One of the best forms of advertising for your business is referrals from past and current customers. This can come in the form of testimonials, reviews, or personal conversations. A great way to facilitate these types of referrals and showcase them on your website is through case studies. Case studies are detailed descriptions of a specific product or service you provided for a client, typically specifying exactly how you helped them. They provide genuine, unbiased information about your company’s dedication to helping clients with whatever they may need. When potential customers are doing research on which company or service to work with, one of the most effective and convincing strategies is having other customers talk about their success stories in working with your company.
While there are many different formats across a variety of industries in which businesses can effectively utilize case studies, we’ve picked 10 software companies that effectively use case studies in marketing their products.
1. Zapier
Zapier is an integration platform that allows users to connect hundreds of different web services using a simple interface. Their case studies page is broken up by category so that users can sort through the different case studies by clicking on categories such as “Agency,” “Finance,” and “Social Media.” Sorting out the case studies into different categories allows users to only see the case studies that apply to their business. For example, if an event management company was interested in using the services that Zapier offers, they simply have to click on the “Event Management” link on the side of the case studies page to see companies that relate to them.
2. Sailthru
Sailthru is a marketing company that makes automated decisions based on users’ activity across websites, email and mobile applications. They’ve worked with clients all over the world, and have a ton of case studies to choose from. Their case study pageis effective because of the use of video testimonials along with a text description of the case. People browsing the site have a visual representation of what Sailthru did for a specific company, putting a face to the employees giving the testimonials and therefore making the case study seem more realistic.
3. HubSpot
If you’ve ever heard of inbound marketing, chances are you’ve heard of HubSpot. HubSpot is a leading inbound marketing and sales platform that provides an integrated set of applications for their customers. The most prominent feature on HubSpot’s case study page is the ability to filter out the case studies that are presented to you. With hundreds to choose from, sorting through takes time and unnecessary effort. However, users have the ability to sort through the case studies using filters such as location, challenges faced and type of organization. This again allows users to find companies that are most relevant to them.
4. Marketo
The first thing that catches the reader’s eye on Marketo case study page as that they have “thousands of customers of all sizes,” instantly giving the viewer the idea that they will be able to work with your company, no matter how big or small. Another strategy utilized for their case study page is the use of the “featured” ribbon across some of the case study previews. This draws in users to read about some of the company’s best case studies. Along with a nice, clean layout, Marketo also uses the filter strategy so that users can view companies that are most relevant to them.
5. Cision
The unique element that PR and social software marketing company Cision offers on their case study page is that they sort the case studies according to the specific action they provided for companies. For example, under the Media & Social Monitoring tab, a case study listed is titled “How JetBlue Airways Soars Using Cision’s PR Software,” but under the News Release Distribution tab is a case study titled “The Last Well: Press Releases Helped Save 8,600 Lives”. This is useful for companies that are only interested in a specific service that your company may offer, so that they can get specific success stories about other companies that have used that service.
6. InfusionSoft
Most of the time, users who are looking into marketing software platforms are either small businesses or startup companies that are just beginning to get on their feet. InfusionSoft recognized this and decided to cater its case study page to showcase all of the small businesses that they’ve provided services for. This gives the readers the idea that even though they don’t have much of a clientele built up yet, they can still use this company’s services because of all of the other small businesses that have as well. However, the best part of InfusionSoft’s case study page is the use of the hover text over the case study previews. Each time a user moves the mouse over a preview of the case study, a fact about how successful the case was shows up, such as “Increased annual revenue from $40,000 to $625,000” and “Boosted referrals by 32%” Utilizing this strategy allows customers to get a basic idea of how InfusionSoft has helped these various small businesses without even having to take the time to go through and read the individual case studies.
7. Demandbase
Demandbase is the main marketing software that is focused on B2B advertising and website personalization. They have a variety of well-known clients such as Adobe and Dell, which is good for their case studies page on it’s own. However, the best part of Demandbase’s case study page is that it allows users to filter the cases in terms of technologies and software used, such as Google and Eloqua. This way, if a company that is interested in using Demandbase’s services is already familiar with working with a specific technology, they can see how Demandbase used that technology to help enhance other companies’ performance.
8. Netsuite
Along with providing a filter for their case studies page, an effective strategy that Netsuite uses is the prominent display of a featured case study that users may be interested in reading. If your business has a client that would provide an excellent case study that exemplifies the best of what your business offers, you may want to consider displaying it in a way similar to how Netsuite is showcasing their Beyond The Rack case study. It is likely that because that is the first case study they will see, users will be able to skim through it and see interesting facts about the improvement of that client’s business.
9. Oracle
Computer technology and marketing software company Oracle utilizes includes a video testimonial along with a text summary of each case study. Using this strategy allows users to watch the video first in order to get an idea about who the client is and what they needed from Oracle, and if they’re interested, they are then able to proceed to read the entire case study.
10. Silverpop
Silverpop is a digital marketing technology provider that specializes in marketing automation solutions and email marketing. Along with a clear, clean display of their case studies, they also provide links to video testimonials and quotes from various clients to accompany the articles. Case studies are more from the viewpoint of the company instead of the client, so providing video testimonials and quotes along with the case studies provides users with a more in-depth look and perspective on how Silverpop truly helped their company succeed.