A case study is usually a post-explanatory analysis of an event or a project. Digital Marketing industry relies heavily on case studies as their primary source of lead generation. In an industry whose benchmarks are difficult to determine, case studies play an important role in showcasing the success of a company.

Why are case studies so important?

A digital marketing company can leverage its best executed success stories by converting them into analytical case studies contemplating what was done, how it was done and what was the outcome. The following are the advantages of case studies in the context of digital marketing and social media:

Case Studies help establish credibility

The introspective nature of case studies allows customers to get a fair idea of how capable a company is in several counts: creativity, up-to-date knowledge, and innovation. Not only can a customer gain a fair knowledge of how the subject of case study could affect his own business, he can also understand how credible the company is in delivering its services.

Case studies go a long way in influencing the sentiment of the customers. Since most case studies include client testimonials that end up vetting the successful project, it becomes all the more powerful in making the company a strong contender as against its competitors. And there are too many of them one to be up against.

Showcasing success

Many companies are able to showcase the results of their digital marketing campaigns through case studies. Several such case studies are available online via websites like afaqs.com. For example, a recent article on our Official Blog showcased the outcome of Cadbury Bournville’s ‘Tape a Tweet’ Twitter campaign. This a brilliant example of the social media team and the videography team working in sync with each other, as well as the customer engagement activity. They produced instant videos based on the followers’ tweets to capture their attention and create a buzz in Twitterdom in a big way.

So also, was another campaign conducted by online shopping store HomeShop18 using a new jingle to create buzz around the concept of ‘happiness due to shopping’. They used the hash tag #MakesMeHappy to engage their customers to tweet about what makes them happy and mentioned HomeShop18’s Twitter handle as well as the hashtag in their tweet. While the Twitteratti got swept into this campaign, what came as a big surprise was the spontaneous conversion of selected tweets into caricature images. Followers were absolutely delighted to see themselves and their tweets converted into funny images and there was a lot of flurry across Twitter during this campaign.

Great as marketing collateral

When pitching to prospective clients, case studies hold the power to do the entire talking (or rather, most of it). It’s a known fact by now that consumer behaviour is influenced by the generic perception of the market. For example, if A wants to buy a helmet and sees a particular brand getting more reviews, A is likely to choose that brand, assuming that it is famous or popular and hence, good. The underlying principle here is that of subtle recommendation. A completed sale is a recommendation. The case study feeds into that perception. “If another company has seen success through this campaign, I would want to see similar success for my company as well.” – This is how the thought process of most prospective clients goes.

Conclusion:

Case studies are very important and if you are a digital marketing company or for that matter, any other company, you can make use of a good case study and leverage on its advantages in a big way. Just a disclaimer though, it is always advisable to include not only the good points but also the roadblocks encountered and how they were dealt with in the case study to make it complete.