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Is Your Case Study Worth Your Customers’ Time? Prove It

You didn’t ask for it, but we’re dishing it out anyway.

Welcome to Unsolicited Advice, where I dish out some content marketing guidance to one unsuspecting target – whether they want it or not.

This month’s advice goes to a marketing leader at a B2B software company.

Bart Molenda
Executive Vice President, Marketing
Introhive

Dear Mr. Molenda,

Maybe there’s a good reason you’ve locked your case studies behind a form asking for six pieces of my personal information, but I can’t think of one.

A trusted colleague of mine recommended I check out your AI-based relationship management software platform. So I did.

I read all about how Introhive saves the average employee 7.2 hours a week and enriches sales data while we sleep. It sounded too good to be true, so I decided I’d download one of your case studies.

That’s when your website experience fell off the rails.

As soon as I click the free download button and prepare to read your in-depth case study, you ask me to give you some personal information.

WHAT?!

I get it. You want a lead. But there’s no way I’m trading $120-worth of my personal information for a case study.

Bart, you’ve got it all backward.

The burden of proof is on you, not me.

You need to prove that your software does what it says it does – delivers cost savings and revenue to companies like mine. You need to prove that you provide value. You need to prove Introhive is for real.

Then and only then will I trade my data for more information – and maybe even schedule a phone call.

Look, if you want to build trust with prospects like me fast, let me download your case studies for free. Take down your forms! (Unless, of course, your software doesn’t work.)

Here’s the deal: If you remove the forms from all your case studies, I’ll happily read one. And, if that case study is good, I promise we’ll set up a 30-minute call to explore some next steps.

What do you say? Do we have a deal?

Whether you wanted it or not,

 

 

Andrew Davis
Host and author, The Loyalty Loop

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: To Gate or Not to Gate? Is That Really the Question?
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Bart Molenda
Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis wrote for Charles Kuralt and produced for NBC. He's worked for the Muppets and MTV. He co-founded, built, and sold a marketing agency. You might have seen him on The Today Show or in The New York Times. He's a best-selling author and one of the most influential marketers in the world. Follow Andrew on Twitter @DrewDavisHere.