How to write an effective case study as a service provider

If you’re a service provider, having some sort of social proof on your website and in your marketing is essential for illustrating how you can help prospective clients. Along with testimonials, case studies are the perfect way to give prospective clients an idea of what it’s like to work with you, your process, and more.

But what the heck do you even include in your case studies without giving away too much information? It can be a delicate balance between sharing enough and not too much as to still allow your client some level of privacy.

Here’s what I like to include in my case studies and how I structure them:

Case Study Title

I personally don’t always share my client’s name or business name. I often share their industry or what they do in the case study title for privacy but also because this is likely better for SEO purposes. If someone’s looking for marketing help for a chiropractor and I have that in the title of my case study, it’s more likely to be found via search!

I’ll also include what I specifically did for them. For example, if we focused on email marketing I’ll say that in the title but if we focused on a launch strategy, that will be in the title instead. Again, this not only gives people a quick glimpse of the type of work I’ve done for clients but it’s helpful for SEO as well!

Approach Case Studies As A Story

As with all my marketing efforts, I approach my case studies as a story. I like to add the context in which my clients came to me, the stage they’re at in business, and any other notable details that helped me shape their strategies.

This helps give a more complete picture of each client’s experience working with me and helps connect to the prospective client reading the case study on a deeper level.

Provide An Overview

I start every case study with which service they hired me for and a brief description of the project. This is essentially the beginning of the “story” where I give the context of the project and what we specifically focused on during their project. This essentially sets up the context of the case study.

Process + How You Helped

After the overview, I jump right into the actual project details, tactics, and process I used. Since my projects aren’t necessarily the most visual because I’m building marketing strategies for clients, it can be a little tricky to give a good look at how the strategy was formed and progressed… and obviously I don’t want to give the actual strategy in the case study.

So instead, I’ll highlight the most beneficial pieces of information I discovered and then how I used it to help shape the overall strategy.

And because adding visual elements is so important, I’ll often pull out some visuals I used in the strategy. Sometimes I will remove text from the visuals for privacy purposes though. For example, if I share their competitive landscape graphic, I’ll remove the names of the competitors.

Results/Execution

If you’re a designer or social media manager, it can be easier to highlight the results. You can show the evolution of the logo design, highlight the finished website design, or the increase in followers, engagement, etc. as a social media manager. But if you’re in an industry that doesn’t have access to the results your clients see from your efforts (I often don’t), it can be a little tricky to highlight these.

One thing I do to try to collect this information is by asking if clients have seen any benefits or results from working together in my client feedback form. If they provide those details, I’ll include that at the end of the case study along with a testimonial if they provide one.

And that’s the gist of what’s included in my case studies. I know this formula works really well because I often have clients say they hired me specifically because of my case studies. I even had someone inquire about having me help write their case studies because they liked mine so much!

So I know if you use this formula and walk people through the project as if they were the client themselves, your case studies will be just as captivating and effective in getting you new business.

Here are a few of my case studies for you to check out:

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