To really grab attention with your marketing, you need to make your readers identify with your message. A powerful way to do this is with a case study.

A case study is essentially a customer success story. It works because, if done properly, your readers will identify with your customer, recognize their own problem and see how you can solve that problem.

Case studies follow the same general format:

1. Introduce your customer. Highlight all they ways they resemble your typical customer. You want the readers to see themselves in this description.

2. Describe their problem. Detail all the ways they tried, and failed, to solve their problem. The more details you supply, the more your customer’s frustrations will come alive. You want the reader to say, “Hey, that sounds like me!”

3. Show how your product or service solved the problem. Talk about the benefits, ease of use, money saved. Don’t forget to include any unexpected benefits your customer saw. Use quotes from your satisfied customer in this section. Your reader will trust the information more if they feel it’s coming from a paying customer, rather than your marketing department.

4. Use your customer’s full name and company – provided you have permission. This adds credibility because the reader knows this is a real person. A photo of your happy customer makes an even bigger impact.

Use case studies in a number of ways. For your customer newsletter, a case study is a better way to highlight a particular product than a straight sales pitch. Newsletters should be about content and people love to read about other people like themselves.

Case studies are great for your website. Scatter them throughout your site and have a page dedicated to them as well. This is particularly important if you sell from your website without your customers speaking with you directly. Purchasing online is about trust, and well-written case studies can go a long way to establishing trust with your readers.

When sending a sales letter, always enclose some case studies that highlight the product you are selling. A case study that closely resembles your prospect’s problem helps ease any objections they may have.

Putting together case studies for your business will take some time some time and effort, but I know you’ll be pleased with the results.

Author: Andrea J. Stenberg is a freelance commercial writer. Her experience includes writing for the corporate sector, small businesses and non-profits as well as for publication. She can be reached at www.stenbergwrites.com. (c) 2006, Andrea J. Stenberg. Reprints welcome providing the article and byline are published intact with all links made live. This article may not be sold individually or as a part of a database. View their website at: www.stenbergwrites.com