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Below are the Top 30 most viewed case studies on Creativebrief.com during August 2024.

Switzerland Tourism | Reach Out And Touch It

By Kitchen Advertising ltd

IKEA 'The Wonderful Everyday'

By Mother London

Launching Persil into the world of sports with 'The Autograph'

By LOLA MullenLowe

Mentos - Award-winning Multi-touchpoint UK Brand Activation

Uber Eats 'The Art of Doing Less'

By 72andSunny

Indeed - Shifting perceptions from a faceless job board to an empowering career companion

Finding Your Summer – all year round- with Magnum

How Aldi’s ‘Free Cuthbert’ campaign won the supermarket caterpillar wars

By McCann Manchester

CALM - The Last Photo

By adam&eveDDB

Starbucks #WhatsYourName

eBay Motors Keeps Your Ride-Or-Die Alive

By Joan Creative

'The Everyday Tactician' for Xbox

By McCann London

British Airways - Windows

By Uncommon Creative Studio

Marmite - You Either Love it or Hate it

Balloon Museum ‘Making London’s Balloon Museum Blow Up’

By W Communications

KFC 'The World’s Least Appropriate Slogan'

Fyffes | Discover More

Monty Bojangles - Growing Brand Love

Runner 321: a purpose-led campaign to champion neurodivergent runners

By Current Global

Iceland "Looks Like You Need Iceland"

By M&C Saatchi

Change our words, change girls’ worlds

By Exposure

Steering Celebrity Cruises in the right direction

By Mediahub

LYNX 'The Power of a Fragrance'

DON JULIO’S 1942 MINIS WIN BIG AT OSCARS

W+K London x Lurpak

By Wieden+Kennedy London

How A Media Agency Built A Hospital

By Bountiful Cow

A World of Never Square.

By THG Studios

Ketch-Up & Down: PR-led integrated campaign to solve one of humanity's biggest dilemmas.

The Unmentionables

By MullenLowe UK

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Case Studies

Helping Starbucks design stores that are inclusive for all

Building a next-generation carbon platform to accelerate the path to net zero

How Lufthansa is using data to reduce costs and improve spend and carbon transparency

Banking on innovation: How ING uses generative AI to put people first

From farm to tablet: Building a new business to solve an old challenge

Rewired in action

Partnering on America’s toughest challenges

Made in Africa: Catalyzing stronger, sustainable, and inclusive economies

How a government agency is preparing workers to thrive in the skills-based economy

How a global components manufacturer built an ambitious carbon reduction roadmap

Undaunted by global disruption, a logistics company embraces bold transformation

988: Three digits and the nationwide effort to help millions in crisis

An AI power play: Fueling the next wave of innovation in the energy sector

How a manufacturing moonshot was made

Protecting workers through award-winning design

How Telkomsel transformed to reach digital-first consumers

Flying across the sea, propelled by AI

How a steel plant in India tapped the value of data—and won global acclaim

Reimagining the real estate industry for the next normal

Inside a mining company’s AI transformation

New at mckinsey blog.

JobsOhio and the long-term, innovative revitalization of a state’s economy

McKinsey’s new Sustainability Academy helps clients upskill workers for the net-zero transition

Tearing the ‘paper ceiling’: McKinsey supports effort driving upward mobility for millions of workers

Agency Guide: How To Write a Client Case Study (With Examples)

QUICK SUMMARY:

A client case study highlights an agency’s impact on a business, showcasing problem-solving skills and success. It serves as concrete evidence of expertise, building credibility and distinguishing an agency from competitors. Engaging case studies captivate potential clients, demonstrating value and encouraging further exploration. Learn to craft impactful case studies, enhancing your agency’s appeal and client acquisition.

It’s an age-old question: if you want to get more clients , where should you put your content marketing focus?

Your first instinct might be to say blogging. This answer makes sense—for many years, blogging has been touted as one of the best ways to attract an audience and demonstrate your expertise. While blogging can highlight your agency’s expertise, it isn’t necessarily going to be nearly as effective as showing real results to win future customers.

Instead of pouring all of your agency’s time and creative energy into blog posts, another approach is to focus on client case studies that prove the effectiveness of your services.

Case studies are, in many ways, similar to blog posts. Writing them takes a similar skill set and, once finished, helps to bring in organic search traffic.

However, they have one major advantage over blog posts: they’re a great way to show potential clients your agency’s value proposition . They also help tell a customer story in a very different way than blog posts do. There are a few reasons why client case studies are beneficial: they showcase how a specific technology can benefit a niche type of client, focus on high-value clients in the financial industry, and detail unique features that other tools may not offer, providing potential leads with a clear idea of what's possible.

If you haven’t written any in a while (or ever), you’re missing out on a great marketing opportunity. In this guide, we’ll discuss how to write a case study to attract prospective customers.

Why Client Case Studies Are Worth the Effort

How to write a marketing case study that lands you more clients, real client case study examples.

If you’ve never written a case study, it can be challenging to figure out where to start and what to include. For example, how do you decide which clients to feature and what details to include? A brief explanation of the case study process can help outline how to select clients and the benefits they will gain from participating.

While there is a slight learning curve to writing a compelling client case study, it’s not as difficult as you might think, and their benefits far outweigh the effort of creating them.

As highlighted by a study from the Content Marketing Institute , case studies are among the top three pieces of content that B2B marketers focus on in 2023:

Image Source

Case Studies Speak Directly to Your Potential Clients.

Your blog posts are probably well-written and informative, but are they driving conversions? Readers are busy, and if your latest blog post doesn’t speak to their current needs, there’s a good chance they won’t read it and you’re likely seeing a high bounce rate in Google Analytics reports . Use marketing attribution models to determine where your conversions are coming from accurately.

However, case studies are more likely to grab readers’ attention than blog articles. People love reading about situations like their own. If you can tell a potential client a story about how you helped a business similar to theirs, they won’t just pay attention—they’ll remember you when they’re ready to hire an agency. Case studies show potential customers that you can achieve similar results for them, building trust and credibility.

Case Studies Can Do Everything Blog Posts Can Do.

Your client case study doesn’t have to be a dry, boring wall of text. It can inform, entertain, and inspire readers. You can share useful findings or advice in a case study, just like you would in a blog post. They are also ideal for displaying your expertise and positioning you as a thought leader and your company as an authority.

Case Studies Build Credibility and Trust.

Your perceived trustworthiness is an essential part of whether people decide to hire you or not. Featuring client testimonials in your case studies can significantly enhance your credibility and trustworthiness. Most people will hesitate to hire an agency that didn’t have any examples of their past work on display. They also give clients a way to evaluate your competence before they commit to working with you.

Case Studies Make You Stand Out From the Competition.

Case studies are a bit more specialized and challenging to write than blog posts, which means that not everyone writes them. If you want your agency to look more professional than your competitors, writing business case study examples gives your brand’s image a boost. Be sure to use competitor analysis tools after you’ve created a few case studies to see how you stack up in your customer’s industry.

Case Studies Make a Great Lead Magnet.

They are also useful as part of a cold email marketing strategy. For example, you can let people read the beginning (make sure it’s strong!), and offer to send the full case study in PDF form in exchange for an email sign-up.

Case Studies Work.

In the CMI's survey mentioned above, case studies were ranked in the top 3 highest performing types of content for both nurturing and converting leads:

Report Smarter, Not Harder.

Better, faster & easier client reports are just a few clicks away, 1. define the type of clients you want to attract.

Before you email any former clients or start working on an outline of your first draft, take some time to figure out who your ideal client is. Write out your ideal customer profile and ask yourself questions such as:

Is there a type of business you especially like working with?

What kind of work do you want to do more of?

Case studies, like any other type of content marketing, work best when targeted towards a specific type of reader. If you design your case study to resonate with your ideal clients’ wishes, insecurities, and goals while including relevant theories, your agency will attract more of the kind of clients you enjoy working with. Use a client profile template to ensure you're team is aligned on who your ICP actually is.

2. Gather Information and Data Points

Once you know who you’re writing your case study for, decide which project you want to write about. Pick something that your ideal client will find relatable in some way.

Always reach out to any current or former clients before you write a case study about them. You don’t want to post any potentially-sensitive information about someone else’s business online without their permission.

Many of your clients will probably be happy to be featured in a case study, as long as you make them look good and avoid giving away anything they don’t want to be public knowledge.

If your client does not want to be featured under their brand, you can decide to write the case study and highlight the metrics without using their name and simply say “A Company in [blank] Industry”. That said, a more compelling case study features a brand with customer quotes, so try to find projects and clients that are happy to have their name on your site.

Once a client agrees to the case study, set up an interview with them so you can discuss the project. A testimonial is a great addition to a case study—for example, here’s what one of our case studies had to say about us:

AgencyAnalytics automated the work of two to three full-time employees. It’s been a massive savings cost-wise and efficiency-wise. It’s also been a dramatic time-saver. I’m very happy with AgencyAnalytics and what the tool offers our clients.

Gather the information and data points prior to discussing it with your client, so they have a clear idea of what will be included in the study. A great marketing case study includes visual data points of the hard numbers. Take screenshots to highlight results from previous customers to add credibility.

It's important to delicately highlight the customer's story within the case study, using a standardized format to showcase their success and the solution provided.

Create your own live Marketing Dashboard in minutes to show your potential clients your agency is doing an excellent job. Try it free for 14 days !

3. Outline Your Case Study

Once you have all the information you need, it’s time to make an outline. It may help to create a content brief before you get started.

Think of your case study like a story—it needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. Present your client’s problem at the beginning, and fill in the middle with the details of how you solved it.

Cap things off with a description of how your client benefited from working with you. For example, you can call out the long-term SEO benefits of a content marketing strategy, including leads that are still being generated months after the post was published. Highlight the customer's success by showcasing measurable outcomes and positive experiences, demonstrating the steps taken, the results achieved, and the support received. Don’t forget; the client is the protagonist of this story, not you.

4. Be Human

As you start writing your case study, remember to keep it relatable. Don’t just rattle off a list of stats your client wanted to improve. A compelling case study will also be entertaining and enjoyable to read.

Dig a little deeper and talk about the implications of their problem. For instance, was your client frustrated that none of their strategies were working to bring in more traffic? Were they disappointed about having to delay other projects because their conversions weren’t improving? Try to zero in on a specific pain point that your potential clients may be dealing with themselves.

5. Provide Actionable Advice

An effective case study doesn’t just make you and your client look good. It also provides information or advice that anybody can use, whether they decide to hire you or not. You don’t have to give away the key secrets of your trade, but don’t be stingy either—share some of your methods, your knowledge, and any lessons learned while helping your client. Give the reader something they can take away and apply to their own work.

This isn’t as counterproductive as it might sound. Being open about your work will help build valuable trust with potential clients. And even if you’re completely transparent about your methods, most people that aren’t marketing experts will still opt to hire you instead of doing the legwork of implementing your strategy themselves.

6. Write Clearly and Succinctly (Avoid Industry Jargon!)

A great case study is easy to read and digest. These pointers will help you keep your readers interested from beginning to end.

Write concisely. Don’t bog your piece down with unnecessary details.

Avoid jargon as much as possible. Someone outside your field should be able to read and understand your case study.

Break up the page with plenty of white space. Use short paragraphs, sub-headers, and bullet points to organize your content.

Include plenty of charts and graphs. Visual content breaks up the monotony of text and keeps readers engaged.

Include a call-to-action (CTA). After you've told a compelling story to your potential customer, tell them exactly how they can contact your sales team or where they can learn more about your services.

7. Publish and Promote

Before you publish your case study, show it to your client to make sure they’re happy with everything you’ve written. Once they give you the thumbs-up, you can post the piece on your site or start using it as a lead magnet. For best results, promote your case study just like you would a blog post. A few well-timed social media posts can bring your case study a lot of extra attention, and maybe even get you a few more leads.

Locally-targeted Facebook Ads can be really effective for agencies. Using your case study or a pdf expanded version of it can be a great lead magnet to gather the email addresses of prospective clients. Don’t just publish the case study and forget it. Make the most of it! One case study can be a powerful lead generation tool.

Spend Less Time Creating Reports and More Time Growing Your Agency

Looking to find a bit of inspiration too? Sometimes the best way to learn is to follow a great example. See how some of these marketers have taken a customer’s success story and crafted compelling content with tangible data points for their clients. These examples highlight the experiences of a satisfied customer.

Bounteous has an overview section that gives a great overview of the goals, approach, and results.

KlientBoost includes marketing case studies on their website that are short and to the point. The one-page piece of content focuses on results that are delivered to the clients. You can find an example case study here .

AgencyAnalytics provides another example that includes details about the client, the challenge they were facing, the best solution they used, and the ultimate result. You can read find our case studies here .

The Takeaway

Learning to write case studies is a smart investment in your agency’s future success. They help with your agency’s reputation management , earn new clients’ trust, and highlight your agency’s skills in a way that most other types of content can’t. Sharing relatable success stories through case studies emphasizes the effectiveness and value of your services, convincing potential and current customers.

They’re also a great piece to use in your client proposal arsenal. When it comes to conversions, a few targeted, high-quality case studies will go a long way, so don’t overlook this powerful marketing tool.

Grow your marketing agency by keeping track of conversions and content marketing strategies in a single platform. Get started with your free 14-day trial today.

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22 Marketing Agencies Shared Their Top Case Studies. Here Are the Precise Strategies They Used.

Table of contents

To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .

If you want to create an inbound machine for yourself or clients, you need to be ready to look at every step of your process with a critical eye.

That is the lesson I learned after reviewing the top case studies from 22 marketing agencies.

I found the best results came from marketing leaders who were NOT looking to replicate the same old inbound formula. Instead, they looked at their client’s existing metrics, and delivered services based on gaps in the client’s funnel.

They looked at different levers they could pull, like:

• Changing buying process to fit specific buyer personas
• New gated content to fit specific blogs
• Improving nurturing processes
• Redefining KPIs
• …and many more.

Usually, leads were dropping off due to a single, persistent gap in the funnel. So, I decided to organize the strategies based on the metric they were able to improve. You can check out each category to help you identify solutions when part of your funnel underperforms.

Increasing Traffic

Improving lead conversion rate.

• Improving Visitor-SQL or Visitor-Customer Ratio

Redefining the Target Customer

Susan LaPlante-Dube Owner, Precision Marketing Group

Story: “In late 2015, it became obvious that Management Mentors’ audience wanted more of the good stuff they were already getting. That meant digestible, helpful articles that were easily understandable and sharable.

With inbound, we all write so much content but the key is making sure it gets eyes! Of course, you need best practices for optimization but those are getting more challenging so we chose to focus on increasing blog subscriptions to make sure their content is being seen.

Increasing blog subscriptions by 20% and, over an 11-week period, racking up over 31,000 views on blog posts were major accomplishments. Though it flies in the face of  common long-tail keyword SEO advice, focusing on high-volume relevant keywords worked!”

Results: 31,000 views in 11 weeks, 20% more blog subscriptions

Full Case Study Here

Elyse Flynn Meyer President, Prism Global Marketing

Story: “Natera was seeking a way to better connect with their growing global audience. While they already had an engaged audience, Natera was looking for an email solution that allowed them to increase engagement further.  The traditional “batch” email was not very effective because their global audience opened emails at wildly different times. For example, while sending one batch email at 12PM to a subscriber in the U.S. might seem like an optimal time, that same email could be sent to a subscriber in Asia during the middle of the night. Further, they saw that recipients even in the same time zone had very different email habits.

Email is a really critical channel for Natera, even as the company runs personalized and advanced marketing campaigns through other channels. So, continuing to innovate with email marketing, a relatively traditional method of marketing, was key.

By leveraging send-time personalization, Natera has also been able to re-engage contacts who had once been active, but went dormant. By personalizing email send times , Natera has re-engaged approximately 15% of their total contacts. These contacts, prior to re-engaging, had not been active in email communication since 2015.”

Results: “Re-engagement rate of 15% of dormant contacts by email marketing/automation using Seventh Sense & HubSpot in 6 Months”

PRO TIP: Measure Your Content Marketing Performance Like a Pro

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Mike Lieberman Founder, Square 2 Marketing

Story: “When we first partnered with the client, we started by conducting persona research and laying out each customer type’s top pains and questions asked throughout the buyer’s journey.

We fine-tuned the company’s messaging with an updated look and feel that would differentiate its brand. Plus, we developed a keyword strategy that included keyword recommendations for core website pages and content.

Only after these initial strategy steps did we move on to choosing content topics. We created an editorial calendar with a set of new inbound marketing offers for the awareness, consideration and decision stages of the buyer’s journey, targeted to the personas’ pains.”

Results:  The client increased web visits by over 1000% within 2 months. They closed a $1 million dollar deal that originated from the site.

Andrea Panno Content Marketing Manager, Sagefrog Marketing Group

Story: “ Recently, the client’s market opportunity was amplified after a federal healthcare mandate required all healthcare organizations to use Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and move away from paper records. This led to an influx of content and information on the web about EMRs and EHRs, making it exceedingly difficult to not just produce unique content, but have it reach and subsequently influence the Company’s buyer personas to move along their buyer journey.

To effectively reach decision-makers, Sagefrog developed various buyer personas including:

• IT professionals,  focused on product integration and system architecture
• Clinicians and other healthcare professionals,  focused on patient needs
• Management executives , focused on trends and cost savings

The persona-based content featured blogs and webinar summaries as well as premium assets such as infographics, case studies and whitepapers.  “

Results: 164% increase in web visitors, 600% increase in leads compared to previous year

Mitchel White Director, LeftMedia

Story: “Manufacturing businesses often “don’t do marketing.” They do really but often it isn’t measured. In an ongoing campaign with a packaging manufacturer in Greater Manchester we have seen fantastic results measuring organic search marketing metrics.

Using keyword research and mapping keywords to the buying journey we have been able to increase organic search traffic to key pages and blog content. The campaign saw a 57% increase in organic search traffic within the first month.

The site is now ranking #1 for keywords including “manufacturing packaging solutions” and “returns management solutions” which are highly competitive keywords within the packaging industry.”

Results: 57% increase in organic traffic in the first month

Randy Milanovic CEO, Kayak Online Marketing

Story: “We advised Omni Circuit Boards to do away with their industry-standard 90+ field quote form and replace it with a much simpler quote request with a file upload form. Fortunately, they agreed.

By eliminating the fields and asking the customer to upload their file, we shifted the task of gathering technical details to Omni’s in-house team, drastically simplifying the quote process for the buyer.

Instead of being confronted with dozens of questions, interested buyers only needed to answer a few questions to receive a quote. And, given that Omni received the artwork files (the source of technical data previously gathered via the form), the project could go into production almost immediately upon quote approval. The new site and improved lead capture approach ballooned leads by 600% almost immediately, converting at 50%. Within the next 3 months, leads increased an additional 250% and conversions leapt to 70%.”

Results: 800% more leads, 70% conversion rate

Matt Lee Partner, Adhere Creative

Story: “Our client produced incredible research in the multifamily apartment industry but did little to generate new sales leads for their software as a service called ‘Ratings Tracker’.

We took their most recent research and turned it into a lead generating e-book and webinar presentation. It was promoted through their email contact list, through social media, and via industry trade publications. The campaign was a huge success resulting in 502 total new leads and 9 new customers with an ROI of 756% on marketing spend.”

Results: 756% ROI over 3 months

Lucy Jones Head of Content, Strategic Internet Consulting

Story: “As an infrastructure training specialist, the client was already seeing a good level of site traffic: 9,000 organic visitors per month.  However,  the challenge was: ‘How to turn this traffic into an increase in conversions?’

To achieve this, work included:

• Conducting a full Inbound Marketing campaign using HubSpot
• Implementing Lead Flows to improve organic conversion
• Using the HubSpot Ads Add-On tool to promote content and attract relevant visitors
• Using HubSpot Lists, and the Linkedin Sales Navigator integration to assess the quality of leads, and conduct follow-up activities on LinkedIn.

In a 3 month timeframe, through LeadFlows we saw 1238 leads, 21 MQLs, and 19 customers, with a top Lead Flow conversion rate of 16%.”

Results:  2000 contacts & a 16% Lead Flow conversion rate over a 3 month period.

Ashley Perron Marketing Automation Specialist, Denamico

Story: “The client lacked clarity and direction when it came to online lead generation. They knew they needed to rely on their website more, but didn’t know how to develop a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy.

That’s when our inbound marketing blueprint made sense. The blueprint is a strategy for inbound marketing and a specific plan for execution.

• First, we gathered information about the client’s marketing and sales goals, key buyer personas, current marketing tactics, website functionality, domain authority, and existing content assets.
• Next, we identified ways to target and attract their key buyer personas, which turned out to be restaurant owners and auto repair shop owners.
• Then, we followed up with strategies for website improvements, content creation, conversion optimization, marketing automation, email marketing, social media engagement, and search engine ranking opportunities.”

Results: Our efforts over the past 19 months have increased their contacts by 625%.

Jordi Navarette Partner, Cos Design Studio

Story: “The client had considerable marketing assets (interactive calculators, samples of panels) which worked excellently in bringing in visitors, but failed to work as conversion points.

The client was worried that when its assets were turned into conversion elements, they would not be as effective and the users of its calculators and panel samples would not want to share their data.

The final results show that this was not so; with the new design completed, the visits stayed level and the conversion index became spectacular.”

• Average leads/month before the new design:  155
• Average leads/month after the new design:  6,000
• Previous conversion rate:  0.15 %
• Target conversion rate:  0.35 %
• Achieved conversion rate:  2.9 %

Kelly Jackson CEO, Jaxzen Marketing

Story: “When we started working with the client in 2015, we conducted in-depth persona research, which has helped guide our content creation from the beginning. This information continued to prove useful in our efforts to increase lead generation.

Armed with a clear understanding of our audience, we were able to narrow down the audience who would see our advertising on LinkedIn by identifying the correct job titles for various kinds of HR professionals. We were also able to exclude ads from employees who worked for competitors, which allowed us to get the best results out of the ad budget.

The LinkedIn ads presented useful content offers on topics such as ACA and FLSA compliance and best practices for time and attendance management and record-keeping.”

Results: “LinkedIn advertising boosted existing inbound strategy to increase leads by 236% in one quarter”

Tom Burgess Director of Multimedia, Revenue River

Story: “Previously rooted in traditional marketing techniques like print and mailers, we supported our client’s transition to digitally-focused initiatives.

From their website registration and outreach to their promotion and fulfillment of the annual seminar series, we created and helped implement a refreshed strategy that included:

• Image-based, smart CTAs
• City-specific social media marketing – geo-targeted PPC campaigns
• Seminar “vlog” teasers – registration reminder videos
• Automated promotional emails

Results: “Improved lead conversion rate for an annual seminar series by 90% from 2013 to 2017”

Sam Zastrow Digital Marketing Manager, Madison Marketing

Story:  “We began an inbound marketing campaign to help the generate generate the volume of sales leads needed to meet their 2016 revenue goal.

• Cut off the company’s ineffective Google AdWords campaign
• Reinvested the money saved from AdWords in content creation and a modest LinkedIn advertising campaign to help extend its reach among a targeted audience
• Improved and optimized the client’s site and the overall campaign strategy based on a set of performance metrics related to traffic, lead generation, and inbound sales”

Results: “Marketing ROI – achieved 30x Marketing ROI in 2016”

Louise Armstrong Senior Digital Strategist , Bonafide

Story:  “Our client was looking to break into the oil and gas landman niche. They knew their product could help this targeted audience, but this old-school group was hard to reach from a digital standpoint.

We identified that there wasn’t a lot of educational content online that didn’t come from industry associations, so we created both an infographic to feature on the client’s blog and a 30+ page eBook with helpful information for people in the landman industry. We also created supplemental blog content designed to push landman contacts down the funnel to ultimately download our eBook.

Using inbound tools, we were able to generate thousands of views and over 1000 niche leads that helped our client break into the segment and to this day it generates a significant amount of monthly contacts.”

Results : “Leads, 1,045 niche leads generated since the eBook launched”

Improving All Funnel Conversions

Amanda Nielsen Internal Marketing Associate, New Breed Marketing

Story:  “ Pwnie Express started with our Digital Onboarding workshop to define their primary buyer personas. Once we understood who we needed to attract to the website and target for conversions, we needed to understand what made these leads more qualified for a sales conversation.

The new configuration of their revenue operations via HubSpot tools has generated tremendous efficiency improvements and true visibility into their pipeline. Now, leads are actually progressing through the funnel as they should. Previously, they were jumping right from lead to customer. In the six months prior to working with New Breed, Pwnie’s funnel had huge holes:

Subscribers – 219 Leads – 2,486 MQLs – 0 SQLs – 0 Opportunities – 0 Customers – 0

In the six months following our implementation of MQL criteria and all of the corresponding assets, we were able to bring Pwnie’s funnel to life: Subscribers – 2,609 Leads – 27,416 MQLs – 1,015 SQLs – 260 Opportunities – 81 Customers – 12″

Results: 90% increase in leads generated over 6 months.

John Aikin CEO, Web Canopy Studio

Story: “Our revenue grew from $90,000 in 2014 to over the $1mil mark in 2017. We bought into the idea of inbound marketing and searched for gaps in the market that we could fill. Once we found an opportunity for collecting a steady flow of leads (in our case, it was the HubSpot Agency Marketplace ), we decided it was time to build a nurturing funnel around these leads, segmenting them into different channels based off of their interest and engagement.

From there, we started selling small, introductory services rather than trying to feature a 12-month $75,000/yr agreement. We turned those small starter services into trusted relationship, and eventually landed the retainers because of our service team. The rest is history.”

Results: 1000% revenue increase from 2014 to 2017

Gabriel Marguglio CEO, Nextiny Marketing

Story: “We worked with a retirement community in Sarasota, Florida. Typically the demographic groups associated with retirement communities are presumed to not be tech savvy or to have a high interest in technology. Because of this, the obvious challenge was  determining whether the community’s ideal customers were even online .

We began a  full inbound marketing strategy  including:

• Social media promotions
• Email marketing and workflows
• Full content strategy including offers for the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel

As it turns out, while we were both pleasantly surprised by the results of our inbound marketing success, there is other research supporting that older adults are spending more time online. This is partially in thanks to the  addition of the tablet  to the smart device family.

Pew Research has determined that older adults (ages 65+), who are affluent, are more likely to use the internet. In the case of the client, a retirement community whose costs average $750,000 per resident, this is precisely their Buyer Persona.”

• Website used to generate only 15-20% of customers. Now it generates 50% of their customers.
• $15mil revenue closed in 1 year.

Story: “Six months into our partnership with Clare Controls , after the processes were set up and things were moving in the right direction, we were asked to sit down with some of the top salespeople to show them how things were going so far – leads generated, processes established, etc.

Just as we would start any normal client meeting, we started with the Sources report (now Analytics tool). Little did we know that would be our first foot in the grave for this meeting. This high level view of performance for the last 6 months was way too much information for them to take in.

We knew we needed to change the way we presented data. Instead of providing that 10,000 foot view of all visits, all leads generated, etc we changed the conversation. We tailored the data by creating a custom report using  Databox , that represents the numbers that are most important to them.

Their dealer onboarding process has three steps. A dealer must complete their application, make their first purchase, and complete training before they are considered an authorized dealer. For us, it was important to cut out the noise and show clear data. It was no longer about how many leads have been generated in total. It was about how many leads have been generated vs how many have actually been closed following the correct process.

When we first produced this report, the number at the bottom of the funnel was 9. Nine dealer leads out of the hundreds had made it all the way through the funnel. This was no longer data to question, but data that sparked action.”

Results: “With all of these combined efforts, in one month we have seen the number of Opportunities converted into customers who have gone through the three steps of the onboarding process go from 9 to 34. All of this was done with opportunities that were already there in the system.

By establishing a process, providing education and tools, and creating custom reports, almost 4 times as many dealers were closed within one month of this custom report being presented.”

Nathan Butcher CMO, Spinfluence

Story:  “The client faced several challenges online:

• Referrals were their only source of leads
• They had minimal organic traffic to their website
• Their dated website did not reflect the modern values of the business
• Their sales process was fragmented and cross-sell opportunities were being lost.

While the client website was functional, it was not built to support inbound marketing initiatives like lead generation.

We began to create premium content assets at every stage of the funnel to generate leads. These took multiple formats, such as webinars, eGuides, videos and interactive micro sites.

Our premium content assets were supported with strategic campaign fuel in the form of blog content, and videos -each with a call-to-action to a relevant landing page, and each amplified using HubSpot social tools.

We created email workflows with sophisticated branching logic to nurture these leads down the funnel with supplementary content offers and calls-to-action.”

• From 0 to 50 SQLs per month from the website
• From 700 website visits per month to 4000-5000 visits per month
• Winner of 3 coveted Australian Accounting Awards, including  Marketing Program of the Year 2017.

Laura MacPherson Blog Manager, LeadG2

Story: “While the client did have leads coming through the website, they wanted and needed more qualified leads in order to make a dent in their new revenue business.

They not only aimed to generate new leads and revenue, but they also needed to find ways to shorten and strengthen their existing sales process. In the words of the client’s Director of Sales: ‘We know that the majority of people are doing research online before ever calling or making a purchase. Having resources on our website that they can go to and learn about on their own time was huge for us.’

We set them up on HubSpot as step one. We integrated this tool with their existing website, making it easier to create a blog and landing pages for lead generation. Using HubSpot also allowed the client to have their entire database in one centralized location, while having access to tools for email marketing, social publishing, forms, keyword tracking, reporting, database management, and much more.

After surveying their existing customers to create a detailed Target Persona Profile, we were able to then develop a customized content strategy which included blog posts and premium content which would be gated for our lead generation efforts.”

• “Ranking for 129 keywords in the top 3, and 195 keywords in the top 10
• 198% growth in traffic overall, which includes 175% growth in organic traffic and 750% growth in social traffic
• 362% growth in leads generated on their website, which includes over 500 blog subscribers and over 12,000 views to their blog posts
• $500,000 in new business revenue  in 18 months”

Chris Fell Founder, g2m Solutions

Story: “ Prospective customers would approach our client and say “Wow, you are fantastic, how come we have never heard of you?”

We ran 2 workshops and developed a full plan than linked their business revenue goals to their specific campaign tactics allowing them to precisely measure daily, weekly and monthly campaign results to revenue goals”

Results: “In terms of new business acquired that is directly attributable to the website, we have covered their costs for the next 12-24 months.”

Greg Linnemanstons President, Weidert Group

Story: “We created a new inbound-focused and persona-optimized website with aggressive use of CTAs.

• Launched blog a with an initial 10 posts and continued blogging 2X/week,
• Created persona-focused gated content
• Created workflows based on personas and buyer journey stage,
• Developed social media plans and protocols to distribute and promote content
• Worked with client staff to create SLA with specific goals, definitions, processes, tools, and protocols to leave nothing in lead management to chance.”

Results: “We improved SQLs. They went from virtually zero to 100 (cumulative) in first 5 months of program”

Raylee Melton Dir. of Client Services, SparkReaction

Story: “At first, the client felt like they needed some extra help with content creation to drive the organic traffic results they were looking for. This became the first goal for our partnership with the client: producing excellent, engaging, innovative content to reach and educate more church leaders and ministry minds.

Our results after 3 months were phenomenal, but we soon reached a pivotal point in our work: No matter how much blog and social media traffic we drove, we knew we needed to nurture and guide these new leads through the buyer’s journey.

When the client’s marketing team came to us seeking more visitors, we responded with lead generation strategies and nurture techniques that would ensure a consistently fed funnel full of qualified, marketing-ready leads.”

Results: “ Before working with SparkReaction, the client had no comprehensive lead conversion process. They generated leads but strategy to move these leads through the marketing and sales funnel.

We established nurture workflows stemming from premium content offers, like eBook redesigns and other helpful guides tailored to the client’s buyer personas. Soon, the client increased marketing qualified leads by over 10% per offer, and top-performing landing pages began seeing a 45% conversion rate. In just the first six months of our partnership, we increased the client’s MQLs, SQLs, and opportunities by 14.9%.”

Fernando Coimbra Lopes Partner, Nivel Horizontal

Story:  After 2 years working on content, blogging, and SEO, we developed some new offers, one of them was a big hit. It was a bottom of the funnel offer very aligned with the customer needs that jumped new customers in 565% in a one year period.

Results:  Improved New Customers per Month from 6 to 40 in 1 Year

Mollie Wiener New Business Coordinator, Adept Marketing

Story: “This client had always been a B2B marketer. They asked us for a strategy that could address a new, consumer audience. They knew they needed one website that could do both—but our data exploration revealed additional growth opportunities with outstanding ROI potential.

We first built a website, using persona research and qualitative data to ensure that it supported the user journey for both B2C and B2B buyers. Once the website was launched, we drove traffic to the site using paid search, shopping ads, remarketing, and ongoing search engine optimization to attract relevant traffic.”

Results: Increased revenue by 48% over 18 months.

Chris Hawkins Business Development Manager, SPROUT Content

Story: “We discovered a new persona during our strategy process: Customer Success Steven. The client had never focused on it, but we found out that this person played a key role in decision-making.

By discovering this “new” persona, we began to create content that appealed to a non-technical buyer. We also recommended that the client create a non-technical blog to sit alongside the technical version they had been writing for the previous 3 years. This opened a whole new segment of content and focus to another potential buyer.

Since we implemented this persona in Dec 2014, more than 6,000 leads identified with this persona over a 2-year period (to Dec 2016) vs. 1300 for Marketing Mike and 1000 for Data Scientist Dan, which were their original personas. The client, Wise.io, was eventually purchased by GE (late 2016)!”

Results:  Over a 2-year period, 121% increase in generated leads with 550 new contacts from a top of funnel guide specific to their Customer Success Steven persona.

Quickly Diagnose Marketing Issues

So, here is the million-dollar (at least) question:

How do you know when you have a marketing issue that is significantly affecting your business?

For every case study in a post like this, there are probably 10 other cases where businesses think everything is going just fine. In reality, they are shooting themselves in the foot with a broken marketing + sales process.

Here are a few ideas for where to start:

• Benchmark against industry standards for numbers like lead conversion rate, click rates and others. We put together a series of resources on KPI benchmarks .
• Post in a forum like DigitalMarketer.com or inbound.org and get some feedback from other practitioners in your niche. Or, you can search to see if anyone else has posted a similar query.
• Look at industry-standard best practices, and determine whether you are following along. For example, if HubSpot recommends that you use lead, MQL and SQL as stages, but you only use lead and SQL… you may be skipping valuable steps that will improve your funnel.

After that, you can determine whether you have the tools in-house to solve the problem, or if you need to consider a digital agency. Obviously, this is a good list to start your search.

• Databox Benchmarks
• Future Value Calculator
• ROI Calculator
• Return On Ads Calculator
• Percentage Growth Rate Calculator
• Report Automation
• Client Reporting
• What is a KPI?
• Google Sheets KPIs
• Sales Analysis Report
• Shopify Reports
• Data Analysis Report
• Google Sheets Dashboard
• Best Dashboard Examples
• Analysing Data
• Marketing Agency KPIs
• Automate Agency Google Ads Report
• Marketing Research Report
• Social Media Dashboard Examples
• Ecom Dashboard Examples

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Are you maximizing your business potential? Stop guessing and start comparing with companies like yours.

A Message From Our CEO

At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.

Do you want an All-in-One Analytics Platform?

Hey, we’re Databox. Our mission is to help businesses save time and grow faster. Click here to see our platform in action. 

Tamara is Content Editorial Manager at Databox. She is an SEO aficionado, a coffee addict, and a huge museum lover! When she's not working or writing, she enjoys visiting an art gallery, drinking her 5th coffee with her friends, or playing video games.

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Boost Your ROI

Understanding Customer Behavior

Creating relevant high-quality content, social media for relationship building, targeting your ideal audience with paid advertising, optimizing your website for search engines, key performance indicators (kpis), seo campaign roi, google ads campaign roi, social media marketing roi, content marketing roi, paid search.

• SEO: Gump's

Programmatic Ads: Hestan Culinary

Landing page and linkedin marketing: learning a-z, social media and e-commerce: locknlube.

• Google Ads: Peet's Coffee

PPC: Simon Pearce

Seo: the mom project, pixel and google tag manager: inkbox, airbnb and spearmint love, common themes and insights, final recommendations, 9 successful digital marketing case studies that boosted growth.

Updated February 2024.

2-min audio summary:

Finding the right digital marketing agency isn’t easy. But the digital marketing case studies they showcase on their site can offer invaluable insights for businesses looking to hire an agency.

Not only will you get a better idea of what they’re capable of, but you’ll better understand the impact of specific strategies and campaigns that the digital marketers used, too.

In this post, we’ll cover nine of our latest digital marketing case studies to dive deep into real-world scenarios in which we walk through the successes, challenges, and ROI that our clients experienced.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• SEO : Gump’s
• Programmatic Ads : Hestan Culinary
• Landing Page and LinkedIn Marketing : Learning A-Z
• Social Media and E-Commerce : LockNLube
• Google Ads : Peet’s Coffee
• PPC : Simon Pearce
• SEO : The Mom Project
• Pixel and Google Tag Manager : Inkbox, Airbnb and Spearmint Love

Successful Digital Marketing Strategies

In the competitive online world, digital marketing will engage your customers to drive business growth. That said, there are a number of marketing strategies that will accomplish your goals while making your ROI.

Here are the top strategies that should be added to every digital marketing campaign to drive measurable results.

When you understand your audience’s wants and needs, it can lead to an exceptional user experience.

In a survey, 94% of respondents  stated that a positive experience  made them purchase from the same brand again:

But these positive experiences vary, depending on what the customer is looking for.

There are four types of customer behaviors:

• Habitual buying behavior : Customers usually buy the same products from the same brand.
• Variety-seeking behavior : Consumers usually buy alternatives to products to achieve the same satisfaction.
• Complex buying behavior : When customers invest in high-value items or services that aren’t frequently purchased.
• Dissonance-reducing buying behavior : When a consumer is engaged in research but isn’t finding many options.

These behaviors vary depending on the level of involvement, products and industry, and competition between brands.

53% of companies are improving the quality of their content  – and for a good reason:

Content guides users down the sales funnel , educating them about your industry, what you sell, and why it solves their problems. The best type of content answers questions and keeps users engaged, all without sounding too promotional.

Popular examples of useful content include:

• Landing pages
• White papers
• Infographics
• Case studies (such as this one)

Creating content for all sales funnel stages  is the best course of action. For example, blog posts are popular for the awareness phrase, while a lead about to make a purchase may want to read your product white paper first.

4.9 billion people use social media worldwide , so it’s obvious that your customers are on various social platforms.

However, customers no longer want to be bombarded by various promotional posts and ads – they want to build relationships with brands. Businesses should consider the customer experience  when creating social marketing strategies. And there are many ways for brands to meet this demand.

• Social listening  is an exceptional way to satisfy customer demands while collecting first-party data. Various social listening tools track mentions, hashtags, and other branded terms so you’ll always know how customers feel about your company and products.
• 40%-60% of customers  are also using social media as a support channel . Brands should always keep up with their DMs, mentions, and reviews.
• And don’t forget about personalization  on social media. 89% of marketers see a good ROI and 40% enjoy higher revenue when using personalization in their campaigns :

In addition to offering exceptional social media  customer service, going live and interacting with customers is another way to improve your personalization strategy.

Paid advertising offers many benefits. For example:

• The average paid ad campaign  generates a 200% ROI!
• Paid advertising promotes your brand, increasing brand awareness and visibility.
• And since 65% of SMBs and medium-sized businesses have a paid ad campaign , investing in advertising ensures you keep up with the competition.

Because paid advertising is so effective, you can use PPC strategies on Google  and most social media platforms.

Since 53% of website traffic comes from organic search engine results , it’s still integral to optimize your website for SEO:

Remember to:

• Always perform on-page tactics, such as using keywords in page titles, URL slugs, and headings.
• Keep an updated blog and optimize your content  for high-ranking keywords.
• Run regular SEO audits  to ensure no technical issues are decreasing your performance on SERPs.

Poring over a case study for digital marketing can be very helpful in visualizing these marketing strategies.

KPIs  are quantifiable indicators that prove your progress in your marketing campaign. Marketers can also measure KPIs to plan future campaigns, improve existing strategies, and create a basis for decision-making.

Here are the most vital KPIs for marketing:

• Traffic growth : Measures the increase of website visitors over a specific timeframe.
• Conversion rates : Metric that represents the percentage of website visitors who bought a product or responded to your CTA.
• Customer engagement : Measures how customers interact with your brand, i.e., how long they spend on your website per session.
• Revenue increase : How much money your business made in a certain period. Businesses often compare revenue increases over past periods.

In our digital marketing case study examples below, you’ll see how we tackle each of these KPIs.

Calculating ROI for Different Digital Marketing Channels

Before starting your marketing campaign, it’s essential to calculate ROI for different marketing channels to ensure that you don’t overspend. Every marketing channel  comes with various strategies to calculate ROI.

Here’s a snapshot of each.

Since SEO consists of multiple tactics, marketers should calculate ROI for all strategies. This can include any investments, such as tools and the personnel you hire or outsource to complete these tactics.

SEO ROI also varies by industry. All businesses can use a tool like Google Analytics to measure revenue  from organic searches:

Certain industries, notably e-commerce companies, should also measure sales from organic search traffic. Other businesses can create a sales funnel and track conversions with each phase (for example, the percentage of leads who entered the awareness phase and who made purchases).

Once you have these figures, you can subtract the revenue you made from SEO from your investments.

To calculate Google Ads ROI, Google  suggests taking the revenue you generated from your campaign and subtracting it from your costs, then dividing that figure again by the costs. That formula looks like this: ROI = (Revenue – Cost of goods sold) / Cost of goods sold.

While tracking Google Ads conversions and purchases are the best ways to calculate paid ad ROI, your chosen method depends on your goals. Consider other goals, such as downloading a white paper or signing up for a free trial.

Social media marketing can be part of many strategies, such as a lead generation campaign . Some brands may also use social media to improve their brand awareness. This is why calculating your social media ROI depends on your goals.

You’ll first need to collect data on your campaign, such as engagements, impressions, and clicks. Compare these results against any expenses to run your campaign, such as advertising costs and any wages or rates you paid for staff members or freelancers.

Since content marketing involves many blog posts, videos, infographics, and other forms of content, many marketers calculate their ROI based on the total investments in a given time period.

Use this formula to calculate your content marketing ROI :

In this figure, you’ll add your overhead costs to get the investments, and you’ll find the return by adding your sales numbers. By subtracting and dividing the return by the investment and multiplying that figure by 100, you’ll get a percentage.

Now, let’s dive into a digital marketing case study for each of nine marketing areas.

9 Successful Digital Marketing Agency Case Studies

Now that you know what exactly goes into a marketing strategy, let’s take a look at nine of our digital marketing case studies that showcase these strategies while taking you through the challenge, strategy and execution.

This case study is of a client that is an AI-powered workplace communications platform. They reached out to Single Grain to launch a paid social and search strategy for their digital marketing campaign.

The client had low brand awareness and didn’t have a paid ad strategy in their digital marketing campaign before seeking our services. The company desired to build user demand with a social and search advertising strategy. They desired a full-funnel strategy, targeting leads at every stage of the buying process.

We created a comprehensive paid strategy for search engines. We also used LinkedIn  to establish our client as a leader in their niche to increase organic traffic.

For the paid search strategy, we targeted brand traffic, high-intent brand interest, and competitor searches. We took first-party data from LinkedIn to align the ads  with their target audience, experimenting with different ads to match user intent.

We also used their LinkedIn page to establish the client as a leader in their niche. This helped to grow customer lists, improve their digital marketing efforts, and grow website traffic.

The client experienced a 24% increase in lead submissions. LinkedIn is their main touchpoint for Tier 1 and 2 leads, and search is the driving force behind closing high-value accounts. We achieved these results while reducing costs by 16% and maintaining a CPA of -32%.

In only three months after paid search and LinkedIn campaign launch, the client achieved a 24% increase in conversions.

SEO: Gump’s

Gump’s San Francisco is a specialty goods store selling various home decor and jewelry items. After having a successful previous year, they sought help from Single Grain in March 2022 to advance the previous year’s sales with various digital marketing tactics .

Gump’s doesn’t have many challenges as far as digital marketing is concerned. They had successful sales in 2021 and set goals to surpass these revenue records.

For this digital marketing case study, we used cross-selling and digital marketing to retain existing customers while utilizing Google Search and Shopping to attract new customers.

We invested in paid ads  across various channels while expanding its Google Search and Shopping strategy. We optimized Gump’s product listings for the home decor category, ensuring that we targeted their audience.

Gump’s surpassed their 2021 sales goals. Their year-over-year sales are increasing by 92%, solely attributed to marketing. This led to a 79% increase in overall revenue. They achieved an over 40% increase in web traffic, a 79% increase in total orders, 104% Google ROI in the home decor category, and a 32% return customer rate.

By optimizing Gump’s product listings  for home decor categories, we improved their ROAS by 104% – nearly double the amount of spend.

By targeting the home decor category on Google and retargeting existing customers, we conquered Gump’s 2022 sales goals with digital marketing and drove sales and revenue growth.

Hestan Culinary sells high-quality pots, pans, and other cookware that’s backed by Michelin-star chefs. After seeing sales drop, they needed an effective revenue growth digital marketing solution that also improved their ROAS.

Hestan Culinary sells chef-grade cookware. While this is great for professionals, it doesn’t target the casual cooking enthusiast or those trying to cook more at home. Hestan Culinary’s products come with a longer buyer’s digital marketing journey, which posed a problem when they started seeing sales drop.

Hestan Culinary needed to drive sales growth while improving its ROAS. This is why we expanded to programmatic ads with a full-funnel digital marketing approach. We used StackAdapt to reach a qualified audience, using different tactics to nurture them down the sales funnel .

Through the programmatic advertising StackAdapt strategy, we implemented catalog and native feed units for a stronger-performing ad campaign. By targeting qualified audience members immediately, Hestan Culinary improved its ROAS while increasing conversions.

After the first month of the campaign, Hestan Culinary achieved a 218% increase in conversions and a ROAS that went from 1.91 to 9.20. We sustained these metrics for over 45 days after the launch, and Hestan Culinary achieved more revenue.

Hestan Culinary not only achieved more conversions and revenue, but programmatic advertising  improved its full-funnel digital marketing strategy.

Learning A-Z sells science and literacy blended learning products to students at Pe K-6 grades. We helped them with two strategies: landing page testing…

…and purchasing licenses by targeting school administrators on LinkedIn:

Learning A-Z’s original landing page had far too many external links and CTAs, which very likely confused customers. They were also looking to increase sales for licenses on LinkedIn.

First, we redesigned their existing landing page. We focused on simplifying their design so as not to deter customers away from their products and services.

To increase license sales, we used LinkedIn’s Job Title Targeting  function to find school administrators and used digital marketing to target these consumers.

For the landing page, we created 1-2 CTAs driving conversions per page. We used one of two buttons for these CTAs: “Free Trial” or “Order Now.”

For the licenses, we used LinkedIn’s tools to write specific job titles that narrowed down the list of candidates to those with K-5 grade school administration roles.

The redesigned landing page resulted in 73% more “Order Now” clicks, 42% more “Free Trial” clicks, and 125% more conversions.

By targeting K-5 school administrators on LinkedIn, Learning A-Z achieved 462 new users, notably one free trial, four new purchases, positive website metrics, and 12 sample downloads. However, our LinkedIn efforts resulted in a high CPA, so we turned our attention to Facebook Admin. Since then, Learning A-Z has achieved a 5.47 ROAS.

Learning A-Z’s simplified landing page resulted in more conversions. While they had some success on LinkedIn in increasing licenses, Facebook Admin resulted in a better ROAS.

LockNLube sells various greasing products and parts for cars. Single Grain helped them with various digital marketing strategies: optimizing for Amazon and eBay:

…along with developing a media strategy with a heavy emphasis on TikTok ads:

LockNLube wanted to optimize its product listings for Amazon. Since they were heading into their peak season, they wanted to increase top-of-funnel awareness with various digital marketing strategies.

LockNLube was also struggling with eBay’s new marketing tool, Promoted Listings Advanced. However, there were few bidding controls.

We gave LockNLube’s Amazon  digital marketing strategy a complete makeover, rewriting their titles and descriptions. We also scaled Amazon ad  spending.

For eBay , we used keyword bidding to make up for what eBay’s Promoted Listings Advanced tool lacked.

For TikTok , we took LockNLube’s previous creatives and re-optimized them for TikTok.

In addition to these standout cases, we created a complete media strategy for LockNLube, adding new digital platforms to their campaign. These included YouTube ads, demand-side-platforms (DSP), IG/FB Shopping, Walmart ads, top-of-funnel marketing, SMS marketing, relaunched branding and store pages, and Performance Max campaigns.

For Amazon , we implemented A+ digital marketing content for their Amazon product listings, A/B testing all images and content.

For eBay , we took top-performing keywords from Amazon and Google to begin their eBay campaign. We also added competitor keywords to the campaign. To test the success, we separated all keywords into three groups: Brand, Nonbrand, and Competitor. We observed these keywords to see which keywords were converting.

For TikTok , we redid the creatives to make them more creative and entertaining. In addition to the advertising and marketing campaigns we added to their overall media strategy, we also implemented “frequently bought together” features.

Re-optimizing LockNLube’s Amazon  page resulted in 54% revenue growth year over year while also maintaining ROAS. Optimizing their content led to over 100% increases in sessions and an increased 24.7% conversion rate.

For eBay , there are 21% more clicks, 74% more impressions, and 12%, with ROAS increased at 110%.

For TikTok , their engagement rate and CTR were fantastic while keeping CPCs and CPMs low. Since we didn’t achieve as good of a ROAS from direct response, we came to the conclusion that TikTok is better as an upper-channel digital marketing tactic.

From Q1 2019 to Q3 2022, LockNLube saw an overall revenue increase. We launched eight new channels, which resulted in a 42% increase in AOV, a 68% increase in paid traffic, and an 18% increase in the average YOY customer return rate.

We drove revenue for LockNLube thanks to the launch of eight new digital marketing channels and re-optimizing their existing Amazon, eBay, and TikTok strategies.

Google Ads: Peet’s Coffee

Peet’s Coffee sells high-quality coffee and tea, sourcing the best beans and leaves. They reached out to Single Grain to improve their Google Ads strategy.

Peet’s Coffee has excellent brand awareness and digital marketing campaigns but had very little presence on Google Ads. Even though they saw a return from their existing strategy, growth was still stagnant.

We focused on Google Ads and optimized their campaign for different types of keywords, as well as revamped the ad copy.

We  bid on high-ROI keywords , such as branded and product name terms. We rewrote the ad copy to fit the landing pages better and focus on the UVP of the product. We also tested non-branded keywords, scaling them to improve their ROI.

Peet’s Coffee saw a 455% increase in revenue and 676% more orders, all with a 158% increase in ROAS and a reduced 72% cost per order. This was thanks to our efforts aligning searcher intent with ad copy.

Revamping Peet’s Google Ads strategy resulted in huge sales growth while improving ROAS.

Simon Pearce is an entrepreneur who reached success by selling handmade pottery and glassware. He approached Single Grain to improve his ROAS on his paid search campaign.

Simon Pearce’s ROAS was declining YoY from January 2022 to January 2023. Not only that, but CPC was up by 168%.

We realized the rising CPC was directly affecting Simon Pearce’s ROAS. To cut back on costs, we created a manual bidding strategy and scrapped the previous automated bidding campaign.

Even though branded digital marketing keywords are some of the most affordable, Simon Pearce was spending more than he was getting in return on these search terms. We experimented with manual bidding and doing away with their previous automated strategy to try and improve the ROAS.

Early digital marketing results were extremely strong. By manually bidding on keywords and watching spend, we decreased his CPC by 60% and improved their ROAS by 135%. These tactics didn’t compromise impressions; Simon Pearce achieved a 60% CTR and a 17% increase in impression share.

This digital marketing case study shows that using manual bidding on Google Ads improved ROAS for Simon Pearce.

The Mom Project (TMP) is a recruiter that connects talented women to companies and job opportunities. They reached out to Single Grain to decrease their costs per lead in their digital marketing campaign.

While The Mom Project had a digital marketing search campaign, it was failing to capture total search demand. They needed a solution to decrease their costs per lead while better targeting their audience.

Single Grain revamped TMP’s search copy to target a qualified audience better. We also separated the job titles into different audience signals, giving Google a better idea of the audience we were trying to target. We used Performance Max to find qualified clicks.

The digital marketing audience signals we created for the strategy were Custom Segments (keywords related to hiring intent), Interests (audience members who connected with TMP based on interests and demographics), and Your Data (people who previously interacted with TMP).

From here, we were able to redo customer lists, assess lead quality, use location targeting and bid adjustments, and create ad schedules. Performance Max leveraged automation to find qualified clicks on display, search, video, discover, and Gmail, lowering costs.

By using Performance Max, we achieved a lower CPA and CPC, down 51.3% and 91.2%, respectively. Performance Max also helped us use this data to target TOFU audiences.

By using Performance Max, we were able to improve TOFU digital marketing search demand and improve CPA for The Mom Project.

This digital marketing case study targets remarketing  for three brands: Inkbox, Airbnb, and Spearmint Love. We collected data on revenue and conversions from these brands to determine the impact of our remarketing campaign.

• Inkbox  is a temporary tattoo company that wanted to retarget marketing leads on Reddit, hoping it would lower their CPA.
• Property rental giant Airbnb  used Google to improve vendor collection, prevent bottlenecks between operations and marketing, avoid unnecessary tagging replication, and minimize snippet size.
• Kids clothing and accessories company Spearmint Love  used Facebook to retarget moms.
• For Inkbox’s  social marketing retargeting, we used a Reddit Pixel that captured a larger audience and tracked conversions.
• For Airbnb , we implemented Google Tag Manager  and built a data layer.
• For Spearmint Love , we added Facebook Pixel to automate audience targeting, simplified ad creation and targeting, and tracked ROAS.
• For Inkbox , the Reddit Pixel helped us understand Inkbox’s Reddit audience, so we were able to customize messaging and creatives to target their consumers. This helped return customers to the sales funnel.
• For Airbnb , Google Tag Manager launched new programs, tools, and vendors quicker. It also cut tag deployment to hours (was previously at days).
• For Spearmint Love , we integrated Facebook Pixel with their BigCommerce platform, which boosted their business and resulted in more hires from within.
• For Inkbox , we helped them achieve 1.5x higher CTRs and lowered CPAs by 86%.
• For Airbnb , we helped them achieve an 8% increase in website speed, more optimizations, accurate data collection, and a better ROI.
• For Spearmint Love , we helped them achieve a 38x ROAS, with 14.6x of that figure return going toward Facebook. Their advertising success also led to a 12x YoY growth in revenue.

By enacting a remarketing strategy for Inkbox, Airbnb, and Spearmint Love, we helped these brands achieve more CTRs and revenue growth on various social media platforms with improved ROAS, CPAs, and ROI.

While all of these digital marketing case studies are different, there are many parallels between these brands:

Many of these brands executed their own advertising strategy but were struggling to improve their ROAS on their own.

Because of higher CPCs, this made achieving an ad return even more difficult.

Single Grain’s digital marketers had to think outside the box for these clients, using strategies such as manual bidding and relying on unconventional social media platforms such as Reddit.

Some of these platforms, such as eBay, lacked essential advertising marketing strategies with their own tools, so we implemented additional strategies to increase impressions and CTRs.

Here are our overall final recommendations:

• While many businesses can handle an ad strategy DIY, trusting a digital marketing agency like Single Grain will result in the most conversions and the best ROAS.
• Use different tools, such as Performance Max and Pixel, to better entice your target audience.
• While advanced advertising technology such as programmatic ads can increase conversions, manual tactics, such as bidding, can still keep costs down.
• Less is more, especially when it comes to ad copy and landing page design.
• Diversifying your channels and targeting specific audiences on those platforms is the real revenue driver for TOFU targeting.
• Don’t overlook the power of remarketing to an existing audience.

Because of the complex world of digital marketing, even the biggest companies may need help with their campaigns. That’s why they hired professional digital marketers.

While all these case studies are different, they have one thing in common: We increased impressions and revenue while improving ROAS.

By diversifying their platforms, adding new channels, and revamping existing strategies, our digital marketers helped these brands increase web traffic, sales, and return customer rates.

Seeking help from a professional is also a smart idea when creating a new ad strategy, especially if you have low brand awareness and don’t know your target audience. This way, you know you can convert leads while achieving exceptional ROAS.

Remember: Reading a case study on digital marketing (or, better yet, several case studies) can help you learn not only what kind of success can be had, but how exactly the marketing agency you’re thinking of hiring went about it.

If you’re ready to level up your business, Single Grain’s digital marketing experts can help with paid ads, SEO, content marketing and more! 👇

Digital marketing case studies faqs.

Case studies in marketing are comprehensive analyses of specific instances where marketing strategies and campaigns were employed to achieve business objectives. These case study examples of digital marketing focus on real-world examples, detailing the challenges faced, strategies implemented, and outcomes achieved.

They serve several purposes, including:

• Educational Tools: Marketing case studies are used as teaching aids to illustrate marketing concepts and strategies in action, helping students and professionals understand how theories apply in real-life scenarios.
• Evidence of Success: For businesses, they provide evidence of successful marketing strategies and can be used to showcase their achievements to potential clients or stakeholders.
• Strategic Planning: They offer valuable insights into what worked or didn’t work in certain situations, aiding in the formulation of future marketing strategies.

Right here! Just scroll up to read 9 case study examples of digital marketing tactics!

Otherwise, marketing case studies can be found across various platforms and publications, both online and in print, including:

• Business Schools and Academic Journals: Many leading business schools publish case studies on marketing strategies and business management. Journals such as the Harvard Business Review are renowned for their extensive collection of case studies.
• Company Websites: Businesses, especially digital marketing agencies, often publish case studies on their websites, showcasing successful campaigns or strategies they’ve implemented for clients.
• Marketing Blogs and Websites: Websites dedicated to marketing and business strategies, such as HubSpot, MarketingProfs, and Forbes, frequently feature case studies and success stories.
• Professional Associations: Organizations like the American Marketing Association (AMA) provide resources, including case studies, to their members.

Examples of case study topics in marketing could include:

• Launch of a New Product: Analyzing the strategy behind introducing a new product to the market.
• Brand Rejuvenation: A study on how a brand successfully repositioned itself in the market.
• Digital Marketing Success: Examining the digital strategies an agency used to increase its online presence and sales for themselves or their clients.
• Social Media Campaigns: Analysis of a campaign that leveraged social media platforms to achieve specific marketing objectives.
• International Marketing: How a brand successfully entered and established itself in a foreign market.

Again, just scroll up to read this blog in which we provide 9 examples of digital marketing case studies!

Here’s a quick example of a company using targeted social media advertising to increase brand awareness and sales. For instance:

• Objective: A small e-commerce brand aimed to increase its online sales by 30% over three months.
• Strategy: The brand decided to utilize Facebook and Instagram advertising, targeting users based on their interests, previous interactions with the website, and demographic information.
• Implementation: They created a series of engaging ads featuring user-generated content, reviews, and special promotions. The campaign also included A/B testing of ad copy and visuals to determine what resonated best with their target audience.
• Outcome: The campaign led to a 40% increase in online sales, exceeded the initial goal, and also grew the brand’s social media following significantly.

This digital marketing case study example showcases the power of a well-planned and executed strategy, highlighting the importance of targeting, content, and continuous optimization in achieving marketing goals.

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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

Agency Case Studies: How to Write and Use Case Studies

“We move at the speed of trust.”

This statement by my mentor and friend, Betsy, was one I heard early when starting ALRAS Digital. I didn’t fully appreciate it then, mainly because I generally move at the pace of Speedy Gonzalez in all things personal and professional. 

Trust and credibility are paramount to winning and keeping clients in professional services and business development. Whether you are a first-time freelancer or a seasoned agency veteran, you’re unlikely to win a project from a prospective client if they don’t trust you can do the job. Case studies are one of the most potent tools for agencies, consultants, and freelancers to build trust, highlight tangible results for past partners, and demonstrate their ability to get things done.

Understanding the nuances of creating and leveraging great client case studies can be a game-changer for business development professionals and business owners, helping them find and win new clients. This post dives deep into the significance of case studies and how they can be effectively crafted. It even shares some of our favorite examples from top Prosal agencies with a downloadable worksheet you can start using today.

Why Do I Need Them? How Clients Use Case Studies to Select Partners

A well-crafted case study is more than just a success story; it is an engaging narrative that demonstrates your approach, expertise, and the value you bring to the table. 

Case studies have been a dominant theme in more conversations than I can remember for agencies and consultants that are struggling to break into a new industry or service, and they all usually resemble something along the lines of:

“They liked our proposal, but they went with someone else because they had experience working with the sector or type of client.”

Return to the first statement I mentioned by Betsy: “We move at the speed of trust.” The quote reveals that the client did not have enough trust in the agency to work with them and hire them for the project. It is not a question about their skills or expertise in their services. Instead, it is about the relevance of the experience and the outstanding question of whether you have worked with organizations that resemble mine in size, industry, and the challenges we face.

Clients also want certainty that you’ve tackled challenges similar to theirs and emerged victorious. Moreover, clients are also looking for proactivity in what they know they don’t know and, more importantly, what they don’t realize they need. 

One recent example I can recall was pitching for an environmental organization preparing for a rebranding. When we shared our proposal with the organization, we shared past brand guides our team had delivered to clients, one of which was for a similar environmental organization that included a messaging guide with audience information and preferred terms. When they finished reading the proposal and example brand guides, they immediately called us and asked, “Can we do something like this exact brand guide for us? Messaging is a huge problem at our organization, and if we are rebranding, we want to be able to communicate who we are and what we do effectively.” With a simple “Yes, we did it for them, and we can make an even better one for you,” we knew we won the project.

Clients also want to be confident that you can deliver results , especially when projects have an essential data component like click-through rates or orders of magnitude. For example, when looking at advertising or fundraising requests for proposals (RFPs), it is not uncommon for the RFP to say something along the lines of “Preference for agencies/consultants with experience working with budgets of over  $10,000,000” or some other order of magnitude that is reserved for larger or more specialized organizations. 

Crafting an Impactful Case Study

Based on how clients use case studies to evaluate and select their partners, your case studies should speak to each of the following elements:

• Organizational Relevance
• Challenges Faced
• Solutions Implemented
• Measurable Outcomes

A compelling case study blends storytelling, data, and strategy to address the above elements. Here is where the all-important storytelling rule of “Show, don’t tell” comes into play (and I believe this is most true for creative proposals for projects in branding, websites, and other creative industries).

There are multiple templates and options available, but our preferred format for crafting the perfect case study is the following:

This is the executive summary of your case study. In a short paragraph, ideally about 2-4 sentences, you should hit on all the core points of who you worked with, what you accomplished for them, and the significance of those accomplishments. 

Clearly outline the problem the client faced. Think of it like the plot of a story. This section will set the stage for your entire case study and, when well written, can make your solution seem all the more impressive. If there were previously failed attempts to solve this problem, you can note them here without blaming those who tried to solve it.

This is the section where you can show off the solution you ideated and implemented and how awesome you and your team are. Don’t be afraid to brag! Walk the reader through your approach and build up to the climax when you finally resolve the problem.

• Outcomes & Takeaways

This is where the all-important “What happened?!?” question is answered. It is also where you can go into great detail about the takeaways from the solution or strategic approach and the significance of the solutions implemented.

Numbers speak louder than words, so the significance is best measured quantitatively, such as new customers or time saved. However, significance can also be shared qualitatively, especially with creative projects. In such cases, “Show, don’t tell” is often the rule best followed. Include hyperlinks or embedded examples of the final product or the solutions’ outcome in the case study.

• Testimonial

Include a quote from your client. A testimonial from a satisfied client can add authenticity and depth to your case study and a face to a name if you decide to include them as a reference. My preference for testimonials is to include the name, title, and headshot when attributing the quote.

Once finished, case studies should exist in two formats: as a standalone document and as a page on your website.

Case studies should first be designed as a standalone PDF in an editor like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Canva, or some other easy tool to create, review, and edit. While the case study might be reformatted or updated for specific proposals to call out different accomplishments or fit into the style of a revised proposal, you also want something you can quickly create and review when first drafting. Once made, you can easily share it as a single attachment or append it as an appendix in a PDF.

Once finished, consider copying the material onto a webpage that you can publish on your website. Not only does this open new doors for sharing the case study, but it also offers additional materials for prospective clients visiting your site. Consider that most proposals will include between two and five case studies. However, suppose you’ve gone through this process for multiple case studies. In that case, a client who may be on the fence about hiring you and decides to visit your website will discover a library of successful projects you’ve executed, not just the ones you had attached to the proposal. 

Excellent Case Study from Agencies on Prosal

We have some fantastic agencies on Prosal, so we would be remiss not to call out some of our favorite case studies from our agency partners.

Our friends at Mixte Communications have a breadth of experience that they showcase with short and long-form case studies alongside a creative website . Their most popular case study is from an award-winning campaign to mobilize youth voters for the League of Women Voters in California .

“We use it as a case study,” Jamie shared with us, “though it doesn't look like the traditional visual format that is super simple. In our space, I think the detailed data, the approach and the lessons learned are really important to social justice advocates looking for support, and I think that's why it does better than any other ‘case study’ so far.”

Teal Media is a woman-owned, full-service creative and design agency with an extensive library of case studies , each built with incredible detail and refreshing visuals . Despite the extent of their case studies, they all follow a similar format to what we outlined, calling out the most critical elements of the project, like challenges, solutions, testimonials, and outcomes, and technology stack for each case study in an engaging article format that is full of creative highlights. Reading through their case studies feels like you are participating in the journey with them to build a new website.

The website and case studies of Purple Bunny, a global design and innovation studio, are a testament to their creativity and data-driven approach, with case study titles like Increase a B2B SaaS homepage conversions by 25% . The executive summaries and presentation rollout are not unlike Teal Media and our suggested guidance (because it works!). They also don’t stick to a single case study template and change themes, designs, and colors to show their innovative personality.

For solopreneurs and freelancers, you can find inspiration in the article-format case studies of Laura S. Quinn Consulting, a 25-year leader in nonprofit websites and digital strategy. Her article trades the traditional sections of the case studies from above for short paragraphs, multiple testimonials, and graphics highlighting her approach and success. She also leans into her subcontracting successes, like in this case study where worked with Capellic, a website consulting firm, to support the Learning Policy Institute.

These are just a few of the countless examples of remarkable case studies that exist out there. Despite their numbers, all of the best ones follow some of the same structures and guidelines to build trust, outline accomplishments, and drive new business into their companies.

Seeking Client Consent: A Must-Do

Before publishing any case study, you should always seek the client’s consent to publish and share. Any contract you signed related to the project likely included a confidentiality clause, so you may be legally bound to ask for permission before sharing. Moreover, it is not uncommon for a client to consider their business details, challenges, and results sensitive information to the point of complete confidentiality. 

On more than one occasion, I’ve been asked not to share details about a project because a client requested it. Even if a client is wholly against you sharing the project, that doesn’t mean you can’t still use elements for a case study to support your business development efforts. 

In cases where a client rejects your request for consent to publish a case study, consider anonymizing the details and keeping the case study as a confidential document that only you can share and control access to. When anonymizing, remove any specific names or data that can identify the client. This way, you can still showcase your success without compromising your privacy. Once anonymized, you can use this case study as a private reference for future pitches or proposals.

Planning Your Next Case Study

Case studies are more than just success stories; they're a testament to an agency's expertise, approach, and value proposition. For professional services agencies and consultants, they're not just a nice-to-have but a necessity. 

Consider revisiting your client management process if you’ve struggled to put together a good case study. Keep detailed records of your work process, such as tasks in a project management tool or regularly recording meetings and check-ins, to make it easier to craft a good case study down the road. Similarly, keep an open and regular line of communication with your client so they can provide updates and insights into their satisfaction and success metrics. If you've been speaking to them regularly, it will be much easier to ask for a testimonial.

By understanding their significance, ensuring client collaboration, and crafting them with care, agencies can position themselves as leaders, winning trust and securing more business opportunities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alfredo Ramirez

Alfredo is the COO and Co-Founder of Prosal. He has over ten years of experience working in the nonprofit industry and previously founded a successful digital strategies business, winning over $2 million in RFPs throughout his career. He is an avid mountain biker and snowboarder and enjoys anything that takes him outdoors.

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14 SEO Case Studies: Challenges, Solutions & Results

Christina Lyon

Patience Hurlburt-Lawton

Content Editor

Approved By

Caroline Cox

Senior Content Manager

These SEO case studies illustrate that marketing tactics like content optimization, local SEO, and strategic keyword targeting are likely to set your brand up for search engine success. Find out what obstacles they overcame, what methods they leveraged, and how they achieved major ROI.

Here, you’ll find a handpicked roster of 14 inspiring case studies:

• Moneta Group
• Escape the Room
• DesktopReady
• Honda Motor Co.
• Career Group Companies
• Happy Ears Hearing Center
• Mommy’s Bliss
• Forks Over Knives

Constant keyword research, consistent content writing , user-friendly web design, backlinking … so much goes into a solid, in-depth search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

What’s more, you might invest a ton of effort into all these tactics but still struggle to get anywhere near the top of search results.

Two pieces of good news: You’re not alone, and there are ways to get your rankings where they ought to be.

Reading over real-world examples in a good SEO case study can help inspire new strategies and show you what’s possible with the right plan in place.

To give you a head start, we’ll cover dynamic SEO success stories from HawkSEM as well as other agencies. We’ll share some of the best SEO case studies, complete with tactics, common challenges to overcome, and results to support your marketing efforts.

Get ready to ramp up your SEO.

14 SEO case studies for top-ranking inspiration

Thousands of monthly traffic hits, 2X conversion boosts, and pumped-up keyword rankings are just a few of the incredible results our clients have experienced with the right SEO services.

But you’ll notice each brand comes with a unique challenge that informs the right SEO strategy for them.

(Image: Adobe Stock)

1. Moneta Group catches local leads with triple-boosted keyword portfolio

Moneta Group has over two decades of experience in the wealth management space. Still, competition increased over time, so we needed to study those competitors and their keywords closely.

While Moneta wanted to improve national keyword rankings overall, their top priority was to stand out in four local markets. If you’re also looking to boost visibility in your area, then check out the strategies used in this local SEO case study.

Strategies:

• Local SEO – We built geo-specific web content to capture potential wealth management clients in the four areas Moneta Group was interested in. On top of that, our beefed-up citation profiles for each office helped solidify independent local ranking signals.
• Competitive analysis to fill keyword gaps – Moneta still wanted nationwide keyword rankings, so we had to review their competitors to see what was missing. We identified keywords with the lowest competitive metrics and organized them into a brimming content calendar to rank for each one.
• Content optimization – Moneta had a ton of great content on its website, but it needed a revamp for Google and new audiences. We conducted ongoing, on-page optimization, including backlinking and keyword development.
• 326% increase in net organic keyword portfolio
• 164% increase in organic keywords in positions 1-3
• Over 23% increase in Google Analytics goal completions

2. Escape the Room makes a real impression — 4 million, to be exact

With locations across 18 cities and 10 years of industry expertise, Escape the Room is a leader in the live game and entertainment industry.

With all those locations to manage, their marketing initiatives fell behind. They had a substantial base but needed strategic input to work with the algorithm and maintain a strong digital footprint.

• Metadata revamp – Escape the Room had 16 different locations, and not every website contained optimized metadata. But crawlers dive into these details, so they deserve some attention. That’s why we added new SEO elements like title tags and meta descriptions to keep Google happy.
• Speedy load time – Slow site speed can send your audience packing after just a few seconds. We dove into each website’s assets to remove anything clunky and decrease load time. This also improved mobile responsiveness.
• Quality content creation – From team-building ideas for company staff to escape room tips and tricks, there was no shortage of relevant content to create for Escape the Room. We paired new pieces of content with fresh, snazzy website designs to attract information-seeking readers, planting the seeds for conversion later on.
• Achieved an account-wide peak of 62% impression share
• Hit a record number 4 million monthly impressions
• Reached an all-time-high account-wide ad position of 1.1 for the brand

3. DesktopReady waves hello from the top of the SERPs

A new website launch caused DesktopReady to experience a traffic slump, despite being a leader in their industry with over 1 million users on their desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solution.

How could they maintain their leading position in this space with endless competition and minimal organic traffic? We knew what we had to do.

• Technical SEO audit – New website launches sometimes miss the mark with SEO. We conducted a full audit to catch all issues affecting the site’s appeal to SERPs.
• Content all around – We optimized old content with new targeted key terms and created new content to target more qualified leads and foster website traffic.
• SEO support for social media profiles and YouTube – Believe it or not, your social profiles matter, too. So, we optimized DesktopReady’s social media to complement its strong web content and backlink profile.
• Increased users by 409%
• Grew backlinks from 822 to 1,340
• Jumped from 4 to 468 terms in SERP rankings

Keyword revamps, backlink strategies, and content creation are not the simplest tasks to complete on a marketer’s endless to-do list. Luckily, an SEO agency can check all those boxes for you.

4. Honda doubles traffic and reaches 30 million people

Honda Motor Co. wanted to promote their new Civic hatchback and Accord models to South American audiences. The problem? They were competing for keywords with their dealership partners.

On top of that, Honda just wasn’t reaching their target demographic with their existing content.

• New and improved keyword targets – We needed to get Honda and its dealers on the same page. So, we looked at the digital marketing goals for all parties and created new keyword targets for each to follow.
• Audience research – Honda had a target demographic, but SEO campaigns just weren’t reaching them. We sat down to discuss the brand’s unique selling points and linked them to their customers’ needs via tailored SEO content and keyword research.
• 30% decrease in CPC (cost per conversion)
• 40% increase in dealer inquiries
• 200% increase in traffic

5. Zephyr sees massive gains in lead volume and market share

When leading SaaS company Zephyr came to us, their digital marketing strategy was overly broad and lacked cohesion. With campaigns and goals in place, they needed help reigning everything into a sharp message and aligned approach.

With so many team members and initiatives at play, everyone was hamster-wheeling and struggling to stay caught up.

This lapse in cohesion created a hodgepodge of mixed messaging, and, not surprisingly, they weren’t bringing in as many qualified leads as they desired.

• Big-picture strategy: The first thing we did was get everyone on board about how to organize each and every initiative to work together cohesively. With an aligned, collaborative vision, we created a more unified strategy for all digital marketing campaigns.
• Landing page redesign and optimization: We tackled creative from the get-go and redesigned a landing page that was working against Zephyr by not engaging its visitors. Plus, the lead form was long and convoluted. With an engaging, dynamic new landing page design and a more efficient lead form, Zephyr saw immediate results–we’re talking double the lead volume than the original landing page.
• 100% increase in Zephyr’s lead volume with the new landing page
• $250 decrease in CPA

(Image: Career Group Companies)

6. Career Group Companies boosts job applications with keyword revamp

Imagine you’re an employer with a ton of job listings, and you aren’t receiving any applications. Career Group Companies , a staffing agency, faced this problem. The culprit? Less-than-stellar SEO was hiding their listings from prospective candidates.

We got to work with tried-and-true SEO tactics to improve the brand’s connection with its audience, drive more traffic, and improve application volume.

• Keyword portfolio expansion – We needed to understand why people looking for certain jobs weren’t landing on Career Group Companies’ listings. The answer was a few adjustments to their keyword portfolio, including long-tail variations and keyword phrases that included specific job titles and industries.
• Data-driven strategy – Our proprietary tech, ConversionIQ ™, helps us decrypt all the data to reveal the whole picture of your SEO and content marketing campaigns. We used our platform to gather sophisticated data across multiple channels and identify qualified and unqualified leads to inform a greater SEO strategy.
• New content assets – Career Group Companies wanted to highlight diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and channel company-wide goals in their content. Naturally, we created new content assets to accommodate these goals and optimized existing content as well.
• 43% increase in job listing page views from organic traffic
• 71% increase in entrances from organic searches directly to job listing pages
• Significant growth in the candidate pipeline

7. Content, colors, and CTAs bring Happy Ears Hearing Center a nearly 4X traffic increase

Happy Ears Hearing Center is a Phoenix-based audiology office that offers specialized ear healthcare services to clients.

The company had two SEO goals: one, to capture the local audience that would best benefit from their services. And two? Establish their brand as a national industry expert on hearing issues.

We tackled a wider net of keywords and user experience improvements to garner more conversions.

Strategies :

• User experience enhancement – Don’t you hate clicking on a web page only to be met with a long, boring block of text? We spiced things up on Happy Ears’ website with colors, digestible headers, and engaging calls to action (CTAs). This led to more local conversions and appointments.
• Expanded keyword targets – Happy Ears wants to be an online go-to for all things hearing. So, we had to research what its audience was plugging into Google and expand that across the whole country.
• 245% increase in total organic keyword rankings
• 396% increase in organic traffic
• 44% increase in local conversions

Happy Ears had its audiology services on point. With added focus on the online user experience, readers benefited from their knowledge and expertise.

8. More visuals and updated keywords help DILO recover lost rankings

DILO is a gas-handling product and service provider with decades of experience, but even its longstanding SEO wasn’t immune to a website redesign in 2019.

We’ve seen it before: lost traffic and dropped keyword rankings from a new launch or migration. And in DILO’s case, those lost rankings were high-value keywords that it really needed to get back in order to re-establish its place in the industry.

• On-page optimization – We always conduct a technical SEO audit after a redesign. This time, we fixed a few speed and navigation issues. Next step? Content optimization with updated target keywords and meta tags.
• Visual content – The gas industry isn’t the easiest to grasp, even with an organized, comprehensive article. We introduced more infographics and charts into DILO’s content to improve organic traffic and the user experience.
• 36% increase in organic clicks within 6 months
• 24% increase in Google clicks for high-value keywords within 3 months
• 46% increase in Google impressions within 3 months

9. Easly hits the SEO ground running with 70 new pieces of optimized content

Easly is a Canada-based platform that provides capital advances on SR&ED grants to innovative new brands.

The company was new to the digital marketing world and came to HawkSEM with a brand-new website. It was our job to get it off the SEO ground with relevant content and authority to appeal to their audiences.

• New content to the max – We had to start from scratch, and 70 new pieces of content did the trick. Of course, we had to ensure the information was flawless and accurate to capture niche audiences for this brand. And we wrote for every potential customer in the funnel, from curious onlookers to conversion-ripe audiences.
• Domain authority – Easly was still fresh to Google’s eyes. They didn’t have enough external or internal links to channel credibility and thought leadership. We focused on creating linkable content that naturally brought backlinks from other reputable industry players.
• Technical tidbits – New websites always have a few snags. We enhanced site speed and adjusted some web elements to improve the mobile experience.
• 2,500% increase in referring domains
• 40+ featured snippet results on Google
• 1,500% increase in the brand’s keyword portfolio

People love reassurance, especially before making a purchase. A content library brimming with industry knowledge and helpful tips delivers that assurance to both readers and search engine crawlers.

10. Wind River triples CTR with PPC and SEO management

Wind River is a global SaaS brand that helps companies with digital transformation for vital intelligence systems in the aerospace, medical, automotive, and defense spaces.

They originally came to us for PPC services , but every cohesive marketing strategy leverages SEO, too.

• Internal linking – We improved site navigation and organic rankings by finding relevant placements for internal links across Wind River’s content.
• Content research – Tech niches are abundant with potential content, but you really need to ensure audience relevance before you start writing. We conducted competitive analysis and keyword research to inform our content calendar.
• Technical and on-page SEO – We covered our technical bases by cleaning up metadata and title tags. On top of that, we ensured logical formatting for web content with H1s and H2s, as well as updated all pieces of content with relevant keyword targets.
• 20% decrease in ad spend
• 294% increase in clickthrough rate (CTR)
• 39% increase in users

11. Samanage reaps organic traffic with a poppin’ content calendar

Asset management and service-desk SaaS brand Samanage operates across 50 different countries. Despite their global presence, they still had trouble ranking in the SERPs.

A custom-coded WordPress template impeded them from making technical SEO changes to appeal to Google’s crawlers. Plus, their blog wasn’t aligned with a cohesive SEO strategy, so they enlisted marketing agency Tinuiti to help them get on track.

• Robust content strategy – Tinuiti published over 65 pieces of content for Samanage across various types. They started with keyword-targeted blog posts and expanded to whitepapers, landing pages, and more evergreen content to improve web visibility.
• Blog redesign – Brainstorming ways to improve conversion rate optimization? Take a page from Tinuiti’s playbook and optimize your blog’s design elements with overall website A/B testing.
• 42.14% increase in organic traffic YoY
• High rankings for non-branded keywords

12. Mommy’s Bliss builds trust with new audiences via link-building

When you’re a mom-and-pop shop, marketing might be as easy as a Facebook ad or physical sign. But when you start expanding, things get more hectic.

Mommy’s Bliss sells high-quality baby products and experienced immense growth that spurred an entire website redesign. Those two events can seriously throw your SEO strategy off-course.

Luckily, help from HawkSEM made all the difference, as showcased in this ecommerce SEO case study.

• Backlinking for credibility – Mommy’s Bliss expanded its audience, so new visitors might not have been aware of the company’s strong values and credentials. That’s why we needed to launch a backlinking strategy to establish E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). Think about it: parents need to feel 100% confident in a brand before purchasing a product for their kids.
• Daily SEO management – HawkSEM offers all clients a dedicated manager to oversee progress, strategize improvements, and catch any snags before they develop into bigger problems. We handled all the SEO oversight so Mommy’s Bliss could focus on creating new products for its booming audience.
• Over 65% increase in organic sessions year over year
• 79% increase in total keyword rankings
• Doubled goal completions

13. Forks Over Knives leverages search data to recover lost traffic during COVID

The pandemic kept people at home and away from Forks Over Knives’ website. The health lifestyle brand noticed a slump in organic search traffic, along with a decrease in search volume for their target keywords.

But the problem wasn’t their rankings. They still held top spots for their target keywords, people just weren’t typing them into Google anymore. Search intent had changed, and marketing agency Wpromote knew the keywords needed to change, too.

• Trend research – Wpromote used Google Trends data to understand how people were shifting their search queries and which keywords were replacing the old ones.
• Content strategy shift – When life gives you new keywords, you make new recipes (at least, that’s what Forks Over Knives did during the pandemic). Everyone was looking for recipes, so Wpromote used trend data to predict the most highly searched recipes to create content for.
• 278,000 organic sessions for their “banana recipes” pages
• 41% increase in total organic sessions month over month (MoM)
• #1 trafficked all-channel landing page since publishing

People adapt with the times, and your SEO strategy should, too.

14. Vimeo takes technical SEO to the next level for better visibility

Even enterprise-level SaaS businesses like Vimeo need to stay sharp on their SEO . With over 260 million users uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily, it’s not surprising that indexing and structure data issues arose.

Customers struggled to conduct basic SEO tasks to optimize their videos, like indexing APIs, adding structured data to their sites, submitting sitemaps, and beyond. Meaning? They weren’t getting as many eyes on their video content.

The solution? Vimeo got on board with Google’s SEO best practices to improve visibility and searchability for their active customers.

• Allowing customers to index videos at scale – Vimeo streamlined the indexing process to allow embedded videos to show up on Google’s SERPs. By using iframe embeds and noindex in tandem, embedded Vimeo videos from customer websites’ could be indexed and thus, provide more visibility to their own web page without the mess of adding individual markups for each video.
• Making Key Moments searchable – Ever searched for how to boil an egg and had to skip past the first three minutes to get to the instructions? Annoying, right? Fortunately, you won’t have this problem anymore because time-stamped segments of Vimeo’s video content now show up in Google Search. By adding Clip markup to all video pages and rolling out Seek markup (auto-generated Chapters that Google identifies as Key Moments), Vimeo customers can now attract more organic traffic to specific segments within each video.

When it comes to visibility and video content, Google and Vimeo go together like PB&J.

What is an SEO case study?

An SEO case study highlights how a consultant or agency partnered with a specific client to drive significant, notable SEO results.

When brands want to beef up their SEO strategy, they often partner with an SEO agency or professional to help them achieve desired outcomes.

A case study helps paint a clear picture of how a brand went from point A to B on the search engine results page, or SERP — with “B” being results like skyrocketed organic traffic, greater conversion rates, and high keyword rankings.

But SEO isn’t the same for every brand. Sure, there are overarching categories like content and keywords. But different niches, budgets, and goals distinguish SEO tactics and results across the board.

Reviewing an SEO case study helps you identify success markers and the strategies used to achieve that success.

With these insights, you can glean tips and tactics to apply to your brand’s SEO strategy.

The takeaway

Whether you’re running a small business or a giant ecommerce operation, SEO success is vital for a modern online marketing strategy.

Each of these SEO case studies shows key takeaways and tactics you can apply to create the most effective strategy for your business goals.

And if you still need a hand? HawkSEM’s SEO experts have over a decade of experience helping clients like you improve conversion rates, boost traffic, and smash any other SEO goals on your roster.

Our clients enjoy an average of 4.5x ROI after working with us. So, let’s turn your SEO into one of our success stories. Book a call today .

This post has been updated and was originally published in August 2023.

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15 Real-Life Case Study Examples & Best Practices

Written by: Oghale Olori

Case studies are more than just success stories.

They are powerful tools that demonstrate the practical value of your product or service. Case studies help attract attention to your products, build trust with potential customers and ultimately drive sales.

It’s no wonder that 73% of successful content marketers utilize case studies as part of their content strategy. Plus, buyers spend 54% of their time reviewing case studies before they make a buying decision.

To ensure you’re making the most of your case studies, we’ve put together 15 real-life case study examples to inspire you. These examples span a variety of industries and formats. We’ve also included best practices, design tips and templates to inspire you.

Let’s dive in!

Table of Contents

What is a case study, 15 real-life case study examples, sales case study examples, saas case study examples, product case study examples, marketing case study examples, business case study examples, case study faqs.

• A case study is a compelling narrative that showcases how your product or service has positively impacted a real business or individual. 
• Case studies delve into your customer's challenges, how your solution addressed them and the quantifiable results they achieved.
• Your case study should have an attention-grabbing headline, great visuals and a relevant call to action. Other key elements include an introduction, problems and result section.
• Visme provides easy-to-use tools, professionally designed templates and features for creating attractive and engaging case studies.

A case study is a real-life scenario where your company helped a person or business solve their unique challenges. It provides a detailed analysis of the positive outcomes achieved as a result of implementing your solution.

Case studies are an effective way to showcase the value of your product or service to potential customers without overt selling. By sharing how your company transformed a business, you can attract customers seeking similar solutions and results.

Case studies are not only about your company's capabilities; they are primarily about the benefits customers and clients have experienced from using your product.

Every great case study is made up of key elements. They are;

• Attention-grabbing headline: Write a compelling headline that grabs attention and tells your reader what the case study is about. For example, "How a CRM System Helped a B2B Company Increase Revenue by 225%.
• Introduction/Executive Summary: Include a brief overview of your case study, including your customer’s problem, the solution they implemented and the results they achieved.
• Problem/Challenge: Case studies with solutions offer a powerful way to connect with potential customers. In this section, explain how your product or service specifically addressed your customer's challenges.
• Solution: Explain how your product or service specifically addressed your customer's challenges.
• Results/Achievements : Give a detailed account of the positive impact of your product. Quantify the benefits achieved using metrics such as increased sales, improved efficiency, reduced costs or enhanced customer satisfaction.
• Graphics/Visuals: Include professional designs, high-quality photos and videos to make your case study more engaging and visually appealing.
• Quotes/Testimonials: Incorporate written or video quotes from your clients to boost your credibility.
• Relevant CTA: Insert a call to action (CTA) that encourages the reader to take action. For example, visiting your website or contacting you for more information. Your CTA can be a link to a landing page, a contact form or your social media handle and should be related to the product or service you highlighted in your case study.

Now that you understand what a case study is, let’s look at real-life case study examples. Among these, you'll find some simple case study examples that break down complex ideas into easily understandable solutions.

In this section, we’ll explore SaaS, marketing, sales, product and business case study examples with solutions. Take note of how these companies structured their case studies and included the key elements.

We’ve also included professionally designed case study templates to inspire you.

1. Georgia Tech Athletics Increase Season Ticket Sales by 80%

Georgia Tech Athletics, with its 8,000 football season ticket holders, sought for a way to increase efficiency and customer engagement.

Their initial sales process involved making multiple outbound phone calls per day with no real targeting or guidelines. Georgia Tech believed that targeting communications will enable them to reach more people in real time.

Salesloft improved Georgia Tech’s sales process with an inbound structure. This enabled sales reps to connect with their customers on a more targeted level. The use of dynamic fields and filters when importing lists ensured prospects received the right information, while communication with existing fans became faster with automation.

As a result, Georgia Tech Athletics recorded an 80% increase in season ticket sales as relationships with season ticket holders significantly improved. Employee engagement increased as employees became more energized to connect and communicate with fans.

Why Does This Case Study Work?

In this case study example , Salesloft utilized the key elements of a good case study. Their introduction gave an overview of their customers' challenges and the results they enjoyed after using them. After which they categorized the case study into three main sections: challenge, solution and result.

Salesloft utilized a case study video to increase engagement and invoke human connection.

Incorporating videos in your case study has a lot of benefits. Wyzol’s 2023 state of video marketing report showed a direct correlation between videos and an 87% increase in sales.

The beautiful thing is that creating videos for your case study doesn’t have to be daunting.

With an easy-to-use platform like Visme, you can create top-notch testimonial videos that will connect with your audience. Within the Visme editor, you can access over 1 million stock photos , video templates, animated graphics and more. These tools and resources will significantly improve the design and engagement of your case study.

Simplify content creation and brand management for your team

• Collaborate on designs , mockups and wireframes with your non-design colleagues
• Lock down your branding to maintain brand consistency throughout your designs
• Why start from scratch? Save time with 1000s of professional branded templates

Sign up. It’s free.

2. WeightWatchers Completely Revamped their Enterprise Sales Process with HubSpot

WeightWatchers, a 60-year-old wellness company, sought a CRM solution that increased the efficiency of their sales process. With their previous system, Weightwatchers had limited automation. They would copy-paste message templates from word documents or recreate one email for a batch of customers.

This required a huge effort from sales reps, account managers and leadership, as they were unable to track leads or pull customized reports for planning and growth.

WeightWatchers transformed their B2B sales strategy by leveraging HubSpot's robust marketing and sales workflows. They utilized HubSpot’s deal pipeline and automation features to streamline lead qualification. And the customized dashboard gave leadership valuable insights.

As a result, WeightWatchers generated seven figures in annual contract value and boosted recurring revenue. Hubspot’s impact resulted in 100% adoption across all sales, marketing, client success and operations teams.

Hubspot structured its case study into separate sections, demonstrating the specific benefits of their products to various aspects of the customer's business. Additionally, they integrated direct customer quotes in each section to boost credibility, resulting in a more compelling case study.

Getting insight from your customer about their challenges is one thing. But writing about their process and achievements in a concise and relatable way is another. If you find yourself constantly experiencing writer’s block, Visme’s AI writer is perfect for you.

Visme created this AI text generator tool to take your ideas and transform them into a great draft. So whether you need help writing your first draft or editing your final case study, Visme is ready for you.

3. Immi’s Ram Fam Helps to Drive Over $200k in Sales

Immi embarked on a mission to recreate healthier ramen recipes that were nutritious and delicious. After 2 years of tireless trials, Immi finally found the perfect ramen recipe. However, they envisioned a community of passionate ramen enthusiasts to fuel their business growth.

This vision propelled them to partner with Shopify Collabs. Shopify Collabs successfully cultivated and managed Immi’s Ramen community of ambassadors and creators.

As a result of their partnership, Immi’s community grew to more than 400 dedicated members, generating over $200,000 in total affiliate sales.

The power of data-driven headlines cannot be overemphasized. Chili Piper strategically incorporates quantifiable results in their headlines. This instantly sparks curiosity and interest in readers.

While not every customer success story may boast headline-grabbing figures, quantifying achievements in percentages is still effective. For example, you can highlight a 50% revenue increase with the implementation of your product.

Take a look at the beautiful case study template below. Just like in the example above, the figures in the headline instantly grab attention and entice your reader to click through.

Having a case study document is a key factor in boosting engagement. This makes it easy to promote your case study in multiple ways. With Visme, you can easily publish, download and share your case study with your customers in a variety of formats, including PDF, PPTX, JPG and more!

4. How WOW! is Saving Nearly 79% in Time and Cost With Visme

This case study discusses how Visme helped WOW! save time and money by providing user-friendly tools to create interactive and quality training materials for their employees. Find out what your team can do with Visme. Request a Demo

WOW!'s learning and development team creates high-quality training materials for new and existing employees. Previous tools and platforms they used had plain templates, little to no interactivity features, and limited flexibility—that is, until they discovered Visme.

Now, the learning and development team at WOW! use Visme to create engaging infographics, training videos, slide decks and other training materials.

This has directly reduced the company's turnover rate, saving them money spent on recruiting and training new employees. It has also saved them a significant amount of time, which they can now allocate to other important tasks.

Visme's customer testimonials spark an emotional connection with the reader, leaving a profound impact. Upon reading this case study, prospective customers will be blown away by the remarkable efficiency achieved by Visme's clients after switching from PowerPoint.

Visme’s interactivity feature was a game changer for WOW! and one of the primary reasons they chose Visme.

“Previously we were using PowerPoint, which is fine, but the interactivity you can get with Visme is so much more robust that we’ve all steered away from PowerPoint.” - Kendra, L&D team, Wow!

Visme’s interactive feature allowed them to animate their infographics, include clickable links on their PowerPoint designs and even embed polls and quizzes their employees could interact with.

By embedding the slide decks, infographics and other training materials WOW! created with Visme, potential customers get a taste of what they can create with the tool. This is much more effective than describing the features of Visme because it allows potential customers to see the tool in action.

To top it all off, this case study utilized relevant data and figures. For example, one part of the case study said, “In Visme, where Kendra’s team has access to hundreds of templates, a brand kit, and millions of design assets at their disposal, their team can create presentations in 80% less time.”

Who wouldn't want that?

Including relevant figures and graphics in your case study is a sure way to convince your potential customers why you’re a great fit for their brand. The case study template below is a great example of integrating relevant figures and data.

This colorful template begins with a captivating headline. But that is not the best part; this template extensively showcases the results their customer had using relevant figures.

The arrangement of the results makes it fun and attractive. Instead of just putting figures in a plain table, you can find interesting shapes in your Visme editor to take your case study to the next level.

5. Lyte Reduces Customer Churn To Just 3% With Hubspot CRM

While Lyte was redefining the ticketing industry, it had no definite CRM system . Lyte utilized 12–15 different SaaS solutions across various departments, which led to a lack of alignment between teams, duplication of work and overlapping tasks.

Customer data was spread across these platforms, making it difficult to effectively track their customer journey. As a result, their churn rate increased along with customer dissatisfaction.

Through Fuelius , Lyte founded and implemented Hubspot CRM. Lyte's productivity skyrocketed after incorporating Hubspot's all-in-one CRM tool. With improved efficiency, better teamwork and stronger client relationships, sales figures soared.

The case study title page and executive summary act as compelling entry points for both existing and potential customers. This overview provides a clear understanding of the case study and also strategically incorporates key details like the client's industry, location and relevant background information.

Having a good summary of your case study can prompt your readers to engage further. You can achieve this with a simple but effective case study one-pager that highlights your customer’s problems, process and achievements, just like this case study did in the beginning.

Moreover, you can easily distribute your case study one-pager and use it as a lead magnet to draw prospective customers to your company.

Take a look at this case study one-pager template below.

This template includes key aspects of your case study, such as the introduction, key findings, conclusion and more, without overcrowding the page. The use of multiple shades of blue gives it a clean and dynamic layout.

Our favorite part of this template is where the age group is visualized.

With Visme’s data visualization tool , you can present your data in tables, graphs, progress bars, maps and so much more. All you need to do is choose your preferred data visualization widget, input or import your data and click enter!

6. How Workato Converts 75% of Their Qualified Leads

Workato wanted to improve their inbound leads and increase their conversion rate, which ranged from 40-55%.

At first, Workato searched for a simple scheduling tool. They soon discovered that they needed a tool that provided advanced routing capabilities based on zip code and other criteria. Luckily, they found and implemented Chili Piper.

As a result of implementing Chili Piper, Workato achieved a remarkable 75–80% conversion rate and improved show rates. This led to a substantial revenue boost, with a 10-15% increase in revenue attributed to Chili Piper's impact on lead conversion.

This case study example utilizes the power of video testimonials to drive the impact of their product.

Chili Piper incorporates screenshots and clips of their tool in use. This is a great strategy because it helps your viewers become familiar with how your product works, making onboarding new customers much easier.

In this case study example, we see the importance of efficient Workflow Management Systems (WMS). Without a WMS, you manually assign tasks to your team members and engage in multiple emails for regular updates on progress.

However, when crafting and designing your case study, you should prioritize having a good WMS.

Visme has an outstanding Workflow Management System feature that keeps you on top of all your projects and designs. This feature makes it much easier to assign roles, ensure accuracy across documents, and track progress and deadlines.

Visme’s WMS feature allows you to limit access to your entire document by assigning specific slides or pages to individual members of your team. At the end of the day, your team members are not overwhelmed or distracted by the whole document but can focus on their tasks.

7. Rush Order Helps Vogmask Scale-Up During a Pandemic

Vomask's reliance on third-party fulfillment companies became a challenge as demand for their masks grew. Seeking a reliable fulfillment partner, they found Rush Order and entrusted them with their entire inventory.

Vomask's partnership with Rush Order proved to be a lifesaver during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rush Order's agility, efficiency and commitment to customer satisfaction helped Vogmask navigate the unprecedented demand and maintain its reputation for quality and service.

Rush Order’s comprehensive support enabled Vogmask to scale up its order processing by a staggering 900% while maintaining a remarkable customer satisfaction rate of 92%.

Rush Order chose one event where their impact mattered the most to their customer and shared that story.

While pandemics don't happen every day, you can look through your customer’s journey and highlight a specific time or scenario where your product or service saved their business.

The story of Vogmask and Rush Order is compelling, but it simply is not enough. The case study format and design attract readers' attention and make them want to know more. Rush Order uses consistent colors throughout the case study, starting with the logo, bold square blocks, pictures, and even headers.

Take a look at this product case study template below.

Just like our example, this case study template utilizes bold colors and large squares to attract and maintain the reader’s attention. It provides enough room for you to write about your customers' backgrounds/introductions, challenges, goals and results.

The right combination of shapes and colors adds a level of professionalism to this case study template.

8. AMR Hair & Beauty leverages B2B functionality to boost sales by 200%

With limits on website customization, slow page loading and multiple website crashes during peak events, it wasn't long before AMR Hair & Beauty began looking for a new e-commerce solution.

Their existing platform lacked effective search and filtering options, a seamless checkout process and the data analytics capabilities needed for informed decision-making. This led to a significant number of abandoned carts.

Upon switching to Shopify Plus, AMR immediately saw improvements in page loading speed and average session duration. They added better search and filtering options for their wholesale customers and customized their checkout process.

Due to this, AMR witnessed a 200% increase in sales and a 77% rise in B2B average order value. AMR Hair & Beauty is now poised for further expansion and growth.

This case study example showcases the power of a concise and impactful narrative.

To make their case analysis more effective, Shopify focused on the most relevant aspects of the customer's journey. While there may have been other challenges the customer faced, they only included those that directly related to their solutions.

Take a look at this case study template below. It is perfect if you want to create a concise but effective case study. Without including unnecessary details, you can outline the challenges, solutions and results your customers experienced from using your product.

Don’t forget to include a strong CTA within your case study. By incorporating a link, sidebar pop-up or an exit pop-up into your case study, you can prompt your readers and prospective clients to connect with you.

9. How a Marketing Agency Uses Visme to Create Engaging Content With Infographics

SmartBox Dental , a marketing agency specializing in dental practices, sought ways to make dental advice more interesting and easier to read. However, they lacked the design skills to do so effectively.

Visme's wide range of templates and features made it easy for the team to create high-quality content quickly and efficiently. SmartBox Dental enjoyed creating infographics in as little as 10-15 minutes, compared to one hour before Visme was implemented.

By leveraging Visme, SmartBox Dental successfully transformed dental content into a more enjoyable and informative experience for their clients' patients. Therefore enhancing its reputation as a marketing partner that goes the extra mile to deliver value to its clients.

Visme creatively incorporates testimonials In this case study example.

By showcasing infographics and designs created by their clients, they leverage the power of social proof in a visually compelling way. This way, potential customers gain immediate insight into the creative possibilities Visme offers as a design tool.

This example effectively showcases a product's versatility and impact, and we can learn a lot about writing a case study from it. Instead of focusing on one tool or feature per customer, Visme took a more comprehensive approach.

Within each section of their case study, Visme explained how a particular tool or feature played a key role in solving the customer's challenges.

For example, this case study highlighted Visme’s collaboration tool . With Visme’s tool, the SmartBox Dental content team fostered teamwork, accountability and effective supervision.

Visme also achieved a versatile case study by including relevant quotes to showcase each tool or feature. Take a look at some examples;

Visme’s collaboration tool: “We really like the collaboration tool. Being able to see what a co-worker is working on and borrow their ideas or collaborate on a project to make sure we get the best end result really helps us out.”

Visme’s library of stock photos and animated characters: “I really love the images and the look those give to an infographic. I also really like the animated little guys and the animated pictures. That’s added a lot of fun to our designs.”

Visme’s interactivity feature: “You can add URLs and phone number links directly into the infographic so they can just click and call or go to another page on the website and I really like adding those hyperlinks in.”

You can ask your customers to talk about the different products or features that helped them achieve their business success and draw quotes from each one.

10. Jasper Grows Blog Organic Sessions 810% and Blog-Attributed User Signups 400X

Jasper, an AI writing tool, lacked a scalable content strategy to drive organic traffic and user growth. They needed help creating content that converted visitors into users. Especially when a looming domain migration threatened organic traffic.

To address these challenges, Jasper partnered with Omniscient Digital. Their goal was to turn their content into a growth channel and drive organic growth. Omniscient Digital developed a full content strategy for Jasper AI, which included a content audit, competitive analysis, and keyword discovery.

Through their collaboration, Jasper’s organic blog sessions increased by 810%, despite the domain migration. They also witnessed a 400X increase in blog-attributed signups. And more importantly, the content program contributed to over $4 million in annual recurring revenue.

The combination of storytelling and video testimonials within the case study example makes this a real winner. But there’s a twist to it. Omniscient segmented the video testimonials and placed them in different sections of the case study.

Video marketing , especially in case studies, works wonders. Research shows us that 42% of people prefer video testimonials because they show real customers with real success stories. So if you haven't thought of it before, incorporate video testimonials into your case study.

Take a look at this stunning video testimonial template. With its simple design, you can input the picture, name and quote of your customer within your case study in a fun and engaging way.

Try it yourself! Customize this template with your customer’s testimonial and add it to your case study!

11. How Meliá Became One of the Most Influential Hotel Chains on Social Media

Meliá Hotels needed help managing their growing social media customer service needs. Despite having over 500 social accounts, they lacked a unified response protocol and detailed reporting. This largely hindered efficiency and brand consistency.

Meliá partnered with Hootsuite to build an in-house social customer care team. Implementing Hootsuite's tools enabled Meliá to decrease response times from 24 hours to 12.4 hours while also leveraging smart automation.

In addition to that, Meliá resolved over 133,000 conversations, booking 330 inquiries per week through Hootsuite Inbox. They significantly improved brand consistency, response time and customer satisfaction.

The need for a good case study design cannot be over-emphasized.

As soon as anyone lands on this case study example, they are mesmerized by a beautiful case study design. This alone raises the interest of readers and keeps them engaged till the end.

If you’re currently saying to yourself, “ I can write great case studies, but I don’t have the time or skill to turn it into a beautiful document.” Say no more.

Visme’s amazing AI document generator can take your text and transform it into a stunning and professional document in minutes! Not only do you save time, but you also get inspired by the design.

With Visme’s document generator, you can create PDFs, case study presentations , infographics and more!

Take a look at this case study template below. Just like our case study example, it captures readers' attention with its beautiful design. Its dynamic blend of colors and fonts helps to segment each element of the case study beautifully.

12. Tea’s Me Cafe: Tamika Catchings is Brewing Glory

Tamika's journey began when she purchased Tea's Me Cafe in 2017, saving it from closure. She recognized the potential of the cafe as a community hub and hosted regular events centered on social issues and youth empowerment.

One of Tamika’s business goals was to automate her business. She sought to streamline business processes across various aspects of her business. One of the ways she achieves this goal is through Constant Contact.

Constant Contact became an integral part of Tamika's marketing strategy. They provided an automated and centralized platform for managing email newsletters, event registrations, social media scheduling and more.

This allowed Tamika and her team to collaborate efficiently and focus on engaging with their audience. They effectively utilized features like WooCommerce integration, text-to-join and the survey builder to grow their email list, segment their audience and gather valuable feedback.

The case study example utilizes the power of storytelling to form a connection with readers. Constant Contact takes a humble approach in this case study. They spotlight their customers' efforts as the reason for their achievements and growth, establishing trust and credibility.

This case study is also visually appealing, filled with high-quality photos of their customer. While this is a great way to foster originality, it can prove challenging if your customer sends you blurry or low-quality photos.

If you find yourself in that dilemma, you can use Visme’s AI image edit tool to touch up your photos. With Visme’s AI tool, you can remove unwanted backgrounds, erase unwanted objects, unblur low-quality pictures and upscale any photo without losing the quality.

Constant Contact offers its readers various formats to engage with their case study. Including an audio podcast and PDF.

In its PDF version, Constant Contact utilized its brand colors to create a stunning case study design.  With this, they increase brand awareness and, in turn, brand recognition with anyone who comes across their case study.

With Visme’s brand wizard tool , you can seamlessly incorporate your brand assets into any design or document you create. By inputting your URL, Visme’s AI integration will take note of your brand colors, brand fonts and more and create branded templates for you automatically.

You don't need to worry about spending hours customizing templates to fit your brand anymore. You can focus on writing amazing case studies that promote your company.

13. How Breakwater Kitchens Achieved a 7% Growth in Sales With Thryv

Breakwater Kitchens struggled with managing their business operations efficiently. They spent a lot of time on manual tasks, such as scheduling appointments and managing client communication. This made it difficult for them to grow their business and provide the best possible service to their customers.

David, the owner, discovered Thryv. With Thryv, Breakwater Kitchens was able to automate many of their manual tasks. Additionally, Thryv integrated social media management. This enabled Breakwater Kitchens to deliver a consistent brand message, captivate its audience and foster online growth.

As a result, Breakwater Kitchens achieved increased efficiency, reduced missed appointments and a 7% growth in sales.

This case study example uses a concise format and strong verbs, which make it easy for readers to absorb the information.

At the top of the case study, Thryv immediately builds trust by presenting their customer's complete profile, including their name, company details and website. This allows potential customers to verify the case study's legitimacy, making them more likely to believe in Thryv's services.

However, manually copying and pasting customer information across multiple pages of your case study can be time-consuming.

To save time and effort, you can utilize Visme's dynamic field feature . Dynamic fields automatically insert reusable information into your designs.  So you don’t have to type it out multiple times.

14. Zoom’s Creative Team Saves Over 4,000 Hours With Brandfolder

Zoom experienced rapid growth with the advent of remote work and the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such growth called for agility and resilience to scale through.

At the time, Zoom’s assets were disorganized which made retrieving brand information a burden. Zoom’s creative manager spent no less than 10 hours per week finding and retrieving brand assets for internal teams.

Zoom needed a more sustainable approach to organizing and retrieving brand information and came across Brandfolder. Brandfolder simplified and accelerated Zoom’s email localization and webpage development. It also enhanced the creation and storage of Zoom virtual backgrounds.

With Brandfolder, Zoom now saves 4,000+ hours every year. The company also centralized its assets in Brandfolder, which allowed 6,800+ employees and 20-30 vendors to quickly access them.

Brandfolder infused its case study with compelling data and backed it up with verifiable sources. This data-driven approach boosts credibility and increases the impact of their story.

Bradfolder's case study goes the extra mile by providing a downloadable PDF version, making it convenient for readers to access the information on their own time. Their dedication to crafting stunning visuals is evident in every aspect of the project.

From the vibrant colors to the seamless navigation, everything has been meticulously designed to leave a lasting impression on the viewer. And with clickable links that make exploring the content a breeze, the user experience is guaranteed to be nothing short of exceptional.

The thing is, your case study presentation won’t always sit on your website. There are instances where you may need to do a case study presentation for clients, partners or potential investors.

Visme has a rich library of templates you can tap into. But if you’re racing against the clock, Visme’s AI presentation maker is your best ally.

15. How Cents of Style Made $1.7M+ in Affiliate Sales with LeadDyno

Cents of Style had a successful affiliate and influencer marketing strategy. However, their existing affiliate marketing platform was not intuitive, customizable or transparent enough to meet the needs of their influencers.

Cents of Styles needed an easy-to-use affiliate marketing platform that gave them more freedom to customize their program and implement a multi-tier commission program.

After exploring their options, Cents of Style decided on LeadDyno.

LeadDyno provided more flexibility, allowing them to customize commission rates and implement their multi-tier commission structure, switching from monthly to weekly payouts.

Also, integrations with PayPal made payments smoother And features like newsletters and leaderboards added to the platform's success by keeping things transparent and engaging.

As a result, Cents of Style witnessed an impressive $1.7 million in revenue from affiliate sales with a substantial increase in web sales by 80%.

LeadDyno strategically placed a compelling CTA in the middle of their case study layout, maximizing its impact. At this point, readers are already invested in the customer's story and may be considering implementing similar strategies.

A well-placed CTA offers them a direct path to learn more and take action.

LeadDyno also utilized the power of quotes to strengthen their case study. They didn't just embed these quotes seamlessly into the text; instead, they emphasized each one with distinct blocks.

Are you looking for an easier and quicker solution to create a case study and other business documents? Try Visme's AI designer ! This powerful tool allows you to generate complete documents, such as case studies, reports, whitepapers and more, just by providing text prompts. Simply explain your requirements to the tool, and it will produce the document for you, complete with text, images, design assets and more.

Still have more questions about case studies? Let's look at some frequently asked questions.

How to Write a Case Study?

• Choose a compelling story: Not all case studies are created equal. Pick one that is relevant to your target audience and demonstrates the specific benefits of your product or service.
• Outline your case study: Create a case study outline and highlight how you will structure your case study to include the introduction, problem, solution and achievements of your customer.
• Choose a case study template: After you outline your case study, choose a case study template . Visme has stunning templates that can inspire your case study design.
• Craft a compelling headline: Include figures or percentages that draw attention to your case study.
• Work on the first draft: Your case study should be easy to read and understand. Use clear and concise language and avoid jargon.
• Include high-quality visual aids: Visuals can help to make your case study more engaging and easier to read. Consider adding high-quality photos, screenshots or videos.
• Include a relevant CTA: Tell prospective customers how to reach you for questions or sign-ups.

What Are the Stages of a Case Study?

The stages of a case study are;

• Planning & Preparation: Highlight your goals for writing the case study. Plan the case study format, length and audience you wish to target.
• Interview the Client: Reach out to the company you want to showcase and ask relevant questions about their journey and achievements.
• Revision & Editing: Review your case study and ask for feedback. Include relevant quotes and CTAs to your case study.
• Publication & Distribution: Publish and share your case study on your website, social media channels and email list!
• Marketing & Repurposing: Turn your case study into a podcast, PDF, case study presentation and more. Share these materials with your sales and marketing team.

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Case Study?

Advantages of a case study:

• Case studies showcase a specific solution and outcome for specific customer challenges.
• It attracts potential customers with similar challenges.
• It builds trust and credibility with potential customers.
• It provides an in-depth analysis of your company’s problem-solving process.

Disadvantages of a case study:

• Limited applicability. Case studies are tailored to specific cases and may not apply to other businesses.
• It relies heavily on customer cooperation and willingness to share information.
• It stands a risk of becoming outdated as industries and customer needs evolve.

What Are the Types of Case Studies?

There are 7 main types of case studies. They include;

• Illustrative case study.
• Instrumental case study.
• Intrinsic case study.
• Descriptive case study.
• Explanatory case study.
• Exploratory case study.
• Collective case study.

How Long Should a Case Study Be?

The ideal length of your case study is between 500 - 1500 words or 1-3 pages. Certain factors like your target audience, goal or the amount of detail you want to share may influence the length of your case study. This infographic has powerful tips for designing winning case studies

What Is the Difference Between a Case Study and an Example?

Case studies provide a detailed narrative of how your product or service was used to solve a problem. Examples are general illustrations and are not necessarily real-life scenarios.

Case studies are often used for marketing purposes, attracting potential customers and building trust. Examples, on the other hand, are primarily used to simplify or clarify complex concepts.

Where Can I Find Case Study Examples?

You can easily find many case study examples online and in industry publications. Many companies, including Visme, share case studies on their websites to showcase how their products or services have helped clients achieve success. You can also search online libraries and professional organizations for case studies related to your specific industry or field.

If you need professionally-designed, customizable case study templates to create your own, Visme's template library is one of the best places to look. These templates include all the essential sections of a case study and high-quality content to help you create case studies that position your business as an industry leader.

Get More Out Of Your Case Studies With Visme

Case studies are an essential tool for converting potential customers into paying customers. By following the tips in this article, you can create compelling case studies that will help you build trust, establish credibility and drive sales.

Visme can help you create stunning case studies and other relevant marketing materials. With our easy-to-use platform, interactive features and analytics tools , you can increase your content creation game in no time.

There is no limit to what you can achieve with Visme. Connect with Sales to discover how Visme can boost your business goals.

Easily create beautiful case studies and more with Visme

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Table of Contents

Table of contents:, the 6 rules for creating compelling client case studies:, the 6 rules for creating powerful agency client case studies.

Client case studies are one of the most important elements to master as you grow as an agency.

After all, social proof is a key aspect of any agency growth strategy.

Seeing as you’ve just delivered the desired results for your clients, you’ll want to capitalize on the opportunity to share the success story with other prospective clients.

Clients who can relate and understand how their project might work with your agency. 

Case studies add credibility to you as an agency, make it easier to close deals, and are great for finding quotes for social proof marketing assets. A few strong case studies in a specific niche or service can take an agency to new (authoritative) heights.

What’s the secret to creating compelling, amazing, and credible case studies?

Don’t just come strolling in with your eyes closed — walk into every project with a thoughtful strategy that will help you to best capture the work you’re doing with your clients.

• The 6 Rules For Creating Compelling Case Studies
• Add Case Studies and a Share-Your-Work Clause in Contracts
• Have a Case Study Theme
• Always Ask For Permission Before Publishing a Case Study
• Ask For a Testimonial to Use in Your Case Study
• Gather Several Different Perspectives For a Case Study
• Build Out a Process for Creating Case Studies

If you only think about case studies in hindsight, you could lose the opportunity to bolster your social proof portfolio altogether.

As a general rule, before we dive into the 6 rules for creating compelling client case studies , it’s essential that you emphasize quality over quantity when it comes to building up social proof.

You could have 20 subpar and rushed case studies on your website but they won’t do nearly as well as three in-depth ones that really pack a punch.

1. Add Case Studies and a Share-Your-Work Clause in Contracts

We started adding a notation in our contracts about showcasing client work at a later time and date. 

We don’t do this to be sneaky. We do this to get everything out there right from the beginning of the relationship.

So, if the client has specific instructions that won’t allow us to showcase work, this is a great place to establish it. 

This accomplished two things:

• Helped us get the permission to share work early on — which we would ask additional permission for before publishing a single piece — down in writing.
• Opened their mind to the fact that we like to do case studies and that one may be coming down the pipeline.

As you know, around here, we’re all about hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. 

You want to be actively collecting case studies. It needs to be embedded in your processes. It’s a powerful sales tool that can make you stand out from the competition, and it’s important you take the time to create and then leverage it.

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

I bring the biggest smile and the most positive attitude in the world into every single client relationship. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t take responsible measures to help protect myself and my team from any potential dangers lurking around the corner. 

What could go wrong, you ask? Two things:

• Imagine somewhere down the line you write a book and mention a client experience that you had permission to utilize. Let’s say that client decides to sue you for some reason. If you don’t have written permission in your contract, it’s going to be hard to defend yourself. 
• In a similar instance, imagine you chatted about using a case study with a client. They verbally agree and later verbally change their mind. Again, you have no documentation to defend yourself in case things go sour—and no, email proof isn’t quite enough.

2. Have a Case Study Theme

When you’re approaching a client to construct a case study, be sure to have a specific direction in mind for it.

You don’t want to roll in there without a plan. You want to know what particular success you want to emphasize and what the results are for the business and have testimonials from individuals most impacted by the results.

Turn Your Case Study Into a Story

This could be as simple as how you helped them hop over a huge hurdle that no one thought was possible or how together your teams formed a super force that did amazing things. 

You want to gather the information from the client and turn it into a compelling story from prospects, with your client and your agency as the stars. Next, show the transformation from struggling in this specific way, what you did to fix it, and the results of this change.

Finally, paint a picture for the prospect about how you can do the same thing for them.

Your theme is limited to your imagination. A compelling case study isn’t just an event timeline of the work you completed—it’s a story that is moving enough to persuade future businesses to work with you. 

You want to take a prospect reading your case study on a journey.

The theme will help you construct the best possible story, and it will help your clients formulate their thoughts. We all know how intimidating it can be to look at the blinking cursor on the screen. You can help your clients succeed by giving them that theme along with some examples.

You want to give them an outline of the story you want to tell.

3. Always Ask For Permission Before Publishing a Case Study

This is the cardinal rule of case studies: always get explicit permissions from clients.

Yes, we’ve put it in the contract, but that was to open the original conversation and get it down in writing. 

You don’t want unblessed work getting found — especially via Google searches! 

The last thing you want is for your clients to explore your website and find a case study about them that they didn’t sign off on. This is just bad business behavior here. 

In some instances, your case study could appear on the first or top of the second page of search engines related to your client’s organization name. Again, you don’t want them to be surprised in any way, especially by finding it on a search engine by accident.

This is a great way to cause havoc.

Be Sure to Frame the Case Study in a Positive Light

Your case study should never be “our client absolutely sucked, and we rescued them!” 

Rather, it should be something like:

“Our client was awesome. They are talented in (insert areas here). Together, we partnered to collaborate to create some amazing results.” 

The way you position the case study will have a great impact on the permission you receive and how you’re continuing your relationship with your clients. 

Reframe Your Request

Instead of simply just saying:

“We want to do a case study. Is that okay with you?”

Position it along the lines of:

“We did some awesome work. Mind if we brag about our combined story and the amazing results we both achieved?”

At the end of the day, it takes your marketing work and the quality of the team and product of the client to really have success. Showing how this happened and came together does a lot to build positive vibes with the client.

4. Ask For a Testimonial to Use in Your Case Study

Don’t just ask for permission to brag about your work together—ask for a testimonial as well. With your theme already in mind, you can help your client formulate the most concentrated thought possible, which will take your case study to the next level. 

The Key to Amazing Testimonials

The best way to get the testimonials you want is to provide direction for what you’re looking for. But, again, there’s nothing worse than staring at the blinking cursor on a blank screen and trying to come up with something out of the blue. 

Heck—we as agencies struggle enough with creating something out of nothing! Our clients will have the same trouble as well. It’s our job to make it as easy as possible for them to put together an amazing testimonial. 

To do this, send over examples of the ideal testImonial. This will give them something to work with. You once again want to use a simple formula in this. Here’s an easy formula with a testimonial.

This is what I bought > This is why I was hesitant to buy > This is how the agency addressed the concern > This is how happy I am with the results

You want the client to be “realistic,” too. You don’t want non-stop praise and the best, but have an honest assessment of your work. This is why including a “why they were hesitant” helps in the process.

A prospect is going to be reading this case study and has their own concerns with purchasing. You can overcome specific purchasing objections with the smart use of testimonials.

Outlandish testimonials are a dime a dozen in the online world, so collecting testimonials that address objections increases trust.

In a testimonial, you also want to make sure it comes across as real . This means having a headshot, the name of the person, the company, and their role at the company. Again, it reduces the chances a prospect thinks the whole story is made up.

Don’t Neglect Audio and Video in Case Studies

Also, don’t forget the power of audio and video. For some clients, it might also be easier for them to give you their best testimonials via one of these two mediums.

For example, having a video on your website of a client looking into a camera is a great way to connect with the prospect.

It’s not just a picture and a face, but they can see this is another business person just like themselves, who used your services and is now experiencing all the benefits.

5. Gather Several Different Perspectives For a Case Study

Just like we want to involve diverse members of the client’s team — sales, marketing, fulfillment, leadership, etc. — during the GamePlan strategy meetings, we want to bring a variety of perspectives to a case study.

This is all about telling a story, and bringing in multiple perspectives from the client side will help you tell the most compelling story possible that prospective clients will relate to. 

You want the president sharing about the outrageous success his business is now having— the marketing director about how easy your team was to work with and execute a campaign with. 

6. Build Out a Process for Creating Case Studies

At DoInbound, we’re all about building easily repeatable processes that save you time and help you do your best work. The way you go about doing case studies should be no different. 

You want it to be seamless and embedded into your client engagements. It’s easy to have a marketing success and forget about it or have it in your mind but never shared. Taking the time to do that can boost your sales and impress prospects.

It’s another way to use current clients you generate more business.

We’ve streamlined our testimonial and info gathering by sending clients exit surveys when we complete a project. But, of course, this is something they expect to receive and is something we always send when the client has the experience fresh on their minds. 

Start Creating Compelling Case Studies Today!

Case studies are powerful weapons in your sales arsenal. They can help you tell the story of what you do and how you work with your clients. They can mean the difference between a new client or a lost opportunity to start creating compelling ones today!

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The Effectiveness of Case Studies on Agency Websites

Case studies offer agencies the opportunity to highlight their success stories. By featuring work on your website, you’re able to demonstrate the process and results achieved –– from developing marketing strategy to achieving results.

A 2018 survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute found that case studies were the second most popular type of content used by B2B marketers. 47% of all respondents said that case studies were the most effective form of content they created for their B2B content marketing.

A case study provides a detailed and specific analysis of work your agency did, including the strategy behind the work and the results achieved. They are an effective form of long-form content that demonstrates the expertise of the agency. It’s important to be well-researched when developing a plant, and the same is true for a case study. The most effective case studies are detailed and well fleshed out, making it clear to any reader –– potential business partner or otherwise –– the work the agency did and the success achieved.

They’re also the most popular content marketing tactic used for self-promotion in the US. According to an eMarketer survey, 62.6% of marketing agency executives say case studies are effective in generating leads .

Between highlighting your business’s expertise and generating concrete future business, case studies are an important part of any successful digital marketing agency’s website and portfolio.

Highlight Your Agency’s Strategy and Strengths

Case studies allow an agency to show, not tell. They highlight concrete work that a team has done and demonstrate not just what they do but how they do it –– an important piece in securing future business. Case studies are a space to dive deeper into the strategy behind decisions made and really emphasize why your agency does it best.

Most case studies start off with an explanation of a businesses needs and how the agency met those needs using research, an individualized strategy, and their own expertise. Moving forward, the case study highlights the specific work the agency did and concludes with concrete data to show how effective and successful their work was at delivering results.

Whether it highlights a rebranding of an outdated website , the expansion of a brand’s presence to new social media platforms, or producing qualified leads, a case study allows an agency to demonstrate its diverse services and offerings all while highlighting its mastery in the field.

Digital agency showreels can be another way to display your portfolios.

Clarify the Type of Work Your Agency Does

People may find descriptions of a business and its services and skills unclear. They may need more information to understand what an agency can offer. Having case studies on your website will help maximize your ability to convert leads.

Each case study can highlight a different aspect of your business’s services. From website design to search engine optimization to rebranding, they can allow you to be more specific about what kind of work you’re doing – all of which can help attract even more future business, too.

Show Your Work to Relevant Businesses in Similar Industries

An important part of any business’s strategy is standing out amongst competitors. Case studies are an effective way to differentiate your agency and demonstrate why your team stands out. If your agency boasts a  success story involving a digital rebranding of a company’s website and marketing efforts, then drafting and sharing a case study reflecting that work could mean that in the future, more clients with similar needs go to you first.

Many businesses want an agency to show expertise in their field. If an agency has done work and can demonstrate success with hotels , a hotel company may be more likely to hire that agency than if they’re inexperienced in the field. In a similar vein to optimizing a website or a blog post for search, case studies can act like a strong keyword that drives traffic to your website. If a person is searching for “digital rebranding” services and your website has a case study with that title that showcases your hard work and expertise , it’s more likely to pop up on the search results. Case studies can thus help drive organic traffic to your website.

Generate Leads

According to BigCommerce, once a visitor to your website interacts with a testimonial or review, there are serious results . 58% of visitors are more likely to convert after seeing a review, they buy 3% more per order on average, and the website generates 62% more revenue per site visitor.

Case studies act as the perfect way to include testimonials on your website in a strategic and purposeful way that is proven to generate leads. Piquing potential future businesses’ interest is just another reason why case studies are such a powerful tool to showcase on a digital marketing agency website.

Close the Sale

Drafting well-written and high-quality case studies to share on your website is only one part of the process. Ultimately, it’s up to you and your team to close the sale and secure the business of any potential clients –– but case studies are proven to help get you there.

If nothing else, they can help get you to the first meeting –– because as we’ve seen, website visitors are influenced by testimonials, of which your case studies will be full –– and you can engage the person from there.

About 97 Switch

97 Switch is a nationally ranked, Chicago-based digital marketing and strategy agency. Its globally ranked services include top-notch web design and development, digital marketing services and strategic planning and results.

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Case studies & examples

Agencies mobilize to improve emergency response in puerto rico through better data.

Federal agencies' response efforts to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico was hampered by imperfect address data for the island. In the aftermath, emergency responders gathered together to enhance the utility of Puerto Rico address data and share best practices for using what information is currently available.

Federal Data Strategy

BUILDER: A Science-Based Approach to Infrastructure Management

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) adopted a data-driven, risk-informed strategy to better assess risks, prioritize investments, and cost effectively modernize its aging nuclear infrastructure. NNSA’s new strategy, and lessons learned during its implementation, will help inform other federal data practitioners’ efforts to maintain facility-level information while enabling accurate and timely enterprise-wide infrastructure analysis.

Department of Energy

data management , data analysis , process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

Business case for open data

Six reasons why making your agency's data open and accessible is a good business decision.

CDO Council Federal HR Dashboarding Report - 2021

The CDO Council worked with the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Treasury, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Department of Transportation to develop a Diversity Profile Dashboard and to explore the value of shared HR decision support across agencies. The pilot was a success, and identified potential impact of a standardized suite of HR dashboards, in addition to demonstrating the value of collaborative analytics between agencies.

Federal Chief Data Officer's Council

data practices , data sharing , data access

CDOC Data Inventory Report

The Chief Data Officers Council Data Inventory Working Group developed this paper to highlight the value proposition for data inventories and describe challenges agencies may face when implementing and managing comprehensive data inventories. It identifies opportunities agencies can take to overcome some of these challenges and includes a set of recommendations directed at Agencies, OMB, and the CDO Council (CDOC).

data practices , metadata , data inventory

DSWG Recommendations and Findings

The Chief Data Officer Council (CDOC) established a Data Sharing Working Group (DSWG) to help the council understand the varied data-sharing needs and challenges of all agencies across the Federal Government. The DSWG reviewed data-sharing across federal agencies and developed a set of recommendations for improving the methods to access and share data within and between agencies. This report presents the findings of the DSWG’s review and provides recommendations to the CDOC Executive Committee.

data practices , data agreements , data sharing , data access

Data Skills Training Program Implementation Toolkit

The Data Skills Training Program Implementation Toolkit is designed to provide both small and large agencies with information to develop their own data skills training programs. The information provided will serve as a roadmap to the design, implementation, and administration of federal data skills training programs as agencies address their Federal Data Strategy’s Agency Action 4 gap-closing strategy training component.

data sharing , Federal Data Strategy

Data Standdown: Interrupting process to fix information

Although not a true pause in operations, ONR’s data standdown made data quality and data consolidation the top priority for the entire organization. It aimed to establish an automated and repeatable solution to enable a more holistic view of ONR investments and activities, and to increase transparency and effectiveness throughout its mission support functions. In addition, it demonstrated that getting top-level buy-in from management to prioritize data can truly advance a more data-driven culture.

Office of Naval Research

data governance , data cleaning , process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

Data.gov Metadata Management Services Product-Preliminary Plan

Status summary and preliminary business plan for a potential metadata management product under development by the Data.gov Program Management Office

data management , Federal Data Strategy , metadata , open data

PDF (7 pages)

Department of Transportation Case Study: Enterprise Data Inventory

In response to the Open Government Directive, DOT developed a strategic action plan to inventory and release high-value information through the Data.gov portal. The Department sustained efforts in building its data inventory, responding to the President’s memorandum on regulatory compliance with a comprehensive plan that was recognized as a model for other agencies to follow.

Department of Transportation

data inventory , open data

Department of Transportation Model Data Inventory Approach

This document from the Department of Transportation provides a model plan for conducting data inventory efforts required under OMB Memorandum M-13-13.

data inventory

PDF (5 pages)

FEMA Case Study: Disaster Assistance Program Coordination

In 2008, the Disaster Assistance Improvement Program (DAIP), an E-Government initiative led by FEMA with support from 16 U.S. Government partners, launched DisasterAssistance.gov to simplify the process for disaster survivors to identify and apply for disaster assistance. DAIP utilized existing partner technologies and implemented a services oriented architecture (SOA) that integrated the content management system and rules engine supporting Department of Labor’s Benefits.gov applications with FEMA’s Individual Assistance Center application. The FEMA SOA serves as the backbone for data sharing interfaces with three of DAIP’s federal partners and transfers application data to reduce duplicate data entry by disaster survivors.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

data sharing

Federal CDO Data Skills Training Program Case Studies

This series was developed by the Chief Data Officer Council’s Data Skills & Workforce Development Working Group to provide support to agencies in implementing the Federal Data Strategy’s Agency Action 4 gap-closing strategy training component in FY21.

FederalRegister.gov API Case Study

This case study describes the tenets behind an API that provides access to all data found on FederalRegister.gov, including all Federal Register documents from 1994 to the present.

National Archives and Records Administration

PDF (3 pages)

Fuels Knowledge Graph Project

The Fuels Knowledge Graph Project (FKGP), funded through the Federal Chief Data Officers (CDO) Council, explored the use of knowledge graphs to achieve more consistent and reliable fuel management performance measures. The team hypothesized that better performance measures and an interoperable semantic framework could enhance the ability to understand wildfires and, ultimately, improve outcomes. To develop a more systematic and robust characterization of program outcomes, the FKGP team compiled, reviewed, and analyzed multiple agency glossaries and data sources. The team examined the relationships between them, while documenting the data management necessary for a successful fuels management program.

metadata , data sharing , data access

Government Data Hubs

A list of Federal agency open data hubs, including USDA, HHS, NASA, and many others.

Helping Baltimore Volunteers Find Where to Help

Bloomberg Government analysts put together a prototype through the Census Bureau’s Opportunity Project to better assess where volunteers should direct litter-clearing efforts. Using Census Bureau and Forest Service information, the team brought a data-driven approach to their work. Their experience reveals how individuals with data expertise can identify a real-world problem that data can help solve, navigate across agencies to find and obtain the most useful data, and work within resource constraints to provide a tool to help address the problem.

Census Bureau

geospatial , data sharing , Federal Data Strategy

How USDA Linked Federal and Commercial Data to Shed Light on the Nutritional Value of Retail Food Sales

Purchase-to-Plate Crosswalk (PPC) links the more than 359,000 food products in a comercial company database to several thousand foods in a series of USDA nutrition databases. By linking existing data resources, USDA was able to enrich and expand the analysis capabilities of both datasets. Since there were no common identifiers between the two data structures, the team used probabilistic and semantic methods to reduce the manual effort required to link the data.

Department of Agriculture

data sharing , process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

How to Blend Your Data: BEA and BLS Harness Big Data to Gain New Insights about Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S.

A recent collaboration between the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) helps shed light on the segment of the American workforce employed by foreign multinational companies. This case study shows the opportunities of cross-agency data collaboration, as well as some of the challenges of using big data and administrative data in the federal government.

Bureau of Economic Analysis / Bureau of Labor Statistics

data sharing , workforce development , process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

Implementing Federal-Wide Comment Analysis Tools

The CDO Council Comment Analysis pilot has shown that recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) can effectively aid the regulatory comment analysis process. The proof-ofconcept is a standardized toolset intended to support agencies and staff in reviewing and responding to the millions of public comments received each year across government.

Improving Data Access and Data Management: Artificial Intelligence-Generated Metadata Tags at NASA

NASA’s data scientists and research content managers recently built an automated tagging system using machine learning and natural language processing. This system serves as an example of how other agencies can use their own unstructured data to improve information accessibility and promote data reuse.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

metadata , data management , data sharing , process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

Investing in Learning with the Data Stewardship Tactical Working Group at DHS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) experience forming the Data Stewardship Tactical Working Group (DSTWG) provides meaningful insights for those who want to address data-related challenges collaboratively and successfully in their own agencies.

Department of Homeland Security

data governance , data management , Federal Data Strategy

Leveraging AI for Business Process Automation at NIH

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the twenty-seven institutes and centers at the NIH, recently deployed Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to automate the process by which it receives and internally refers grant applications. This new approach ensures efficient and consistent grant application referral, and liberates Program Managers from the labor-intensive and monotonous referral process.

National Institutes of Health

standards , data cleaning , process redesign , AI

FDS Proof Point

National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

The National Broadband Map is a tool that provide consumers nationwide reliable information on broadband internet connections. This case study describes how crowd-sourcing, open source software, and public engagement informs the development of a tool that promotes government transparency.

Federal Communications Commission

National Renewable Energy Laboratory API Case Study

This case study describes the launch of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Developer Network in October 2011. The main goal was to build an overarching platform to make it easier for the public to use NREL APIs and for NREL to produce APIs.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Open Energy Data at DOE

This case study details the development of the renewable energy applications built on the Open Energy Information (OpenEI) platform, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and implemented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

open data , data sharing , Federal Data Strategy

Pairing Government Data with Private-Sector Ingenuity to Take on Unwanted Calls

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) releases data from millions of consumer complaints about unwanted calls to help fuel a myriad of private-sector solutions to tackle the problem. The FTC’s work serves as an example of how agencies can work with the private sector to encourage the innovative use of government data toward solutions that benefit the public.

Federal Trade Commission

data cleaning , Federal Data Strategy , open data , data sharing

Profile in Data Sharing - National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise

The Federal CDO Council’s Data Sharing Working Group highlights successful data sharing activities to recognize mature data sharing practices as well as to incentivize and inspire others to take part in similar collaborations. This Profile in Data Sharing focuses on how the federal government and states support children who are being placed for adoption or foster care across state lines. It greatly reduces the work and time required for states to exchange paperwork and information needed to process the placements. Additionally, NEICE allows child welfare workers to communicate and provide timely updates to courts, relevant private service providers, and families.

Profile in Data Sharing - National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Programs

The Federal CDO Council’s Data Sharing Working Group highlights successful data sharing activities to recognize mature data sharing practices as well as to incentivize and inspire others to take part in similar collaborations. This Profile in Data Sharing focuses on how the Health Resources and Services Administration collaborates with the Department of Education to make it easier to apply to serve medically underserved communities - reducing applicant burden and improving processing efficiency.

Profile in Data Sharing - Roadside Inspection Data

The Federal CDO Council’s Data Sharing Working Group highlights successful data sharing activities to recognize mature data sharing practices as well as to incentivize and inspire others to take part in similar collaborations. This Profile in Data Sharing focuses on how the Department of Transportation collaborates with the Customs and Border Patrol and state partners to prescreen commercial motor vehicles entering the US and to focus inspections on unsafe carriers and drivers.

Profiles in Data Sharing - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service

The Federal CDO Council’s Data Sharing Working Group highlights successful data sharing activities to recognize mature data sharing practices as well as to incentivize and inspire others to take part in similar collaborations. This Profile in Data Sharing focuses on how the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control to notify state, local, tribal, and territorial public health authorities so they can connect with individuals in their communities about their potential exposure.

SBA’s Approach to Identifying Data, Using a Learning Agenda, and Leveraging Partnerships to Build its Evidence Base

Through its Enterprise Learning Agenda, Small Business Administration’s (SBA) staff identify essential research questions, a plan to answer them, and how data held outside the agency can help provide further insights. Other agencies can learn from the innovative ways SBA identifies data to answer agency strategic questions and adopt those aspects that work for their own needs.

Small Business Administration

process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

Supercharging Data through Validation as a Service

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service restructured its approach to data validation at the state level using an open-source, API-based validation service managed at the federal level.

data cleaning , data validation , API , data sharing , process redesign , Federal Data Strategy

The Census Bureau Uses Its Own Data to Increase Response Rates, Helps Communities and Other Stakeholders Do the Same

The Census Bureau team produced a new interactive mapping tool in early 2018 called the Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM), an application that resulted in wider use of authoritative Census Bureau data, not only to improve the Census Bureau’s own operational efficiency, but also for use by tribal, state, and local governments, national and local partners, and other community groups. Other agency data practitioners can learn from the Census Bureau team’s experience communicating technical needs to non-technical executives, building analysis tools with widely-used software, and integrating efforts with stakeholders and users.

open data , data sharing , data management , data analysis , Federal Data Strategy

The Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool harnessed the power of millions of data records while protecting the privacy of individuals, creating an easy-to-use tool to better understand health disparities.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

geospatial , Federal Data Strategy , open data

The Veterans Legacy Memorial

The Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) is a digital platform to help families, survivors, and fellow veterans to take a leading role in honoring their beloved veteran. Built on millions of existing National Cemetery Administration (NCA) records in a 25-year-old database, VLM is a powerful example of an agency harnessing the potential of a legacy system to provide a modernized service that better serves the public.

Veterans Administration

data sharing , data visualization , Federal Data Strategy

Transitioning to a Data Driven Culture at CMS

This case study describes how CMS announced the creation of the Office of Information Products and Data Analytics (OIPDA) to take the lead in making data use and dissemination a core function of the agency.

data management , data sharing , data analysis , data analytics

PDF (10 pages)

U.S. Department of Labor Case Study: Software Development Kits

The U.S. Department of Labor sought to go beyond merely making data available to developers and take ease of use of the data to the next level by giving developers tools that would make using DOL’s data easier. DOL created software development kits (SDKs), which are downloadable code packages that developers can drop into their apps, making access to DOL’s data easy for even the most novice developer. These SDKs have even been published as open source projects with the aim of speeding up their conversion to SDKs that will eventually support all federal APIs.

Department of Labor

open data , API

U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Census Bureau collaborate on national roads and boundaries data

It is a well-kept secret that the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau were the original two federal agencies to build the first national digital database of roads and boundaries in the United States. The agencies joined forces to develop homegrown computer software and state of the art technologies to convert existing USGS topographic maps of the nation to the points, lines, and polygons that fueled early GIS. Today, the USGS and Census Bureau have a longstanding goal to leverage and use roads and authoritative boundary datasets.

U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Census Bureau

data management , data sharing , data standards , data validation , data visualization , Federal Data Strategy , geospatial , open data , quality

USA.gov Uses Human-Centered Design to Roll Out AI Chatbot

To improve customer service and give better answers to users of the USA.gov website, the Technology Transformation and Services team at General Services Administration (GSA) created a chatbot using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

General Services Administration

AI , Federal Data Strategy

resources.data.gov

An official website of the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Government Information Services.

This section contains explanations of common terms referenced on resources.data.gov.

• Study Protocol
• Open access
• Published: 09 September 2024

A multi-state evaluation of extreme risk protection orders: a research protocol

• April M. Zeoli 1 ,
• Amy Molocznik 2 ,
• Jennifer Paruk 3 ,
• Elise Omaki 2 ,
• Shannon Frattaroli 2 ,
• Marian E. Betz 4 ,
• Annette Christy 5 ,
• Reena Kapoor 6 ,
• Christopher Knoepke 7 ,
• Wenjuan Ma 8 ,
• Michael A. Norko 6 ,
• Veronica A. Pear 9 ,
• Ali Rowhani-Rahbar 10 ,
• Julia P. Schleimer 9 ,
• Jeffrey W. Swanson 11 &
• Garen J. Wintemute 9  

Injury Epidemiology volume  11 , Article number:  49 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

65 Accesses

Metrics details

Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) are civil court orders that prohibit firearm purchase and possession when someone is behaving dangerously and is at risk of harming themselves and/or others. As of June 2024, ERPOs are available in 21 states and the District of Columbia to prevent firearm violence. This paper describes the design and protocol of a six-state study of ERPO use.

The six states included are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, and Washington. During the 3-year project period (2020–2023), ERPO case files were obtained through public records requests or through agreements with agencies with access to these data in each state. A team of over four dozen research assistants from seven institutions coded 6628 ERPO cases, abstracting 80 variables per case under domains related to respondent characteristics, events and behaviors leading to ERPO petitions, petitioner types, and court outcomes. Research assistants received didactic training through an online learning management system that included virtual training modules, quizzes, practice coding exercises, and two virtual synchronous sessions. A protocol for gaining strong interrater reliability was used. Research assistants also learned strategies for reducing the risk of experiencing secondary trauma through the coding process, identifying its occurrence, and obtaining help.

Addressing firearm violence in the U.S. is a priority. Understanding ERPO use in these six states can inform implementation planning and ERPO uptake, including promising opportunities to enhance safety and prevent firearm-related injuries and deaths. By publishing this protocol, we offer detailed insight into the methods underlying the papers published from these data, and the process of managing data abstraction from ERPO case files across the multi-state and multi-institution teams involved. Such information may also inform future analyses of this data, and future replication efforts.

Registration

This protocol is registered on Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/kv4fc/ ).

In 2022 in the United States, over 27,000 people died by firearm suicide and more than 20,000 people were killed as a result of interpersonal firearm violence resulting in 14.2/100,000 people dying from intentional firearm injuries that year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control 2023 ). Preventing firearm access by those identified to be at risk of harming themselves and/or others is a logical strategy to reduce firearm homicide, firearm suicide, and nonfatal firearm violence. One promising and innovative opportunity to address firearm violence, therefore, is with extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws. ERPO laws, or “red flag laws” as they are often called in popular discourse, provide a civil court process to temporarily prohibit firearm purchase and possession by individuals who are behaving dangerously and are at risk of harming themselves or others. As of June 2024, 21 states and the District of Columbia have passed ERPO-style bills into law (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2024 ). ERPOs fill an important policy gap because some individuals at risk of harming themselves and/or others, are legally able to purchase and possess firearms and cannot otherwise be disarmed. Therefore, ERPOs provide a mechanism for preventing firearm access (and potentially firearm violence) when an individual who represents a credible threat of violence is known but is not prohibited from accessing firearms by other legal mechanisms.

Research on ERPOs and their use and outcomes is in its infancy. Multiple studies have described characteristics of ERPO respondents and risk behaviors detailed in the applications in a single state or county ERPO (Barnard et al. 2021 ; Frattaroli et al. 2020 ; Pear et al. 2022 ; Rowhani-Rahbar et al. 2020 ; Swanson et al. 2019 , 2017 ; Zeoli et al. 2021 ). Few studies have examined outcomes, and those that have generally focus on suicide outcomes, with findings suggestive of a reduction in suicide risk when ERPOs are used (Swanson et al. 2019 , 2017 ; Miller et al. 2024 ) and an association at the state-level between ERPO law enactment and a reduction in firearm suicides (Kivisto and Phalen 2018 ). To our knowledge, this is the first multi-state ERPO study.

Here we describe the protocol we used to conduct a six-state study of ERPO case files designed to characterize ERPO petitions, petitioners and respondents (individual parties in the ERPO petition), court outcomes, and identify whether ERPOs are associated with reductions in suicide across geographically, demographically, and politically diverse states. The protocol described in this manuscript details (1) how we accessed ERPO case files in six states; (2) an explanation of the process of standardizing data from official records across the six states; (3) guidance for training research assistants (RAs) and maintaining consistent data abstraction practices across a multi-state, multi-institution RA team; and (4) strategies for reducing and responding to secondary trauma risk experienced by RAs as a result of reading ERPO narratives, which can include graphic descriptions of violence and crises.

During the 3-year project period (2020–2023), we conducted a multi-state study (Zeoli et al. 2022 ) of ERPO use with data from six states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, and Washington). We selected these states for three reasons. First, all are engaged in efforts to implement ERPOs, and those implementation efforts are either yielding a critical mass of ERPO petitions filed or an informative implementation context. Second, these states are geographically and politically diverse, which may impact implementation and use. Third, we were able to access ERPO case files in the selected states. While ERPO statutes differ in some ways across the six states (Smart et al. 2020 ), all share a general process that involves a petition, court hearing, and court decision about whether to temporarily prohibit the individual named in the order from purchasing and possessing firearms.

ERPO court records are publicly available for all study states except Maryland. In the five states where ERPO data are public, we requested ERPO court records through public records searches or through agencies with access to these data. For California and Washington, ERPO case numbers and non-public identifying information such as respondent name, county, and ERPO date and type were first obtained from the Department of Justice (DOJ) (for California) and the Administrative Office of the Courts (for Washington) through a special request; this information was then used to request the publicly available court records from individual local and county courts throughout the two states.

In Colorado, a local team member contacted each county court to request ERPO records. In Connecticut, the ERPO statute (Connecticut General Assembly 2023 ) specifically requires the court to give notice of the court order to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and it is through these court notices (that have been maintained since 2013) that the study team accessed the public records. In Florida, we obtained most of the case files through Florida’s secure Comprehensive Case Information System (CCIS), a centralized database of court case information, which streamlined the process of accessing these publicly available records. For a few counties, we obtained the publicly available case files directly from the County Clerks of Court.

In Maryland, at the time of the study, ERPO records were restricted to select entities named in the statute (Brown 2022 ). Working with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, we requested and obtained ERPO case files from District Courts throughout the State.

It should be noted that ERPO court records are often paper documents and may not be digitally accessible. This is true for California, Maryland, and Washington. Accessing paper copies of ERPO case files in these three states required a significant amount of time and coordination to collect the documents and scan and upload them to secure, password protected file storage systems housed at the collaborating universities in each state. The study teams in Colorado, Connecticut, and Florida gained access to digital copies of case files.

We requested ERPO case files for the time period beginning at ERPO enactment in each state through June 30, 2020 (see Table  1 ) with the exception of Connecticut, where the law took effect in 1999 but full ERPO case reports were only available beginning January 1, 2013. For California, the request process differed slightly. We first obtained identifying information on ERPO respondents through California DOJ and used that information to request the publicly available case files. However, due to California DOJ’s process of overwriting respondents’ older orders with newer orders in the primary file every 3 weeks, it is possible that, in the early days of collecting California’s ERPO case files, we missed cases when an individual was a respondent to more than one ERPO action. Once the California team learned of the California DOJ process in mid-2019, we started requesting ERPO case numbers and respondent identifying information from the California DOJ every 21 days so that we would not miss any order data due to the data overwriting process.

This effectively means we were unable to get case-level data for California prior to mid-2019 and therefore cannot distinguish the number of cases filed. Instead, the California data reflects the number of respondents from ERPO enactment through June 30, 2020, and the number of respondents for whom we coded cases for that timeframe. Additionally, in California, we received few requested case files from the court for cases involving only emergency ERPOs (i.e., those not followed by a temporary or final order) because these orders are granted remotely while the petitioning officer is in the field. As a result, they are typically filed at the local police station or sheriff’s office rather than the courthouse.

We abstracted data from all cases received from each state except Florida. In Florida, the large number of case files received (n = 4695) exceeded our available coding resources; therefore, we abstracted data from a random sample of 50% of cases from all counties with greater than 10 ERPO case files based on the case counts by the Office of the State Court Administrator (OSCA). Fifteen Florida counties had a small number (< 10) of cases based on OSCA counts, and we coded all of those. In total, RAs abstracted data from 6,628 ERPO case files (see Table  1 ) under the 10 domains listed in Table  2 (e.g., criminal legal system; firearm access and possession; and court decisions).

Training and coding procedures

The research team included investigators from nine universities, with members located in each selected state and two additional states. Starting with data collection instruments from two prior ERPO studies (Frattaroli et al. 2020 ; Zeoli et al. 2021 ), we collectively developed the data abstraction instrument for the project by comparing the data elements included on each state’s ERPO petition form and the ERPO eligibility criteria listed in each state’s statute against the existing instruments. This process was lengthy due to the vast differences in ERPO petition forms between, and sometimes within, states. The Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI curated a list of common and state-specific candidate abstraction variables and shared it with the state PIs and their teams. After the initial draft of the instrument was created, the PI and Co-PI added, removed, edited, and adjusted the items as necessary given feedback from the research team. Through a series of discussions, the multi-state team refined and finalized the list of data elements that comprised the final data collection instrument.

The goal was to create an instrument that would capture the data needed to understand ERPO use. The final instrument had robust sections related to suicide and interpersonal violence risk, among others (see Appendix A in Supplementary material). For suicide risk, we distinguished among ideation, threats, plans, aborted attempts, and attempts where data were available to disambiguate them. For interpersonal violence risk, we abstracted data on threats and uses of violence, separately, with queries capturing the target of the violence or threat. For both suicide and interpersonal violence risk, we captured whether any of the acts or threats of violence involved a firearm. We also included a variable to specify whether these risk behaviors were part of the event that motivated someone to file an ERPO petition (termed the “precipitating event”). Other sections of the data collection instrument specified the risk context of the situation and captured information about substance use, mental health, criminal history, firearm possession or access, and whether a respondent brandished a firearm. Finally, we included sections about ERPO court processes, whether the ERPO was granted, and whether firearms were removed.

State PIs had the option of adding state-specific variables to the instrument and in Maryland, California, and Connecticut, the PIs did. After agreeing on a good working draft of the instrument, we developed training materials that defined each variable and provided examples of coded excerpts from case files and guidance for abstracting the data that the entire research team reviewed, refined, and approved. We then programmed the data collection instrument in Qualtrics, an online survey software program to which all sites had access. Each state PI was then asked to abstract data from a small number of ERPO petitions from their state to ensure suitability of the instrument (the Maryland team was not able to complete this task due to not yet having access to their state’s ERPO casefiles). Feedback was then incorporated into the instrument.

Each state PI staffed their teams according to their state’s volume of ERPO cases. Due to the differences among state’s ERPO petitions and associated forms within the case files, and the need to include RAs on the Institutional Review Board protocol used by their state PIs, we initially planned for each RA to abstract data only from the state they were hired to staff. In practice, some RAs worked across states to manage the variation in access to case files during the study period. Having RAs who were able to code across states allowed us to keep RAs continuously coding even when files were not available in their home states. Specifically, RAs for Maryland and Florida were combined and coded Florida case files while we waited for access to Maryland case files. When Florida was completed, the RAs moved to code Maryland cases. Importantly, RAs coded only one state at a time to avoid introducing errors associated with switching between state case files and differing forms. The project employed 59 RAs over 17 months to code the 6415 cases.

RAs completed didactic training created by the two project PIs via an online learning management system. The training, a mix of videos, readings, and quizzes, included information about ERPOs, the study aims, the data collection instrument and associated definitions, the process for abstracting data, and information about strategies to reduce the risk and impact of secondary trauma. RAs completed the virtual training modules and passed the quizzes before advancing to practice coding two ERPO case files. After coding two case files, RAs participated in two one-hour synchronous sessions hosted by the project PIs to reinforce the online training, give them an opportunity to ask questions, and to review and discuss the test case coding. Once RAs completed these steps, they were cleared by the PIs to code.

The state PIs then trained RAs cleared for coding in the specifics of each state’s case files and variables. The California team held synchronous training sessions until questions had been resolved and RAs felt comfortable proceeding. For Florida and Maryland, RAs attended two virtual synchronous training sessions, one for each state’s ERPO process. In Colorado, RAs were trained using synchronous training sessions and participated in standing biweekly meetings to discuss abstraction issues and element definitions. For Connecticut, the PI developed a state-specific coding manual instructing RAs where to find data elements in the case files. In Washington, RAs were trained using synchronous training sessions and participated in standing weekly meetings to discuss abstraction discrepancies and definitional disagreements.

When coding began in earnest, the process for reaching reliability differed slightly from state to state, depending on the number of RAs and number of cases to be coded. In Washington, for example, a total of 10% of cases were randomly sampled and coded by all RAs to ensure reliability and consistency. In Colorado, 10% of cases were randomly sampled to be double-coded. In Florida, which had the largest number of cases, coding proceeded one county at a time, and RAs double-coded cases until they graduated to single-coder status. For RAs to graduate, they needed to achieve at least a 0.80 inter-rater reliability score. New RAs and those whose scores were below the target were paired with primary RAs (who had reached the 0.80 threshold) until they, too, reached 0.80.

Data quality and maintaining fidelity to the coding procedures

Because RAs generally coded one state (with the exception of Florida and Maryland RAs), we were unable to quantitatively test reliability of coding between states. Our multiple coding training procedures in which all RAs participated were designed to help ensure consistency. However, due to differences in ERPO documents across states and the lengthy duration of our coding period, it was possible that variations in understanding of variable definitions might have developed among state teams. To combat this possibility, the PI and Co-PI instituted systems to maintain coding pace and consistency among RAs.

Weekly videoconference check-in meetings were implemented, with RAs required to attend at least one meeting each week. Online moderated group chats were used to allow RAs to ask questions as they arose, tagging team members to alert them to the question, enabling them to get answers relatively quickly. The California, Florida, and Maryland teams kept a running document of frequently asked questions that all RAs across states could access during coding. The meetings and group chats served as forums to reinforce training, the coding instrument definitions, troubleshoot coding of complex cases, share consensus with RAs about larger coding questions raised in the online group chats, and develop an inclusive and communicative team dynamic. The check-in meetings and online group chats reduced the number of RA questions needing to be elevated to the PI and Co-PI, maintaining coding pace and consistency.

Prevention and reduction of secondary trauma

Due to the sometimes detailed and graphic descriptions of crises and violence contained in ERPO case files, there was a risk that RAs would experience secondary trauma through reading them. Secondary trauma, also called vicarious trauma, are the effects of indirect exposure to trauma (McCann and Pearlman 1990 ). For example, researchers have reported experiencing physical and emotional symptoms (e.g., sleeplessness, an increased awareness of safety) when conducting research on violence and suicide (Mckenzie et al. 2017 ; Campbell 2002 ). To minimize the risk of secondary trauma, we instituted protocols to limit RA exposure to cases when needed. For example, the protocol dictated that if an RA decided they could not code a specific case, for any reason, that case was reassigned, no questions asked. By guaranteeing we would not ask for an explanation as to why an RA could not code a case, we allowed them to switch out a case without sharing what might be personal information they did not want to disclose to their supervisors. We also encouraged RAs to shift to completing other study tasks when they needed a break from the intensity of coding. In this way, RAs could request time off from coding case files and shift to completing other research-related tasks until they were ready to re-engage with coding. Additionally, at the weekly check-in meetings, space was held to discuss how RAs were handling the emotional and psychological aspects of coding ERPO case files, cultivating an inclusive and communicative environment where RAs would be comfortable sharing with each other. Importantly, PIs and other meeting leads often began the meetings by sharing what they found emotionally difficult in specific cases to set the tone for the meetings and demonstrate that it is normal to be bothered by the case narratives being read.

Furthermore, the online coding training course completed by all RAs included a module on recognizing signs that might indicate secondary trauma and information on what to do when experiencing such symptoms. A licensed clinical social worker on staff with one of the state teams was available to RAs at some RA meetings and on call for individual appointments, should an RA need it. While the social worker did not establish a therapeutic relationship with RAs, they listened, made suggestions and indicated when it might be necessary to seek other resources to help with the psychological load of coding. Additionally, each state team developed a list of available resources (mainly through their universities, for whom the RAs worked) to which RAs could refer. While this research focused on the possibility that RAs might experience vicarious trauma due to their role in reading and abstracting data from the ERPO casefiles, it is important to recognize that even the most seasoned researcher can experience vicarious trauma and benefit from the steps detailed here.

By coordinating data collection on ERPO cases across states, we efficiently achieved greater explanatory power through pooled analyses and direct comparisons than would be possible if we had examined ERPO use in each of these states independently. Analyzing the breadth of violence risks and contexts in which the risks occur in ERPO case files requires attention to detail and standard data collection protocols to be in place and followed. Considering ERPO petitions describe the ways in which the respondent is at risk of harming themselves and/or others, and therefore can contain graphic descriptions of violence and threats (including mass shooting threats, suicide attempts, and domestic violence) conducting research about ERPOs carries risks of secondary trauma. This account of our processes can inform future firearm violence prevention research by providing a reference for how to undertake similar projects in terms of data acquisition, coding, data quality, and strategies to promote health wellness among RAs.

The study used cross-sectional administrative data. Relying on administrative data meant that the processes described are for coding data reported in the case files only. We did not seek out information beyond what was provided (typically solely from the petitioner's perspective) through the ERPO case files. We note that the structure and level of information available in the case files varied across and within states, as well as between petitioner types (law enforcement or civilian). Comparisons of ERPO use across states requires consideration of this variability. In states where law enforcement officers are the only authorized petitioners, information reported about respondents and precipitating events followed a relatively uniform reporting style, although the narrative style of these reports meant that the content was not uniformly consistent in relation to the data points to be abstracted. Where civilians, mainly family members and intimate partners, were authorized to petition, the presentation and type of information included in the petitions varied more significantly.

To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to analyze a multi-state sample of ERPOs. The process of standardizing information and abstracting data across states consistently to describe state-level ERPO implementation and assess impacts of the law offers researchers some insight into what such an undertaking involves and provides a foundation on which to interpret findings reported from the six-state study.

Availability of data and materials

A limited dataset generated from ERPO case files will be available at ICPSR upon publication of research from the multi-state study.

Abbreviations

• Extreme risk protection order

Research assistant

Department of Justice

Comprehensive case information system

Principal investigator

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and thank our many esteemed research assistants for their dedication and hard work on this project. We could not have done this important work without you!

This project was supported by a grant from the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research. The funder had no role in the science of the project. The views expressed in this manuscript are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the view of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research. The views expressed do not represent the Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services or Yale University.

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April M. Zeoli

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Amy Molocznik, Elise Omaki & Shannon Frattaroli

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Jennifer Paruk

Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado, 12505 E. 16th Ave, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

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AMZ performed study conceptualization, investigation, methodology, formal analysis, supervision, data curation, funding acquisition, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. AM performed data curation, supervision, project administration, and wrote, reviewed and edited the manuscript. JP performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. EO performed data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. SF performed study conceptualization, investigation, methodology, formal analysis, supervision, data curation, funding acquisition, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. MEB performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. AC performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, contributed resources, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. RK performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. CK performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. WM performed study investigation, data curation, data analysis, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. MN performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. VAP performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. ARR performed study investigation, data curation, supervision, project administration, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. JWS performed study investigation, data curation, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. JPS performed study investigation, data curation, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. GJW performed study investigation, data curation, and was a major contributor in writing and editing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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This protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Boards at Michigan State University, Yale University, the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, Duke University Health System, University of South Florida, University of California Davis, and University of Washington. The authors certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Zeoli, A.M., Molocznik, A., Paruk, J. et al. A multi-state evaluation of extreme risk protection orders: a research protocol. Inj. Epidemiol. 11 , 49 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-024-00535-z

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Received : 06 June 2024

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-024-00535-z

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