Case studies and testimonials play a pivotal role in a company’s ability to attract leads.

Whether we want to believe it or not, we’re all influenced by our peers. In fact, consumer who reads personal recommendations about a company’s products or services is 83% more likely to buy. For B2Bs specifically, 90% of buyers said positive customer success content influenced their purchasing decisions.

As a business, you want to showcase your customers’ experiences with your company. It not only helps boost leads and sales but it also broadens your brand’s visibility.

What are testimonials?

Testimonials, used in the business sense, are affirmations about a company’s character, qualifications, quality of products and level of service, to name just a few. They provide honest opinions about your company, and customers usually gravitate towards companies that have solid testimonials from actual buyers. Testimonials can be influential in a potential buyer’s decision to purchase from you because they see real reactions and real outcomes.

Successful testimonials can be presented in a variety of ways, including customer quotes, videos, audio clips, customer interviews, blog posts, peer review sites (i.e. Yelp), social media posts, press reviews and case studies.

What are case studies?

Case studies are a type of testimonial but are structured as comprehensive stories about your customers’ experiences. They are typically written in long-form, exploring different topics in detail. Topics covered in a typical case study include:

• An outline of the customer’s challenges or conflicts they faced.
• An account of how they approached their dilemmas.
• A description of any failures to self-resolve their problem.
• An explanation of how your product or service helped resolve their problem.

Case studies usually have data points and research integrated into the story to make it more persuasive. These details provide real examples of success and show how your processes and solutions actually work. This type of content is a strategic way to position your company as a problem solver.

How testimonials and case studies help you gain more customers

Including testimonials and case studies in your content marketing strategy can go a long way towards boosting your brand exposure, increasing trust, establishing credibility and giving you a competitive advantage. When potential customers read these types of content, they understand the types of problems you’re able to solve and how you do it.

However, to get testimonials or the material you need to create a case study, you have to ask your customers for help. When you start this process, be sure to do the following:

• Create a survey or feedback form. It’s a simple and convenient way for data gathering for both you and your customer.
• Make sure to ask about what you can improve on. It’ll help you pinpoint weaknesses and strengthen your brand.
• Ensure your customers know what they are filling out. Inform them of your plans for their answers so they are not surprised or frustrated when they see their responses publicized.
• Consider offering an incentive to those who fill out the form. It’ll promote more responses and benefit both parties.

When planning your content strategy, you have a number of different types of content to choose from. Your best bet is to use a variety of content strategies to keep things interesting for your audience. Case studies and testimonials are often overlooked as a content option, but they shouldn’t be.

If you have a content marketing program, or are planning one, download our ebook:  100 mistakes businesses make when starting, optimizing and scaling content marketing programs.  Learn from the mistakes of hundreds of other companies.  100 mistakes walks you through common and uncommon challenges that they faced with their content marketing programs.

Tempesta Media offers case studies as one of our nine content types. To learn more about how we can help you, contact us today.