case study and marketing strategies

Write articles in minutes

Write faster with 70+ templates

Do your work 3x faster

Make images with AI

Support & live chat with customers

Build better customer relationships

Give 24/7 self-service support

Write content fluently in 30+ languages

5 Epic Marketing Wins: Case Studies 2024

In 2024, marketing has taken on many exciting new strategies and winning campaigns are celebrated like never before.

In this article, we look at five companies that have won big in the marketing arena through creative and innovative campaigns.

Each case study highlights a different approach to successfully reaching target audiences , leaving valuable lessons for marketers looking to replicate their success.

Quick Summary

• Case studies are not one-size-fits-all: Each business is unique, and what works for one may not work for another.
• Case studies require data: Without data, a case study is just a story. Collect and analyze data to support your claims.
• Case studies should focus on the customer: Highlight how your product or service solved a problem for the customer.
• Case studies can be repurposed: Use them in blog posts, social media, and email marketing to reach a wider audience.
• Case studies require permission: Always ask for permission before sharing a customer's story and ensure they are comfortable with the level of detail shared.

Introduction: The Power Of Successful Marketing Campaigns

Transform your business with effective marketing.

With over 20 years of experience in the marketing industry, I've witnessed firsthand how successful campaigns can transform a business.

Effective marketing has immense power and can make or break a brand.

Marketing is all about connecting with customers and creating demand for your product or service.

A winning campaign resonates emotionally with consumers by tapping into their desires to create urgency around buying what you're selling.

When executed correctly, these campaigns result in significant increases in sales and revenue.

Key Points to Consider

Consider these key points when thinking about the impact of successful marketing

• Marketing builds trust: Consistent messaging across various channels establishes trust between brands and consumers.
• Targeted approach: Precise targeting reaches potential customers at exactly the right moment.
• Drives loyalty: Building strong relationships through effective communication drives customer loyalty .

Marketing is not about selling products or services. It's about creating relationships with customers and providing value that keeps them coming back.

To illustrate my point further, think of it like building a house - without laying down solid foundations ( consistent messaging ), no matter how beautiful your home looks from outside ( creative ads ), it will eventually crumble under pressure ( lack of consumer trust ).

Similarly, just as an architect plans every detail before construction begins; marketers must plan meticulously to ensure that each element works together seamlessly towards achieving desired results.

Effective marketing is not a one-time event. It's an ongoing process that requires constant attention and adaptation to changing market conditions.

Invest in Impactful Marketing Strategies

In conclusion, investing time and resources into developing impactful marketing strategies pays off significantly for businesses looking to grow their bottom line while establishing long-term connections with loyal customers.

Analogy To Help You Understand

Case study 1: how a local business boosted sales with social media advertising, boosting sales with social media advertising: a remarkable case study.

After 20 years of marketing experience, I've seen numerous case studies on how businesses can increase their sales through advertising.

But one example caught my attention: Case Study 1 - How A Local Business Boosted Sales With Social Media Advertising in 2024.

The local business had quality products and excellent service offerings, but struggled to gain traction and increase its customer base.

To achieve success, we implemented an effective social media advertising strategy which helped them reach a wider audience and promote their brand more effectively than ever before.

By leveraging Facebook and Instagram's power as social media platforms , we targeted potential customers based on interests, demographics & behaviors resulting in increased engagement levels across all channels.

Precise targeting is crucial for reaching your desired audience.

Here are five key takeaways from our successful campaign:

• Use engaging visuals: such as images or videos to capture people's attention quickly.
• Create compelling ad copy: that speaks directly to your target market by highlighting benefits they'll receive if they choose your product/service.
• Test different variations of ads: regularly so you can optimize performance continually ; don't be afraid of trying new things!
• Monitor metrics closely: throughout campaigns (e.g., click-through rates) so adjustments can be made promptly when necessary.

Don't be afraid of trying new things!

If done correctly using precise targeting methods combined with visually appealing content creation techniques like video production or image design coupled alongside persuasive messaging strategies tailored specifically towards each unique demographic group within one’s ideal consumer profile – then there really isn’t any limit whatsoever regarding what kind-of results could potentially manifest themselves via utilizing these powerful tools!

Some Interesting Opinions

1. Influencer marketing is dead.

2. Email marketing is a waste of time.

3. SEO is no longer relevant.

4. Traditional advertising is dead.

5. Customer reviews are overrated.

Case Study 2: Innovative Email Marketing Techniques That Yielded Results

Case study 2: email marketing techniques.

Amazed by the email marketing techniques presented in Case Study 2, I discovered a unique approach to email campaigns that paid off with high engagement from their target audience.

Personalized Subject Lines

One strategy that stood out was personalized subject lines based on location data .

I use AtOnce's email subject line generator to increase open rates for our emails:

Crafting subject lines specific to each subscriber's location made them feel more connected, resulting in higher open and click-through rates compared to non-personalized emails.

Key Takeaways

Here are the key takeaways from this case study:

• Personalizing subject lines by location boosts open rates
• Interactive content within emails drives engagement
• User-generated content ( like reviews or testimonials) increases credibility and trustworthiness of the brand

Remember, personalization and interactivity are key to a successful email campaign.

By implementing these strategies, you can increase engagement and build trust with your subscribers.

Case Study 3: A Content Marketing Strategy That Went Viral

The most impressive marketing campaign i've witnessed recently.

One of the most impressive marketing campaigns I've witnessed recently went viral immediately, resulting in unprecedented brand recognition for the company.

It all began with a creative idea: creating a video showcasing their product's unique feature - something no other competitor had.

The short animated clip quickly became an overnight sensation and received over 5 million views within days of its launch.

Such results were unheard-of and changed how companies approach digital advertising forever .

Five Elements That Contributed to This Epic Win

• Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - Highlighting what makes your product or service stand out amongst others is crucial.
• Emotional Connection - By using relatable characters and telling stories infused with emotions.
• Simplicity – Keeping things simple can make them more memorable; complex ideas may be difficult for people to understand.
• Humor – Adding humor can help create positive associations between customers' minds about your brand while also making it easier for them to remember key messages from ads they see online or on TV commercials!
• Clear Call-to-action (CTA) - A clear CTA helps guide potential customers towards taking action after viewing an ad campaign by providing specific instructions such as click here or sign up now.

By incorporating these five essential components into any future content marketing strategies , businesses will have greater success at capturing audiences' attention through engaging storytelling techniques combined with emotional connections made possible via USPs highlighting products/services differentiators!

Here's an example where I've used AtOnce's AI USP generator to get new ideas for ads & content:

My Experience: The Real Problems

1. Marketing case studies are often misleading and fail to provide a complete picture of success.

2. The obsession with data-driven marketing has led to a lack of creativity and innovation.

3. Influencer marketing is often unethical and lacks transparency.

4. The use of fear-based marketing tactics is unethical and manipulative.

5. The marketing industry has a diversity problem that needs to be addressed.

Case Study 4: Using Influencer Endorsements To Reach New Audiences

The power of influencer marketing: case study 4.

Discover how a cosmetics company used influencer endorsements to reach new audiences and achieve incredible results.

Influencer marketing is an excellent way for brands to connect authentically with audiences without feeling like advertising or promotion.

The company collaborated with beauty bloggers and vloggers to promote their new line of lipsticks on social media platforms.

The influencers used unique hashtags, posted pictures, and videos featuring them wearing the lipstick.

Within two weeks, over 500k people engaged with these posts.

5 Insights from the Case Study

• Choose influencers based on relevance rather than follower count
• Collaborate closely with your chosen influencer(s) to ensure authenticity in content creation
• Use unique hashtags that align well with both brand messaging and audience interests
• Encourage user-generated content (UGC) through contests or giveaways related to product use/experience
• Track engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and views regularly throughout campaign duration

Working alongside relevant influencers can help tap into target demographics more effectively than traditional ad campaigns alone.

Case Study 5: Creative Guerrilla Marketing Tactics That Made An Impact

I love discussing this case study featuring an up-and-coming fashion brand that made a huge splash on social media and significantly increased their sales by utilizing unique guerrilla marketing tactics

Hosting Pop-Up Events at Unexpected Locations

One standout strategy was hosting pop-up events at unexpected locations like subway stations or outdoor areas.

These surprising experiences for potential customers created buzz, generated interest, and translated into more visibility online - ultimately leading to more sales.

• Created buzz and generated interest
• More visibility online
• Ultimately led to more sales

Partnering with Local Artists to Create Eye-Catching Murals

Another tactic the company used was partnering with local artists to create eye-catching murals around town featuring their products in creative ways.

By doing so, they were able to tap into the artist's existing fan base while also creating shareable content that showcased their brand in a visually appealing way.

• Tapped into the artist's existing fan base
• Created shareable content
• Showcased their brand in a visually appealing way

Leveraging User-Generated Content (UGC)

Finally, the company leveraged user-generated content (UGC) by encouraging customers to post photos of themselves wearing their clothing using specific hashtags across various social media platforms.

Not only did this increase engagement with current followers but it also helped attract new ones who discovered them through these posts.

• Increased engagement with current followers
• Attracted new followers
• Discovered through user-generated content

What stands out about this case study is how effective unconventional marketing strategies can be when executed well - especially for smaller brands looking to make a name for themselves against larger competitors with bigger budgets.

It goes beyond just being different; it's about finding innovative ways of connecting with your audience and standing out in today's crowded marketplace where attention spans are short-lived and competition is fierce.

My Personal Insights

Analysis of common themes among these successful campaigns, successful marketing strategies.

As a marketing expert, I've noticed common themes among successful campaigns.

One of these is the emphasis on customer experience and building strong relationships with consumers.

Brands like Amazon and Netflix have set great examples by providing personalized services to their customers.

The Power of User-Generated Content

Another winning strategy that businesses are adopting today is focusing on user-generated content (UGC) .

UGC has become increasingly popular as it helps brands create engagement while reducing advertising costs.

This approach allows companies to:

• Build trust among audiences
• Reach wider populations
• Better position themselves in their respective markets

To summarize:

• Emphasizing customer experience builds brand loyalty
• Successful companies focus on creating UGC
• Building trust with audiences is crucial for any business
• Personalized service catered towards consumer needs creates exceptional experiences
• Using data insights intelligently can help improve all aspects of your campaign

“Using data insights intelligently can help improve all aspects of your campaign.”

For example, let's say you're running a social media campaign for a new product launch.

By analyzing data from previous campaigns or industry trends using tools such as Google Analytics or SEMrush , you can identify what type of content resonates best with your target audience - whether it be videos showcasing how-to tutorials or images featuring real-life scenarios where the product could come into play.

“By incorporating this insight into your messaging strategy along with emphasizing personalization through targeted ads based off browsing history/interests etc., not only will users feel more connected but they'll also be more likely to share their own stories about why they love the product which leads us back full circle: User Generated Content!”

The Importance Of Market Research And Targeting For Effective Advertising

Market research and targeting for effective advertising.

As an advertising expert, I know that conducting thorough market research and targeting is crucial for a successful campaign.

Without identifying your target audience or understanding their behaviors, you risk creating ineffective advertisement campaigns.

Market research allows you to:

• Identify key demographics such as age range, gender, economic status, and interests that match your product or service.
• Get insights into customer behavior patterns
• Understand competitor analysis to help ensure competitiveness.
• Allocate resources effectively by focusing on high-value targets.
• Enable customization of messaging based on consumer needs.

The better you understand your audience’s habits and preferences, the more effective communication messages will be.

Investing time into researching the right demographic groups before launching any ad campaign ensures maximum return-on-investment (ROI).

For example, if we're selling luxury watches aimed at men aged 35-50 years old who have an interest in fashion accessories, our marketing strategy would differ from one focused towards women aged 18-24 interested in fitness wearables.

By doing so, it helps businesses tailor their message directly towards those most likely to convert while avoiding wasted spend reaching irrelevant audiences which ultimately leads to lower conversion rates

The Role Of User Generated Content In Modern Day Promotion

Why user generated content is crucial for modern-day promotion.

As an expert in modern-day promotion, I know that user-generated content (UGC) is crucial .

Nowadays, people trust UGC more than brand-generated content because they want to see how other customers are experiencing and using the product they intend to buy.

Businesses have started incorporating UGC into their marketing strategies by leveraging social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook for showcasing customer reviews and feedback on products/services.

Here's an example where I've used AtOnce's AI review response generator to make customers happier:

This not only increases engagement with followers but also strengthens brand loyalty through interactions with real-life users of their products.

Utilizing this powerful tool as part of any marketing plan is highly recommended since it's cost-effective yet has the potential for high returns.

5 Reasons to Integrate User Generated Content into Your Promotions

• Humanizes brands: UGC allows customers to see the human side of a brand, making it more relatable and trustworthy.
• Increases engagement: By showcasing UGC, businesses can increase engagement with their followers and customers.
• Strengthens brand loyalty: Interacting with real-life users of their products through UGC can strengthen brand loyalty.
• Cost-effective: UGC is a cost-effective way to promote products and services.
• Potential for high returns: UGC has the potential to generate high returns for businesses.

Integrating UGC into your marketing plan can be a game-changer for your business.

How Video Marketing Is Changing The Game For Businesses In All Sectors

Revolutionizing marketing: the power of video.

After 20 years in marketing, I can confidently say that video marketing is changing the game for businesses of all sizes and sectors.

In today's world, consumers are bombarded with content daily, making it challenging to stand out from competitors.

However, video marketing presents a unique opportunity for companies to create engaging experiences for their customers.

Emotional Connection

Video marketing allows brands to connect emotionally with their audience by sharing stories and showcasing brand personality instead of just presenting product features or facts.

This emotional connection leads viewers to remember the message long-term since people tend to retain information better when they feel connected on an emotional level.

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

- Simon Sinek

Examples of Effective Video Marketing

• A cosmetics company could use videos featuring real women talking about how using its products has boosted their confidence
• An outdoor gear retailer might showcase breathtaking footage of hikers exploring remote trails while highlighting specific pieces of equipment

Increased Engagement Rates

Another significant advantage offered by video marketing is increased engagement rates compared to other forms of content like text-based articles or images alone.

Videos capture attention more effectively than static visuals because they offer movement and sound which stimulates multiple senses simultaneously.

Video is the future of content marketing.

If you want your business to succeed, you need to be creating videos.

- John Rampton

Illustrating the Point

To illustrate this point further, a cooking blog may see higher engagement if it creates recipe videos showing each step visually rather than only providing written instructions accompanied by photos.

Driving Success Across Industries

As marketers continue adapting strategies based on consumer behavior changes over time , video marketing will remain one key element driving success across industries.

It offers memorable experiences and creates deeper connections between brands and audiences, ultimately leading to achieving business goals faster!

Leveraging Emerging Technologies (AI, VR) For Competitive Advantages

How emerging technologies can give your business a competitive edge.

As an expert in the field, I know that emerging technologies like AI and VR can give businesses a competitive edge.

These cutting-edge tools not only enhance marketing strategies but also improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

AI creates personalized experiences for individual consumers based on their behavior patterns and preferences.

AI is particularly powerful because it creates personalized experiences for individual consumers based on their behavior patterns and preferences.

By analyzing consumer data through machine learning algorithms, businesses can craft targeted campaigns that resonate with recipients on a deeper level.

VR technology takes engagement to new heights by allowing customers to experience products or services before making purchase decisions - resulting in improved conversion rates.

When combined with VR technology, this approach takes engagement to new heights by allowing customers to experience products or services before making purchase decisions - resulting in improved conversion rates.

Five Key Points to Leverage Emerging Technologies Effectively

• Personalize user experiences using AI
• Analyze behavioral data of consumers efficiently
• Create targeted campaigns tailored to specific audiences
• Use VR technology for immersive product/service demonstrations
• Continuously adapt your strategy as new technological advancements emerge

By leveraging these emerging technologies, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and provide exceptional customer experiences.

Conclusion: Key Takeaways And Lessons Learned From These Success Stories

Top 5 marketing wins of 2024.

Welcome to my list of the top five marketing wins of 2024!

These campaigns and strategies exceeded customer expectations with creative ideas that engaged them in new ways.

Let's dive into what made these successes stand out.

Focus on Customer Satisfaction

One common thread among all the winners was their focus on customer satisfaction .

Each campaign or strategy targeted a specific audience segment, meeting their unique desires through tailored experiences.

To build lasting relationships with customers today, companies must prioritize exceptional interactions at every touchpoint by understanding each target audience perfectly well and customizing communications across multiple channels for maximum impact.

Influencer Partnerships and Immersive Digital Content

As an expert opinion, I believe influencer partnerships combined with immersive digital content are trends set to redefine successful product launches moving forward.

Creating buzz around new products is crucial for success in any industry - but it's not enough anymore just to have influencers promote your brand; you need engaging content too !

• Pre-launch hype-building tactics like influencer collaborations and interactive media releases (IMRs)
• Post-purchase engagement as part of their overall marketing strategy: personalized follow-up emails thanking customers for choosing your product can go a long way towards building loyalty over time

Great marketing means putting the needs of your customers first while staying ahead of emerging trends in technology & social media platforms alike – so keep experimenting until you find something truly innovative!

Final Takeaways

Struggling to write engaging content that converts?

Atonce ai takes the hassle out of content creation.

• Generate highly engaging content ideas in seconds
• Reduce your writing time by up to 90%
• Create custom content templates that align with your brand voice
• Improve your SEO ranking with optimized content

Get started with AtOnce AI today

What was the marketing strategy behind the successful campaign for xyz brand.

The marketing strategy for AtOnce brand involved leveraging social media influencers to promote the product, creating a sense of exclusivity and scarcity through limited edition releases, and utilizing targeted digital advertising to reach the brand's target audience.

How did the ABC company increase their sales by 50% through marketing?

The ABC company implemented a multi-faceted marketing approach that included revamping their website to improve user experience, creating a loyalty program to incentivize repeat purchases, and partnering with a popular celebrity to endorse their products on social media.

What made the marketing campaign for the DEF product so successful?

The marketing campaign for the DEF product was successful due to its unique and humorous approach, which resonated with the target audience. The campaign also utilized a variety of mediums, including television commercials, social media ads, and billboards, to reach a wide audience.

Asim Akhtar

Asim is the CEO & founder of AtOnce. After 5 years of marketing & customer service experience, he's now using Artificial Intelligence to save people time.

16 Important Ways to Use Case Studies in Your Marketing

Updated: September 08, 2020

Published: July 30, 2020

When you're thinking about investing in a product or service, what's the first thing you do?

Usually, it’s one or both of the following: You'll likely ask your friends whether they've tried the product or service, and if they have, whether they would recommend it. You'll also probably do some online research to see what others are saying about said product or service. Nowadays, 90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year , and 82% of consumers read online reviews. This shows that the majority of people are looking to peers to make a purchasing decision. Most customers know that a little online research could spare them from a bad experience and poor investment of your budget.

What Is a Marketing Case Study?

A case study is the analysis of a particular instance (or "case") of something to demonstrate quantifiable results as a result of the application of something. In marketing, case studies are used as social proof — to provide buyers with the context to determine whether they're making a good choice.

A marketing case study aims to persuade that a process, product, or service can solve a problem. Why? Because it has done so in the past. By including the quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the study, it appeals to logic while painting a picture of what success looks like for the buyer. Both of which can be powerful motivators and objection removers.

Why Use Case Studies?

In essence, case studies are an invaluable asset when it comes to establishing proof that what you're offering is valuable and of good quality.

According to HubSpot's State of Marketing Report 2020 , 13% of marketers name case studies as one of the primary forms of media used within their content strategy. This makes them the fifth most popular type of content, outshined only by visual content, blogs, and ebooks.

Okay, so you know case studies work. The question is, how  do they work? And how can you squeeze the most value out of them? 

When to Use a Case Study

Here are the ways you can market your case studies to get the most out of them.

As a Marketing or Sales Asset

1. use a case study template to create pdfs for email or downloads . .

Do not underestimate the value of providing social proof at just the right time in order to add value and earn their business. Case studies are extremely effective in the consideration stage of the buyer's journey when they are actively comparing solutions and providers to solve a problem they're experiencing. 

For this reason, case studies in an independent PDF format can be helpful in both marketing and sales. Marketers can use these PDFs as downloads in web content or email campaigns. Sales reps can utilize these assets in demonstrations, in a follow-up, or to overcome objections. 

The easiest way to create PDF case studies is by using a case study template . Doing so can decrease the amount of time you spend creating and designing your case study without sacrificing aesthetics. In addition, you can ensure that all your case studies follow a similar branded format. 

We've created a great case study template (and kit!) that's already locked and loaded for you to use. All you have to do is input your own text and change the fonts and colors to fit your brand. You can download it here .

On Your Website

2. have a dedicated case studies page..

You should have a webpage exclusively for housing your case studies. Whether you call this page "Case Studies, "Success Studies," or "Examples of Our Work," be sure it's easy for visitors to find.

Structure on that page is key: Initial challenges are clear for each case, as well as the goals, process, and results.

Get Inspired:  Google’s Think With Google  is an example of a really well structured case study page. The copy is engaging, as are the goals, approach, and results.

3. Put case studies on your home page.

Give website visitors every chance you can to stumble upon evidence of happy customers. Your home page is the perfect place to do this.

There are a number of ways you can include case studies on your homepage. Here are a few examples:

• Customer quotes/testimonials
• A call-to-action (CTA) to view specific case studies
• A slide-in CTA  that links to a case study
• A CTA leading to your case studies page

Get Inspired: Theresumator.com  incorporates testimonials onto their homepage to strengthen their value proposition.

Bonus Tip: Get personal.

Marketing gurus across the world agree that personalised marketing is the future . You can make your case studies more powerful if you find ways to make them “match” the website visitors that are important to you.

People react to familiarity -- for instance, presenting someone from London with a case study from New York may not resonate as well as if you displayed a case study from the U.K. Or you could choose to tailor case studies by industry or company size to the visitor. At HubSpot, we call this "smart content."

Get Inspired: To help explain smart content, have a look at the example below. Here, we wanted to test whether including testimonials on landing pages influenced conversion rates in the U.K. The landing page on the left is the default landing page shown to visitors from non-U.K. IP addresses. For the landing page on the right, we used smart content to show testimonials to visitors coming from U.K. IP addresses.

4. Implement slide-in CTAs.

Pop-ups have a reputation for being annoying, but there are ways to implement that that won't irk your website visitors. These CTAs don't have to be huge, glaring pop-ups -- instead, relevant but discreet slide-in CTAs can work really well.

For example, why not test out a slide-in CTA on one of your product pages, with a link to a case study that profiles a customer who's seen great results using that product?

Get Inspired:  If you need some help on creating sliders for your website, check out this tutorial on creating slide-in CTAs .

5. Write blog posts about your case studies.

Once you publish a case study, the next logical step would be to write a blog post about it to expose your audience to it. The trick is to write about the case study in a way that identifies with your audience’s needs. So rather than titling your post “Company X: A Case Study," you might write about a specific hurdle, issue, or challenge the company overcame, and then use that company's case study to illustrate how the issues were addressed. It's important not  to center the blog post around your company, product, or service -- instead, the customer’s challenges and how they were overcome should take centre stage.

For example, if we had a case study that showed how one customer generated twice as many leads as a result of our marketing automation tool, our blog post might be something along the lines of: "How to Double Lead Flow With Marketing Automation [Case Study]." The blog post would then comprise of a mix of stats, practical tips, as well as some illustrative examples from our case study.

Get Inspired:   Check out this great example of a blog post from Moz , titled "How to Build Links to Your Blog – A Case Study."

6. Create videos from case studies.

Internet services are improving all the time, and as a result, people are consuming more and more video content. Prospects could be more likely to watch a video than they are to read a lengthy case study. If you have the budget, creating videos of your case studies is a really powerful way to communicate your value proposition.

Get Inspired: Check out one of our many video testimonials for some ideas on how to approach your own videos.

7. Use case studies on relevant landing pages.

Once you complete a case study, you'll have a bank of quotes and results you can pull from. Including quotes on product pages is especially interesting. If website visitors are reading your product pages, they are in a "consideration" mindset, meaning they are actively researching your products, perhaps with an intent to buy. Having customer quotes placed strategically on these pages is a great way to push them over the line and further down the funnel.

These quotes should be measured, results-based snippets, such as, “XX resulted in a 70% increase in blog subscribers in less an 6 months” rather than, “We are proud to be customers of XX, they really look after us."

Get Inspired: I really like the way HR Software company Workday incorporates video and testimonials  into its solutions pages.

Off Your Website

8. post about case studies on social media..

Case studies make for perfect social sharing material. Here are a few examples of how you can leverage them on social:

• Share a link to a case study and tag the customer in the post. The trick here is to post your case studies in a way that attracts the right people to click through, rather than just a generic message like, “New Case Study ->> LINK." Make sure your status communicates clearly the challenge that was overcome or the goal that was achieved. It's also wise to include the main stats associated with the case study; for example, "2x lead flow," "125% increase in X," and so on.
• Update your cover image on Twitter/Facebook showing a happy customer. Our social media cover photo templates should help you with this!
• Add your case study to your list of publications on LinkedIn.
• Share your case studies in relevant LinkedIn Groups.
• Target your new case studies to relevant people on Facebook using dark posts. ( Learn about dark posts here. )

Get Inspired: MaRS Discovery District  posts case studies on Twitter to push people towards a desired action.

9. Use case studies in your email marketing.

Case studies are particularly suited to email marketing when you have an industry-segmentable list. For example, if you have a case study from a client in the insurance industry, emailing your case study to your base of insurance-related contacts can be a really relevant addition to a lead nurturing campaign.

Case studies can also be very effective when used in product-specific lead nurture workflows in reactivating opportunities that have gone cold. They can be useful for re-engaging leads that have gone quiet and who were looking at specific areas of your product that the case study relates to.

Get Inspired: It's important that your lead nurture workflow content includes the appropriate content for where prospects are in the sales cycle. If you need help on how to do this, check out our post on how to map lead nurturing content to each stage in sales cycle .

10. Incorporate case studies into your newsletters.

This idea is as good for your client relations as it is for gaining the attention of your prospects. Customers and clients love feeling as though they're part of a community. It’s human nature. Prospects warm to companies that look after their customers; companies whose customers are happy and proud to be part of something. Also, whether we are willing to admit it or not, people love to show off!

Get Inspired: Newsletters become stale over time. Give your newsletters a new lease of life with our guide on how to create newsletters that don't suck .

11. Equip your sales team with case studies.

Tailored content has become increasingly important to sales reps as they look to provide value on the sales call. It's estimated that consumers go through 70-90% of the buyer's journey before contacting a vendor. This means that the consumer is more knowledgeable than ever before. Sales reps no longer need to spend an entire call talking about the features and benefits. Sales has become more complex, and reps now need to be armed with content that addresses each stage of the buyer’s process. Case studies can be really useful when it comes to showing prospects how successful other people within a similar industry has benefited from your product or service.

Get Inspired: Case studies are just one type of content that helps your sales team sell. They don't always work by themselves, though. Check out our list of content types that help sales close more deals .

12. Sneak a case study into your email signature.

Include a link to a recent case study in your email signature. This is particularly useful for salespeople. Here's what my email signature looks like:

Get Inspired: Did you know that there are lots more ways you can use your email signature to support your marketing? Here are 10 clever suggestions  for how you can do this.

13. Use case studies in training.

Having customer case studies is an invaluable asset to have when onboarding new employees. It aids developing their buy-in, belief in, and understanding of your offering.

Get Inspired: Have you completed our Inbound Certification course  yet? During our classes, we use case studies to show how inbound marketing is applied in real life.

In Lead-Gen Content

14. include case studies in your lead gen efforts..

There are a number of offers you can create based off of your case studies, in the form of ebooks, templates, and more. For example you could put together an ebook titled “A step-by-step guide to reaching 10,000 blog subscribers in 3 months…just like XX did.” You could create a more in-depth version of the case study with access to detailed statistics as an offer. (And don’t forget, you can also u se quotes and statistics from case studies on the landing page promoting the ebook, which adds credibility and could increase your conversion rates.) Or, you could create a template based on your customer's approach to success.

Get Inspired:   If you think you need to be an awesome designer put together beautiful ebooks, think again. Create ebooks easily using these customisable ebook templates .

You can also use case studies to frame webinars that document how to be successful with X. Using case studies in webinars is great middle-of-the-funnel content and can really help move your leads further down the funnel towards becoming sales qualified leads.

Get Inspired: Webinars are really effective as part of a lead nurturing workflow. Make sure your next webinar is spot on by following these simple webinar tips.

15. Create a bank of evergreen presentations.

It’s important to build up a bank of evergreen content that employees across your organisation can use during presentations or demos. Case studies are perfect for this.

Put together a few slides on the highlights of the case study to stir people’s interest, and then make them available to your sales and customer-facing teams. It's helpful if the marketer who created the presentation is the one who presents it to anyone who might use them in the future. This ensures they can explain the presentation clearly and answer any questions that might arise.

Get Inspired: What to create presentations people want to use? Here's a list of tools to make your presentations great.

16. Create SlideShares based on case studies.

Following on from a few short slides, you could also put together a more detailed presentation of the case study and upload it to SlideShare. After all, not only is SlideShare SEO-friendly (because Google indexes each presentation), but there is a huge pre-existing audience on SlideShare of over 60 million users you can tap into. SlideShare presentations are also easy to embed and share, and allow you to capture leads directly from the slides via a lead capture form.

Get Inspired:   Want to generate more leads with SlideShare, but not sure how to get started? Check out this blog post .

Now that you understand the value of a marketing case study and the different ways that they can be used in your content marketing (and even sales) strategy, your next step is to think about what would convince your target audience to do business with you. 

Have you recently accomplished something big for a client? Do you have a process or product with demonstrable results? What do your potential clients hope that you'll do for them? 

The answers to those questions will help you craft compelling content for your case study. Then, all that's left is putting it into your audience's hands in formats they want to consume.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

How to Market an Ebook: 21 Ways to Promote Your Content Offers

7 Pieces of Content Your Audience Really Wants to See [New Data]

How to Write a Listicle [+ Examples and Ideas]

28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

What Is a White Paper? [FAQs]

What is an Advertorial? 8 Examples to Help You Write One

How to Write a Case Study: Bookmarkable Guide & Template

How to Create Marketing Offers That Don't Fall Flat

20 Creative Ways To Repurpose Content

11 Ways to Make Your Blog Post Interactive

Showcase your company's success using these free case study templates.

100% Free CRM

Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software.

• Browse All Articles
• Newsletter Sign-Up

Marketing →

• 17 Oct 2023

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

Subscriptions are available for everything from dental floss to dog toys, but are consumers tiring of monthly fees? Elie Ofek says that subscription revenue can provide stability, but companies need to tread carefully or risk alienating customers.

• 29 Aug 2023
• Cold Call Podcast

As Social Networks Get More Competitive, Which Ones Will Survive?

In early 2023, TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it fourth behind the leading social networks: Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Meanwhile, competition in the market for videos had intensified. Can all four networks continue to attract audiences and creators? Felix Oberholzer-Gee discusses competition and imitation among social networks in his case “Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?”

• 26 Jun 2023
• Research & Ideas

Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

Some of the most successful customer experiences end with a bang. Julian De Freitas provides three tips to help businesses invest in the kind of memorable moments that will keep customers coming back.

• 31 May 2023

With Predictive Analytics, Companies Can Tap the Ultimate Opportunity: Customers’ Routines

Armed with more data than ever, many companies know what key customers need. But how many know exactly when they need it? An analysis of 2,000 ridesharing commuters by Eva Ascarza and colleagues shows what's possible for companies that can anticipate a customer's routine.

• 30 May 2023

Can AI Predict Whether Shoppers Would Pick Crest Over Colgate?

Is it the end of customer surveys? Definitely not, but research by Ayelet Israeli sheds light on the potential for generative AI to improve market research. But first, businesses will need to learn to harness the technology.

• 24 Apr 2023

What Does It Take to Build as Much Buzz as Booze? Inside the Epic Challenge of Cannabis-Infused Drinks

The market for cannabis products has exploded as more states legalize marijuana. But the path to success is rife with complexity as a case study about the beverage company Cann by Ayelet Israeli illustrates.

• 07 Apr 2023

When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big

Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, and other entertainers have been accused of promoting crypto products on social media without disclosing conflicts. Research by Joseph Pacelli shows what can happen to eager investors who follow them.

• 10 Feb 2023

COVID-19 Lessons: Social Media Can Nudge More People to Get Vaccinated

Social networks have been criticized for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, but the platforms have also helped public health agencies spread the word on vaccines, says research by Michael Luca and colleagues. What does this mean for the next pandemic?

• 02 Feb 2023

Why We Still Need Twitter: How Social Media Holds Companies Accountable

Remember the viral video of the United passenger being removed from a plane? An analysis of Twitter activity and corporate misconduct by Jonas Heese and Joseph Pacelli reveals the power of social media to uncover questionable situations at companies.

• 06 Dec 2022

Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers

Consumers can't pass up a product update—even if there's no improvement. Research by Leslie John, Michael Norton, and Ximena Garcia-Rada illustrates the powerful allure of change. Are we really that naïve?

• 29 Nov 2022

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

Economic worries will make pricing strategy even more critical this holiday season. Research by Chiara Farronato reveals the value that hip consumers see in hard-to-find products. Are companies simply making too many goods?

• 26 Oct 2022

How Paid Promos Take the Shine Off YouTube Stars (and Tips for Better Influencer Marketing)

Influencers aspire to turn "likes" into dollars through brand sponsorships, but these deals can erode their reputations, says research by Shunyuan Zhang. Marketers should seek out authentic voices on YouTube, not necessarily those with the most followers.

• 25 Oct 2022

Is Baseball Ready to Compete for the Next Generation of Fans?

With its slower pace and limited on-field action, major league baseball trails football in the US, basketball, and European soccer in revenue and popularity. Stephen Greyser discusses the state of "America's pastime."

• 18 Oct 2022

When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions

Even when companies actively try to prevent it, bias can sway algorithms and skew decision-making. Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza offer a new approach to make artificial intelligence more accurate.

• 08 Aug 2022

Building an 'ARMY' of Fans: Marketing Lessons from K-Pop Sensation BTS

Few companies can boast a customer base as loyal and engaged as BTS fans. In a case study, Doug Chung shares what marketers can learn from the boyband's savvy use of social media and authentic connection with listeners.

• 30 Jun 2022

Peloton Changed the Exercise Game. Can the Company Push Through the Pain?

When COVID-19 closed gyms, seemingly everyone rushed to order a Peloton bike and claim a spot on the company's signature leader board. And then things quickly went downhill. A case study by Robert Dolan looks at the tough road the exercise equipment maker faces.

• 30 Nov 2021

TikTok: Super App or Supernova?

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around the simple idea of helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. By May 2020, TikTok operated in 155 countries and had roughly 1 billion monthly active users, placing it in the top ranks of digital platforms globally. But the app had drawn the attention of competitors, regulators, and politicians, especially in the US, where commercial success was critical to its long-term enterprise value. Would TikTok become the first “Super App” with a global footprint, or did it run the risk of becoming a supernova that shone brightly only for a passing moment? Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeffrey Rayport discusses these strategic challenges in his case, “TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 29 Sep 2021

For Entrepreneurs, Blown Deadlines Can Crush Big Ideas

After a successful launch, entrepreneurs struggle to anticipate the complexities of product upgrades, says research by Andy Wu and Aticus Peterson. They offer three tips to help startups avoid disastrous delays. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 13 Jul 2021

Outrage Spreads Faster on Twitter: Evidence from 44 News Outlets

When it comes to social sharing, doom-and-gloom tweets beat sunshine and rainbows, says research by Amit Goldenberg. Is it time to send in the positivity police? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 04 Jan 2021
• Working Paper Summaries

The Twofold Effect of Customer Retention in Freemium Settings

Many digital products offer “freemiums”: that is, part of the product for free, often with advertising, and an enhanced customer experience for payment. This research, in a mobile game context, shows the importance of recognizing the short- and long-term effects on customer retention when managing the tradeoffs between free and paid aspects of freemium products.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study (With Examples)

Learn exactly what a marketing case study is, how to write one that stands out, and review some examples of existing, successful studies.

As any big brand like MailChimp, Spotify and IMB will tell you, case studies are a huge part of solidifying your brand as thought leaders.

A case study is a win: you share the success of a customer as a result of your company’s actions. At SimpleTexting we call them our Success Stories , but no matter the name, the structure is the same — how company A worked with B to achieve XYZ. 

In this article we’ll cover everything from the basics to real-life examples.What exactly is a marketing case study, what constitutes a good one, and most importantly, how do you build one?

Let’s get started.

What is a Marketing Case Study?

According to Curata , “a case study in the context of marketing is an analysis of a project, campaign or company that identifies a situation, recommended solutions, implementation actions, and identification of those factors that contributed to failure or success.”

Sure, it’s a bit wordy, but at its core marketing case studies share information with prospective customers or clients about how your product offered a solution.

It doesn’t need to be dry reading. It doesn’t even need to be a report (although it can be). The key with a case study is that it should read like a story—only the beginning, middle, and end are all replicable business takeaways.

Case studies are for businesses of all sizes. They can be just as effective for small and medium-sized businesses as they are for enterprise businesses. Here’s why you should be investing time in building case studies.

Why Write a Marketing Case Study?

Before we dive into the instructions, let’s take a second to explore why a business would invest the time and effort into writing a case study. After all, why share your big marketing secrets with the world, what do you get out of the deal?

Simply put, you get the chance to share your story. Case studies, after all, are just stories showcasing your products and methods. They make for pretty spectacular advertising because, to a reader, it doesn’t feel like they’re being marketed to.

92% of customers prefer that media messages sound like a story. By using case studies you’re appealing to the logical, casual consumer who wants to know the “who, what, where, when, and why” that drives them to buy without any of the extra fuss. Case studies are the perfect medium to package it all.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study

As mentioned, every good case study maintains one singular focus: how one company used another to achieve its goal(s). This means most marketing case studies tend to take on an easily understandable problem-solution structure.

Let’s take a look at what you need to create a successful case study.

Components of a Marketing Case Study

Using the ingredients above, assemble them in this order to create a basic marketing case study:

• Write a title : Don’t worry about spoiling the ending. With case studies you want your title to let readers know right away how a campaign ended.  A case study title should include the name of the company or brand being examined, if their campaign went well or poorly for them and a solid metric that demonstrates exactly how well or how poorly they performed. For example: “ SimpleTexting Cut Down Product Onboarding Process by 30% Through Video Instruction. “
• Introduce the subject: Every marketing case study should open with a brief historical overview of the company. What have they struggled with in the past that led to them developing this campaign? Who is their target audience, what do they sell?  Even if your subject is obscure, you want to build a sense of relatability to your readers: so be sure to structure from general to specific. After all, you want readers outside just your industry to take away value.
• Identify your subject’s problems : Avoid leaving your readers feeling underwhelmed by presenting your subject’s problems early on in your case study. What are they trying to build, fix, or change? These problems are what will ultimately establish the subject’s goal, a one or two-sentence overview of the outcomes they’d like to see.
• Spell out your strategies and tactics : The real meat to your case study occurs here. This portion of your study is where you describe what actions you specifically took to try and reach your goals: What did you expect to happen when you tried “X, Y, and Z”?  Your case study can write this all out in paragraph form if you want it to read with some fluidity, or you can simply bullet out your strategies below each goal. Examples of good strategies for a common marketing pain point, such as building a social media following, include: connecting with influencers, developing original creative content, and developing paid advertising parameters.
• Share your results with visuals : At this point, you’ll want to follow up with the preview you set in your title and share with readers how things went. If you saw success, how much and where? If you didn’t were you able to pinpoint where things went wrong? Spare no detail as you write out what worked and what didn’t, and be sure to provide replicable detail (it may be what inspires your reader to become a customer!). Some common metrics commonly found in case studies include: web analytics and traffic, backlinks generated, keyword rankings, shares or other social interactions. Graphics like charts, bolded quotes, and graphs are good opportunities to visually demonstrate your data.
• Wrap it up with a conclusion : Know the difference between reemphasizing and repeating. When writing a conclusion you shouldn’t sound like an echo, repeating exactly what you said in your introduction. Instead, you want to draw emphasis back to your key points and call your readers to action. Let them know what they can do right now to get connected and see this same success (or avoid its failure).  If you’re writing a case study for marketing purposes, this is where you sell yourself and your product.

Marketing Case Study Examples

You’ve certainly heard enough from us to this point. Now it’s time to see what all of these tips and tricks look like in action. `

A plethora of marketing case study examples are out there, each one with a different objective: educational, sales-driven, industry leadership, and more.

To give you a well-rounded picture, we’ll share some of our favorite marketing case studies with you so you can see it all in action for yourself.

1. Surf Live Saving Foundation

The Surf Life Saving Foundation rolled out an innovative new framework for their brand known as the surf lottery. Despite the size of the initiative they were able to break down their process on a share of voice campaign with a great deal of clarity. Why we like this case study : It provides actionable and replicable examples of how their objectives were received.

2. StyleHaul & Asana

Organizational application Asana also finds itself in a competition-heavy environment. They are one of many SaaS productivity programs available. They needed to give their brand more of a voice to edge out against competitors offering near-identical products. The problem that needed solving in this success story is relatable to businesses all around the world, and ASANA’s use of it is a showcase of why they’re leaders in what they do.

Why we like this case study : It’s storytelling at its finest and perfectly demonstrates the subtle advertising concept.

3. Red Sox and CTP

This is a great example of a marketing agency showcasing its history of work with a high-profile client (the Boston Red Sox). It explores their entire body of work on a dynamic landing page. Why we like this case study : It demonstrates what a multi-media approach to a digital case study should strive to be.

4. SimpleTexting & U.S. Hunger

We couldn’t talk the talk without walking the walk. We have a range of varied case studies on our Success Stories page, but one of our absolute favorites is the results from U.S. Hunger.

U.S. Hunger was looking for a way to reach those who need them most – including those without internet access.

Why we like this case study: Not only does it highlight the incredible work of U.S. Hunger, it also shows how much can be accomplished through SMS. It spins a new light on SMS marketing and shows the wider impact of accessible communication. 

Marketing Case Studies are Key to Brand Trust

As a business looking to grow, you need to prove to prospective customers and clients why they should invest in you. Whether it’s a service or a product, case studies are viable ways of showing that what you do works and discussing how you achieved it.

The most impactful case studies aren’t always the ones with big names attached to them. They’re the best stories, the best solutions, and the ones that the most people can relate to.

Try Text Marketing for Free

No credit card required

Meghan Tocci

Meghan Tocci is a content strategist at SimpleTexting. When she’s not writing about SaaS, she’s trying to teach her puppy Lou how to code. So far, not so good.

Up next in Beyond Texting

Evaluating the best curbside pickup software.

Is your restaurant in need of new curbside pickup software? I evaluated the top seven curbside pickup tools so you don’t have to.

How Far Would You Go To Keep Your Search History Private?

How concerned are Americans if their private Google searches become public? We surveyed over 3,000 participants across the country to find out.

Send Your First Message in Minutes

Start a text marketing campaign or have a 1-on-1 conversation today. It's risk free. Sign up for a free 14-day trial today to see SimpleTexting in action.

Try Us Free

• Why Talkwalker

Over a decade in the making, we are thrilled to give you Blue Silk™ GPT, the greatest innovation in natural language processing purpose-built for consumer intelligence...

• Client Help Center
• Customer Stories
• Resources /

[Updated] 8 Best marketing case study examples

By Talkwalker

Published January 8, 2022

Social listening and consumer intelligence will knock your marketing campaigns out of the park. No question.

Don’t believe me?

The following types of case studies speak for themselves about why you should… listen. Show me the success stories!

Table of content

• Grubhub | Consumer insights feed the soul
• UNICEF | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights
• University of Sydney | Proves the value of social media
• Bella&Brava | Image recognition sees all 
• HelloFresh | Social listening is the secret ingredient 
• Hong Kong Airlines | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success
• Bonduelle | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions
• Lion & Lion and Rimmel | Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

Grubhub marketing case study | Consumer insights feed the soul

When the world went into lockdown, food delivery services became an essential part of all our lives. But how to do it safely?

Based in the US, Grubhub is a food ordering and delivery platform that connects consumers with local restaurants and takeaways. To understand what people wanted and meet their new demands, the brand turned to consumer insights.

COVID-19 brought the world to its knees. People feared for their health and for their income. The challenge for Grubhub was how to address consumer concerns with regard to a restricted household budget, disinfection protocols, the mechanics of safe food delivery, and more.

Using our consumer intelligence platform, the Grubhub team monitored for diners' negative experiences, and countered with positive experiences.

When Grubhub's Belly Dance ad first aired on TV, it fell below expectations, receiving low engagement. Suddenly, in January 2021, the commercial became a viral meme, receiving over 40K mentions on social media in one month.

Working with Talkwalker, the brand created a strategy as to how to join this growing conversation .

Think you can make a commercial better than us? Prove it. Add your own music to it or suggest a song, then tweet it with #DeliverTheRemix . You could have your song featured in our commercial and win a YEAR of free food. Ends 1/19. No purch nec. 50 US/DC, 18+. Rules in bio. pic.twitter.com/cRxIFKAji9 — Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 16, 2021

As the campaign became more successful, the team launched the #DeliverTheRemix contest, asking followers to help choose the next song in the “Belly Dance” ad. Consumers loved it, creating a ton of fun and creative pieces of content.

To understand how Grubhub was able to turn negative community sentiment and drive a brand-amplifying strategy , read the Grubhub marketing case study.

Download the Grubhub marketing case study

UNICEF marketing case study | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been bombarded with misinformation about the virus and the various vaccines. As this case study shows, we look at how UNICEF MENARO developed a communication strategy to battle the fake news that threatened to undermine the vaccine program in the Middle East and North Africa.

The pandemic caught us by surprise, and we lacked a reliable source of truth. This issue was exacerbated with the release of the vaccine, when we suffered a further deluge of fake news that fed the rising anti-vaccine mood.

It became critical for organizations promoting the vaccine to understand the concerns of the public , enabling them to put peoples' fears to rest. And build trust in vaccines.

For UNICEF MENARO this meant using Talkwalker's consumer intelligence platform to track misinformation keywords , along with mentions of COVID-19 in online conversations in the MENA region to see just how serious the situation was.

Sentiment analysis was used to find the overall sentiment around vaccines, with results showing that net sentiment was low, proving vaccine hesitancy.

The net sentiment around vaccines from December 2020 - April 2021 demonstrated the overall negative view of vaccines.

To shift the sentiment, UNICEF in MENA activated the voices of community members to engage with people and allay their vaccine fears.

UNICEF'S communication strategy delivered a data-driven narrative using strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and real-life testimonies. Short-form videos that were a strong part of the strategy, with the video for the #MaskUp campaign receiving over 136K mentions between April 2020 and May 2021.

Number of mentions of #MaskUp in the MENA region during the past 13 months.

UNICEF continues to play a key role in monitoring conversation around the pandemic, whether it's positive or negative. 

To understand more about how UNICEF used consumer intelligence to battle fake news , and the successful campaigns it launched, check out our UNICEF marketing case study.

Download the UNICEF marketing case study

University of Sydney marketing case study | Proves the value of social media

The secret to a successful social media strategy is ensuring it's aligned with your business goals.

This marketing case study explores how the University of Sydney used a combination of Hootsuite and Talkwalker and increased sentiment, engagement, and video views.

The university was looking to boost its reputation for research, entice a more diverse range of top-level students, and build a brand that would stand out in a crowd. A forward thinking university, social media would inevitably play a big part, so much so, it already had a Social Squad using Hootsuite, Talkwalker, and Adobe.

What did the squad do? Bringing the various faculty teams together, it created a social media strategy that aligned content, goals, and reporting across it's 36 official social channels.

Sentiment analysis and social media listening enabled the university to measure and manage its brand reputation . Collecting insights that informed the campaign strategy and boosted sentiment through social media communication.

When sentiment turned negative during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Stay Strong India campaign brought about a 30% increase in net sentiment score.

“The insights that Talkwalker provides us have been incredible and have really informed our campaign strategy. Providing these insights to our stakeholders demonstrates what social media can do for our brand and helps us secure investment to increase our budgets and grow our team.” Liz Grey | Social Media | University of Sydney

In the past, when content was shared across multiple channels without a plan, reporting results was hard. The introduction of Hootsuite Impact meant that the team could efficiently report on engagement, campaign performance, and ROI.

A year into its successful social media strategy, the university continues to collect student insights, and is looking to recruit influencers to meet new goals.

For more details on how the university used social media to improve its reputation, download our University of Sydney marketing case study.

Download the University of Sydney marketing case study

Bella&Brava marketing case study | Image recognition sees all

I love pizza, you love pizza. 

With a whopping 106.2K mentions on July 9th, 2019 on Twitter alone, it’s clear that everyone loves posting about pizza.

Data found using Talkwalker’s QuickSearch .

The most popular emojis used when it comes to discussing pizza.

When Venice-based pizzeria Bella&Brava wanted to open restaurants in new locations, it partnered with digital consultancy company OpenKnowledge to harness the power of social media.

Using Talkwalker’s proprietary image recognition technology , OpenKnowledge analyzed data from user-generated content - UGC - created by the consumers Bella&Brava were looking to feed. Their hip, young target audience.

Using image recognition, photos of pizzas posted on social media platforms - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - were identified, along with background scenes and objects. 

The consumer insights collected from social networks helped Bella&Brava make critical business decisions . Which cities to open in? Which brand partnerships to explore? How will cultural differences influence the design of each new menu?

Read Bella&Brava’s marketing case study to see how social listening and consumer insights will put your brand ahead of your competitors, purely by listening to consumers and meeting their demands .

Download the Bella&Brava marketing case study

“In the digital age, there are two types of organisations: those that collect data and those that transform it into opportunities” Ilaria Baietti, Director - Brand Interaction, OpenKnowledge

Speed up the growth of your business by closing the gap between your brand and consumers. Boom!

HelloFresh marketing case study | When social listening is the secret ingredient 

When HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit company, was struggling with social media data, it was time to call Talkwalker. .

Previously, the brand had been manually collecting social media data. This was not only  time consuming, but vital information was being missed .

Humans are great, but when you consider the amount of social data out there…

It was time to freshen up HelloFresh’s marketing strategy with social listening.

“At HelloFresh, data is at the center of everything we do. It was only natural for us to turn to social listening to improve the performance and efficiency of our marketing and communications teams. Talkwalker has allowed us to unlock access to a much larger conversation around our brand than ever before.” Jordan Schultz, Social Media Manager, HelloFresh

Talkwalker’s consumer intelligence platform was able to identify consumer insights , then translate into meaningful data. Moving forward, HelloFresh identified more than 400% more mentions per month.

With all these new insights to hand, HelloFresh began to develop a crisis management plan.

Take a look at our HelloFresh marketing case study, for more details

Download the HelloFresh marketing case study

Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success

This is a case study from a few years back, so pre pandemic. But it remains a landing page that converts, bigly.

What’s every traveler’s dream and every airline’s nightmare?

When a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was mispriced at $561, consumers rushed to make the most of this mistake, with the Hong Kong Airline marketing team scrabbling for their oxygen masks.

The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions, engagement and reach.

What were their options in the face of this PR crisis ? Search for the nearest exit? Or, buckle up and go along for what was sure to be a bumpy ride? 

Hong Kong Airlines decided to take another route. They chose to breeze right through it.

Luckily, they were prepared because of social listening and consumer intelligence. By using the insights from Talkwalker’s social media data and sentiment analysis , they were able to plan accordingly and protect their brand reputation .

“When we see what is happening in “real time” on social media we are better prepared to make timely and informed decisions and communicate those decisions well. Social listening and analytics tools are critical to success. In this case, we managed to turn what could have been a damaging issue, into a fantastic PR opportunity. With 4,900% more engagements created in a one week period.” Dennis Owen, General Manager of Branding and Social Media, Hong Kong Airlines

Read the Hong Kong Airlines case study to learn how they used social media data from competitors, and sentiment analysis to inform their strategic decisions. All while keeping long term customers and potential customers happy.

Download the Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study

Bonduelle marketing case study | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions

Bonduelle, a major French brand in the FMCG/CPG industry, was in the grips of optimizing its online brand strategy. The company that specializes in providing frozen and canned vegetables daily to over 100 countries, wanted to ensure that all its consumer data was readily available across its entire company.

The problem?

Data silos in Bonduelle.

Each department was collecting its own data and interpreting it, without a platform from which to share the information with other teams. This is a common issue. The State of Social Intelligence Report points out that 31% of organizations offer their teams limited access to social data.

The crucial information was hidden away in the dark depths of the team’s computer folder – unable to be used across departments to identify added benefits.

Social listening held the key to knocking down these data walls. It brought together information from online, social media, and traditional press all on one platform . Allowing Bonduelle to find the topics that were being discussed alongside their products or services, images associated with the brand, their high-performing influencers, and how to protect their brand reputation from negative comments.

Talkwalker offered the perfect solution, giving the brand the opportunity to build their own dashboard and choose who would have access to the data.

Read Bonduelle’s marketing case study to learn more about how it...

• Determined positioning based on data maturity scale in report
• Identified its progress in terms of data maturity
• Created necessary systems and teams for scalable processing of data
• Introduced the chief data officer role to maximize the value of data as it progresses

Download the Bonduelle marketing case study

Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study ­| Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

When faced with the relaunch of the British cosmetics brand Rimmel in Malaysia, the brand’s digital marketing agency, Lion & Lion, turned to social media.

With the increasing demand for authenticity and inclusivity, the beauty industry has been opting for social media and specifically, influencer marketing instead of traditional advertising methods. 

Makes sense!

It’s a trend that resonates with Gen Z . Econsultancy states that 65% of this group rely on social media to find and choose beauty products. 

Rather than listening to marketers telling you what to buy, social media, blog posts and influencers become the cool friend with the inside scoop on the latest makeup trend. So, it’s no surprise that cosmetics brands are turning to social media marketing and social listening for consumer insights into what people really want.

In a country where the k-beauty brands dominate the shelves, the first step was to make Rimmel stand out in the crowd. 

The data showed that consumers trust that beauty is more than skin deep. It’s all about being confident. It’s all about being confident. They want bold, experimental makeup to create distinctive looks.

Rimmel then launched the #MakeUpYourOwnRules marketing campaign which championed self-expression and all-inclusive beauty that radiates confidence.

“As a result, we saw an increase in branded search and share-of-voice, and gained around 3x of our initial market share target within the first year of launch” Cheska Teresa, Managing Director, Lion & Lion in Malaysia  

For more details on how Lion & Lion took full advantage of social listening and consumer intelligence for Rimmel, read Lion & Lion’s marketing case study.

Download the Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study

Drive your marketing with consumer intelligence

There you have it. 8 of our best marketing case study examples. Download them all to discover how some of the world's biggest brands use our consumer intelligence platform to drive their marketing strategies to success . Our industry-leading platform turns social and owned data into powerful and easy to action consumer insights. Don’t get left behind…

Subscribe to our newsletter for social resources

Join 70,000+ professionals and become a better social media marketer. Get social media resources and tips in your inbox weekly.

Resources for you

You may also like

9 Case Studies to Inspire Your Content Marketing Strategy

• Written By Brandon McShane
• Updated: October 17, 2023

Case studies are a valuable part of any content marketing strategy. They can be an ideal tool for showcasing your specific product or service. 

However, not all case studies are created equally. Some are more effective than others in introducing and solving content strategy challenges. 

In this article, we’ll share best practices for developing a worthwhile content marketing strategy using case studies of real-world examples. We’ll also discuss multiple areas of your strategy, including workflow management, talent management, SEO, and content scalability.

Workflow Management — Getting From Start to Finish

Many companies assume that generating lots of content is an effective content strategy . Unfortunately, that assumption is incorrect. There also needs to be a structure in place to develop and disseminate your content. 

One way to avoid the “all-or-nothing” content strategy is to focus on workflow management.

Content workflow management is a series of tasks that take content from ideas to delivery as efficiently as possible. It consists of six elements:

Within these six sections are sub-modules, which are:

• Creating and writing content
• Filing and sharing
• Social and collaboration

Workflow is essential because it helps break content creation and production into straightforward, manageable tasks you can execute smoothly.

Case Study: Narrato

Narrato’s case study examines how a content agency moved its content creation process to Narrato’s Workspace. It outlines all the steps taken that helped simplify the many moving parts of a content workflow strategy.

But, the challenge with this case study is how hard it is to follow verbally and visually. Images of the user interface provide examples, but the presentation is unclear, which isn’t what you want. Case studies should have a clear flow and structure that’s easy to follow.  

Case Study: FreshLime

Our FreshLime case study focuses on workflow issues involved with content creation. 

FreshLime is an online platform that helps clients increase their revenue through customized content services. Since their clients operate in various sectors, FreshLime needed content creators with specific industry expertise. And, because of the sheer amount of content required, FreshLime needed a way to track the content creation process.

Our content platform helped FreshLime layout procedures from start to finish, creating seamless collaboration between FreshLime and ClearVoice. We also developed and maintained a content calendar to track FreshLime’s client content requirements.

Although content is an end goal, workflow management is the cornerstone of any content marketing strategy.

Talent Management — Finding & Keeping the Right Creators

The key to quality content is quality content creators. But good writers and content creators are notoriously tricky to find.

So, how do you find the right talent for your business ? 

The first step is to examine what type of content you need. Then, determine the creator’s role in developing that content. It’s also necessary to outline anticipated volume and frequency.

Before bringing the content creator on board, examine their: 

• Skill level
• Level of audience understanding
• Fit into the company’s budget

The question then becomes where to source that talent from. There are a lot of “content services” available. Quality solutions , like ClearVoice, ensure experienced content creators through in-depth vetting and hiring processes.

Case Study: Cisco

Our Cisco case study focuses on their CloudCherry acquisition. After they acquired it, Cisco instituted a rebrand, which required content support. Cisco turned to us, and we facilitated using expert technical writers to develop short- and long-form content pieces. By turning talent management over to us, Cisco could focus on larger-picture tasks and higher-level strategy.

Case Study: Outriggers Hotels

Outrigger Hotels needed highly localized content. Through outsourcing to us, we paired them with writers who had a deep understanding of different worldwide locations, which led to consistent, high-quality content creation for them.

Talent management is an essential facet of content creation. But, it takes a great deal of time and resources to find and maintain experienced, knowledgeable content creators. Outsourcing your content creation can help match the right talent to the right content project. You must research the content agency’s reputation, references, and “talent bench.” 

Developing SEO Strategies

Many case studies highlight how quality content can provide a good foundation for boosting search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

There are a few reasons why content strategists focus on search rankings. First, organic search tends to be the primary source of website traffic . The higher you rank, the higher the probability of organic traffic. Second, SEO also builds trust and credibility in a particular brand while providing a better understanding of audience needs.

And with Google owning close to 93 percent share of the market, we all know which search engine to target.

Case Study: American Egg Board

Rise Interactive’s case study about the American Egg Board offers a good overview of how content can help improve search engine rankings. They worked with AEB to improve SEO by upgrading their website with fresh content, a clean design, and adding keywords. The result was a streamlined website, higher organic search numbers, and increased website visits.

However, the case study declines to mention certain factors. Specifically ongoing, relevant content is also essential to improve and maintain search engine rankings.

Case Study: Jerome’s Furniture

Jerome’s Furniture is a SoCal furniture retailer that needed to increase organic website searches through a higher SERP position. Our strategists developed an SEO-specific plan to increase website traffic. Then, the ClearVoice editors and writers stepped in to improve the company’s website content and create informative blogs that answered users’ questions.

The strategy also called for the addition of buyer’s guides. These downloadables provide advice on everything from getting better sleep to buying multi-use dining tables for the holidays. That strategy reduced keyword stuffing, improved the company’s page-quality score, and lowered ad spend. The result was higher website traffic and fewer dollars spent on advertising.

The one requirement of a strong SEO strategy is flexibility. It’s important to keep current with Google’s requirements. Before starting any content-related SEO strategy, companies need to understand their audience. Take time to research the target audience’s pain points and the solutions it seeks.

Developing the Right Content for the Right Purpose

Almost all companies want to develop and implement some kind of content strategy. Recent insights show:

• 60 percent of B2C marketers use content marketing strategies.
• 56 percent of businesses worldwide intend to spend more on content creation. 
• 73 percent of businesses have a designated employee to monitor content creation.

Source: Review42

What the above statistics don’t outline is the myriad of different content types available. When discussing content strategies, the first thing — and many times, the only thing — that comes to mind is blogs.

There’s a good reason for this.

Blogs are an excellent cornerstone of an effective content marketing strategy. They’re relatively easy to produce, approve, and distribute. When crafted properly, blogs can be top performers in providing fresh, consistent content that answers questions. As a result, they help generate more website traffic.

But blogs are only one type of content. In content marketing, there are four main content categories:

• Written content
• Visual content
• Interactive content
• Video content

But it doesn’t stop there. An effective content marketing strategy strategy focuses on the right content based on the customer’s buying journey . This journey guides customers through the “sales funnel” or “marketing funnel” through the following steps:

• Top-of-funnel: increases brand awareness and trust
• Middle-of-funnel: allows customers to research and solve problems
• Bottom-of-funnel: where customers are ready to take action

Case Study: GLOBO

This study focuses on GLOBO , a language-support company that helps companies communicate in over 350 languages.

GLOBO was struggling with its messaging. They needed a plan to frame their brand as a compassionate, mission-oriented company. The messaging goal also needed to nurture potential users to action. In this case, subscribing to the product.

We helped GLOBO strategize how to create content for various parts of their marketing funnel and ensured they used the proper content formats to engage their audience at each stage.

Not all content is created equal, and blogs aren’t the only answer to a content marketing strategy. Sometimes, a solutions-based email or an infographic might be more appropriate. 

Before determining the best content to use, first find out:

• Where’s the audience in the buying journey?
• What problems are they trying to solve?
• Are there trends that might be in play? 
• What’s the right messaging, content, and dissemination process?

Also, focus on why the content needs to be in place, what it offers, and how to distribute it best.

Determining Content Scalability

Any robust content strategy includes building agile content systems that can quickly produce a large amount of content and disseminate it to the right audience at the right time. 

In other words, scalability.

Many companies face a scalability issue when fulfilling their content marketing strategy. They might have great content plans in place. But turning those plans into reality requires a streamlined system and quality content providers.

However, it’s incorrect to assume that scalability means hiring more people. Content scalability isn’t a personnel issue. It’s a systems issue. 

Case Study: Updater

Updater , a household moving app, wanted to scale its content efforts. But it knew managing that in-house would be time-consuming and expensive. 

When they partnered with us, we matched them with the best writers for their needs and budget to increase their content creation. We also used our workflow management to streamline their content review and approval processes. The result was a more consistent content flow and improved brand recognition.

Case Study: Charles-Kenyon

Charles-Keynon needed to scale its content efforts on behalf of its clients, which consist of banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. But, they were finding it challenging and time-consuming to create original content consistently. Plus, the client approval process was very slow. 

We worked with Charles-Kenyon to overhaul their content creation process. We developed blog and article pitch requests that were sent to their clients. And we implemented a system to ensure the clients responded to those pitches quickly. Last but not least, we matched them with our expert writers and editors to create thoughtful and engaging content that satisfied their clients. 

Putting more content into circulation shouldn’t always require additional resources. Instead, the focus should be on improving content flow and getting that information from ideation to approval and dissemination in an efficient fashion.

Explore all the details and takeaways to inspire your next phase of marketing content production, performance, and scale with our in-depth guide .

Final Thoughts

Case studies provide best practices that enhance the creation process. They outline the steps to guarantee a steady flow of quality content, ensuring your content plan benefits your company’s marketing efforts.

Now more than ever, it’s the ideal time to leverage an external partner to support your content creation. At Clearvoice, we can support and scale your entire content marketing strategy. Discover our solutions or talk to a specialist today to get back time in your day, focus on what matters, and create great content faster. 

Technical SEO Explained: The Essential Guide for Marketing Leaders

The Psychology Behind Effective Marketing: A Comprehensive Guide

B2C SEO Essentials: Boosting Visibility in the Consumer Market

• Content Production
• Build Your SEO
• Amplify Your Content
• For Agencies

Why ClearVoice

• Talent Network
• How It Works
• Freelance For Us
• Statement on AI
• Talk to a Specialist

Get Insights In Your Inbox

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Intellectual Property Claims
• Data Collection Preferences

Trending now

Top digital marketing trends for 2023, why digital marketing is critical to your organization, complete guide to top digital marketing job roles in 2021, top 12 types of seo, the beginner’s guide to local seo, 10 digital marketing skills to master in 2021, top 7 impacts of social media: advantages and disadvantages, the history and evolution of digital marketing, what is the difference between seo and sem, top 20 content writer interview questions for 2024, amazon marketing strategy 2023: a case study.

Table of Contents

Amazon is the largest online store in the world based on sales and market value. This online business has changed how people all over the world do business. Jeff Bezos started the company on July 05, 1994, in Washington, USA. He was the CEO of the company till July 2021. Andy Jassy took over as the President and CEO of Amazon on July 05 2021. 

The first success for Amazon came along very quickly. It began as an online bookstore and kept adding to what it could do. In 1997, the company went public and is now on the NASDAQ in the US. Without help from the press, the company could sell books in 45 countries in less than two months. Amazon is now in more than 200 countries, and its website sells almost everything. Its subsidiaries include Audible, Twitch, IMDb, and Amazon Web Services.

Amazon Marketing Strategy is something that has become a case study at all the top MBA colleges. Amazon's marketing strategy helped the company achieve a 1.7 trillion-dollar valuation in 2021. So, here we discuss the Amazon Marketing strategy and how it helps differentiate the company from its competitors.

Become a Certified Digital Marketer Today

The 4Ps of Amazon's Marketing Strategy

Amazon looks at the " marketing mix " of a company or brand, which comprises the 4Ps - 

Here is a comprehensive explanation of each factor's function.

Amazon used only to sell books online, but now it sells millions of different products in many categories. Shoes, jewelry, clothes, toys, home and kitchen appliances, electronics, books, the great outdoors, sports, car accessories, and works of art are some of the most popular products. Amazon sells goods from small businesses and shops but promotes its brand , Amazon Basics.

A company can price its products in several different ways. Here are some to remember: 

• Cost-plus pricing 
• Value pricing 
• Competitor pricing 
• Price discrimination

Amazon often uses a pricing strategy called "competitive pricing," in which it looks at the prices of its competitors and bases its prices on those. It helps keep costs low and gives customers a lot of choices.

Amazon also uses the following methods to set prices:

• Promotional pricing
• Behavioral pricing

Amazon can change its products daily because of how it runs its business. This is its best feature, making it hard for other companies to compete with Amazon.

Amazon's online store has grown over the past few years in many parts of the world. Millions of products are now more accessible to customers worldwide to get. Even if you live in a remote part of the world, you can get packages quickly from Amazon. Part of the company's success comes from the fact that it ships fast and has fulfillment hubs.

4. Promotion

When it comes to marketing, Amazon knows how important communication is. It uses a lot of different kinds of advertising to reach people who might buy or use its products. Amazon has a lot of sales and discounts, which is a great way to build its brand. It has regular ads on websites, newspapers, TV, billboards, and social media , among other places. There are also affiliate sites that work with Amazon.

Also Read - What are the 7 Ps of Marketing? Read this article and find out! 

Become a Certified Marketing Expert in 8 Months

Amazon Marketing Channel Types

PPC advertising on Amazon can be put into three groups:

1. Headline Search Ads

If you want to get your brand out there, it's best to use headline search ads. Amazon now has two ways to promote brands, especially during the holiday season:

• Headline Search Ads
• Amazon Stores

Title and Amazon Stores Together, Search Ads can help people know more about your brand and the products you sell. It also builds trust with customers and makes sure that your products are shown in the right way.

By combining Headline Search Ads, Amazon Stores, and Sponsored Products into a single Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing campaign, you can easily reach many shoppers in less time.

2. Product Display Ads

Another type of effective PPC ad is a "Product Display Ad," which is placed next to the product or in the "similar items" section on the product page. This kind of ad is only meant to be self-service. It is linked to the ASINs of the products, which gives sellers many options for focusing on different types of customers based on how they act.

3. Sponsored Product Ads

One of the best ways to get more people to see and buy your product is to pay for an advertisement. Sponsored product ads appear on the top when you search for something on Amazon.

Amazon's Digital Marketing Strategy

Amazon's digital marketing strategy is comprehensive, and they reach the customers through digital marketing. Today, everyone uses social media. Amazon advertises its products on social media, taking advantage of those who use those sites and sending them to their product pages to help them sell more. It has teamed up with several big and small influencers in the country to reach its audience more effectively. It uses Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Amazon on Facebook

There are 10 million people who follow Amazon India on Facebook . It primarily uses Facebook to share company news and advertising. It uses strong advertising to get the word out about its Sale Days. It also stays up-to-date by publishing posts on different topics.

Amazon on Instagram

Interviews with artists from different backgrounds and key advertising are the main parts of Amazon's Instagram marketing plan. It has more than 2.8 million Instagram followers. The company's strategies for Instagram and Facebook are very similar, except that it doesn't post updates about company news on either platform. Both platforms have posts from the company that are very similar. 

Amazon on Twitter

Amazon India has a different plan for getting new customers through Twitter. It stays in touch with its followers, using a wide range of content, holding contests to get new customers, and following and creating trends. It is one of the biggest in its field, with two million Twitter followers. Twitter content makes it sound less like advertising and more like personal recommendations. 

Amazon on YouTube

The best thing about Amazon's YouTube ads is that they immediately grab people's attention. Amazon makes sure that its ads are always interesting and valuable. Most of the time, it does this by trying to make the customer feel special. 

Amazon on Pinterest

More than a million people follow Amazon on Pinterest. They use Pinterest to promote their products based on a wide range of themes to grab people's attention.

The way Amazon uses digital marketing is unparalleled. To stay competitive, they should keep making more exciting content and putting it out in the best way possible. Amazon Marketing Strategy gets updated periodically to stay ahead of the curve. Competing in the retail industry is complex, and Amazon's marketing strategy has helped the company stay ahead of the competition.

Become a Digital Marketer in 2022

This is the best time to make a career in Digital Marketing . Everyone is going digital, and the demand of experts in this industry is shooting the sky. If you are a fresher, or a working professional planning to switch to Digital Marketing then we might have the best program for you! Sign-up for our Digital Marketing Job Guarantee program and land at your dream job within 180 days of graduating. Meet industry experts  and connect with like-minded peers. Take the right step forward towards your career goals, enrol now! 

About the Author

Simplilearn is one of the world’s leading providers of online training for Digital Marketing, Cloud Computing, Project Management, Data Science, IT, Software Development, and many other emerging technologies.

Recommended Programs

IMT Ghaziabad Digital Marketing Program

*Lifetime access to high-quality, self-paced e-learning content.

Amazon Marketing Strategy 2022: A Case Study

Recommended resources.

AWS Career Guide: A Comprehensive Playbook To Becoming an AWS Solution Architect

Walmart Marketing Strategy

What is AWS: Introduction to Amazon Web Services

AWS Basics: A Beginner’s Guide

An Introduction To AWS Auto Scaling

• PMP, PMI, PMBOK, CAPM, PgMP, PfMP, ACP, PBA, RMP, SP, and OPM3 are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

• Deutschland
• Asia Pacific
• Australia & NZ
• United States & Canada
• Latinoamérica
• Europe, Middle East & Africa

What 3 brands learned from their YouTube CTV experiments

It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a digital video boom, as alternatives to linear TV grow at unprecedented rates. According to Nielsen’s total TV and streaming report, YouTube is the leader in streaming watch time. 1

Global viewers watch a daily average of over 700 million hours of YouTube content on TV devices, 2 while over 11 million people stream YouTube on their TV in Saudi Arabia. 3 On top of that, 90% of YouTube TV viewers in Saudi Arabia are co-viewing . This is when multiple people watch YouTube on a connected TV (CTV) device together, and view ads at the same time. And they’re watching videos that are on average two-and-a-half times longer than the ones watched on mobile and desktop. 4

Think with Google

Source: YouTube Internal Data, Global, Jan. 2022.

Share this page

This level of engagement informs how viewers feel about ads. In a new study, we found that viewers agree that YouTube ads on the TV screen are more relevant (59%) than ads on linear TV or other streaming apps. 3 Connected TV gives advertisers a powerful creative canvas to reach viewers when they are highly engaged, streaming their favorite content on the living room screen.

To better understand the opportunity for advertisers, these three brands ran experiments to see how effective CTV could be for their audiences. Here are the questions they set out to answer.

Does CTV drive results?

On behalf of its Ruffles brand, Frito-Lay North America leveraged CTV to engage with some of its core audiences, such as younger families, flavor variety seekers, millennials, and those living in urban areas. The marketing team wanted to understand how increases in watch time on CTV contributed to brand and sales goals.

The higher delivery to the increased CTV cells exceeded our expectations and benchmarks across view rates, ad recall, and sales lift.

In 2021, Ruffles ran an A/B test with half the media budget delivered across devices as usual and the other half with an increased allocation to CTV. It then compared performance to delivery.

The result? “The higher delivery to the increased CTV cells exceeded our expectations and benchmarks across view rates, ad recall, and sales lift,” said Amanda Corral, senior director of paid media strategy at Frito-Lay North America. “And we achieved this without sacrificing CPM or reach. We were thrilled to deliver a strong impact while maintaining efficiency and delivering higher ROI.”

Can tried-and-true audience and creative strategies scale to CTV?

L’Oreal USA has built its brands with a commitment to consumer-centricity. Across its brands, that has meant committing to cut-through creative. (Think, “Maybe they’re born with it, maybe it’s … .” You know the rest.) It has also meant constantly refining media and audience strategies that evolve as the brands’ customers do. For the past several years, L’Oreal USA has followed the lead of its customers and ramped up investment in YouTube.

The company has honed a tried-and-true approach to creative and reach, and wanted to see how that approach scaled to CTV. So in the summer of 2021, when it was time to lean into upper-format, demand-generating media, L’Oreal USA increased its YouTube investment by 102% year over year. “What was interesting about this time was, we were seeing audience behavior patterns around ad-supported streaming and a boom in CTV that we knew wasn’t going to go away,” said Shenan Reed, SVP, head of media at L’Oreal USA.

The company ran a meta-analysis across nearly 30 NCS sales lift studies and found that its YouTube activity delivered an average of 6% sales lift for its campaigns. The company also saw a 6 to 1 return on ad spend on YouTube CTV screens. Not only did this prove that L’Oreal USA’s creative and audience strategies can scale to CTV, but it also saw that the majority of impact was coming from new consumers. That’s important because, coming out of the pandemic, the team knew the company needed to attract the next generation of new consumers and first-time buyers.

“Our consumer is still in the living room, but they’re watching a wider variety of content — content that is more personal, that’s more of the moment. You can ignore that behavior, or you can choose to show up. And we chose to show up,” said Reed.

Our consumer is still in the living room, but they’re watching a wider variety of content — content that is more personal, that’s more of the moment.

Does CTV work for action campaigns?

DocuSign was initially apprehensive about CTV, since users aren’t able to click through and convert on the TV screen. However, the brand put aside those reservations and decided to experiment by using the channel to increase reach and brand awareness. DocuSign understood the importance of reaching its users wherever they were, including their connected TVs.

“Before this test, we didn’t know there was such a large audience on CTV that we weren’t reaching through other video ads,” said Andy Tack, senior marketing manager at DocuSign.

By running a CTV-dedicated advertising campaign alongside a regular cross-device campaign, DocuSign was able to isolate and quantify the impact CTV had on its campaigns. The marketing team found that the CTV ads drove a best-in-class 33% relative lift in ad recall. Furthermore, despite worries about barriers to action, DocuSign actually saw a 126% relative conversion lift for its trial sign-ups.

No model exists for the perfect CTV strategy. Brands of all types are showing what can be done.

“We can now clearly see the value CTV has in our campaigns,” said Tack. “Whether we’re growing brand awareness and recall, or improving consideration and purchase intent, CTV is a critical part of our approach.”

No model exists for the perfect CTV advertising strategy. Whether planning media on behalf of a CPG company, reaching new cosmetics buyers, or taking a chance on a new channel, brands of all types are showing what can be done. The one thing they have in common is that their efforts were rewarded.

Others are viewing

Marketers who view this are also viewing

What marketers can learn from the most powerful YouTube trends of 2022

Why marketers are missing worlds of content people want — and how to change that, how the streaming boom has landed us back in the living room, how ai helps video marketers move at the speed of culture, 4 trends in video culture that signal bigger shifts, how phd guides clients through the new world of connected tv, christine turner, sources (4).

1 Nielsen Total TV & Streaming Report, U.S., Nielsen national TV panel data plus streaming video ratings, Sept. 2022.

2 YouTube Internal Data, Global, Jan. 2022.

3, 4 YouTube Internal Data, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 2021.

5 YouTube Internal Data, Global, Jan. 2022.

Others are viewing Looking for something else?

Complete login.

To explore this content and receive communications from Google, please sign in with an existing Google account.

You're visiting our Europe, Middle East & Africa website.

Based on your location, we recommend you check out this version of the page instead:

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

10 Ways to Prove You’re a Strategic Thinker

• Brenda Steinberg
• Michael D. Watkins

It’s not enough to have good ideas. You also have to communicate them effectively.

To get ahead in the business world, it’s not enough to think strategically. You also have to effectively communicate those ideas. There are several ways to do this, including elevating the conversation to focus on the big picture and broader context, being forward-looking in your comments, anticipating the effects of potential decisions, connecting disparate concepts, simplifying complex issues, using metaphors and analogies, stimulating dialogue with questions, showing you are informed, actively listening, and seeking feedback.

Are you a strategic thinker? Do key people in your organization — such as your boss and senior leadership — think so? To get ahead in your career, it’s critically important to ensure that the people around you perceive you as leadership material. One key to achieving that is communicating in ways that demonstrate your strategic mind. You can’t just think strategically. You need to speak strategically, too.  Here are some ways to do it:

• Brenda Steinberg  is an executive coach and leadership consultant with more than 20 years of experience in working with senior leaders. She regularly contributes to executive education programs at  IMD  Business School and works as a consultant with  Genesis Advisers .
• Michael D. Watkins is a professor of leadership and organizational change at at IMD , cofounder of Genesis Advisers , and the author of The First 90 Days . His new book, The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking ,  explores  how executives can learn to think strategically and lead their organizations into the future.  

Partner Center

The power of partnership: How the CEO–CMO relationship can drive outsize growth

In today’s uncertain economic climate, growth can be hard to achieve and maintain. In fact, one in four companies doesn’t grow at all, and only 10 percent of S&P 500 companies have reported revenue growth above GDP for more than 30 consecutive years. 1 “Choosing to grow: The leader’s blueprint,” McKinsey, July 7, 2022. Growth doesn’t happen by accident; growth leaders  need to actively choose to grow  and intentionally create strategic distance from their peers.

To better understand what is happening inside the C-suites of high- versus low-growth companies, we conducted a survey and had conversations with more than 100 people in C-level growth roles (chief marketing officers, chief growth officers, etcetera) and 21 CEOs from B2B and B2C companies of all sizes and across multiple industries. We found that the relationship between CEOs and CMOs, 2 We use the term “CMO” throughout this article as shorthand for a range of marketing leaders with CMO and other titles, including chief growth officer, chief customer officer, chief brand officer, etcetera. particularly how they jointly defined marketing’s role and remit to shape growth strategy, was highly correlated to their companies’ performance. CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely to have greater than 5 percent annual growth compared with their peers.

CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely to have greater than 5 percent annual growth compared with their peers.

Realizing the full potential of marketing, however, is not as simple as the CEO looking over at the CMO and saying “go.” The big challenge is building the right dynamic between CEOs and CMOs. We’ve written before about how CMOs can better deliver growth . Yet we still found an opportunity for CEOs to engage more deeply with their CMOs and other growth leaders to more effectively work together to unlock growth. By developing a clearly defined C-level growth role that has marketing at its center, building conviction in modern marketing methodologies, and measuring what matters, CEOs can reinvigorate their relationships with marketers.

In this article, we discuss the current state of the partnership between CEOs and their CMOs, and we identify pain points and opportunities for CEOs to fully engage in and harness marketing to grow their companies.

Pain points CEOs and CMOs face in delivering growth

Our research highlights three disconnects CEOs and CMOs can overcome together to ignite growth: murkiness in C-level growth responsibilities, the underestimated potential for marketing to drive growth, and the misalignment of marketing measurement and business impact.

Unclear remit for the CMO

Traditionally, CMOs have been in charge of what’s known as the 4Ps for customer interactions: product, price, place, and promotion. In response to the evolution of marketing , in recent years many organizations have added new marketing-adjacent roles to their C-suites, such as chief digital officers, chief customer officers, or chief growth officers. Companies have also distributed ownership over parts of the 4Ps to other functions, such as handing pricing responsibilities to finance departments. More than two-thirds of the CMOs we surveyed said there are two or more leaders in their companies who oversee marketing and marketing-related activities and sit on the executive committee reporting directly to the CEO (Exhibit 1). The result is a blurring of marketing’s role and an overlap with other customer-related remits.

Growth requires ownership and accountability, yet the proliferation of these C-level roles in many companies means that CEOs can have multiple executives with sometimes ill-defined responsibilities for customers, growth, or both. As a result, when CEOs ask themselves who to turn to, it isn’t always clear who’s responsible for what. “Many times, CEOs turn to strategy or operational leaders versus the CMO for growth strategies,” one CMO of a large health services company told us. “As a result, strategies can be more financially and analytically driven versus consumer led.”

As CEOs distribute responsibilities for the customer to new roles and inform CMOs what isn’t in their scope, they also sometimes neglect to tell them what is . That can create misalignment between CEOs’ and CMOs’ perception of marketing’s role in creating growth. Our survey results bear this out. Nine in ten CEOs in our survey said they believe that marketing’s remit is well defined. But when we asked them and their CMOs what the primary role of marketing is, only half of same-company pairings gave the same answer (Exhibit 2). Without clear, top-down expectations, CMOs cannot effectively align time and resources to the CEO’s long-term strategy.

To add to the challenge, in some cases, marketing doesn’t even have a seat at the table. Based on publicly available information, we analyzed the executive suites of Fortune 500 companies and found that more than 40 percent of them don’t even have a single growth- or customer-related role among their CEO’s executive committee. That means marketing or marketing-adjacent leaders can struggle to deliver when they are not part of the strategic conversation and may not have the opportunity to influence important decisions.

Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies don’t have a single growth- or customer-related role in their CEO’s executive committee.

Underestimated potential of marketing to drive growth

CEOs and CMOs are also not always fully aligned when it comes to marketing’s capabilities. Marketing has rapidly evolved into a multidimensional, technical discipline, and modern marketing has become increasingly complex . 3 “Modern marketing: What it is, what it isn’t, and how to do it,” McKinsey, March 2, 2020. Consumer journeys  have more touchpoints. Data is at the core of every marketing activity. And technical skills are now a must-have for marketing organizations . The number of strategies, tactics, tools, and levers available to marketers has grown exponentially, broadening the potential of what marketing can achieve. For example, according to our research, the number of martech solutions has doubled every year over the past five years, resulting in more than 11,000 solutions so far in 2023. It’s a frenetic pace of change for even the most seasoned marketers and significantly more challenging for CEOs to keep up with since it is (rightly) not a part of their day-to-day work. If CMOs and CEOs aren’t actively engaging with each other on a regular basis, the pace of change can outrun them.

There is a difference in perception about modern marketing  capabilities reflected in responses to our survey question about modern marketing. When we asked about familiarity with tactics such as paid social, personalization, and advanced targeted strategies, about 50 percent of our CEO respondents said they feel comfortable with modern marketing. However, 66 percent of the CMOs we surveyed said their CEOs were not comfortable with modern marketing.

Contributing to this gap is the fact that most CEOs lack a marketing background. Based on publicly available data, we estimate that only 10 percent of Fortune 250 CEOs have marketing experience, and only 4 percent have previously held a CMO-like role. In contrast, more than 70 percent of Fortune 100 CEOs have an operations or finance background. It stands to follow, then, that many C-suite members underestimate marketing’s potential to create growth, despite the rapid growth in marketing capabilities.

Misalignment of marketing measurement and relevance to business impact

As the saying goes, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” In the modern marketing era, CMOs can report endless key performance indicators (KPIs): cost per click, click-through rate, brand awareness, and so on. But metrics have different purposes, and CEOs are often not given the right measurement tools to evaluate marketing’s performance and business impact. As a CMO of a large health services company told us, “The world has changed with data and technology that has enabled measurement. Marketers are speaking a complex language and drown CEOs and CFOs in data. But they need to answer the question: Why is this a good business decision?”

Sometimes CEOs feel they are missing the link between marketing measurement and business impact. On average, the CEOs responding to our survey feel that marketing metrics clearly tie to business impact less than 60 percent of the time. CEOs cannot properly manage their growth strategy without understanding a direct link between marketing measurement and business impact.

When CEOs and CMOs aren’t focused on the same metrics, they aren’t running to the same finish line. When we asked CEOs and CMOs of the same companies what their top three marketing metrics were, they only agreed half the time. CEOs are focused on business outcomes such as year-over-year revenue growth and margin improvements, while CMOs often report operational metrics such as brand awareness and recognition. It’s imperative for CEOs and CMOs to prioritize the same metrics to ensure they are also working toward the same objectives.

Even worse than not understanding marketing metrics, many executives aren’t convinced of their accuracy. Without credible measurement, CEOs can neither track marketing’s impact on growth nor hold their CMOs accountable. As the head of marketing for a large retailer told us, “There’s no consistent way to convey the value of marketing and what it is driving to help grow the business. There are a million ways to get to one number.”

Engaging marketing as a C-level driver of growth

Underestimating the power of marketing during uncertain times  could be a costly mistake. We found that the companies with CEOs who view marketing and branding as one of their top two growth levers are much more likely to experience growth than those who do not. 4 As part of our survey, we asked both B2B and B2C CEOs to rank the order of importance of innovation, pricing and promotions, distribution networks, marketing and branding, and customer experience to their growth strategy. We then measured their top-line growth by looking at the publicly available three-year revenue compound annual growth rate for public companies, and by asking private companies what their revenue growth was in the past year. B2C companies that prioritize marketing are three times more likely than those that don’t prioritize it to have greater than 5 percent revenue growth. It’s similar with B2B companies, where those that prioritize marketing are more than twice as likely to experience greater than 5 percent revenue growth.

To outperform and stimulate untapped growth, CEOs must clearly articulate the marketing function’s role, build their conviction in modern marketing, and reinforce accountability by aligning the full C-suite on measurement of what matters to overall growth.

Develop the blueprint for the CMO’s role

First, CEOs need to clarify with their CMO the marketing function’s remit, with a clear sense of direction tied to long-term strategy. “CEOs need to clearly define the sandbox that everyone plays in, or it becomes a burden for everyone,” a general manager at an international beauty company told us. “If there are no clear roles and responsibilities, someone can say yes to a request, but someone else can think it’s his or her responsibility and say no.”

CEOs should appoint a C-level growth role to bring together the focus on customer-centric growth across the C-suite. Growth requires the careful orchestration of multiple customer-facing levers—product, pricing, promotion, and many others—to serve the customer. The person tapped for this C-level growth role should serve as a general manager of growth, a convener with deep expertise in growth functions who thinks in terms of solving business problems.

The role of growth unifier might look different for different kinds of companies. For B2B companies that are more sales-focused, that growth unifier might be someone like a chief revenue officer . “As a B2B marketer, your job is not to just talk to your CEO about marketing decisions, but to discuss how your function drives growth for the other functions and the business,” said the CMO of a large components manufacturer. “View your role as a business leader who happens to care for the function of marketing.” For consumer-facing companies where demand generation is key, CMOs will often be best positioned to be this growth unifier, given their deep understanding of the customer and their skill set as a collaborative influencer. Some common archetypes to consider when defining this role are sales-force enabler, brand steward, demand capture engine, or customer experience and personalization ambassador (Exhibit 3).

Integrating ownership over growth into a C-level role means that CEOs have one go-to leader who wakes up every morning obsessing about growth. And the evidence shows this delivers: of the Fortune 500 companies that are considered outperformers (with above-median revenue CAGR and above-industry median profitability compared with peers), 60 percent have marketing, customer, or growth roles on the executive committee. Companies with only one customer or growth role reporting to the CEO on the executive committee grow up to 2.3 times more than companies with multiple such roles.

CEOs must then set their growth leader up for success by providing the resources and budget required to execute growth strategies and giving them authority and autonomy within their clearly defined scope. By making the growth leader part of the executive committee, the CEO ensures that they will contribute to the core of the strategic-planning process—providing input and advising rather than just observing. And when the CEO appoints a C-level integrated growth leader, it reinforces the company’s commitment to growth in a strong signal to investors, customers, and strategic partners.

CEOs and CMOs must jointly build conviction in modern marketing

Once the CMO’s role as growth leader is defined, CEOs should engage with their CMOs in the same way they do with other C-suite members. While looking at new cuts of a TV commercial might seem like fun, that’s not the kind of strategic engagement CMOs need from the CEO. Rather than overindexing on operational or status updates, CEOs should prioritize their time with CMOs to better understand, pressure-test, and push how the CMO can contribute to the company’s growth objectives and translate customer behavior into both opportunities and risks. “The number-one thing a CMO should do with their CEO is take them to talk to consumers. Let them listen to consumers on an in-home visit, go to a store, or do a shopping trip with a consumer,” said a general manager at an international beauty company. “Not just one time. It has to be a habit” (see sidebar “How effective CEO and CMO partners regularly engage on growth”).

How effective CEO and CMO partners regularly engage on growth

Based on our interviews, it’s clear that chief marketing officers (CMOs) want to engage their CEOs on the value of modern marketing and its potential for growth. They don’t have to take a big swing; they can start with small steps. Several of the CMOs we interviewed regularly send their CEOs simple but rich articles about marketing strategy, data and analytics, and the latest innovations. A chief customer officer at a leading hospitality chain always has a one-pager that explains the company’s martech stack and shows it to the CEO whenever an opportune moment presents itself. Other CMOs bring their CEOs to key customer research activities, such as customer focus groups, agency media days, or even international marketing conferences.

From our conversations with the CMOs participating in our survey, we also gained insights into how CEOs can be the best partners to cultivate marketing-led growth. First, the best CEOs have patience; strengthening the relationship with their CMOs is a process and takes time. Second, they are resilient. If they don’t understand something, they commit themselves to learning. Finally, they are open-minded and agile. They understand how marketing is both an art and a science and has potential to create the next frontier of growth. Because of this, they push their CMOs’ strategic thinking, asking tough, but not impossible, questions to propel their organization forward.

For CEOs to effectively engage on growth strategy, they also need to invest in themselves, allocating time to learn more about relevant innovations and shifting behaviors. CEOs have a trusted ally and expert teacher in their CMO. If they do not clearly understand how the marketing function is contributing to company value, they can engage with CMOs to build that conviction. “There’s a lot CMOs can do to educate managers about the possibilities of modern marketing,” said one former CEO at a Fortune 500 fintech company, who says he’s learned a lot from CMOs. “My knowledge of modern marketing is a reaction to our marketing team’s implementation.”

Measure what matters to overall growth

This new engagement model also demands a better measurement framework for growth. CEOs must work with their CFOs and CMOs to outline a marketing measurement framework that shows impact—and is one that everyone understands. Optimal marketing measurement starts at the CEO level (for example, revenue growth) and cascades down. Marketing can ensure that operational KPIs required for managing campaigns clearly link back to the overall growth objectives (see sidebar “How Chipotle quantified marketing and improved performance”). “CEOs need a framework to engage with their CMOs on marketing strategy,” the CMO at a national retail pharmacy chain told us. “CEOs should first ask themselves: what outcomes—not activities—do I want from marketing? Then they should ask their CMOs: what are the best levers to achieve the outcomes? Why do you believe in these? What are the returns? Evaluate marketing in a way that’s productive to the business and be open to the idea that marketing can generate value.”

How Chipotle quantified marketing and improved performance

When Brian Niccol was named Chipotle’s CEO in 2018, he was one of the rare CEOs with a marketing background. One of his first priorities was improving the clarity, efficiency, and accountability of marketing spend. In his first earnings call, he went as far as to claim “the brand has been invisible.” He expounded further in a 2021 interview with the Harvard Business Review , saying that when he joined the company, “Although Chipotle was spending $150 million a year on marketing, its messaging wasn’t very prominent.” 1 Brian Niccol, “The CEO of Chipotle on charting a culinary and digital turnaround,” Harvard Business Review , November–December 2021.

To turn the ship around, Niccol hired a former colleague, Chris Brandt, as chief marketing officer (CMO), specifically citing his ability to innovate and use marketing to grow transactions and sales. In an interview as part of our CMO survey, Brandt told us about how, in addition to improving Chipotle’s branding, it was critical that he improved marketing measurement to truly transform marketing from a cost center with unclear impact to a core growth lever accountable for driving the top line.

Brandt worked closely with the finance function to identify the right metrics that would measure business impact and aligned on how to calculate them. Armed with new KPIs tying marketing investment to revenue, Brandt clearly and consistently communicated marketing’s impact to the C-suite. “I don’t think people spend enough time to align on the right metrics,” he told us. “I am proactive about sharing what we are doing and how we are driving ROI. I think that is very important to building trust and credibility and showing how marketing can generate results.”

Today, he believes the entire C-Suite not only trusts that marketing creates growth but is also able to quantify—and hold him accountable for—the full extent of marketing’s contribution. The efforts have paid off. By repositioning the marketing function as a credible and effective growth partner, Brandt was able to help Chipotle accelerate year-over-year top-line growth by three percentage points in the 2019–2022 period versus the prior three years, according to our McKinsey corporate performance analytics.

Deciding which KPIs to track is a critical first step, but it’s meaningless if measurement methodologies are too opaque. CEOs should mobilize their top team to align on transparent marketing measurement that everyone agrees on. Finance and marketing should align on calculation methodology, setting targets, translating impact to the bottom line, and more. CEOs should require CMOs to collaborate with them and with CFOs to ensure alignment on ROI, as continuous collaboration will improve accuracy of marketing measurement and transparency of performance. This increased trust in metrics and a single source of truth dashboard for outcomes will make it possible for CEOs to rely on marketing projections in strategic planning and hold marketing accountable for growth.

Our research is clear: companies that place marketing at the core of their growth strategy perform better. CEOs can no longer afford to underestimate marketing as their growth partner and can get started now with the following steps:

• Clearly define a C-level growth role with marketing at its center.
• Engage with CMOs to discuss the business’s growth strategy and build conviction in marketing’s role within it.
• Together with the CMO, define a clear cascade of business outcomes into marketing KPIs to ensure the strategy has a direct impact on the bottom line.

With this road map, any organization can reposition marketing so that it’s at the core of its growth engine to capture the incremental sales potential of marketing-led growth.

Marc Brodherson is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New York office, Jennifer Ellinas is an associate partner in the Toronto office, and Ed See and Robert Tas are partners in the Stamford, Connecticut, office.

The authors wish to thank Menglou Du, Susan Easterday, Jiajing Hu, Nil Karahasanoğlu, Vanessa Karras, Lynda Liu, Paul Moreau, Gisella Roseney, Eric Sherman, Valerie Van der Voort, and Meredith Yasek for their contributions to this article.

McKinsey would like to thank the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) for initiating this study. As with all McKinsey research, this work is independent, reflects our own views, and has not been influenced by any business, government, or other institution.

This article was edited by Christine Y. Chen, a senior editor in the Denver office.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

A bigger, bolder vision: How CROs are propelling growth from the C-suite

Beyond belt-tightening: How marketing can drive resiliency during uncertain times

The growth imperative: Perspectives from UK marketing leaders

• Recruiting Solutions
• Job Descriptions
• Career knowledge
• Find Marketing Agencies
• Submit a Marketing Agency
• Marketing Knowledge
• Latest Articles

What Is A Marketing Case Study? See Examples And Write Yours

• by Totempool team

There are several instances in life when a person can learn from observing the world around him, which also applies to organizations. When a firm wants to understand a product’s or strategy’s success or failure, they turn to case studies. There are several types of case studies out there. Some of them are – a marketing case study, a finance case study, or a case study in innovation.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject. This could be a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are prevalent in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

Also, they are helpful in a variety of fields. These include psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work. However, we will look at the different elements of a marketing case study in this article.

Case studies are based on evidence; they begin with a question or problem that requires an answer through research. The researcher then collects information using interviews or observations.

The researcher might even conduct an experiment to test an idea related to the case study. After this data is collected and analyzed, the researcher writes up their findings in an article called a case report or case study report.

Also, a case study focuses on a detailed description of an individual or group experience from beginning to end. A case study does not provide generalizations about the larger population but rather focuses on how an individual or group responded to an event.

Case studies may also involve multiple individuals or groups with similar experiences. Case studies are used for:

• Testing Hypotheses
• Exploring an Issue
• Developing new ideas, theories, Models, or, Concepts
• Helping you understand specific individuals or groups in detail

What Is a Marketing Case Study

The marketing case study is a persuasive document that uses real-world examples to demonstrate the value of your product or service. It’s a powerful tool for marketing, sales, and customer support teams as it enables them to share the results of their work and how it helped solve a customer’s problem.

A marketing case study is basically a good story. Like all good stories, it needs to have the following elements:

• A Hero – This is the main character who is the good guy.
• The Problem – A situation that puts our hero in a difficult situation.
• The Solution – The product or service that saves the day. Also, it makes the hero happy.

Approaching a case study like a story is something that will be exciting for marketers. This is because marketers are fond of creating memorable stories for their brands.

However, it is essential to remember that the readers of the case study must be able to connect with it. This also means that they should be able to visualize themselves in the main character’s shoes.

Why Should Companies Write a Case Study?

Writing a marketing case study is hard work. It is not as simple as writing a blog post. This is because a case study has a large number of data points. All of them have to be accurate. Also, when a firm intends to mention a client by name, they need the necessary approvals. This can be a time-consuming process.

However, there are many compelling reasons to create a marketing case study. Here, we look at those reasons in some detail.

Demonstrate the power of your product.

Case studies can be effective marketing tools because they show your audience what your product or service can do for them and are much harder to ignore than an ad or blog post.

Build customer loyalty.

Keeping in touch with happy customers will allow them to voice their opinion about your business. However, it will also allow them to reaffirm why they chose your business in the first place.

Enhance Sales.

When a salesperson has case studies to share, it’s an opportunity for them to talk about the benefits their product or service can have for the customer. Also, they can speak about the resounding reception of the product . This, in turn, leads to an increased volume of sales.

Multi-Format and multi-purpose content.

Testimonial quotes and data snippets from your customers make great calls to action on various pages of your website. These could be your homepage, product and service pages, landing pages, etc. You can also repurpose these into PDFs, ebooks, videos, and infographics.

An opportunity to tell your story.

Case studies allow you to share your story, showing readers that your products and methods are effective. This makes for a fantastic form of advertising because it’s not pushy or over-the-top.

Earn Trust.

Case studies help convert positive customer opinions into tangible data that prove your value. In fact, a vast majority of marketers trust this type of content.

How to Write a Marketing Case Study

This section will look at how to write a high-impact and persuasive marketing case study.

Clear Headline.

The headline should share the most critical information about the case study. It should be able to capture its essence in a single sentence.

Write about someone your customer can relate to.

One should know their target audience before working on a marketing case study. They must know the industry the readers are a part of.

Ultimately, the audience must understand that the author is knowledgeable about the industry. Also, they must understand that he knows the customer’s pain points and can provide a solution for them.

Provide a summary.

A marketing case study should start with a crisp summary. The history of the firm, the industry it is a part of, and its leading products or services must also be covered in the summary. Also, the summary should introduce the client.

Narrate the complete story.

You must have got the gist by now. A marketing case study is a fantastic opportunity to tell your story. Furthermore, it is essential to tell it well. As always, one can rely on the STAR framework to make a good business story.

S – Situation: What was the situation that your brand was facing? How did it affect the customer? And, how did it affect you?

T- Task: What did you have to do to fix the situation?

A- Analysis: What approach did you use to analyze the problem? Also, what are the steps to solve it?

R – Result: What were the results of your efforts? To what extent did you solve the problem?

One can also report aspects such as improvement in customer satisfaction. Also, regular follow-ups with a select group of customers can get their feedback on after-sales service. It helps to focus on the long-term and emotional benefits as well.

The case study should be easy to read.

A marketing case study cannot be in the form of continuous text. Otherwise, people will doze off while reading it.

Rather, it should contain a small paragraph, and one must make sure that the case study includes headers, tables, images, and text. This will help improve SEO. It will also make the case study easy to read.

One can include short videos, infographics, and other multimedia to make the case study even more compelling.

Use actual facts and figures.

When writing case studies, it is always better to use actual data . This lends credibility to a person’s work instead of vague terms like ‘increased sales’ or ‘tripled footfall.’

One must mention whether the footfall has grown from 100 to 300 or from 2000 to 6000. Also, one must use charts and graphs to convey the meaning and scale of the data. Finally, any number is meaningless without context. Always remember to present the data points with some reference to the context.

Outline clear strategies

When an organization sets a challenging goal and achieves the target, it calls for a celebration and a marketing case study.

One should always substantiate strategies when discussing the reasons behind the firm’s success. For instance, targeting only the middle of the funnel, customers saw conversions increase from 50 to 75 per month.

Experiment with different formats

Case studies need to be put into text formats all the time. One can play around with different formats to see what works best. It could be a video interview where the customer talks about his challenges.

However, the end objective of the case study remains the same irrespective of the format.

The problems of the customer and how your product solved them for him.

Case studies can also be in the form of brochures, webinars, or podcasts. Another advantage of different formats is that the content will appeal to a wider audience.

Case studies must be easy to find

The case studies must be presented in a prominent section on your website. Further, they have to be optimized for search. Also, all case studies must be promoted on social media and by email.

Marketing Case Study Examples

In this section, we will look at some case studies examples. These case studies demonstrate how to present a sticky situation and its solution in a wonderful manner.

Porch case study

This case study details a year of content marketing that resulted in 931 unique domain links, 23,000 monthly organic visits, and more. The content marketing agency Fractal worked with Porch to achieve these results.

This is a great way to demonstrate your ability to deliver the desired results without disclosing confidential information. Also, these case studies give confidence to other companies in the same industry. You can read the case study here.

IDEO case study

This case study shows that IDEO aims to transform the airport experience by putting passengers first. They have presented the facts exceptionally well. The case study explains how the firm helped Pearson International Airport respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The entire case study is divided into three parts: the challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Another good thing is that there are visuals and images to break the flow of text. You can find the case study here.

Chevrolet DTU case study

This case is an excellent example of how a well-known brand fuels the reader’s curiosity. Here, the initials DTU are used. Everybody was interested to know what the abbreviation stands for. Well, DTU is ‘Discover The Unexpected.’

A mix of images, videos, and bullet points sustains the reader’s interest. One of the best things about this case study is that only the name of the brand is used to catch the audience’s attention. You can read this case study here.

Omnichannel Challenge – Bitly Case Study

Bitly uses a PDF format for all its text-heavy case studies. The case study in question is one of an e-commerce company, Vissal. The entire case study consists of different sections, such as ‘The Goal’, and ‘Top Omnichannel Obstacles.’

Also, it includes images in ‘The Set Up’ and ‘The Launch.’ The PDF is available for download and opens up in a separate window.

The colors and text used follow Bitly’s brand guidelines. It shows that a PDF is an excellent format for a case study. However, it is essential to keep the case study short. This case study is available here .

Some disadvantages of case studies

People write case studies so that learning from one situation can be applied to other similar situations. However, that does not always happen. This is because each situation has its unique nature.

Also, case studies can become theoretical in nature. This is even though they are based on real situations.

Marketing Case Study Examples: Best 15 to Learn From

Do you want to showcase your products and services to prospects? A pleasant and appealing website and engaging videos are a good start, but is it enough? To find out, consider examining some marketing case study examples and determining if there are additional strategies you could use to showcase your offerings to potential customers better.

A great website, social media presence, and targeted messaging are all essential to growing your business. But gradually building authority in your niche by boosting your credibility is an altogether different affair. You need to spice things up to make a super impression on your future customers.

And that you can do with a convincing case study!

But simply finding a basic template online and duplicating it for your case study can never be enough. This article will give you the top 20 marketing case study examples that masterfully communicate with your audience, driving your message home.

What is a Marketing Case Study?

A marketing case study contains various information, quotes, statistics, etc. It is like telling a story of how your agency helped a brand solve a problem or excel in the market. In fact, a good case study must be filled up to the brim with quality research. Every result or quote must have a fact or statistics backing it up.

Furthermore, a marketing case study must not be unnecessarily elaborate. In other words, every sentence you put in it must be relevant to the target audience. If it is on point and precise, it is sure to rope in new customers for you.

Marketing case studies can be displayed on your company’s website. It works as proof of what you’ve done, how you’ve done it, and so on. Some companies also choose to make their marketing case studies a part of their sales presentation while pitching to new customers.

Either way, you choose to use it, a case study is an essential customer acquisition tool you must operate properly.

Why Are They Important?

• It provides formidable social proof to your company.
• It gives your target customer the complete picture of what to expect from your brand.
• A case study is a perfect tool for your company to build trust, as statistics and quotes from previous customers support it.
• There’s a range of different ways you can prepare a case study, from text-heavy and video-based to infographics.

At a time when 9 out of 10 consumers look for customer testimonials or other kinds of social proof before making a purchase, case studies are immensely vital.

Want to know how to create a great one? Here are some examples of a marketing case study done right!

Top 15 Examples of Marketing Case Study

1. the whole package by ideo.

IDEO is a design company that partnered up with H&M to help the latter remove plastic from their packaging. Their case study , ‘The Whole Package,’ is quite simple and direct. But when it comes to driving the point home, you can say it ticks all the boxes.

Furthermore, this IDEO case study has been neatly categorized into sections. Coupled with the masterful use of visuals with crisp and convincing copy, this marketing case study is an excellent example of a comprehensive one.

2. Chevrolet DTU by Carol H Williams

When your client is a world-renowned name, why hide it? That’s what this case study teaches us. In fact, what better social proof than showing the world look “the brand that billions of consumers trust chose us, why can’t you?”

Engaging subheadings throughout this Carol H Williams case study further make it a convenient read.

Remember, no matter how convincing your statistics or facts are, try not to intimidate the reader. Feel free to have many sections; prefer crisp pointers over fluffy paragraphs.

3. In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study by Switch

When it comes to performance marketing, many abbreviations and jargon are involved. Some readers might find it a major turn-off. This marketing case study by Switch masterfully shows how you can avoid sounding scary in this way.

This one dedicates a page to each of the results they got for their client. For instance, the Facebook Ads results have their own page, and it has been so simplified that even a non-marketer would understand. That’s what makes this case study stand out.

4. Gila Rivers by OH Partners

A picture speaks a thousand words. And this case study shows just how you can use pictures to prepare the perfect case study. Using pictures, OH Partners have communicated what they’ve done for their clients and what their future customers can expect regarding results.

The marketing case study is visually appealing, thanks to elegant pictures that make it easy on the eyes. Even if you have no prior knowledge of marketing or OH Partners, the case study’s style is backed up by convincing statistics, which helps to make it one of the top examples in the field.

5. Capital One on AWS by Amazon

This case study is for companies working for clients for a long time. This Amazon case study features several articles detailing how Capital One benefitted from AWS over the years.

Starting from 2016, these articles elaborate on every aspect of Capital One being on AWS. So, is there a client you have been serving for years? Have they benefitted from your services or product in various ways? If yes, this is an approach you can take.

6. Acoustic by Genuine

Simplicity, as they say, is often all you need to make a lasting impression. And this case study by Genuine is truly a masterpiece in simplicity. First, it goes directly to the point and uses minimal text to drive the message home.

With neatly divided sections, this marketing case study is as simple in the text as in the visuals. Neither the colors nor the visuals are shouting at the reader from the screen. What it teaches us? Well, you don’t need to write a lot or use loud visuals to communicate effectively with the target audience.

7. Customer Success Case Study by Convoso

This one might not be as simple in name or feel as the previous one, but it is as effective. How? Because as soon as you lay your eyes on this Convoso case study , you notice the 300% boost. And if you’re a potential customer looking for a similar, you can hardly ignore it.

Another striking characteristic of this one is its vivid use of colors. Even though this 11-page PDF might seem a bit lengthy to some, the easy-on-the-eye color palette makes it quite readable. So, don’t ignore the visual aspect is what this marketing case study example teaches us.

8. The Hunt Club Case Study by Happeo

This is a case study written entirely from the perspective of the customers. Yes! Every paragraph in this Happeo case study contains quotes from Hunt Club, the company that chose Happeo’s solution.

An elaborate embedded video further does the trick for this one. But if we were to glean one thing from this case study, it has to be the fact that Happeo has told its own success story in the words of the customer.

Can a case study be any more of a social proof? We think not!

9. NetApp Case Study by Evisort

The unique thing about this one is that it starts with an overview of the client. Evisort sets the groundwork for its message right at the beginning. Once they’ve informed us about their client’s nature, they gradually move on to the problem solved.

For one, this follows the marketing case study thumb rule of always focusing more on the client. Secondly, it prepares a solid base for the reader, helping her clearly understand what has been discussed in the coming segments.

But there’s another important thing about this Evisort case study . It tells the story of the solution focusing on a particular era, the pandemic in this case. You can also employ this strategy and give more context to the solution you provided to your client.

10. The Met by Fantasy

A complete redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

How to showcase a nice and responsive website you created for a client? The simplest way is to put snaps of the website in your case study. And that’s what this Fantasy case study has done so masterfully.

What this case study teaches us is that you don’t have to write a bunch of stuff or put in statistics everywhere. If the result you provided to your client can be showcased visually, why not use the case study to do just that?

In Conclusion

Marketing case studies are one of the best ways to build credibility and trust with potential customers. They also help you generate leads by showcasing your expertise and proving that you can deliver results. Most importantly, they can help you win over new clients by showing them what to expect from working with you — and how much better things will be when they do.

So, these were a range of marketing case study examples and what we can learn from each. Which one was your favorite? Is there a pattern you identified? To be clear, each of these examples was unique and innovative in its own way. You can go ahead and pick a style and focus for your case study.

In a nutshell, relevancy matters the most if you want your case study to expand your business. So, instead of blindly following any of the examples we have listed, make your own mark with a compelling marketing case study.

We wish you all the best in your customer acquisition and expansion efforts. And we hope this article was of great help to you.

Related posts:

Join the conversation cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Free Resources

Marketing Funnel: Proven strategies for generating interest (specific examples)

This article was distributed in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter .

For the past nine months, we’ve been experimenting with a group of 40 marketers and entrepreneurs, to discover the best way to help our readers optimize their funnels (feel free to drop in and join us for a LiveClass – ChatGPT, CRO and AI: 40 Days to build a MECLABS SuperFunnel ).

And I learned something along the way, specifically when working on the LiveClass title you just read. It’s not just about technology (you hear all the hype about that lately). It’s not just about traditional marketing tactics (which you may lean on if you are spooked about this technology).

The real transformation – and results – happens when you marry the two.

So in today’s article, we’ll do just that, as we bring you three examples to spur your best thinking to improve your brand’s marketing funnel:

• AI-assisted content – Read in detail how an invoice financing company used two AI tools to create content clusters and double organic traffic.
• Customer-inclusive content in the crypto industry – Crypto is a cutting-edge technology that is out ahead of AI in the hype cycle in one sense – now it’s falling down the other side of the curve. It may seem impossible to be a marketer of a crypto-based brand in this ‘crypto winter,’ but our case study subject found a way – by creating content that included its target customers, in the form of ratings.
• Old school face-to-face interaction – Nothing is more traditional than printed content and face-to-face interaction. I can imagine an early marketer trying to sell cuneiform back in Mesopotamia at a bazaar. But how much has human nature really changed in all that time? To open your mind to a sale as old as time while you dive into all this new technology, in our last example a published author shares what it’s like to hold a book signing.

Quick Case Study #1: How invoice financing company used AI-powered content clustering to double its website traffic

Waddle From Xero is a lending business that covers cash flow gaps through a dashboard that plugs into existing accounting packages.

BEFORE – General content

“We were chugging along with general finance blogs, which were outsourced to an agency we found through Upwork. After some changes to the Google algorithm, website traffic for Waddle had stagnated in the first half of 2022,” said Chelsea Larkin, Content Marketing Specialist, Waddle From Xero . The team was getting about 1,600 organic traffic visits per month.

AFTER – Content clusters, assisted by AI

“After reading a great case study on content clusters, we decided to take this route,” she said. “We studied all of our competitors' websites with SEMrush (and just our regular ol’ eyes) to collect huge lists of relevant keywords. We then ranked these keywords in Google Sheets by keyword difficulty (KD), traffic, and cost per click (cost per click was just out of interest though). I used conditional formatting in Google Sheets on the KD column to see how hard a keyword is at a glance.”

The team decided to use keywords that had a KD of under 50 and estimated traffic of 500+, and worked their way down the list. In the end, they picked about 40 short- and long-tail keywords to use in the content cluster, all around the main idea of finance.

Creative Sample #1: Ranked keywords, including traffic, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click estimates

For creating content clusters at this scale, they thought using artificial intelligence would speed up the process. “We used Copy.ai and ChatGPT to help with idea creation, structure, and flow, although the actual content was written by a human,” Larkin said.

She continued, “I had used Copy.ai in the past for projects and knew it would help generate the words we needed. For the first six months, we mainly used Copy.ai. The content creation process would begin by selecting one of the keywords from our list, and using SEMrush to collect related keywords and questions around the specific one we were trying to rank for. In Google Docs, I would create a document outlining these keywords and questions, along with their respective KDs and traffic.”

She would brainstorm about ten titles for the article. “Then in Copy.ai, I would use their ‘Blog Post Wizard’ feature and paste in these headings and keywords. Copy.ai would generate other headings, which would help inform the article,” Larkin said. Often, she would delete the majority of their titles, but it was still helpful to inform the structure.

Then the team would generate talking points for each title. They would often delete half of the suggested points and add in their own. “Once the outline and talking points per paragraph were finalized in Copy.ai, I would copy and paste these into Grammarly Pro to check spelling, grammar, punctuation, as well as any accidental plagiarism. This is then copied and pasted into the Google Doc,” Larkin said.

“Once this is done, I would go back to Copy.ai to generate the blog post content. However, I find the tone and style was never quite right – and often Copy.ai would include random things, wrong facts, and sentences that were too long,” Larkin said. The actual blog content it generated was used more as a reference. Whenever she got stuck writing out the article, she would copy bits and pieces from the generated sentences.

“The content generated in Copy.ai was akin to having a paint palette, where we took the relevant words and painted our own picture onto the canvas,” she said. Having so many generated words was great in terms of having a very relevant word bank, but it couldn’t really help write the actual article – at least, not with the tone the team wanted.

“Copy.ai also has a great feature where you can paste in what you’ve written, and press spacebar to have AI write what it thinks the next couple of lines would be,” Larkin said. The team would use this to get over writer's block.

“In terms of ChatGPT, I found it much more intuitive as an article writer, but less able to collaborate with me in the same way that Copy.ai can,” Larkin said. The team began using it in January, after the majority of their articles had been written and the content cluster launched. While it wasn’t as good at writing full-length articles, it was extremely helpful as a reviewer and editor. Larkin said, “I’ve started pasting in my article drafts to ChatGPT with variations of the following prompt: ‘You are a cut-throat editor who has a great eye for compelling copy. What feedback would you give on this article?’”

“For some clunky paragraphs, I would also ask ChatGPT to rewrite them for flow and clarity,” she said. This was extremely useful for the team.

“I will also ask ChatGPT lots of questions through the writing process to shorten time spent Googling or thinking,” she said. For example, she was trying to come up with a word that meant “relearn” but in a way that had a sense of refreshing fundamentals. “ChatGPT gave me a list of ten good options, and I eventually chose ‘reset.’ Way faster than Googling synonyms, especially when I already have the vibe of the word in mind,” Larkin said.

While they used AI tools extensively in the content creation process, they would estimate that approximately 70% of the content was written by human writers. The AI tools were mainly used for generating ideas, outlining, and editing. Ultimately, it was the people on the team who crafted the final product and added their own unique perspective and voice.

The team was receptive to AI. They understood that the AI tools were there to help streamline the content creation process and to provide a starting point for each article. They think it was important to strike a balance between using AI tools and maintaining a human touch in each article.

At one point they tried to generate articles purely based on keywords, without any human input. They indexed the articles, but these articles never generated any traffic. “We concluded Google can probably tell that there’s not much value in the purely AI-generated content – which makes sense, since AI is based on amalgamating everything that’s already out there – and Google ranks you higher when you’re adding something useful to the conversation,” Larkin said.

Creative Sample #2: Finance content cluster on invoice financing company’s website

Overall, the quality of their content did improve after implementing AI tools in the content creation process. The AI tools helped them generate more relevant and targeted content, and helped them to identify potential gaps or areas for improvement in each article.

RESULTS – Doubling organic traffic

The team sped up the overall process by implementing AI tools, which sped up the process of content creation while allowing the humans more time to refine the content. The team was able to publish 50 pieces of long-form content in six months.

After launching the content cluster, their traffic doubled – from 1,664 in April 2022 to 2,778 in February 2023 and 3,992 in March 2023. This proportionally increased the number of leads that connected with the sales team. However, the quality of the leads has gone down somewhat, which will be the focus of their next content project.

Quick Case Study #2: Crypto ratings provider creates marketing on a budget during “crypto winter,” gets 50% response rate to email

Like most young companies, BestCryptos had a minimal viable product, but no clear way to get traffic to its website.

BEFORE – Pay-per-click advertising

The team launched its crypto-currency financial rating website during what seemed to be unfavorable timing, the current crypto winter. “As per usual, we followed the unimaginative pay-per-ad playbook and set up a performance marketing campaign on Google and Facebook,” said Felix Engelhardt, CMO, BestCryptos .

Due to the crypto winter, interest in the ads was limited with low impressions being generated by the ads. The team extended its target audience, with the obvious result – many impressions of ‘not really interested’ leads, which drove up website bounce rates and the cost per click (CPC) shot through the roof.

As they paused the ads to re-think their marketing strategy, even the low converting impressions did not come in any longer. With their budget running out and sobering results, they knew they had to pivot their marketing strategy.

“Performance marketing is not the holy grail: it casts a wide net and stops the moment you turn off the money faucet,” said Engelhardt.

AFTER – Targeted outreach (with a reason to reach out)

The team wanted a marketing campaign that fulfilled two criteria. One, it should be a long-lasting marketing campaign – a campaign that keeps giving and does not stop the flow of leads once the market budget runs out.

Second, they wanted to cater the campaign towards a laser-focused group that had an inherent interest in their products, as opposed to generating mass impressions.

They opted for an SEO-building marketing campaign, through which they reached out to the top 500 cryptocurrencies themselves and told them that BestCryptos had rated them for free on its website. “Who wouldn’t be curious about their rating score?” Engelhardt said. From there the team could explore partnerships and build backlinks that last longer than a performance marketing campaign.

“Have a laser-focused target group that has an interest in what you do, rather than cast a wide and not relevant net,” he advised.

RESULTS – 50% response rate

The crypto winter turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the team. There was not a lot of business development activity in the industry and the 500 cryptocurrencies that they reached out to were very responsive and keen to mingle, with about half of them responding to the team’s emails.

“While the responses were mixed, anyone knows that ‘all publicity is good publicity,’” he said.

Cryptocurrencies with a good rating loved to be rated and explore partnerships. Cryptocurrencies with bad ratings would challenge their rating and try to understand the team’s rating methodology, and the team gave them the opportunity to explain themselves in blog posts.

“The best part of this launch campaign: other than time invested, it was completely free,” he said. They have entered into partnerships, generated backlinks, and been offered financial grants. All of this for a marketing budget of next to nothing.

“There is never the best time to launch. Just take the plunge and maybe a seemingly unfavorable timing might turn into a blessing in disguise, such as the crypto winter opened many doors for us,” he advised.

LESSONS LEARNED

Other than the success of the campaign itself, the team learned some lessons they consider invaluable:

• Cast a laser-focused marketing net: Don’t just generate tons of not-converting impressions from performance campaigns. Tailor the campaign to make it utmost relevant for your core users. Customers were very eager to be benchmarked and rated in an unbiased financial metric system.
• All about the customer: Don't ask what the customer can do for you, but what you can do for the customer.
• Unfavorable timing can be a blessing: There is never the best time to launch. Just take the plunge and maybe a seemingly unfavorable timing might turn into a blessing in disguise, such as the crypto winter opening many doors for this team.
• You don’t need a big budget to succeed: With a minimal budget you can build lasting traffic highways to your product through backlinks and partnerships.
• Don't spend unnecessary money: Whether you have the funds or not, do not spend them thoughtlessly. “The Cadillac of performance marketing campaigns is useless if it doesn't reach the intended audience,” Engelhardt advised.

Quick Case Study #3: Author sells 25 copies of his book with in-store book signings

“What is one of the best ways to successfully market a product or service? Via face-to-face interaction,” said Rick Lauber , Author, The Successful Caregiver’s Guide.

BEFORE – Earned media

Prior to writing his first book, Lauber learned that he would need to fulfill his contractual obligations and provide a completed piece of work. But, in addition, he would be required to help promote the book. There are, of course, many means for authors to market themselves (e.g. media interviews, public readings, collecting reviews, creating a website, etc.)

Initially, he wrote related newspaper, magazine, and blog articles (something he has continued to do over the years), but his publisher recommended he consider bookstore signing events.

AFTER – Adding in-person events to the mix

Setting up these events proved to be quite easy ... bookstores welcome visiting authors as they help to increase business. Lauber would simply call bookstore managers, introduce himself and his book, and suggest scheduling a signing date.

Bookstores which stocked his book could order extra copies for his use; if not, he could bring in copies to sell on consignment. Bookstores also provided him with a table and chair for his visit. Following numerous signings, Lauber’s own display has increased in size – a tablecloth, bookstands, business cards, copies of related articles he has written, and a stand-up banner (which works well to attract more attention). 

From doing numerous signings over the years, he has learned to:

• Recognize customers when they walk into the bookstore
• Maintain eye contact with customers
• Hand customers a copy of his book
• Allow customers to read (by not continuously talking)
• Ask hesitant customers if he could sign a copy of his book for them as a closing technique.

Lauber learned that bookstore signings can be an excellent means of promoting a book. He can personally meet potential customers, share stories, listen, and answer questions to the best of his ability.

RESULTS – Networking and sales

Signings have also made Lauber more self-confident and allowed him to meet bookstore staff (who will become more aware of an author's book and sell it).

By personally visiting bookstores, an author can see heightened sales – on his best day, Lauber signed and sold 25 copies of his book in four hours.

“A book author cannot just write a book ... he/she must also become his/her best salesperson,” Lauber advised.

Related Resources

Marketing Funnel: 3 quick case studies to help you increase conversion

Funnel Strategy: 54 elements to help you guide your buyers’ journey through the marketing funnel

Marketing 101: What is funnel creation?

Improve Your Marketing

Join our thousands of weekly case study readers.

Enter your email below to receive MarketingSherpa news, updates, and promotions:

Note: Already a subscriber? Want to add a subscription? Click Here to Manage Subscriptions

Get Better Business Results With a Skillfully Applied Customer-first Marketing Strategy

The customer-first approach of MarketingSherpa’s agency services can help you build the most effective strategy to serve customers and improve results, and then implement it across every customer touchpoint.

FREE Trial - MECLABS AI Guild

Get the power of 10,000 experiments

Marketer Vs Machine

Marketer Vs Machine: We need to train the marketer to train the machine.

Free Marketing Course

Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages (with this free online marketing course)

Project and Ideas Pitch Template

A free template to help you win approval for your proposed projects and campaigns

Six Quick CTA checklists

These CTA checklists are specifically designed for your team — something practical to hold up against your CTAs to help the time-pressed marketer quickly consider the customer psychology of your “asks” and how you can improve them.

Infographic: How to Create a Model of Your Customer’s Mind

You need a repeatable methodology focused on building your organization’s customer wisdom throughout your campaigns and websites. This infographic can get you started.

Infographic: 21 Psychological Elements that Power Effective Web Design

To build an effective page from scratch, you need to begin with the psychology of your customer. This infographic can get you started.

Receive the latest case studies and data on email, lead gen, and social media along with MarketingSherpa updates and promotions.

• Your Email Account
• Customer Service Q&A
• Search Library
• Content Directory:

Questions? Contact Customer Service at [email protected]

© 2000-2023 MarketingSherpa LLC, ISSN 1559-5137 Editorial HQ: MarketingSherpa LLC, PO Box 50032, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32240

The views and opinions expressed in the articles of this website are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect in any way the views of MarketingSherpa, its affiliates, or its employees.