Agency Case Studies: How to Craft Client Stories That Sell Your Services

Digital agency case studies are a great way for potential clients to view your success stories. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute found that case studies were the second most popular type of content B2B marketers use, with 47% stating case studies were the most effective:

Agency case studies are highly beneficial because…

They let you show current clients with impressive results

Establish yourself as an expert in the services you provide by showing the brands you’ve worked with and the results achieved. The more recognizable the brand name, the better. Doing this also helps you stand out from your competition.

You can demonstrate your strategy

For potential clients, showing what you’ve done for current clients is an opportunity to understand how your processes work — and what they could expect working with you.

Finding a great agency can be challenging for many clients

You can establish trust with clients by showing your agency has worked with brands in their industry. For instance, a SaaS company would want to see case studies from other tech-based clients, not a consumer packaged goods company (vice versa).

How agency case studies differ from other case studies

Digital marketing agency case studies help you generate more leads by focusing on how you have helped clients meet their marketing goals. Instead of focusing solely on the client itself, your agency case study should demonstrate the goal of the campaign, approach, and results.

Marketing agency, Bounteous, showcases client case studies on their website detailing each campaign’s overall goals:

Example case study on Bounteous:

Before you begin producing your agency case studies, consider the following:

Your ideal client

Whether it’s a stated goal or not, you should always attract clients you want to work with. That way all aspects of your content marketing strategy, including case studies, should be tailored towards your ideal clients.

If you don’t already have an ideal client profile, refer to your services and who would be willing to purchase those services. If you offer a multitude of services with varying types of clients, you can create different case studies aimed at specific customers. For example, using one case study on web design, one for Google Ads, one for SEO and so on.

Using different case studies

Your case studies will vary depending on who you serve. You may assume that a single case study will represent all the services you provide. However, it’s more beneficial to use at least one case study for each service as your ideal client may not be the same.

By showing potential clients that you get results in the service they need, you establish credibility and position yourself as a leader in that sector.

The basis of your case study depends on the service you provide

For each service you offer, create a detailed case study relating to specific aspects of each service. Here are some tips to craft a unique case study for each service you offer:

PPC/SEM

If your services include PPC/SEM, then you may include statistics on conversion rates, revenue, or money saved. Using clear and specific statistics aids the reader’s understanding and showcases your results without confusion.

Agency 51 uses this approach to highlight the results they achieved for York Coffee Emporium. They detail their goals, solution, methods, and results to deliver a case study showcasing a 22% increase in Google shopping orders using a dedicated PPC campaign and conversion optimization audit:

Web design

Agency case studies detailing web design services may show your results based on a professional design, usability, mobile optimization, and more. Forge and Smith, for instance, highlights their client Sky Helicopters to demonstrate how they enhanced site architecture and navigation:

Email marketing

Email marketing case studies can highlight market research data, subscriber rates, open rates, conversion rates, or leads.

Pure 360 showcases their email marketing expertise by highlighting the 225% increase in email open rates they helped Watchfinder achieve. Notice how the agency uses a customer quote to enhance their credibility:

Content/blog writing

Content writing customer stories should focus on how your content has achieved their overall goal. The client’s goal may be to enhance brand awareness, increase conversions, boost leads, or increase web traffic. You can showcase results by measuring unique visits, bounce rates, page views, number of conversions or leads, social shares, and more.

This Jawfish Digital case study highlights specific traffic results the agency achieved for a specific article to highlight their content creation services:

Social media

Agency case studies that tout social media services may highlight your expertise in a variety of platforms, social trends, utilizing new features to achieve campaign success, and using paid campaigns to generate ROI.

Cardinal has an extensive case study on their social media work for pizza chain Papa Johns. The agency uses statistics to quantify their results, specifically a 374% boost in revenue and a 426% increase in orders:

Approaching clients for a case study

It’s likely that your customers will be happy to be featured on your website, especially if you offer to link to their site in return.

Once you finish working on a successful campaign and decide you want to feature the client in a case study, kindly ask them for permission. Don’t publish personal information without gaining the consent first.

If your client declines your invitation, you can create a case study without using their name and details. It just won’t be as believable as showing the client’s brand name.

You can state, for example, ‘a finance company’ or ‘a company in the X market’ and detail your campaign. However, the most engaging agency case studies feature the brand’s name and logo as using well-known brand names can help establish you as a leader and provides social proof.

How to write a compelling case study

You need more than facts to create a compelling story. To attract clients, you should also…

1. Hone in on your client’s pain points

Some questions to ask as you write the client story:

• What problems were they struggling with before they employed your services? (Be specific.)
• How were these problems affecting their business?
• Why were their original strategies failing?

Once you’ve addressed the pain points, discuss how the campaign’s goal related to these struggles, and how your agency’s services helped them overcome these problem areas.

For a laser hair removal client, Single Grain states how their client was struggling with competition and the sensitive nature of the hair removal topic:

2. Don’t just tell, show

Images are quicker to process than text so using charts or graphs in addition to data can help make your case studies more engaging to the prospect. Visual content also breaks up text making the information easier for your audience to comprehend.

Amp Agency uses photographs in their Maybelline case study detailing how they introduced a Color Studio Tour to bring the exclusivity of New York fashion to consumers:

Meanwhile, Cardinal uses charts, graphs, and infographics to showcase their strategy and results for Tropical Smoothie Cafe:

3. Make it easy to read

In addition to visual content, headers, subheaders, and splitting up your page into sections keeps readers interested. Organized content with clear sections, featuring an objective, method, and results to show how your client benefited from your services will help engage those with minimal understanding of what you do.

You could also link to a lead capture page to encourage potential clients to reach out and request a consultation.

Hex Digital formats their case studies into distinct sections using headers and imagery to help prospects understand the full story:

4. Provide actionable advice and results

You don’t need to go into explicit detail when detailing your methods but stating what you did and how you implemented your strategy can be helpful to your audience. Being honest is a no-brainer here.

From the Cardinal example earlier, they explain how they worked on a PPC strategy for DentalWorks to ensure a return on investment:

5. Share the finished product

Once you’ve published your customer success stories, promoting them is the next step. Promote your case studies in the same way you would promote an article — use social media. Make them the focal point of an email campaign. Repurpose them in blog posts or PDF format. Anything you can do to bring attention to them is beneficial here.

Produce the perfect case study

Establish your agency as an expert who gets results by creating exceptional case studies that showcase your best examples. Remember to focus on results that addressed pain points, provide stats and client quotes when possible, and make the stories visually compelling.

By following the suggestions above, you’ll be on your way to crafting case studies that attract potential new clients. In addition to case studies, sign up for an Instapage Enterprise demo.