In this episode, Rachel Jacobs explains why case studies are critical to the scale and growth of agencies. Rachel, founder of Ecommerce Partnerships, reminds agency owners that their number one client is their own agency.

Step by step, you’ll learn how to integrate a case study opportunity before a client even signs the contract, who the audience should be, and the six key elements that make up a basic case study.

QUOTES

* Rachel: “There needs to be data, data needs to be at the core, there’s no point in telling a beautiful story. The data is what the results are. That’s where the value is.”

* Chip: “You described a case study as a story. And you need to tell a story, there needs to be a plot to your case study, you need to really set up what the challenge is that you had at the beginning, you need to go through what it is that you did, and you need to talk about the results. And if you follow that arc, that’s what makes for the good case study, not just spewing out facts.”

* Rachel: “A word of caution, though, the case study is not about the agency. And I think that’s a mistake, I see time again, agencies seem to think that a case study is an opportunity for them to show how amazing they are. And the reality is that your end customer doesn’t really care about how amazing you are when it comes to the case study. What they care about is connecting with the actual hero of the case study, the customer, and seeing if they can relate to them.”

* Chip: “The reality is that the whole name of the industry, the agency industry, we are the agent, we are in service to the client, we are not telling the client what to do. We are not the driver, you know, we are that trusted advisor if we’re doing our jobs effectively.”

RESOURCES

* Ecommerce Partnerships

* Rachel Jacobs on LinkedIn

[read the transcript]