When writing a testimonial or case study, it’s tempting to make your product or service the hero. But there’s a better way.

By putting your client at the heart of your case study or testimonial writing, you take your readers on a journey, from problem to solution. This is a powerful way for your potential customers to picture themselves in a future state – with your solution making life easier, better, and more enjoyable for them.

Sounds simple but the problem is, when you write it yourself you have an unconscious brand bias. As a marketer, you live and breathe your brand and it’s natural to want to put your brand messages at the forefront.

You need an outside view.

A unbiased voice removed from the pressures of your sales and marketing machine.

Someone who can craft a story around your case study and pull out the golden nuggets. Firmly squashing any niggling hesitations that are holding your prospects back from buying.

Great question! Both are valuable marketing content, but serve different purposes.

• Testimonials are short, direct quotes from customers. They usually focus on one aspect of your value proposition and can be used to alleviate buyer anxiety at critical steps of the purchase process. Think of them as bite-sized pieces of proof that you’ll do what you say you will do.
• Case studies (or client success stories) take a deeper, wholistic look at the problem your customer faced and how your product or service solved it. They (ideally) give measurable results and tangible outcomes.

Many of my clients use both case studies and testimonials on their website, but in different places. The beauty of this approach is you can interview your clients once and create both types of content. This can be a cost effective way to get two pieces of content at once.

This includes: