If you can write a résumé, you can write a case study. Just as a résumé shows potential employers how your experience can benefit their team, a case study highlights an existing client’s success story to demonstrate your business or product’s value to prospective clients.
A compelling case study includes relevant data without overwhelming your reader, considers the customer’s perspective, and demonstrates how you handled a specific challenge.
The best way to learn how to write one is by reading a stellar business case study example.
What is a case study?
A case study illustrates how a product or service helped a client achieve their goals, showcasing its effectiveness. A strong case study introduces the client, describes their challenge, and highlights the results. Metrics and testimonials further validate your impact and attract potential customers.
Businesses that provide software, tools, or consulting services often provide case studies to potential customers trying to choose between several options.
A company’s marketing team is typically responsible for writing case studies, but if you have a small business without a dedicated marketing team, don’t worry. Anyone can write a case study, and it’s a straightforward process if you use a template.
Why should you create a case study?
A case study brings your product or service to life for future customers with real-world examples. These success stories offer tangible results. Case studies are, thus, a form of social proof, but their power goes beyond a mere testimonial or review.
Since B2B services often are expensive and require approval from multiple decision-makers, typical forms of social proof often aren't enough to convince potential customers. Business customers want to be able to share compelling data with their teams, and that’s where the case study is beneficial.
How to write a case study
- Choose a template
- Interview your client or customer
- Describe the situation
- Identify the solution
- Present the results
1. Choose a template
You don’t necessarily need a template to write a case study, but it can make the process easier—especially if you haven’t written one before or need to write several at once.
You’ll notice that most business case studies take the same general format; after inputting the basics into the template, you can add your own personal flair. (That is, your branding and voice.)
2. Interview your client or customer
The client or customer interview is the heart of the case study. Identify several current or past clients willing to chat with you about their experiences. Look for repeat customers and those who reached out independently to tell you how much they enjoyed your product or service.
A phone interview is the best way to get conversational quotes, but you can correspond via email if your subject is short on time. Not sure what to ask? When social advertising agency Biddyco interviewed the VP of Marketing at Fellow, they asked him the following questions, according to their case study:
- What were the obstacles that would have prevented you from choosing/hiring Biddyco?
- What have you found as a result of hiring Biddyco?
- What specific feature or thing do you like most about Biddyco’s services?
- Would you recommend Biddyco and why?
The goal of the interview is to better understand your client’s experience with your product or service and grab a soundbite you can use as a testimonial in your case study. If you didn’t work directly with the client, you may also want to interview someone on your team who did to get more context.
3. Describe the situation
Give context to your case study with a brief description of the client’s business and the desired outcome that led them to seek your product or service. You can follow this general formula:
[Client’s name] is a [type of business] with [unique feature]. [Client’s name] came to [your business] seeking [client’s desired outcome] while [requirement].
Here’s an example of a one-sentence situation summary in the case study for Sharma Brands’ client Feastables:
“Feastables, a better-for-you snacks company, came to us in need of a team to take the DTC setup off their plate.”
Advertising company Adgile, which created moving billboards for the non-alcoholic aperitif brand Ghia, has a longer description in its case study that provides background on the marketplace, but the heart of it is this:
“Ghia was seeking creative ways to break through the clutter of a crowded—and big-budgeted—adult beverage market, all while managing customer acquisition cost (CAC).”
4. Identify the solution
This section can vary depending on your field. Also described as “the action,” “the work,” or “the strategy,” the solution describes the strategic insights your company brought to your client’s problem or how your customer used your product to achieve their goals.
The basic formula: [Client’s name] partnered with [your business] to [service received].
Here’s an example from email marketing software Klaviyo’s case study featuring olive oil brand Graza:
“Graza uses Klaviyo’s granular segmentation tools to send automated flows and promotional campaigns to small, targeted groups of customers based on purchase frequency.”
This section describes exactly which of Klaviyo’s features Graza used (granular segmentation) and how they used it (to send automated flows to small, targeted groups), without getting into any outcomes or results yet.
5. Present the results
This section is where you’ll win over prospective customers and build trust. The basic formula is:
[Client’s name] used [service received] to [desired outcome].
Share how your product or service positively affected the client’s business, whether that’s cost savings, more clients, or improved company culture. According to a case study from community platform TYB, the results it delivered for skin care company Dieux were as follows:
“Dieux was able to create thousands of authentic, personalized referrals ahead of its new product launch plus live out its brand promise of transparency.”
Depending on your product or service, your results may include quantifiable outcomes (like thousands of referrals), intangibles (like living out your brand promise), or both, as in the case of TYB.
Real-world examples of case studies
- Sharma Brands for Feastables
- Adgile Media Group for Ghia
- Meta for Lulus
- TYB for Dieux
- Biddyco for Fellow
- Outline for Heyday Canning
- Klaviyo for Graza
- Culture Amp for Bombas
- Kustomer for ThirdLove
A great way to write a case study is to look at a sample case study—or better yet, many. You’ll notice that wildly different businesses have case studies that follow roughly the same structure, which is why we recommend using one of our free case study templates to write yours. Learn from this mix of business, design, and marketing case study examples:
Sharma Brands for Feastables
Sharma Brands is a branding agency founded by Nik Sharma, “The DTC Guy.” Sharma Brands keeps its case study featuring snack company Feastables short and sweet, breaking it down into three chronological sections: the situation, the work, and the outcome.
The Sharma Brands case study is a good example of how to incorporate meaningful results without sharing actual numbers (which the client may not wish to make public) or getting into an in-depth analysis.
Instead of metrics, Sharma Brands lists the tasks it executed:
- “Successfully launched their DTC site.”
- “Simultaneously launched on GoPuff with no downtime.”
It also lists some general achievements:
- “Broke Shopify records in the first 24 hours of launch.”
- “All revenue and engagement metrics were highly exceeded.”
Adgile Media Group for Ghia
Adgile Media Group creates outdoor advertising by providing brands with mobile billboards. Unlike traditional outdoor advertising, Adgile also tracks the digital impact of its IRL campaigns.
Adgile’s case study featuring the non-alcoholic beverage brand Ghia is the perfect place to show off the metrics it collects, like:
- 78% homepage visit lift
- 91% conversion lift
- 82% lift on its Find Us page
- Increase in brand awareness and recall, more than 75% over the competition
Meta for Lulus
Meta, the social media and digital advertising platform, does something in its case studies that every company can replicate. Instead of saving the numbers for the results section, Meta provides a brief overview near the top. This breaks up the text visually, provides a quick snapshot for anyone who doesn’t want to read the full case study, and intrigues those curious to know how they achieved those numbers.
Meta’s case study for the clothing company Lulus starts by teasing its most impressive stat:
“The women’s fashion ecommerce company compared the performance of a Meta Advantage+ shopping campaign with Advantage+ catalog ads versus its usual ad campaign setup and saw a 47% increase in return on ad spend using the Advantage+ products.”
It then presents three key figures in a visually appealing design, drawing clear attention to the impact it had on this customer.
TYB for Dieux
TYB is a community platform that rewards fans for creating user-generated content. TYB’s case study for Dieux details how the skincare brand used its platform to involve customers in product testing.
It also does something small worth noting: Instead of sticking the call to action at the bottom of the case study, TYB places a “request demo” button at the top of the page. That way, anyone compelled by the results of the case study can take the next step immediately.
Biddyco for Fellow
Advertising agency Biddyco took a unique approach to its case study for the coffee- and tea-gear company Fellow. Unlike other business case study examples that use the typical situation-solution-results format, Biddyco structured its case study as an extended testimonial, with a series of questions like, “What specific feature or thing do you like most about Biddyco’s services?”
In addition to client feedback, Biddyco also highlights a few key accomplishments under the heading “All You Really Need to Know.”
Outline for Heyday Canning
A branding studio like Outline won’t approach case studies in the same way an advertising platform like Meta would. What matters here isn’t cost per impression or ROAS, it’s how everything looks.
That’s why Outline’s case study for Heyday Canning is relatively light on words and heavy on imagery. If your work is more visual than numerical, your case study is a great place to show your behind-the-scenes process.
For example, Outline shows the label design alongside images of the cans on the shelf and provides a brief description of the design inspiration. This example shows how you can have a design-focused case study that still tells a compelling story.
Klaviyo for Graza
Klaviyo, an email marketing software company, puts numbers front and center in its case study for the olive oil company Graza. If your product or service involves tracking metrics like email open rates, revenue, and click rates, highlight those stats in a larger font size, as Klaviyo did.
Klaviyo’s case study for Graza also shows you don’t necessarily need to fix a problem to create a great case study; you can also simply help your client achieve their goals. According to Klaviyo’s case study, Graza’s challenge was to create strong customer relationships.
Culture Amp for Bombas
How do you write a compelling case study if your service doesn’t involve tangible metrics or flashy design? For the performance management software company Culture Amp, it’s highlighting key statistics about the subject of its case study, sock company Bombas.
Like Meta and Klaviyo, Culture Amp highlights three numbers in large font. But these numbers are stats about their client Bombas, not Culture Amp’s services: “120+ employees,” “25M+ items donated,” and “$100M+ in revenue for 2018.”
Instead of showing off the results it achieved for Bombas, these numbers let prospective clients know that Culture Amp works with big, important companies on their performance management process.
Kustomer for ThirdLove
Choosing a customer relationships management (CRM) platform is a big decision. Switching platforms—as bra company ThirdLove did in this case study from customer support platform Kustomer—can involve lengthy data migration, customization, and employee onboarding.
That’s why it makes sense that Kustomer’s case study for ThirdLove is a four-page-long PDF and not a blog post. If your case study involves a long, detailed analysis, follow Kustomer’s example and make two versions of your case study.
The first page is an executive summary, with about a paragraph each describing the challenge and results. If after reading the first page, you want to learn more, you can dive into the rest of the case study, but you don’t have to read the entire thing to get a sense of how Kustomer collaborated with ThirdLove.
Case study examples FAQ
How do you write a simple case study?
To simplify the case-study writing process, download a template. Shopify’s fill-in-the-blanks case study template can help you share your customers’ success stories in an easily digestible, well-designed format.
Why are case studies important for businesses?
For the business reading a case study, the contents can help them decide between different products or services. For the business writing the case study, it’s a chance to connect more deeply with potential customers.
What is an example of a case study?
An example of a case study is a mobile billboard company’s overview of the services it provided to a client. The case study might include an overview of the client's goals and how the advertiser addressed them, plus a list of outcomes—increased website visits, decreased costs per visit, and a rise in brand awareness.
