy discussions, practitioner workshops, sharing of experiences and business owner testimonials from around the world, to the extent possible, in collaboration with public, private and non-profit organizations.

The 2024 MSME Day offers an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas on how Key stakeholders, including policy makers, large companies, financial institutions, and the international community can support micro-, small and medium-sized businesses to advance the 2030 Agenda and contribute to achieving the SDGs, including poverty eradication and decent work for all. Moreover, the session will explore ways that MSMEs, a sector that represents over 90 per cent of all businesses globally, can meaningfully contribute innovative solutions to the challenges of our time and drive forward inclusive growth and shared prosperity.

As the sector closest to local communities, MSMEs are essential for creating local jobs, empowering women, youth, persons with disabilities and other groups in vulnerable situations. Commemorating MSME Day is a recognition that this vital sector at the heart of our societies has tremendous potential to unlock critical pathways to accelerate SDG progress across the globe.  

Announcements

• Concept Note

Related Topics

Capacity development.

What is CRM?

Manage, track, and store information related to potential customers using a centralized, data-driven software solution.

Defining CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a set of integrated, data-driven software solutions that help manage, track, and store information related to your company’s current and potential customers. By keeping this information in a centralized system, business teams have access to the insights they need, the moment they need them.

Without the support of an integrated CRM solution, your company may miss growth opportunities and lose potential revenue because it’s not optimizing operating processes or making the most of customer relationships and sales leads.

What does a CRM do?

Not too long ago, companies tracked customer-related data with spreadsheets, email, address books, and other siloed, often paper-based CRM solutions. A lack of integration and automation prevented people within and across teams from quickly finding and sharing up-to-date information, slowing their ability to create marketing campaigns, pursue new sales leads, and service customers.

Fast forward to today. CRM systems automatically collect a wealth of information about existing and prospective customers. This data includes email addresses, phone numbers, company websites, social media posts, purchase histories, and service and support tickets. The system next integrates the data and generates consolidated profiles to be shared with appropriate teams.

CRM systems also connect with other business tools, including online chat and document sharing apps. In addition, they have built-in business intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that accelerate administrative tasks and provide actionable insights.

In other words, modern CRM tools give sales, marketing, commerce, field service, and customer service teams immediate visibility into—and access to—everything crucial to developing, improving, and retaining customer relationships.

Some ways you can use CRM capabilities to benefit your company are to:

• Monitor each opportunity through the sales funnel for better sales. CRM solutions help track lead-related data, accompanied with insights, so sales and marketing teams can stay organized, understand where each lead is in the sales process, and know who has worked on each opportunity.
• Use sales monitoring to get real-time performance data. Link sales data into your CRM solution to provide an immediate, accurate picture of sales. With a real-time view of your pipeline, you’ll be aware of any slowdowns and bottlenecks—or if your team won a major deal.
• Plan your next step with insight generation. Focus on what matters most using AI and built-in intelligence to identify the top priorities and how your team can make the most of their time and efforts. For example, sales teams can identify which leads are ready to hand off and which need follow-up.
• Optimize workflows with automation. Build sales quotes, gather customer feedback, and send email campaigns with task automation, which helps streamline marketing, sales, and customer service. Thus, helping eliminate repetitive tasks so your team can focus on high-impact activities.
• Track customer interactions for greater impact. CRM solutions include features that tap into customer behavior and surface opportunities for optimization to help you better understand engagement across various customer touchpoints.
• Connect across multiple platforms for superior customer engagement. Whether through live chat, calls, email, or social interactions, CRM solutions help you connect with customers where they are, helping build the trust and loyalty that keeps your customers coming back.
• Grow with agility and gain a competitive advantage. A scalable, integrated CRM solution built on a security-rich platform helps meet the ever-changing needs of your business and the marketplace. Quickly launch new marketing, e-commerce, and other initiatives and deliver rapid responses to consumer demands and marketplace conditions.

Why implement a CRM solution?

As you define your CRM strategy and evaluate customer relationship management solutions , look for one that provides a complete view of each customer relationship. You also need a solution that collects relevant data at every customer touchpoint, analyzes it, and surfaces the insights intelligently.

Learn how to choose the right CRM for your needs in The CRM Buyer’s Guide for Today’s Business . With the right CRM system, your company helps enhance communications and ensure excellent experiences at each stage of the customer journey, as outlined below:

• Identify and engage the right customers. Predictive insight and data-driven buyer behavior helps you learn how to identify, target, and attract the right leads—and then turn them into customers.
• Improve customer interaction. With a complete view of the customer, every member of the sales team will know a customer’s history, purchasing patterns, and any specific data that’ll help your team provide the most attentive service to each individual customer.
• Track progress across the customer journey. Knowing where a customer is in your overall sales lifecycle helps you target campaigns and opportunities for the highest engagement.
• Increase team productivity. Improved visibility and streamlined processes help increase productivity, helping your team focus on what matters most.

How can a CRM help your company?

Companies of all sizes benefit from CRM software. For small businesses seeking to grow, CRM helps automate business processes, freeing employees to focus on higher-value activities. For enterprises, CRM helps simplify and improve even the most complex customer engagements.

Take a closer look at how a CRM system helps benefit your individual business teams.

Marketing teams

Improve your customers’ journey. With the ability to generate multichannel marketing campaigns, nurture sales-ready leads with targeted buyer experiences, and align your teams with planning and real-time tracking tools, you’re able to present curated marketing strategies that’ll resonate with your customers.

As you gain insights into your brand reputation and market through customized dashboards of data analysis, you’re able to prioritize the leads that matter most to your business and adapt quickly with insights and business decisions fueled by the results of targeted, automated processes.

Sales teams

Empower sellers to engage with customers to truly understand their needs, and effectively win more deals. As the business grows, finding the right prospects and customers with targeted sales strategies becomes easier, resulting in a successful plan of action for the next step in your pipeline.

Building a smarter selling strategy with embedded insights helps foster relationships, boost productivity, accelerate sales performances, and innovate with a modern and adaptable platform. And by using AI capabilities that can measure past and present leading indicators, you can track customer relationships from start to finish and automate sales execution with contextual prompts that delivers a personalized experience and aligns with the buyer’s journey anytime, anywhere.

Customer service teams

Provide customers with an effortless omnichannel experience. With the use of service bots, your customer service teams will have the tools to be able to deliver value and improve engagement with every interaction. Offering personalized services, agents can upsell or cross-sell using relevant, contextual data, and based on feedback, surveys, and social listening, optimize their resources based on real-time service trends.

In delivering a guided, intelligent service supported on all channels, customers can connect with agents easily and quickly resolve their issues, resulting in a first-class customer experience.

Field service teams

Empower your agents to create a better in-person experience. By implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) into your operations, you’re able to detect problems faster—automate work orders, schedule, and dispatch technicians in just a few clicks. By streamlining scheduling and inventory management , you can boost onsite efficiency, deliver a more personalized service, and reduce costs.

By providing transparent communications with real-time technician location tracking, appointment reminders, quotes, contracts, and scheduling information, customers stay connected to your field agents and build trust with your business.

Project service automation teams

Improve your profitability with integrated planning tools and analytics that help build your customer-centric delivery model. By gaining transparency into costs and revenue using robust project planning capabilities and intuitive dashboards, you’re able to anticipate demands, determine resources capacity, and forecast project profitability.

And with the ability to measure utilization with real-time dashboards, you can empower your service professionals to apply those insights to their own workflows and optimize resources at any given time. With visibility into those insights, teams are more likely to simplify processes internally, seamlessly collaborate, and increase productivity.

Why use Dynamics 365 for your CRM solution?

With Dynamics 365 , you get a flexible and customizable solution suited to your business requirements. Choose a standalone application to meet the needs of a specific line of business or use multiple CRM applications that work together as a powerful, comprehensive solution.

Chat with Sales

Available Monday to Friday

8 AM to 5 PM Central Time.

Request we contact you

Have a Dynamics 365 sales expert contact you.

Chat with a Microsoft sales specialist for answers to your Dynamics 365 questions.