The 5 Most Important Parts of a Case Study
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing your own case study or if you’re hiring a copywriter—every single case study desperately needs these 5 things.
Without these pieces, a case study won’t be able to do a job for you. Whether that’s confusing or not engaging your reader, not showing up in a Google Search, or not popping off the page—those are all missed opportunities! And I, as a case study copywriter, don’t want you to miss any of them.
I write & teach case study copywriting the way I do because I know it works! Because I know these parts matter so much to each & every case study. (Can you tell I’m passionate about it? 😂) Press play on this quick lil episode & never miss an opportunity to get your case study to do some marketing for you!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
The 5 parts every case study should have
How to optimize case studies with SEO
How to avoid having a boring, lifeless case study
If you can just have a case study in a PDF (vs on your site)
Resources available to help you with each part of a case study
Say hi or ask me a follow up question on Voxer!
Links & Mentioned Resources:
Case Study Interview Questions
Related Episodes:
How I Created My P.E.T. Framework
Brand Voice w/ Justin Blackman
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Welcome back to the short and sassy series of the Basic Bee Podcast. As you know, these episodes are on the shorter side, on the actionable side, and about a variety of topics. And today I'm sharing with you five elements of a successful case study. So five elements that every single case study you write, or you have someone write, or you have me write or whatever, any kind of case study, they need these five elements. So let's just get started with the first one, which is client quotes.
We need to hear the story from them. We really need to focus on that and build the case study around what they've said. It's the very first thing that I tackle inside the case study training. It's the very first thing that I look at when I'm doing a done for you case study for a client. This is where the magic really lies. It lies in what they are saying. It's saving you from talking about your program or your offer or your product. You're letting this person really shine a light on your stuff.
and they're going to explain it in a way that's easier for another potential client, another potential student to understand. And then like extra bonus points because when our clients say things or when our students say things, they naturally include keywords. So we want to start here with what people are saying, with what our clients or students are saying, because we're able to then create a story arc from that.
We're then able to do SEO keyword research with that and then write the case study. So you want to be looking to pull quotes from surveys that you've sent out. If it's like an off boarding survey or something like that, or even your intake forms, your email exchanges with them. You're maybe you have recorded interviews with them on your podcast in a Facebook group, something like that, any kind of client communication, any kind of exchanges with them.
look there because you'll find some really incredible things that they've shared. If you're doing an interview with them, first of all, if you haven't done that yet, and you, I don't know, maybe get some of my resources or something, like for example, I have case study interview questions that you can grab and I'll make sure that's linked below, but if you have done the case study interview with them, you can just go back and make sure that you have enough to write a really
Brittany Herzberg (02:21.766)
robust well-rounded case studies for this person. If you haven't recorded it yet, then you can grab some of that information. From there, if you have
Brittany Herzberg (02:36.638)
I want to redo that. I'm gonna do that again, Leah.
So if you have done an interview with your client or your student, then you can go back and review it. Make sure that you have enough information to really write a well-rounded case study with that person, featuring that person. If you haven't done a case study interview yet, then you can grab some of the resources that I have. For example, I've got an interview questions list, which I'll make sure is linked below, but you can find that on the shop on my website. So that is an option, the interview option. And then if you don't have an interview or you don't want to record an interview,
You could of course use, like I said, the surveys, the emails, any kind of client communication exchanges if you're on Voxer, on Slack with them, whatever that may be for you. And then when it comes to using these client quotes, like I said, we're using them to make the story arc and to do the keyword research. But when you're putting this in the copy, you want to make a point in your copy and then you want to use their words to support that. So here's an example from a case study that I recently wrote for a client.
She hadn't taken the time to create a clear enough vision for herself. So we did that. We figured out who Randy needed to be while she was taking action on those best next steps for her executive career and life coaching business. Being on Dallas's podcast was really transformative for me. I was absolutely getting in my own way because I wanted it to be perfect before I stepped out the door. So if you're not looking at this, just know that quote was at the very end. So we were saying something about
hey, you know, Randy hadn't created a clear vision for herself. We did that. And then this happened on the podcast. So Randy's quote was being on Dallas's podcast is really transformative. I was getting in my own way. I was trying to be really perfect before I launched this thing. So make your point and then use the quote from the client to support that. The second thing that is critical for any case study is to make sure that it's optimized for SEO. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. SEO is extra credit for business owners.
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So why would you not take advantage of this strategy? It's just waiting there. It's the places, the pieces are right there. And we just have to put a little thought and strategy and intention behind it in order to put the right things in those spots. So you want to do basic keyword research and then create an on-page SEO strategy with things like your SEO title and your meta description, which I've got another podcast. I'll make sure to link that below.
If you haven't downloaded the SEO basics checklist, this is going to be like a mega huge important resource for you when it comes to this point. It's simple. It's digestible. It's like very actionable and it's so doable and it gets faster the more and more that you do it. But if you aren't including SEO in your case study, your case study just kind of existing. Some people put them in PDFs. Some people don't which therefore aren't even on their website.
so it's not driving traffic to their website. And that's really the key reason why you want to have your case studies optimized for SEO. It can drive people to your site. It can bring you more leads. It can help you convert more leads. So we really want to be doing that. And it's not just any leads. If you're doing SEO correctly, you're gonna get more of those warm to hot leads, not just like, oh, maybe one day I will be interested in this offer. No, we want them interested in clicking now or soon, or at least getting in your world and getting to know you.
from a podcast, from a blog, from an email list, something like that. But we have to use SEO in order to have those case studies go and do some marketing for us. They're out there, they're working for you if SEO is in the case study. The third thing is your case studies need good flow. And this is where storytelling really comes in and where it really shines.
I've talked about how I don't feel like the best verbal storyteller, especially if I don't have something written out that's like pre-drafted where I can read from it or speak from it, but I made darn sure I was a good written storyteller. And that is how I came up with my pet framework, which I talk about in an earlier episode, which I will also make sure is linked below. But this is why I created it. You know, so many of us are born with this belief that we're not good storytellers or that some people are...
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born good storytellers. Let me do that again, Leah. We have this belief that we're either born as good storytellers or as not good storytellers, and that is just so not true. This is a skill that can be learned. And especially when it comes to writing, having this framework really helps you to organize the information. And when you organize the information and you add in those storytelling elements, it's going to keep someone engaged in reading down the page, reading that entire case study.
even if all they're doing is looking at the pretty pictures and reading the headlines, when we optimize the case studies for SEO, we're making use of those headlines. When we're writing with storytelling in mind, we're optimizing those headlines and the copy and the quotes and the pictures and things like that. So the PET framework has saved me, it has saved my students, and it can absolutely save you and help you harness the skill of storytelling.
and I go so much more in depth with the pet framework in guest teachings that I do, as well as in the case study training program, that will be live very soon. The fourth thing that you want is personality. And you want personality in a case study, whether you're writing this for your business, or if you're writing for clients like I do, personality is critical, because that is the, sometimes the first introduction to you as a service provider.
or for me to my clients as a service provider or a coach or a consultant or whatever it may be. It's not just about you having the thing that someone wants or needs. It's that they also want to connect with you, that they vibe with you, that they feel like they can learn from you and that they trust you. So infusing personality gives them these answers quickly of like, can I trust this person? Do I like them? Do I vibe with them?
Do I feel like I can learn from them? Do I feel like I can hand off this project to them? Those are questions that having your personality in there really just like it answers and it answers it quickly and it answers it in I would say a more subtle way. And you know, I even heard from a podcast listener just this morning on this specific topic and I included a quote from her. She said, there's something about the way you record the episodes and create all your content, honestly, that feels simple and honest and straightforward.
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That is me being me and just creating this in the way that makes sense to me and that I really hope makes sense to you. And I'll keep doing that until I get feedback from people where it's like, this was confusing. And then, you know, obviously I'll change things, but this is where my personality comes through. I try to organize information. I like to make things fun. I like to make things straightforward and simple because there's really no need to complicate things. We do that enough on our own. And if I can...
bring in some levity and just show you that things can be more simple, can be more basic, can be easier. I'm going to do that. So with the personality piece, I was so fortunate to have Justin Blackman, who was a recent podcast guest, I had him come in and record a workshop for the case study training students where we actually dove so deep into how you can do this infusing of your personality with BrandVoice.
So the actual words that you're using on the page, like I'm talking about, you can infuse your personality in there easily, subtly, smartly, intentionally. So if you don't feel confident with this or you're just like, what other resources are out there with infusing personality, just know that you have options. The fifth thing is that in addition to your essence or your vibe, case studies really should be written for the people that you want to attract.
So that is really key. And that could even mean that if you're not thinking through that, that you might be featuring someone who possibly isn't the best person to feature for a case study. Maybe it's not really the ideal student that you want to have. So really be thoughtful with that. Sometimes it's easier said than done because we think we know who we're writing for or we think we know who we want to attract or we just haven't.
Like I'm talking about we haven't even given that any thought and we're just like, give me some clients. I want to help people. But when you do get this clarity, so much good stuff happens. You're happier, your clients are happier, the caliber of the people you're attracting, it's just the right ones, you know? So there's even another workshop inside the case study training with Rachel Weaver, who's going to be on the podcast very soon and I'll make sure I link her as well. Link that podcast episode. She shared.
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in her workshop how we can use our human design to better understand how to use our writing and our unique design to one, best communicate in a way that feels like us, and two, attract those dreamy clients or students. So we've got lots of good stuff in there. And then of course I included a bonus because we want our pages to look good. We want our case studies to actually be attractive, be appealing. Because if someone gets to your page and it does not look visually appealing,
they are not even going to stick around to look at what you've got to say. And that's just a harsh reality that we've got in 2024 and that we will have moving forward. So we're talking what color should the buttons be, how many buttons, what pictures should you include, what do you need to know about white space and fonts? And my friend Emily Reagan came in and recorded a workshop for the case study training on this topic that is about simple best practices for good web page design.
It's such a good resource. I've used it. My clients and students have used it. This is amazing, especially if you're on a tight budget or if you just want to know the basics of how to design a clean, nice-looking, functional webpage. And you can take this and apply it not only to case studies, but to your other webpages, your about page, your blog posts. You can, you know, use it over there as well. And then, of course, going back to SEO in this whole, like, making the page look good thing.
I even show clients and students how to optimize the images so they can bring in warm to hot traffic that way. Because in case you didn't know, images are the second most popular way to search on Google. People look at articles and then they often look at images and there's even a tab there. So of course it brings in some images and videos on that main search engine results page, but there's even those tabs which you know about, I'm sure. And if you don't know about them, go do a Google search and you'll see it's like right up there at the top. So to recap.
For case studies, we want these six elements. We want it to be optimized for SEO. We want it to have good flow to it. And so it's written with stories, so people are engaged the entire way down the page. We want your personality to be woven in there. And we want the case study written for that most ideal client or student that you want to attract. And of course, we want the page to be visually appealing as well. So with all of that, what's next?
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There are a few things that you could do. I've hinted at it, but if you're interested in creating case studies for yourself or even for clients, keep an eye out for the case study training program that's going to open on April 22nd and the link will be in the show notes very, very soon. And if you maybe love the idea of case studies, but you do not want to write them, you don't have the time to write them, you don't care about writing them, you're like, please do this for me. That is a service that I offer. So that of course will be linked below.
And very, very soon we're going to be having some of my done for you case study clients on the show. It might even be this week. I don't remember who I am or what day it is. And then of course, if you've got questions, come find me on Instagram. And I think I'll even drop my voxel handle below in case you want to chat over there. So you have options, but please, please make sure I implore you. Make sure that these five, six elements rather are included on all of the case studies.
that you write that you share on your website. Make sure you're sharing them. Don't just let them live on a PDF. You could do that in addition to a web page, but make sure you're putting this goodness on your website and using it to draw in and attract more of those ideal clients and students. You got this!