Is it possible that a lot of insights agencies are sitting on a goldmine of proof they are not using?

Somewhere in your company’s shared drive, maybe spread across lots of folders, I bet there are heaps of case studies, some of them well used, but maybe some half-finished or years out of date.

Meanwhile, you spend weeks producing a thought leadership article, a white paper or planning a webinar, chasing attention on a topic that in truth you may not have earned the right to talk about yet. Does that strike you as odd?

I recall a colleague who was talking about content for a webinar saying, “oh don’t talk about case studies, that’s so boring.” Yet I’d argue, the case study is the content asset which proves an agency can do what it says it can do. You’ve been there, done that, here is what you did and learned, this was the impact on the client’s business. Yet it usually doesn’t get the attention or marketing treatment it deserves.

These are some obvious reasons why this happens. Some are confined to being used a sales enablement piece rather than marketing, so they don’t make it into the content calendar. Some highly sensitive sectors (pharmaceuticals being an example) make confidentiality somewhat of a constraint. And in some instances, the project lead wasn’t party to what happened after the debrief, so you don’t know what impact the research had on the client company.

But none of that changes the fact that case studies are probably one of the best pieces of content an agency can produce, and if they were given more focused attention, they could become a real marketing asset to the company.

Time to give case studies a starring role

A case study is the one format built entirely around storytelling. It gives a client's problem context a reader will recognise, shows the thinking that solved it, and proves the impact that followed. Whitepapers may argue a point or POV; webinars give space to demonstrate expertise live; but case studies show the work, which is a different kind of credibility. They're evidence, not just opinion. Anyone can claim expertise in a category, but a case study demonstrates it, project by project, which is what your buyer, who may be comparing you to other shortlisted agencies, is looking for.

Case studies are also very versatile. A great case study can become a page on the website, a slide in a sales deck, supporting evidence in a conference talk, the backbone of an award entry, and a real-world example dropped into a wider article or whitepaper. Few other content formats stretch that far without needing to be rewritten from scratch each time.

Case studies also do a great job of strengthening an agency's positioning. The methodologies chosen, the sectors represented, the geographies covered - all of it signals how an agency thinks and what it specialises in, whether that's intentional or not. And they perform in online search - I suspect as AI-driven search and answer engines increasingly surface specific, evidenced examples over generic claims, case studies will be well placed to be picked up there as much as with traditional SEO.

Building a quality case study library

Treating case studies seriously means treating them as a library of assets, rather than a one-off. You don’t want to be scrabbling around for evidence when a client asks for it, you want to build a collection that you can cherry pick from depending on the purpose. So here are my tips for building an enviable library.

Start with deciding how you are going to collect them

A small agency can run a weekly show-and-tell to surface stories as they happen; a mid-size agency may benefit from having a nominated case study champion; a larger one might need more of a formalised workflow - a tick-box in the CRM at project close that triggers a drafting process and project leads that pull the client in on impact.

Reward the people who put effort into writing them

I think their creation should form part of a role responsibility, not a favour someone does when they have time. I’d argue that every project should have a basic write-up, but then you can pick out the ones that deserve special attention. It’s also important to recognise authors and teams who put great case studies together - perhaps even giving rewards to those which are chosen for marketing content or awards entries.

Keep the structure consistent

Such as Challenge, Solution, Activation and Impact - and back it with data points and testimonials wherever possible. I don’t think you should skip the methodology entirely; current advice says play down the "how", but really clients are still hiring for research expertise, so it's worth a line or two on why that approach was chosen, more than labouring over exactly what that looked like. Activation of insights is becoming a more critical part of the process, so include what you did there to ensure the insights were actionable and, of course, focus on the impact – what the client was able to do as a result of what your insights revealed. The impact part is more important than ever now – so build in a way for project leads to work with clients to include that part of the story. Which brings me to my next point….

Involve the client

Ideally, get the client involved on key case studies, even if their name and certain details of the project remain anonymous. Build a feedback process into project management, so that you can more easily gather and tell the impact story. Not only does this strengthen the case study, it creates a stronger bond with the client for future work.

Make them adaptable for different uses

Whilst a consistent structure is helpful, how they are formatted does need to be fit for purpose. A sales version needs to be visual and light on text, built to sit inside a deck. Details kept in speaker notes means others will be able to pick it up and talk in depth about it. The marketing version often requires more written depth and more visible evidence of impact, so this helps here.

Apply behavioural science principles

Using the EAST framework, case studies should be easy to digest and understand, they should look attractive with great visuals. And they should be shareable and timed to support a sales or marketing objective. 

Maintain the library properly

A simple spreadsheet can be used to track project, team, sector, research type and date, so gaps become visible and you can plug them, prioritising the specialisms the agency wants to be known for.

Finally, give case studies your distinctive voice

The best ones are unmistakably the agency's own, in structure, tone and service story, rather than a generic template anyone could have filled in. Think of your case studies being like an M&S meal, or an Adidas trainer – something unmistakably yours and a way to differentiate your brand and mark your territory.

Done properly, I think the humble case study can become an agency's most efficient content asset: something built once, reused everywhere.

The name itself just might need a rebrand – “star story” perhaps?