How case studies can help your business
Last updated: September 2026
Case studies are a great way to show potential customers what you do, instead of simply telling them how good you are.
A good case study tells the story of a real customer, the problem they were facing, what you did to help, and what happened as a result. It gives people a chance to see how you work and, importantly, helps them recognise what you might be able to do for them too.
Case studies don’t have to be complicated. The most useful ones are often a well-told story about a customer, the challenge they faced and how you helped.
Why case studies are useful
A case study gives potential customers something much more useful than a list of features or claims. They can see a real situation, understand the problem, and get a feel for how you approached it.
They can also help you:
Show rather than tell what you do
Demonstrate your expertise through a real example
Help potential customers recognise their own situation
Explain your process without turning it into a sales pitch
Build confidence by showing the results of your work
Create useful content that can be repurposed elsewhere
And because they’re based on real customers and real work, they can be much more memorable than a page full of generic claims about how wonderful your business is.
What makes a good case study?
A good case study doesn’t need to be long or complicated. What matters is that it gives the reader enough detail to understand the situation, what you did, and what difference it made.
It also needs to feel like a story rather than a list of questions and answers. The interesting details often come from the experiences, challenges and little anecdotes that you wouldn’t think to include if you were just filling in a case study template.
A few things can make a case study more useful:
Tell a story
Give the reader a sense of where the customer started, what they needed help with, and how you helped. It doesn’t need to be dramatic - a simple and clear story is enough.
Keep the customer at the centre
The case study is about your customer’s experience, not an opportunity to write an advert for your business. Let their situation and results do some of the selling for you.
Think about who will read it
Choose the details that will be useful for the people you want to work with. If they’re likely to have similar problems or questions, make sure those come through in the story.
Include specific details
Where you can, include examples, figures or other evidence of what changed. Specifics are much more useful than saying something was a “great success”.
Use your customer’s own words
A good quote can bring a case study to life and give the reader another perspective on the experience.
Make it easy to read
You don’t need to include every detail of the project. Focus on the parts that help the reader understand the problem, your approach and the outcome.
Sometimes the best details aren’t the ones you expect to find. A good conversation with the person involved can uncover the small details, experiences and stories that make a case study interesting.
That’s why I don’t think a case study should just be a list of questions sent to a customer to fill in. Talking to someone properly gives you the chance to explore something interesting when it comes up, rather than sticking rigidly to a template.
How to structure a case study
There’s no single formula you have to follow, but having a structure will make it much easier for you to tell the story.
The challenge
Begin with the customer and the situation they were facing:
What were they trying to achieve?
What problem did they need to solve?
What wasn’t working?
Give enough context for the reader to understand why they needed help.
The approach
Next, explain what you did.
This is where you can show your thinking, the decisions you made and how you worked with the customer. You don’t need to describe every step. Focus on the parts that help the reader understand how you approached the problem.
The results
Finally, show what changed.
Where you have specific results or figures, include them. But results don’t always have to be financial or measurable. A change in the way someone works, a problem being resolved, or a customer feeling more confident can all be meaningful outcomes.
What the reader can take from it
A good case study isn’t just a story about something that happened to someone else. The reader should be able to recognise something of their own situation in it.
Think about what you want someone in a similar position to understand after reading it. That’s often what turns an interesting customer story into a useful case study.
How to get the story
The finished case study might look straightforward, but getting the right information out of someone isn’t always easy.
A list of questions sent by email can give you the basic facts, but it doesn’t always uncover the details that make a story interesting. A conversation can be much more useful. You can ask a question, listen to the answer, and then follow up when something interesting comes up.
You might discover a challenge they hadn’t mentioned, a small detail that explains why a decision mattered, or a result they hadn’t thought was particularly significant.
That’s often where the best parts of the story comes from.
If you’re interviewing someone yourself, prepare your questions beforehand so you know what you’re trying to find out. But you don’t have to stick rigidly to them. The questions are there to guide the conversation, not control it.
I always recommend giving the person you’re interviewing some context beforehand too. Let them know what the case study is for, what you’re hoping to explore and what will happen with their answers. I also add an extra step where they get to read the finished draft case study before it’s published anywhere. By thinking about things from their point of view, I find they’re much more likely to relax and tell you something useful.
Make your case study work harder
Once you’ve created a case study, you can use it more than once.
A good customer story can become useful content in lots of different places, helping you get more from the work you’ve already done.
You could:
Share a key insight or quote on social media
Include the case study in a newsletter
Link to it from relevant pages on your website
Use it as an example in a sales conversation or proposal
Include it in funding applications or tender submissions
Create a shorter version for an email or presentation
Turn some of the story into a blog post
Use before and after images, figures or quotes as standalone content
Think about where your potential customers are likely to see it and what information they’ll need at that point. You don’t always need to create something new. Sometimes the case study you’ve already written is exactly the evidence someone needs.
And there’s a great connection back to your wider content strategy here. One good story can give you useful material for your website, content and sales activity, rather than being another piece of content that gets published once and forgotten.
Need help creating a case study?
Getting the useful details out of someone can be harder than it sounds.
You might have a good conversation with a customer and come away thinking, “That was really interesting.” But turning that conversation into a story that someone else will want to read takes a bit more work.
It can also be difficult to recognise the most useful details when you’re too close to the project yourself. That’s something clients tell me regularly. They know the story inside out, but aren’t always sure which bits someone else would find interesting or useful.
That’s where I can help.
“Her engaging, quizzical nature of digging out little gems of information while understanding the complex issues associated with sustainability and low carbon emissions quickly put the business owners at ease, allowing her to get the best possible stories and content.”
I interview your customers, clients, tenants or participants using questions tailored to what you want the case study to achieve. I listen for the details, experiences and stories that help show what you do without turning the finished case study into a sales pitch.
The person I interview gets to see the finished draft too, so they can check it’s accurate before you publish it.
The result? A story people want to read, and a case study that shows what you do without sounding like a sales pitch.
Need a case study? Let’s talk →
