Case studies are a great way for you to boost your business, but they can also help you build relationships with your B2B clients.

It’s true that by volunteering to be a case study for your business, your client is doing you a favour. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your clients get nothing out of it.

There’s plenty of value to be had on both sides.

Celebrate the relationship you have with your B2B client

Let’s face it, we could all stand to celebrate the relationships we have with our clients a little more.

Your clients are no doubt grateful for the service you’ve provided them (otherwise they wouldn’t have paid for your expertise!). But thanking your clients for choosing you goes a long way; especially if you’re supporting another business.

Choosing a particular client to be a case study for you can be a way of saying ‘thank you’. You’re letting them know that you want to celebrate your shared working relationship; that they’re important to you.

Asking one of your clients to become a case study is like saying to them, “We’re really proud of the work we did for you and we’re grateful you chose us to perform that service – and now we want to share that message with the world!”.

If you’ve got an ongoing working relationship with a client who’d make a good case study, even better. You can use a case study as an opportunity to reinforce your connection and reiterate just how important your client is to your business.

And clients who feel valued are far more likely to stick around!

Give your client’s business a bump (while you’re boosting yours)

Just because your case study is all about spotlighting you and your business, doesn’t mean you can’t share the limelight with your client.

Whether they’re video testimonials or written articles, B2B case studies are about you and your client. While we focus in on your business and how your client’s benefitted from your services, we inevitably get to know the client in the process. They are the one doing the talking, after all.

It’s easy to include a plug for your client’s business without drawing focus from your success story.

For example… an independent financial advisor (IFA) asks one of their clients, a HR Consultancy, to be a case study. As part of the final case study, the IFA includes a description of the HR Consultancy, why they’re brilliant, and a link to the website.

I’m not saying that a cheeky plug in your case study video or article is going to inundate your client with enquiries. But it becomes yet another way that you add value to their business.

Plus, you never know, it could lead to some more business down the road – and for them, it’s free publicity!

Being a case study can make your clients feel good about themselves!

It feels good to do good. By asking your B2B clients to chat about how much you’ve helped them, you’re giving them an opportunity to do something incredibly helpful to your business.

For many people, that can be quite an incentive. Fellow B2Bs are typically quite keen to help one another – that’s why networking is a thing!

It also helps that in this case, being virtuous doesn’t mean sacrificing too much of your time. Because life gets busy and we’ve all told a business we love that we’ll definitely leave them a Google review… only to forget as soon as the next urgent email crash-lands in our inbox.

The same is likely true for your clients. They probably really want to support you, but they maybe haven’t got the time to sit down and write a proper testimonials. With our case study service, the only thing your client needs to do is:

1. Respond to an email about arranging an interview
2. Spend 20 minutes talking to me or the fantastic Hannah Quinn of Video HQ

While being filmed can feel a bit strange for the first few minutes, it saves your client a lot of time in the long run. Plus, it allows them to do something awesome to support your business with minimum effort on their part.

The biggest draw in having a video and written case study is the benefit it’s going to give your business. But it can also be a way of you adding more value to your client and strengthening your relationship.

That’s the fabulous thing about case studies; everybody wins!