What kind of content drives higher sales volumes, increases rates of conversions, and improves your website ROI? If you’re looking for a magic wand to increase sales, the benefits of case studies might be what you’re looking for.
77% of customers say that case studies are incredibly influential when they make their sales decisions. Humans like to see how other people have experienced something. After all, there’s a whole industry around reviews now, from Yelp to Zomato, Glass Door to TripAdvisor. There’s something very reassuring hearing about someone else’s positive experience. Case studies work in four ways:
- Storytelling is incredibly effective
If you want someone to remember something, tell them an engaging story. Weaving a story is x22 more memorable than just a bullet-pointed list of facts.
2. Humans have emotions and case studies evoke them
You need to exploit every loophole and every weakness that people have in order to get sales. Luckily, humans are full of them. Our brains are a big weakness because we can’t turn them off and on, or control how they work. For instance, I want you to think about the smell of fresh coffee or bread. When you read that line, the olfactory bit of the brain that processes smells was activated.
Now think about reaching over and grabbing something—maybe your cup of tea or the remote control. The bit of the brain that deals with physical movement was activated.
If you think something, your brain has a very similar response as if the physical act was taking place. So you can trick the brain. If someone is reading a case study that outlines the challenges that they were facing, that person will feel empathy for their situation. Then, once that bad situation is resolved (by your amazing product or service), they’ll feel good for them.
3. You can’t trust your brain to make good decisions
There are two systems in your brain. One is the rational part of your brain, the one you think you use more. It weighs up the facts, the rules, thinks about past experiences and makes great decisions. Then, there’s another system that uses emotions, subconscious biases and involuntary reactions. Unsurprisingly, people are hardwired to make irrational decisions more.
It’s a little more complex than that, but we tend to reason with ourselves to back up our emotional choices. So a case study has those feelings but also a bunch of facts to back it up. It’s that feel-good feelings plus justifications that make it a knockout combination.
4. Reviews and recommendations are important
Potential buyers read reviews. In fact, 86% of them will seek out reviews of the product or business, and positive reviews increase the chance of purchase by a whopping 68%.
Think about what people want to know about your product—that it actually works. Not that it might work, if the wind blows in a certain direction and Mercury is in retrograde. People and businesses don’t want to buy maybes. They want tried and tested products with results and great outcomes. A real-life example makes it easy for them to see themselves in that situation and want those great results you got for someone else.
Case studies are great marketing opportunities
47% of companies that use case studies report that the benefits of case studies are huge. They have been highly effective as helping them achieve their business goals. On websites, a case study is read from start to finish 84% of the time. And then, 64% of people then go on to share it with a colleague – often, a decision maker.
WikiJobs started displaying testimonials on their website, and their conversions increased by 34%. That is a huge increase – imagine what it could do for your business?
Whether you’re adding case studies at the beginning or end of your sales funnel, they add huge value. Case studies turn tyre-kickers into buyers using emotions, rational decision making processes, and social proof. Contact us today to ask about how we can use case studies to get your sales cranking.