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Case study template

Your case study says the client was delighted and efficiency improved. The reader has seen four hundred of those, believes none of them, and closes the tab before the logo finishes loading.

Part 1

Five parts, in this order

The situation before, stated with a number. What was tried and did not work. What you actually did, specifically enough to be repeatable. The result, with the same number as at the start. And what you would do differently, which is the part that makes the rest believable.

Do this: Take your last case study and check it has all five. The missing one is almost always the fourth part of it: the honest caveat.
Part 2

The same metric at both ends

Opening with time saved and closing with revenue growth reads as a switch, because it is one. Whatever number you use to describe the problem is the number that has to appear at the end, changed.

Do this: Underline the metric in your first paragraph and your last. If they are different, the case study is arguing with itself.
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Part 3

When the client will not share the figures

This is normal and it is not the end. Percentages instead of absolute numbers, ranges instead of points, or the client’s own quote about the scale of the change all work. What does not work is replacing the number with an adjective.

Do this: Ask for a percentage rather than a figure. Most legal teams say yes to that after saying no to the number.
Part 4

Let the client speak in their own words

A quote written by marketing and approved by the client reads exactly like what it is. A real sentence, including the part where they were sceptical at the start, is worth more than three paragraphs of description.

Do this: Record the interview and use their actual phrasing, hesitations included. Tidy the grammar, not the meaning.

This is teaching material and our own reading of standard editorial practice, not advice for your specific business. Check anything important with your own specialist before you act on it.

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