Marketing Profs

Case history articles—also known as application stories or testimonials—are the most powerful way to drum up interest in your product. That's because they feature a real customer talking about how your product or service solved a real problem.

Here's how to write a case study and see it through to publication.

1. Win the Cooperation of Your Customers

Many companies have difficulty getting their customers to cooperate with their publication efforts. When they ask their contacts for assistance, they are often told: "I'd love to help but I don't have time" or "We can't release any information on what we are doing because we are way ahead of our competition."

Try approaching your customers not as if you are asking for a favor, but rather as if you have something to offer them. Approach them with something like: "We see the opportunity to get some favorable publicity in major trade journals for both of our companies based on the success of this application."

Mention the name of one or two trade journals in their industry—read by their customers—that would be targeted for publication of the article. Tailor your approach to the size of the customer.

If it's a small company, stress the value of exposure to their own prospects and customers. If it's a larger company or one that's already well-known, emphasize the value to your contact of gaining industry recognition.

2. Develop a Process for Bringing Case Histories to Completion

While writing the article is the most visible part of creating a case history, it normally constitutes less than half of the total task of bringing the article to completion.

The rest of the job consists of working with the customer to get permission to do the story, scheduling and performing the interview, presenting the first draft to all involved parties and making changes to win their approval, collecting illustrations, and obtaining written approval from the customer.