Effective marketing case studies depend on quality storytelling, but even more important than the writing itself is the data you collect to transform your argument. By asking the right questions, you can create a compelling, data-rich story that turns prospective clients into your actual clients. That’s why we created this case study interview guide.

Marketing case study interviews aren’t difficult, but preparing a discussion guide can help you lead a natural conversation and get the most out of your interviewee. Leverage our best practices and discussion guide template to customize an effective case study interview guide for your business. 

How to Craft an Interview Discussion Guide

Effective marketing case studies aren’t just about what you say, but also how you say it. Technically, it’s the client’s story, but you’re in charge of crafting a message that resonates with your audience. The interview questions should be designed to put both you and your client in a positive light and make prospective clients want to do business with you. 

Use our marketing case study interview guide to gather the data and soundbites you need to create a compelling story.

Objective and Agenda

Start off by setting the objective and agenda for the interview. This can help establish a timeline so you can complete the interview efficiently and keep participants on track.

Introductions

Allow each interviewee to introduce themselves, sharing their name, job title, and role in working with your company. If needed, confirm the spelling so they can be attributed properly in the case study.

Company Bio

Your audience will want to know a little about the company they’re reading about. A brief company bio can add credibility to the case study and help the reader find commonalities between that company and their own. In addition, it’s good publicity for the interviewee, which can increase their willingness to participate in the case study.

Some questions you might ask:

• How long has your company been around?
• What led to its founding?
• How big is your company (e.g., number of employees, locations, etc.) and your team?
• What is your main product/service?
• Who are the clients you serve?
• What makes you stand out from your competitors?

You don’t need to go into too much detail here. The bulk of the interview should focus on the problem and solution.

The ‘Before’ Picture

There’s a reason your client signed up for your product or service—what was it? Whether you’re solving a significant business challenge or simply helping your clients cut costs or save time, you’ll want to highlight what life was like before you became their trusted partner.

Here are some sample questions to ask:

• What were the main challenges you were trying to overcome?
• How were these challenges impacting your business?
• Had you attempted to solve this problem in the past? If so, what were the results?
• What were your desired goals?
• What KPIs were you using to measure your success?

Deciding to Work with Your Company

One of the biggest pros of case studies is highlighting the client’s turning point in choosing you as a solution. This can help other companies relate to the interviewee’s situation and envision the outcome if they purchased your product or service.

Some sample questions to include:

• What prompted you to make a change?
• Why our company versus a competitor?
• How did you convince leadership to make this change?

The ‘After’ Picture

The case study resolution should focus on the end result—how the problem was solved and what life is like after implementing your solution. Ideally, you should collect specific data points to support your client’s claims.

Some example questions:

• What was the implementation process like?
• What is it like working with our team?
• What were your initial expectations about our solution? Were those expectations met or exceeded?
• How do you define and measure the success of our partnership?
• How soon did you start seeing results, and what did those results look like?
• Why do you continue doing business with us?
• Were there any specific experiences that stood out to you as a major win?
• What about our company would make you recommend us to others?

Open-Ended Discussion

As a final question, ask the client if they have anything else they’d like to share. This can be a great opportunity to get natural-sounding quotes to sprinkle throughout the case study.

Wrap-Up

Before you end the interview, provide a brief summary of the key points you heard during the discussion. Reviewing the highlights of what you plan to include in the written case study ensures you and your client are on the same page before you put pen to paper. Plus, it will stir their excitement for reading their story.

Finally, share your next steps and anticipated timeline so the interviewee knows when to expect a draft of the case study for their review.

 

How to Prepare for a Marketing Case Study Interview

As a first step in preparing for your case study interview, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why did I choose this client for a case study? 
• Is my chosen interviewee willing and available to conduct an interview?
• How will I record the conversation, and is the interviewee willing to be recorded?
• Is my interviewee someone my prospective clients can relate to?
• Why am I doing this case study? What goals should I expect to achieve?
• How do I plan to use this case study in my marketing?

The answers to some of these questions may seem obvious, but it’s important to consider how they relate to the bigger picture. When you combine each of the above into a larger goal, you’re better positioned to let that goal guide the case study process.

Case Study Interview Tips

When conducting a case study interview, you want to make the best use of your time (and the client’s time). Removing as much friction as possible and being prepared for the interview lets you cut to the chase and move on to the writing portion as smoothly as possible.

With this in mind, let’s review five interview tips to build a foundation for a great case study.

1. Share Your Discussion Guide

To get the most thoughtful answers from your client, share your questions ahead of time so they can start thinking about what to say. This may also help them find data to support their answers, leading to a richer case study.

2. Test Your Technology

Whether you’re using Zoom, Teams, or some other software for the meeting, make sure you test it ahead of time so you can jump right into the interview. Adjust your camera angle and lighting and check your microphone volume. This way, you won’t be distracted when meeting the client and can maximize your time together.

3. Build in Extra Time for Improv Questions

Case study interviews can get off track, especially as you dig deeper into their experiences. Allow enough time to go “off book” so you can get the most fulfilling answers. In your discussion guide, highlight the questions that are must-haves vs. nice to have in case you start running out of time.

4. Transcribe the Interview

Take advantage of recording and transcribing technology like Zoom, Dialpad, or otter.ai so you can focus on guiding the conversation instead of note-taking. This makes it easy to refer back to the conversation as you’re writing, especially when adding direct quotes.

5. Treat Each Case Study Differently

If you’re doing a lot of marketing case studies, it’s easy to fall into a rhythm asking the same questions over and over (and likely getting similar responses). Try to differentiate each one, even if clients are sharing similar experiences. Use your questionnaire as a guide but dig deeper with each client to find unique and interesting angles and highlights.

To customize each interview, do some research to collect examples of your latest work or your most successful projects together. This will help get the client talking and steer the conversation in an advantageous direction.

Next Steps

Preparing for each interview with a marketing case study discussion guide will set you up for success. Once you conduct your interview, it’s also beneficial to work with an experienced content writer who can turn your data into a captivating story. 

At Content Pros, we are passionate about transforming your customer success stories into compelling case studies. We can even be an extension of your team, schedule and conduct the interview for you, and craft engaging written content. Reach out today to get started with a discounted trial.