A Powerful Marketing Tool: The Insight-Based Case Study

As a business owner, one of your greatest challenges is describing the benefits of what you do in a way that is clear, compelling, and concise. Even better, you provide true value to your listener or reader and he or she can’t help but want more.

One marketing strategy that business owners use to do this is case studies. This is great but most people do not use case studies effectively. The changes clients make sound passive as if they could have come upon them themselves or as if anyone could help them. Remember that powerful marketing addresses a prospect’s needs with a powerful solution that only you are equipped to deliver. Without this last part, you market your field in general (coaches, lawyers, consultants, psychologists) but not you and your business in particular.

The best solution I have heard to this problem was put forth by marketing genius Mark Levy in an interview I did with him for my book The Confident Leader: How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional. Here is an excerpt from his interview:

Larina: You encourage people to use “The Insight-based Case Study.” What is this and how can we use it?

Mark: I teach people to use such studies whenever they’re trying to persuade someone: on a website, in a white paper, in a news release, when they’re eye to eye with Mr. or Ms. Big, trying to close a deal.

• To explain the insight-based case study, first I’ll explain how a standard case study works.
   
• The standard study follows a problem-solution-results format. It first explains the problem the client was experiencing. Then it segues into the solution you applied. Finally, it trumpets the results the client enjoyed. Sounds good, right?
   
• Where it usually falls apart, though, is in the solution section. Most case studies I’ve heard use the solution section to go on, ad nauseum, about the features of their solution. They talk about the studies they conducted, the meeting methodologies they used, the protocols they wrote, and so on.
   
• Some talk about features is, of course, necessary. But stressing the features of your service bores and makes you sound like a commodity. After all, all your competitors pretty much do what you do. They have their own studies, meeting methodologies, and protocols. Anything you can do they can do (at least that’s the way it sounds to the casual listener). Where you can stand out is through insight.
   
• Insight shows your mind at work, parades your abilities as a problem-solver, and acts as a forceful differentiator because, while many people can conduct studies and the like, not everyone can come up with an insightful idea when the chips are down.

Larina: How do you write an insight-based case study?

Mark: Rather than focusing on the details of the process, it focuses on the observation and shift-in-thinking that brought about the result. The insight is the pivot. It’s the piece of information that drives the story. It’s an x-ray of how you think, and ties the results directly to your actions.

• To create your own insight-based case studies, then, start with a result. In other words, think about some wonderful result you helped generate for a client. Then, try recalling the insight you had that allowed you to generate that result.
   
• If you have trouble remembering the dominant insight, try reliving the situation in your mind. Who was involved? Where were they stuck? Why were they stuck? What were they doing wrong? What surprised you? What was obvious to you, but escaped everyone else’s radar?
   
• Once you have the insight, write up the story in problem-solution-result format, and put your insight near the beginning of the solution step. Make the story turn there. You’ll sound like a detective. You’ll be talking about how you solved the case through observation and brains. It’ll sound exciting and persuasive.

Larina Kase, PsyD, MBA is a small business marketing coach who helps clients accomplish the things they thinks they can’t. Learn how she helps business owners and check out her new book on how to push your limits and surprise yourself with all you achieve http://www.pascoaching.com/ConfidentLeader 

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