One client's problem, what you did and what changed, with numbers a prospect can check.
A prospect opens a case study to find out whether you've fixed a problem like theirs and whether your numbers hold up. The example here answers with a story: a pottery supplier whose parcels kept arriving broken, what the damage claims showed, what changed and what it cost. It's invented. Yours needs a real client who has agreed to every figure.
Who it's for
Consultancies, agencies and freelancers whose work is hard to judge from outside. You send it after a first call or link it from a proposal. The reader has a similar problem, and will skim the headline, test one number and decide whether to write back.
Hold off if the results aren't in. A case study with no after-numbers is a testimonial.
What a good one contains
- A headline that is the result. "One parcel in fourteen arrived broken. Now it's one in fifty." A prospect with the same trouble recognizes it.
- The problem in the client's terms. 691 damage claims in a quarter at $41 each, and an owner who starts Monday with photos of broken jars.
- What you found, including what you ruled out. The client blamed the carrier. The sample shows both carriers near 7% and the real pattern in a table: 304 claims were glaze jars, most packed seven or more to a box.
- What you did, as a short list. Three numbered changes, a sentence or two each. Method is what a prospect is buying.
- Results with the sums showing. A five-line ledger: claims fell from $28,331 to $8,323 a quarter, the new packaging costs $3,451, and the net is $16,557. Printing what the fix costs makes the saving believable.
- A quote that sounds like a person. "I was sure it was the carrier" beats praise, because the client admits where she started.
- What didn't improve. Bisque ware still drew 88 claims, and packing got slower. The wins are easier to trust after this.
- One next step. The sample offers a free hour on the prospect's own damage claims.
Before it goes public
Send the client the finished page before anyone else sees it, and ask them to check every number, the quote and how their business is described. Their competitors can open the link too, so offer to round figures they'd rather not publish.
Pick one comparison and keep it fair. The sample sets the three months before the work against three months after things settled, and charts the months in between.
The sample prints its own $9,000 fee because payback in about seven weeks is part of the argument. Leave yours out if your pricing varies by client.
How to send it
As an open link. A case study is sales material, and it works when prospects pass it along. Anyone can read an open link, so get the client's sign-off on every figure first.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
