How to Use Storytelling in Your Case Study to Connect With Your Audience 🔗
By: Winnie Tang
Tags: Lead Generation, Storytelling, B2b Marketing, Case Studies, Content Marketing

How to Use Storytelling in Your Case Study to Connect With Your Audience 🔗 Winnie Tang Sep 3·6 min read

Photo by Mikolaj on Unsplash

Is this how you write your case study?

You

Have a template with the sections: Challenge, Solution and Results. Complete each section. Plug in some data and text. Add in a customer quote or two for good measure. Call it a day.

And your case study ends up sounding like this: “Our customer’s numbers were really in the dumps, we swooped in and salvaged the situation, and now their numbers are off the scale.”

Whilst you’ve put together all the elements of a case study, it’s not one that tells a great story.

And you want to tell a great story to connect with your audience.

An Engaging Case Study Helps Your B2B Buyer Decide

Nobody really wants to be sold to.

When you go out to buy something, you want to feel that you’ve done your research and been asking the right questions. You’re confident that this THE 52'’ smart tv you want — for all the right reasons.

Your B2B buyer feels the same.

They want to be educated. They want your help in the buying process. Because B2B buying these days is complex and long-winded. Gartner found that 77% of B2B buyers found their latest purchase very complex or difficult. They’re struggling to buy.

Case studies can help you captivate, educate and persuade your audience and move them along the buyer journey. They can help you generate leads and close sales faster.

But only if your case studies aren’t as dull as dishwater.

What’s a Story Got to Do With Case Studies?

Everything.

Storytelling is how you come up with an engaging story.

Fun fact: Case studies are also often called customer success stories. Or customer stories. STORIES.

So you have to do that ONE thing.

Tell a story.

A story that draws your readers in and allows them to “see” what’s going on.

Storytelling is the difference between your reader holding a tedious spiral-bound report in their hands, crammed with numbers and pretty charts.

And curling up with a book full of vivid details of perspectives, characters and dialogues which makes your reader feel they’re part of the story.

Which one of the two would take your fancy?

Then, why are companies still pushing out case studies which are dry as dust?

If you fail to tell a story, you won’t connect with your audience.

Storytelling makes facts come alive by giving them context and meaning.

That’s why every marketer is banging on about storytelling.

That’s why every business knows storytelling marketing helps them sell more.

But the actual challenge is this:

It’s for you to bake those facts and figures in a story to make it interesting, memorable and relatable.

How to Turn Your Case Study Into a Great Story

1. Make Your Customer the Hero. You’re the Guide.

Photo by Esteban Lopez on Unsplash

Because this isn’t about you.

Don Miller drives this point home in his book “StoryBrand”.

You’re NOT the hero of the story. You’re the guide.

When your case study tells the story of how your happy customer was working with you, it paints a picture of transformation for the audience. They imagine what it’s like to work with you, and how much better life would be by using your solution.

You got your customers real results. So why not them, too?

Approach the story from the customer’s point of view to craft a strong narrative that your audience and prospects can connect with.

2. Make Your Hero Human

We can all relate to Clark Kent aka The “Man of Steel”. Because Superman, despite his uber-human strengths, was struggling with the same issues as us mere mortals. Superpowers didn’t make him immune to heartbreak, lack of belonging, betrayal.

So make your hero, your customer, relatable.

Photo by Malik Owais on Unsplash

Put a human face on your case study. Transform it from a stone-cold to a heart-warming, action-packed story.

How to do this?

By interviewing a real customer. Have them describe the problem and how your solution helped them solve it.

You get to unearth soundbites and voice of customer (VOC) data for great quotes and subheadings. By having an actual conversation with a customer, you get the chance to ask follow-up questions. You use pauses to prompt your customer to expand and give you more information.

But what if you can’t get the interview? What if the customer asks you to send a questionnaire to fill out instead?

It seems like an easy way out.

But here’s the catch:

Without the interview, you don’t have a case study.

(Read about objection handling and how to get a “Yes” to an interview here.)

3. Paint a Powerful “Before and After” Picture

A story has a before, during and after.

That’s why we all love a good makeover show. (“Queer Eye” and “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”, anyone?)

The story arc takes us on a journey with the main character.

And your case study should do the same.

So when you apply the same narrative to your case study template, you get

CHALLENGES — BEFORE: Can you give concrete examples of life before your solution? What were your customer’s struggles?

SOLUTIONS — DURING: Are you focusing on your customer’s experience with your product or service? What was the process — in their own words?

RESULTS — AFTER: Can you use data and anecdotes to show how your solution has helped your customer? How are they better placed for the future?

Because if you’re too focused on showing off rather than telling a story in your case studies, they’ll end up being corporate, stuffy and most importantly, repellent to your audience.

4. Let Your Customer Pat Your Back

You can toot your own horn until you’re blue.

About why prospects can trust you and should evidently choose you.

But you’re the one trying to sell them something.

Your past and current happy customers, though, they’re just sharing their stories. They’re talking about their experience of working with you — facts, emotions and the lot.

Your prospects are more likely to trust your happy customers when they say that you’re the guy for the job.

Your case study is social proof that there was a real problem that you’ve solved for a customer.

So let your customer’s words help others truly understand what you do.

5. Illustrate Your Case Study With Visuals

Beyond a couple of logos, many case studies are made up of chunks of text. But you can make them more interesting and engaging by including visuals.

Not only do pictures break up content.

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words. For example, it’d only take you 1/10 of a second to understand a visual scene.

Images in your case study also help draw your audience’s attention and increase the chance of it being read — by up to 80% in fact.

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

Add photos and infographics to help tell the story or emphasise certain aspects of the information.

And if your customer is happy to, include a smiley picture of them.

Their picture gives your case story credibility because it makes your customer a real person. And a genuine smile is persuasive and appealing.

So Get People to Read Your Case Study By

Making your customer the hero Making your hero human Painting a powerful “before and after” picture Letting your customer pat your back Illustrating your case study with visuals

Otherwise, you’d have just wasted your time and effort in creating content that doesn’t help you reach your business and marketing goals.

And why would you do that?