One of the things I do for a living that I really love doing is writing compelling case studies for companies. And one of the things that always surprises me is how little companies use the case studies beyond arming their salespeople with them.

Case studies or success stories (less intimidating term) can also be used to attract journalists to your web site and to covering your company. And unlike other marketing collateral they have a long shelf life and applicability. But how does one begin to tackle a case study? If you don't have any written, the first thing is to come up with a list of five customers who have given you some great testimonials about your product. If you aren't gathering testimonials (one or two sentence positive blurbs about your company) then start by doing that.

The easiest way to keep a solid bank of testimonials is to just put them in an Excel spreadsheet with customer name, date of testimonial and response. If you already have this built, then look at your top five on that sheet and reach out to those customers to see if they might be willing to do a short interview about your product and their use of it.

A success story is a win-win for both your company and your customer because it's more exposure for both of you and often journalists' interest can be peaked in your company if they read a one or two page case study.

Let's say you have a great case study written and your salespeople are carrying it around. That's super, but how about sending out a quick press release about the case study? You can do it for free on PRWeb.com and you've nothing to lose but a potential customer or a journalist looking for a company to cover! Highlight the results in the case study and how your product benefits the arena you're in.

Now go and build your success!