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How To Use Case Studies To Build Authority With Your Prospects
Are you exploring ways to use irresistible case studies to build trust and authority with your prospects?
Do you want your target audience to see your brand as the thought leader in your niche?
Brand authority is a powerful marketing tool.
Being a thought leader can increase the level of trust customers have in your business.
When you effectively establish your clout, you can build a brand that is:
- Seen as an industry leader
- Trusted by customers
- Envied by competitors
- Worth paying more for
In this article, we will explore what brand authority is. And why is brand authority necessary for your business? Finally, you will discover the steps you need to take to build such power with a case study
Let's dive in.
Your business will grow faster if your audience sees your brand as trustworthy and knowledgeable.
But how do you build supremacy for your business? First, you have to understand what it is, and the value behind it.
What Is Brand Authority?
Brand authority is the ability of a brand to influence its niche or industry.
It is also the impact of a brand on its customers and competitors.
The clout of a brand is measured by how it is perceived.
And also by the trust earned among its customers and competitors.
A lot can influence the domination of your industry.
But in the noisy online landscape of today, prospects are looking for industry experts they can trust.
Case studies can help you stand out or become the purple cow in your niche.
They can help you influence the prospects and competitors in your industry.
A well-written customer success story is a powerful content tool for positioning the brand as the authority.
It effectively showcases the brands':
- Expertise
- Quality
- Customer trust
Having said that:
Why Is Brand Authority Important?
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The most compelling reason to build brand authority is TRUST.
The most persuasive reason why you need brand authority is that you want your clients or customers to see your brand as one they can trust.
If your audience can trust you, you are more likely to be believed.
Your readers and target audience, in particular, will know that anything that you offer is something that will benefit them.
And they will believe that your brand is worth paying for and using.
Building influence for your brand can increase the level of trust customers have in your business.
The trust a company has earned among its target audience means its authority.
Another reason why your brand needs to be the thought leader in its industry is because of search engines.
Search engines now center more on how your target audience looks at your company from a conventional marketing standpoint.
Being ranked in the top positions in SERPs for a targeted keyword is necessary.
However, there is something else you need to know about building a brand that dominates your industry.
Just like respect, brand authority does not come with starting a business.
You earn it over time.
It comes from all the hard work that you do.
And part of your brand leadership and authority comes from all the wins and mistakes you have made.
When you are perceived as a thought leader, your services or products, newsletters, sales copy, and case studies are trusted.
Your reputation is your brand.
That means that before you even send out a white paper, blog, or any other content, people know that they should be paying attention.
Brand authority is a powerful tool to suck out all the online noise.
In other words, your competition may have the same offer as you but will never get the same results because you are trusted more.
Being a trusted company makes it easier for you to get new clients and retain loyal ones.
It also makes it easier to get referrals.
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What Is A Business Case Study?
A business case study describes how a company provided a solution to the pain points of its prospects.
Another name for it is a customer success story.
It is a story about how a brand provided a solution to the pain points of its customer or client.
A case study illustrates how a product or service from a company solved a customer problem.
In a nutshell, a business case history shows a potential customer how your company can help someone like her.
A customer chronicle is similar to a testimonial.
It provides your readers with an account of past customer experiences with your brand.
Online businesses rely on content marketing to build brand authority.
It helps companies provide solutions to the pain points of their customers.
Content helps to generate leads, improve conversions, and much more.
One of the most successful content types companies use to build thought leadership is case studies.
They can help you build thought leadership for a brand.
However, to build authority with your customer success stories, identify and understand the prospects' pain points.
And then craft a chronicle for it.
But how do you do that?
Identify The Most Common Pain Points Of Your Audience
If your prospects don't have any business pain, it means that they don't have a need.
And if they don't have a need, you may not make a sale.
What Are Pain Points?
According to HubSpot, 'pain points are persistent problems with a product or service that can inconvenience customers and their businesses.
Or to simply put it, they’re unmet needs waiting to be satisfied.
Any type of customer can have pain points, on an individual level or for companies on a large scale.
Now that you know what a pain point is, how do you find it out from your prospects?
Here are some ways to figure out what your prospects are asking as they go through the buyer's journey.
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Talk To Sales People
Empower your salespeople to find out the pain points of your prospects.
And the use of viewpoint questions will uncover the business pain points of your prospects as quickly as possible.
Also, find out about the most frequently asked questions that they are answering.
What answers do they give to the questions, and how can the answers be improved?
Use Your Buyer Personas To Understand Audience Challenges
If you don't have personas for your prospects create them.
As you do, define each persona and their unique individual path throughout the buyer's journey.
This exercise helps you better understand your customers. Do this exercise regularly.
And that's because the sales process and buyers' habits change.
So keep up to date with your buyer personas as well as their questions and pain points.
Keyword Research
Performing keyword research can help you understand the search intent for your prospects.
It also helps to uncover their questions when they search for answers.
SEMrush is an excellent tool for doing keyword research.
Take advantage of the “People also ask” filter on Google.
It provides various questions or related keywords that people are searching related to their query.
Another good tool for performing keyword research is Moz
Also, use tools like Answer the Public and BuzzSumo’s Discover Questions feature.
Then see what content already exists and if you can do better.
Create A Case Study - Authoritative Content That Answers The Questions
A case study is one of the most factual, information-based content for buildings credibility.
Customer success stories are among the many content marketing tools used to prove their thought leadership.
Case studies outline a problem, a solution, and how the solution benefited the customer.
Case studies showcase your successes as a business.
They also showcase results, that show potential customers why they should do business with you.
They build trust as prospects perceive its supremacy in their industry.
Companies use these narratives to educate and convince on-the-fence buyers.
They’re rated as the most effective way to convert and boost leads. Customer success stories are effective in the middle and bottom of the sales funnel.
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Also, they cement the way their existing clients perceive them in their industry.
And customer success stories strengthen the company's claims about new projects or products.
However, most content marketing strategies include building the credibility of a brand.
And well-written narratives promote a brand, build trust and promote brand dominance.
Many subject matter influencers use this content to build trust.
And the trust makes it easy for the brand to forge ties with consumers and prompt engagements.
Trust and transparency make it easier to have rewarding conversations with prospects.
Now:
How To Use Case Studies To Build Authority With Your Prospects
Evidence of your customer success builds credibility and authority for your company.
Prospects want the raw facts when they are going through the buying journey.
And the successful brands use case studies to provide compelling facts that give credibility to their process but also the brand
Customer success stories are one of the most effective and powerful content for converting prospects to buyers.
Their success is a result of their factual and emotional appeals in a story that grabs and persuades prospects.
Here are other reasons why marketing case studies build authority:
Back-Up Your Case Study Claims
Customer success stories prove that a company’s products or services have worked in the past.
And so it is sure to work for prospects.
According to Monash University:
There are usually eight sections in a case study:
- Synopsis/Executive SummaryOutline the purpose of the case study.
- Describe the field of research.
- Outline the issues and findings of the case study without specific details.
- Identify the theory that will be used.
- Note any assumptions made.
- Findings
- Identify the problems found in the case by:
- analyzing the problem, supporting your findings with facts given in the case, the relevant theory, and course concepts.
- searching for the underlying problems
- This section is often divided into sub-sections.
- Discussion
- Summarise the major problem/s.
- Identify alternative solutions to/these major problem/s.
- Briefly outline each alternative solution and evaluate its advantages and disadvantages.
- There is no need to refer to theory or coursework here.
- Conclusion
- Sum up the main points from the findings and discussion.
- Recommendations
- Choose which of the alternative solutions should be adopted.
- Briefly justify your choice explaining how it will solve the major problem/s.
- A case study is written in a forceful style because it is persuasive.
- Here integration of theory and coursework is appropriate.
- Implementation
- Explain what should be done, by whom, and by when.
- If appropriate include a rough estimate of costs (both financial and time).
- References
- Make sure all references are cited correctly.
- Appendices (if any)
- Attach any original data that relates to the study but which would have interrupted the flow of the main body
People Like Services That Hae Been Tried By Their Peers
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People ask their neighbors who cuts their grass because they trust the opinion of their neighbors. Or it could be that they don't want to be ripped off by an untried handyman.
Most people feel better about trying the services their peers have already used.
The same is true for customer success stories.
If a prospect reads your case study and sees how much success another person has had with your services or product, they believe they would have the same success with your company.
Case Studies Position You as an Experienced Leader
Customer success stories help position your company as the thought leader in your niche.
Your prospects will love seeing testimonials from current customers that show that they were happy with your products or service.
And when you provide them with more client success stories, the more experienced you look to your prospects.
For instance, if your carpet cleaning company wants to generate more leads, have case studies for different types of businesses you’ve worked for.
And if you are in sales, use client success stories to show your prospects that you have experience working with companies similar to theirs.
Such testimonials or social proof build credibility and trust.
In the long run, they help you to generate more sales.
Not Many Businesses Use Case Studies
Many companies are not benefiting from the psychological value of case studies because they look at them from a data-driven perspective.
92% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.
But only 13% of marketers name case studies as one of their primary content types.
You probably can appreciate that because case studies take a lot of effort to create.
And they take more time for research, analysis, and drafting.
However, customer success stories are more beneficial than most other content.
For instance, they can be engaging and persuasive with your prospects.
Your client success stories back up the results of your research.
Case studies help you build authority with your brand and generate more sales.
Are you ready to stand out against competitors and build up your credibility as a business?
Our team of subject matter expert copywriters is ready and eager to craft a unique, high-quality case study that will help to position you as an authority in your industry.
Contact our copywriting team to get started.
WhatsApp us at: +234 080 331 75396 or +234 080 579 37786
