Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. In this column he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market. This time he looks at the value of case studies.

At the end of last month’s article about the commercial value associated with removing risk I asked a question: “How do you convey confidence in your company over your competitors?”

For such a short and innocuous question, it has a very long and complicated answer.

In truth, the answer depends on the type of business. It is different for suppliers, contractors and consultants. To further complicate things it also depends on your target market. Do you sell to (or through) specifiers, main contractors, local authorities, private consumers, sub-contractors, local tradesmen or professional clients? Or perhaps a combination of some of these?

A good understanding of your target market’s motivations and decision-making processes is key to deciding how to instil confidence in them.

Although we have a wide variety of different businesses in the construction industry, there is one, almost magical piece of marketing collateral. It is worth it’s weight in gold: The humble case study.

Marketing collateral, by the way, is anything which has been produced to promote the company or its products/services, such as company brochures, technical data sheets, websites, even samples.

Whether you’re a one-man-band, a small firm or a multi-million pound main contractor, case studies are essential, especially in an industry which hasn’t exactly got the highest credibility rating with its customers.

Don’t underestimate the value of a good case study to give your potential customers confidence in your ability to deliver whatever it is you say you will deliver.

Why does it work?

All your other marketing collateral is full of self-serving statements to which any potential client could respond: “Well they would say that, wouldn’t they”.

But, if a case study is written and presented properly, it can be what we used to call a ‘third-party reference’ – in plain English, an endorsement of your abilities and competence from someone else.

If the third party is particularly well known or in the same business as the potential customer reading the case study, bingo! Instant credibility. It can go a long way to reducing scepticism and instilling confidence.

As with most things in marketing, it’s easy to create a mediocre case study but it takes a bit more thought and a lot more effort to create a really good one.

There are lots of tricks to enhance case studies. The following checklist isn’t definitive, but it can help. Hopefully it will be a good starting point, or help you if you want to review what you’re currently doing.

• The main points of a case study:
• Always write in the third person
• Always use high quality photography
• Always get someone else to check it
• Include quotes from a customer saying how good your contribution was
• Include your corporate branding
• Keep creating new case studies to keep your portfolio up to date

I’ll leave you with a quote I agree with from an article called ‘The Power of Case Studies’, which was written by Kirstie Colledge, MD of Simply Marcomms PR (an online PR agency) that was published in Construction News. It reads: “Case studies are extremely cost-effective – you can write a detailed case study and use it online via website, blog and PR campaigns. The same content can be used in a brochure or in a tender, bid or PQQ. A single, well written case study can be repurposed in dozens of different ways.”

Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. He spent 19 years with some of the UK’s leading building product manufacturers and has worked in the stone sector for the past eight years. Alan now runs Gayle Associates, which provides a range of sales and marketing services for small and medium sized contractors and suppliers. His clients are seeking growth but the management are too busy to do it themselves and they don’t want the commitment of a full-time employee.
alan@GayleAssociates.co.uk
www.GayleAssociates.co.uk