In early times, the case studies were only familiar to Social Science and Life Science department, but later, it has been found that case studies are one of the essential parts of the content marketing arsenal. Especially, if you are navigating the world of B2B where products and services are usually tailored, this case study should be on your list of marketing.

Meaning: Case Study

Case studies are emphatic content that effectively conveys your capabilities as a solutions provider. It is an intensive research for the particular company, where it should explore the strategies through proper study and analysis.

So, what makes a great case study? A great case study is that where it should be focusing the problem, troubleshooting it, and finally letting out the result.  To get more idea and tips, this time I have decided to write and share some useful tips and tricks to make your case studies more commanding and result orienting.

Start with a Summary

It’s not mandatory, but still if you give a hint to the readers about your achievement at the top, it would be an eye-candy, so as to make readers more excited about you and your achievement. Don’t forget to mention your client and its demands, as that is the company on which you have prepared your case study.

Tell a Story

A good case study helps the reader identify with the situation by drawing her into the story behind the facts. Use storytelling techniques to engage and connect:

• Treat the players like characters – give them some depth and personality vs. just a brand name.
• Describe the situation to trigger the reader’s recognition of herself – use details about the Real World aspects of the problem, not just the data.
• Pace the story in a way that builds expectations and tension.
• Be conversational. Write the way you would tell the story if you were speaking it.
• Make sure you close with strong images of the benefits your solution delivered – make them as juicy and relatable as the problem from the beginning of the case study.

Preparation

This is no understatement. The best case studies are always the ones that are thoroughly researched and well-conceptualized. Proper flowing of the content is very important, put a considerable amount of time and effort on organizing how your story will flow so that you can add some salient points about your client company. Some of the major ingredients that should be noted in your case studies:

• About The Company
• The Business Challenge
• Recent Achievements/Setbacks
• The Implemented Solution
• The Business Results

Easy to Read

Strong design can make a case study much easier to digest.

• Include titles and headings that highlight key messages
• Follow a consistent flow that makes it clear when you’re talking about the solution, challenge, results, etc.
• Sprinkle bulleted lists into the copy
• Summarize key points in an at-a-glance sidebar for folks who don’t want to read the story from end to end

Short and Charming

Check the length of your case studies. Case studies typically run for two to three pages for the printed ones and a ceiling of around 400-500 words for the online versions. However, it depends on the audience. Some people prefer complete details while others just prefer to skim through summaries.  Good case studies are those, where the information should be complete without consuming too many pages. As I said earlier, there should be one summary par

Think you’ve cut a great deal and it’s ready to close? Think again. 30% of failed sales come from the last stage of engagement and here I’m going to tell you how spruce up that final golden mile!

Remember that lead generation is hardly a quick process, but instead requires a careful evaluation of how the prospect fits the carefully evaluated lead (I hope!) criteria. The hardest thing to accomplish is to keep a dialog running between your sales force and all your leads. Incidentally, companies that manage to achieve this have the best lead-to-deal ratios in the world. Not only does a continuous and regularly updated dialog produce results, but it also maximizes your investment and minimizes the number of leads that deviate from your funnel to the competition.

• Emotion + Logic. One of the effective salesman’s most weathered and trusty tool. Combining cold logic with surprisingly warm emotional hooks and not coming across like a schizophrenic is a treasured gift that comes to only the most astute of sales reps. And applying it in the right quantities when dealing with the final stages of a sale is an even harder task. Get it right, ‘cause the idea maybe old school, but people are still people and will respond to well structured calls to action, boosted by an impeccable desk-side manner.

• The sales department is primarily intended to close deals, while the marketing department is focuses on determining prospect behavior and nurturing the same through the entire cycle. By working together, these two arms of an organization could achieve tremendous results. Throw customer service into the fray and you’ve got yourself a rock-solid profit-making machine.

• I’ve noticed that most customer service personnel flawlessly input customer feedback and data all the time. Now, maybe it’s the pressure of the job, but sales usually doesn’t conform to the same administrative standards. Time to get those files up-to-date. If you find that your sales teams have been slacking off in their administrative tasks, quickly set a time limit for them to run up their reports, and figuratively castrate anyone who fails to oblige. Why so serious? Well, sales reports and inputs are vital to nearly every data collection strategy that produces serious results.

• Studies have shown that while most clients enjoy a website that delivers a personalized experience, they tend to be turn off my telemarketers that deliver the same sort of personalization. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the fact that a website is a more relaxed portal with less engagement pressure whereas a sales call is literally like forcing a response. The takeaway from this is that people don’t like you to get too familiar when you’re putting them under pressure to comply, so c’mon, give them what they want – be a professional.

Pinterest is a social network that allows users to visually share, curate, and discover new interests by posting. The term may also be defined as pinning Images or videos to their own or others’ pinboards. Here at Pinterest, users can either upload images from their computer or pin thing they interesting on the web using the Pinterest bookmarklet, “Pin It” button, or just a URL.

The successful social photo sharing site is not just a time waster but a great tool for researching, bookmarking, brainstorming and promoting all your vibrant and eye catching images. Especially, it’s been seen that nowadays Pinterest has been heavily used by business selling makeup, fabrics, fashion items as well as other products and services that can be promoted via great visuals.

When it comes for B2B marketing, we all know that the goal of any B2B’s marketing is to promote or grow their brand awareness, build relationship, and educate potential customers, eventually leading to a sale.

So what are the basic guidelines of Pinterest that can be used by any B2B marketing? No worry, this blog will determine some quick and easy basic tips and tricks which will be one of a kind for any B2b marketing.

1. Feature Visual Content

The biggest challenge for B2B companies wanting to use Pinterest as a marketing channel is a lack of visual content.  There are many B2B companies who do not give value on the visual to their contents. Here are some visual content ideas that you can implement in your marketing strategies.

Don’t forget that Pinterest is also a social networking website, and if you are talking about social network then human beings will be the best one to connect with others. Using Pinterest, you can showcase the gems of your business company who can be made as the face value of your company.

Visual content you already have:

Try to show the culture of your company by just pinning the photos of your company work or even fun. If any of your employees has done something crazy or fun, then just try to pinup that photo which makes a sense of humor in the mind of consumers and clients.

Strong visuals for your content:

An article or a blog is simply incomplete without proper and attractive visuals. Start using clean, beautiful images for you blogs with a point of pinning them to your pinboards moving forward. But try to pin those visuals which is appropriate for your blog or article.

Infographic and Data chart:

Just imagine, when all the contents are designed assembling some great visuals with a stunning graphic! Definitely it will be alluring to your target audiences. Infographic are all the rage right now, and so as they are doing very well on Pinterest. Using Pinterest will portray yourself as the expert and a geek in your orbit.

Pin Book Covers:

If you want to show your expertise in what you do, then you can take a screen shot of your eBook or white paper and add it to the Pin board which will be the complete package of all important papers and articles. This will be more striking as it builds consumer confidence and portrays that you are a passionate about your work and business.

2. Add Pin-It button to your websites

Make it super easy for website visitors to share your visual content or images on Pinterest by adding a “Pin It” button to your website. Just like other social media sharing buttons, this will help to expose your brand to a new audience.

3. Link

Never leave a pin without a description that includes a link to your landing page or a solid call-to-action to hook customers. You never know which pin goes ballistic, so take your chance to write catchy descriptions, leaving customers wanting more every time.

It will help you keeping track of referral traffic and leads generated from Pinterest. Such insights will inform you about how useful this platform in comparison to your other efforts.

4. Hashtaging

Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest also supports the usage of Hashtags. Users can use Hashtaging to make friendly with friends and like thus it can be helpful in marketing your service or product. At least, by that you can connect to the wide range of users.

5. Video Gallery

Pinners are not only limited to the pinning of the images. You can pin some videos of your business on the board, which will be more interesting and more informative at the same time.

So, those were some basic ways to use Pinterest for your B2B Company. Marketing is all about trends, and the latest trend which is buzzing around is Pinterest. So be aware and try this, it is fun.