You spent hours to get the words right.  You worked with a graphics designer to ensure every graphical image is worth a thousand bucks.  You finalize the document for the masses to consume. And then it flops!

Let’s face it, you put your blood sweat and tears in this piece only for it to bomb during the unveiling.  What went wrong?  Was it the subject matter or maybe the images were too outdated?

It was none of those—It was actually your marketing strategy or lack thereof.

When you create a case study you should not only be thinking about how you will educate and inform people with your piece, but you should also be thinking about how you are going to market your case study for consumption.  Let’s face it, we spend hours trying to find the perfect antidotal info but didn’t take the time to determine how we would ultimate get our message out.  It’s like cooking a meal without essential ingredients.  You can try to substitute, but the dish will never meet its full potential.

So what are some of those marketing tactics and strategies we should consider prior to releasing a case study?

Landing Page

A landing page is the perfect platform for marketing your case study.  It should be targeted and focused.  The dedicated page can be used to highlight the high points or sneak preview of the study.  It can be used to collect email leads from those interested in downloading a copy.  It can also be used to lend credibility.

There are several tools to help you get started like:  Leadpages, Wishpond, WordPress or Thrive Pages to name a few.

Real Testimonies

There is nothing like a customer testimonial to help spread your message.  An interested customer would rather see or hear about a real situation coupled with real results. This is an opportunity for your to leverage your network and have them promote your study.  Nothing says legit like a client quote.

Check out this Youtube Video on using testimonials to market:

[pexyoutube pex_attr_src=”https://youtu.be/OzCyyqZCCO0″][/pexyoutube]

Blog, Blog, and Blog

Bring exposure to your case study. I would like to personally praise the idea of how simple, yet effective blogging can be. Blogging is a simple marketing tool, that can produce major results. Creating a blog about your case study can be appealing to your customers.  Through this simple marketing technique, you can drive up interest while driving up your website traffic.  What a great two for one.

Social Media

Using a few social media channels to promote your case study is a no-brainer. Whether you use  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, their platforms are great for getting your message out to the masses. I think you do need a strategy to be effective.  If you couple that with buying ad time, you have just catapulted your study beyond your immediate circle. With social media perhaps being one of the easiest ways to market, this should be one of the cornerstones of your marketing tactics.

[bctt tweet=”Social Media Tip: tagging relevant individuals and organizations in your Facebook campaigns have warranted great results.” username=”intuitivegrpco”]

Email Marketing

Your case study deserves as much publicity as possible.  Why not create a whole email campaign with a series of autoresponders?  Yes, email marketing is still effective if done right.  There are some really easy tools at your disposal like:  Mailchimp, GetReponse and Ontraport.  I truly believe email marketing still have not reached its peak performance.

Training and Workshops

Using workshops or training events to leverage marketing opportunities is extremely beneficial.  As part of the class, you can provide them with a case study or use the case study as your training material! You are not only engaging your audience with knowledge, but you can also give them a parting gift.  You may also want to consider conferences or tradeshows.  Instead of giving out business cards, why not give our case studies?

Market Your Case Study

I hope these tactics have been helpful.  As you begin to develop your case study, don’t forget to map out how you are going to get the study into the hands of prospective buyers.  Developing the study is only the first of many hurdles.