Driving Conversions with Strategic Case Study Design
In this episode of "Process to Profitability," I chat with Brittany Herzberg, a talented copywriter who shared her expertise on using case studies to attract and convert clients. We discussed the power of case studies in building trust and credibility, and Brittany provided invaluable tips on crafting compelling case studies that resonate with potential customers. We explored the importance of social proof and the need for authenticity in testimonials and reviews, as well as the role of SEO in optimizing search results and connecting with ideal clients. Join us as we dive into the world of case studies and discover how they can convert people into clients faster.
Timestamps:
[00:02:12] Meet Brittany Herzberg
[00:05:21] The difference between testimonials and case studies
[00:06:17] Case studies share the whole picture of your client's experience
[00:08:07] How you can use case studies in your marketing
[00:09:13] Brittany’s framework for writing case studies
[00:10:35] How to collect the before, during, and after to use in a case study
[00:12:56] Where you can put case studies and how you can share them everywhere
[00:14:07] Using case studies to boost your SEO and drive traffic to your website
[00:18:43] Who should you feature in your case studies?
[00:19:32] Using case studies in your launches
[00:21:48] Make sure your case studies give a simple next step
[00:24:43] Why people don't always trust testimonials
[00:28:10] Connect with Brittany
Key Topics:
Importance of a clear call to action on the case study page
Strategic approach to linking in case studies
Social proof and skepticism
Checking in with clients and gathering feedback
Utilizing testimonials and case studies for trust and credibility
The power of genuine customer stories and authenticity
Optimizing search results and the importance of SEO
Using case studies to speed up trust and conversion
Resources:
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: Have you been wondering about the best way to feature your clients and their stories on your website? Maybe you've had some big transformations and you wanna do more than just have a testimonial that hangs out on your site. Or maybe like we talk about in our conversation, you've started to notice that people aren't trusting testimonials as much anymore.
[00:00:24] Today's episode with Brittany Herzberg is going to help you think differently about how you can use all of that customer information and their stories to convert new clients. So we are talking about using case studies to bring in clients, including the framework that you can follow in order to get a really powerful case study and put it together and places that you can share that case study online.
[00:00:53] We also talk a little bit about why testimonials on their own aren't working as well anymore, but people really still want to hear from others before they are ready to buy your product or service.
[00:01:08] Brittany Herzberg is the copywriter service providers call when they want to show up as the answer to a Googled question. After test driving her skills with a variety of projects, it dawned on her that her superpower lies in social proof. That combined with her 15 years in the healthcare field has shown her that clients search for and book with people they connect with and trust. She believes that your number one business building task should be to create a powerful human connections with strangers using SEO and story.
[00:01:38] As an SEO and case study copywriter, she knows how important it is to craft messaging with intention and strategically use your client's words. You can usually find her sitting on the floor parked next to her 16 year old dog Jack with an iced oak milk latte in hand.
[00:01:55] Make sure you tune into this episode and if you start to craft and create case studies for your own business, share them with us on Instagram.
[00:02:03] We'd love to see how you're using this episode to improve your business and build trust with your clients.
Meet Brittany Herzberg
[00:02:12] Samantha Mabe: Hi Brittany. Thanks for joining me today.
[00:02:16] Brittany Herzberg: Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:02:17] Samantha Mabe: I read your official bio at the beginning of the episode, but can you tell us a little bit more about you and kind of your business journey to where you are now?
[00:02:26] Brittany Herzberg: Sure. So, um, I became a copywriter by way of massage therapy in the pandemic.
[00:02:31] Um, I was, you know, locked in my apartment like everybody else was, missing my massage clients and trying to figure out like, okay, I need to do something. How can I make the most of my time and actually further my business and you know, just what can I do? I was looking for some kind of outlet.
[00:02:47] And I decided to reach out to my clients cuz I'm really close with my massage clients and I was like, What do you miss? What are you looking forward to once we get back in the studio? Because I noticed on my website I was lacking testimonials and I was like, this is a pretty simple thing that I can do. Got testimonials, decided to update my website copy.
[00:03:06] Around the same time there were a couple of um, like. Webinars or podcasts that I was listening to, things that I was like partaking in and I realized, oh, I'm a copywriter and I've been doing my own copywriting for like six or seven years.
[00:03:20] My healthcare, health and wellness friends were coming to me also like right as I was learning, and they were like, can you help me with this? Okay, well, how about this project, whatever. So I ended up writing emails, flyers, web copy, like you name it. And I was trying it because I wanted to see what I really liked and what I was actually good at.
[00:03:37] I'm pretty good at most of this stuff, but what I really noticed that I liked the most was web copy. Um, so website copywriting. And then, um, I love writing case studies and I love getting social proof and helping people with that, but I also really love SEO.
[00:03:52] That's how I ended up here being an SEO and case study copywriter.
[00:03:56] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. So are you still working with kind of the health and wellness space or have you branched out into more online business? Who are your most of your clients?
[00:04:07] Brittany Herzberg: I stuck with health and wellness providers for the first, uh, really like the first year, that was who I was calling in. And last year about middle of 2022, I was like, you know what, I think I need to open up the gates a little bit more. So now I say service providers, but I also have lots of coaches and consultants and um, course creators that come in as well.
[00:04:28] Samantha Mabe: Everybody who has a business who's like in that service provider, really just we want to serve our clients. We don't really wanna be business owners necessarily. And so there's a really like tight thread of connection between any of those industries cuz we want to be the ones serving and not having to figure out how to run a business and market and bring people in as clients.
[00:04:51] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, totally. And I, even with my business, I just wanted to be with my clients, but I realized I needed to like, Hey, I'm over here. I can help you. I had to say something because people weren't just gonna automatically know that I existed, even though I was like, can you, that would be really wonderful.
[00:05:07] Samantha Mabe: So we're talking about case studies today, which I loved as a topic because I think a lot of us have heard we need to get testimonials. We need to have them on our website. Mm-hmm. Maybe we have like a Facebook review or a Yelp or a Google review here and there.
The difference between testimonials and case studies
[00:05:21] Samantha Mabe: Maybe we need to start by our testimonials and case studies different for people like just as a baseline.
[00:05:29] Brittany Herzberg: So testimonials and case studies are different, but also like if you kind of can put yourself back in, I don't know what it was, I think for me it was like seventh or eighth grade math. Like not all of these things are the same, but this kind of fits under that category.
[00:05:42] Social proof is the overarching umbrella. Testimonials are usually just quotes. Um, it can also be screenshots, but it's usually like some snippet of someone's experience, like a thing that they're saying, a win that they had, or a thing that they loved about working with you.
[00:05:56] Case studies allow you to have like the full story or like the, they give you nuance, they get. You get to zoom out and see the entire journey.
[00:06:03] Another analogy I like to use is that testimonials are like the movie trailer and case studies are like the feature length film where you actually get to see the whole story. So they're both good, but they, they do differ a good bit.
Case studies share the whole picture of your client's experience
[00:06:17] Samantha Mabe: So why are case studies then better than testimonials for a lot of people in their marketing?
[00:06:24] Brittany Herzberg: Mm. So I mean, it does allow you to see that whole journey. The testimonials that started to drive me up a wall were the ones where people were like, I made $300,000 in one email overnight. And it's like, okay, but what did you have in place? How long was this journey? How big is your email list? Like what are those other things that are adding up to you being able to have this massive success that for a lot of us feels like so out of reach.
[00:06:48] So case studies give you that whole, they give, like I said, they give you the nuance, they give you the full story, they walk you through exactly what happened so that that person could have that big win.
[00:06:58] Samantha Mabe: I have an episode coming out later about ethical launches and we talked about how we have to be transparent with those types of things .
[00:07:06] Yes, you could have somebody make like a hundred thousand dollars on their launch, but what did they have in place? And I love that case studies are really a way to showcase like the whole journey somebody has. And even if it's a smaller win, it doesn't mean that it's less valuable if people can see themselves in it.
[00:07:24] That may be what they're looking for. They might say like, that is what I need. I don't need this huge launch that I'm not ready for, or whatever it is that they're coming to you for.
[00:07:34] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, and that's actually something we might touch on this in a little bit, but that's something that I encourage my clients and just business owners in general.
Don't overlook internal wins when sharing client results
[00:07:41] Brittany Herzberg: Don't overlook those quote unquote smaller wins. I think of them, right? I talk about them as internal wins. So those emotional wins, meaning like I went from stuck to feeling really empowered.
[00:07:52] I went from like really confused to being so clear on this thing. You can't overlook it because a lot of times those emotional or smaller in air quotes, wins are going to resonate even more than the monetary wins.
How you can use case studies in your marketing
[00:08:07] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. So why do you like using these in your content marketing and using case studies as marketing as opposed to kind of more traditional kind of, here's a Instagram caption or whatever we're doing.
[00:08:22] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. So case studies can, they've got such a long lifespan, they can be with you for years, especially if you plan on having a program or even a service around for a while. They've got legs, like they've got some staying power.
[00:08:36] So, I love using them because they can help you on those days when you're mentally during a launch just like, I don't really feel like going with this, but I've got this other thing I could talk about.
[00:08:46] Or even if you're planning your launch ahead and you're really good in organized and strategic, like I would love to be one day where you can plan in, you know, I wanna have an email where I link out to so-and-so's case study. Or you have a post on social where you're like, I wanna make sure to send them over so they can check out this person's journey.
[00:09:04] They allow you to be strategic, but they also allow you to have something to fall back on for those days when it's just like, I'm not feeling it, but I, I like talking about this person's story.
Brittany’s framework for writing case studies
[00:09:13] Samantha Mabe: Okay. So as if somebody wants to start working on a case study as opposed to a testimonial that they might already have, is there a framework that you use to help them build that out? And then can we talk about how you then kind of actually put it somewhere that people can find it.
[00:09:31] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. Yeah. So there is a framework that I love using. Um, and you can kind of think of it as like before, during, after, if we're talking in stories. They need to go through some kind of journey with you. And this framework, I talk about this often. I created it because I wasn't the best storyteller. And I needed something to follow myself.
[00:09:49] So it's called the PET framework. The P is problem. So what was that thing that they were stuck, you know, trying to solve what help did they need? Why did they choose to work with you?
[00:09:59] And then E is for experience. So the actual during part. What was that program like or that service like? What was it like working with you? What aha moments did they have? This is also a wonderful place to extract a piece of your framework or, um, something that you just like work with clients about or talk to them frequently about and really shine a light on it.
[00:10:20] And then T is for transformation, for those wins, for the after. Now that they've worked for you, how are they feeling? What's possible? What have they experienced? What do they do, know, have now that they've worked with you as a direct result of working with you?
How to collect the before, during, and after to use in a case study
[00:10:35] Samantha Mabe: So I guess to follow up on that, do you collect that information as you go, or do you kind of ask it all at the end?
[00:10:46] Brittany Herzberg: You could do either. The famous, it depends, but it does depend. So whatever works for you. I have found that even going back to my massage days, I was constantly checking in with my clients. I wanted to know like, how did they find me when we were first starting to work together?
[00:11:00] And this still goes for my copywriting clients, but like, how did you find me? What about me stood out? Or what about my, this offer stood out?
[00:11:07] So I'll ask them that early on during the experience. I'm, I'm always listening for like, what are they dropping? What texts are they sending me? What, what are they excited about that they're sharing with me? Or are they just telling me like, Hey, this is really organized, or I'm really enjoying that you're checking in with me.
[00:11:23] And then it's most common, I would say, to follow up at the end. A lot of times it just works easier for people's, um, you know, workflows. So do whatever's gonna work well for you. But if you're doing it toward the end, the most successful way to like gather this information that I've seen is to get on a video call with someone and just ask a question and then do the hardest thing that's, you know, possible for a business owner and sit and listen.
[00:11:49] You ask the question and then you stay silent and let them answer.
[00:11:53] Samantha Mabe: Okay. I think that's helpful and I feel like most of us are probably collecting some of that information along the way. Where did you find me? And so it's not hard to pop in another question, like what are you struggling with that made you reach out? Just so we can capture, um, What the problem is before they've had time to like edit themselves and think about it.
[00:12:14] Brittany Herzberg: So asking someone verbally, but especially when you have them in the moment, like on a video call, It's great like you said, because people aren't gonna edit themselves. If you just send a survey, like a written form, like a type form or Google form. There's nothing wrong with that, but, and you're gonna find that people are going to edit themselves. And it's a lot better for us as business owners to get that raw version of what they're gonna say.
[00:12:39] And you being the client or being the student, it's hard to recognize that because you really wanna put together an answer that's gonna like, wow this person and help them bring in more people. So yeah, if you can get the raw unedited version, that's gonna be like that much better for you.
Where you can put case studies and how you can share them everywhere
[00:12:56] Samantha Mabe: So then how do you take all of this information and like create a case study? Is it in a blog post? Is it in a pdf? Like what kind of, where does it live?
[00:13:06] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, so that's part of the magic of it is it can live in so many different places, but where I suggest like the big, big case study lives is on your website, either as a blog or as a separate webpage.
[00:13:18] So you could take something like an about page, Copy it and then make that into the case study. Or you could have it live on your blog. I haven't personally found like putting my SEO hat on, I haven't found a better, better way, you know, do this versus that. So again, what works for you? What feels easy and doable for you? Are you working with a web design team? Are you not? Like, what do you need to make this happen? I don't think you can go wrong either way.
[00:13:45] And then you're able to, yeah, highlight that in, let's say like a pricing guide or a, a menu that of services that you have. You could again, link to it on, I have a lot of mine, it's very meta on my Instagram link. It's like I help you write case studies, check out all these case studies, so you could have it in a variety of different places.
Using case studies to boost your SEO and drive traffic to your website
[00:14:07] Samantha Mabe: Once you have those together and you're just like including it on your website for SEO purposes. Cause I've seen some people, it's kind of like a, it's a download or it's a backend thing, but you're kind of using it with the SEO to like bring people to your site and try to convert them into working with you.
[00:14:27] Brittany Herzberg: I feel like I was the kid in school. I was a straight A student and I was always taking advantage of extra credit. So I feel like this is like a business owner's version of extra credit. And why not try to go ahead and show up in search results for people?
[00:14:40] It's free. It just takes a little bit more effort on your end at the beginning, but once you do it, then you can start to show up in front of really dreamy ideal clients for you.
[00:14:49] There are several pieces that you can add into your case studies to make sure, or to really try to do your best to show up as those results for a Googled question.
[00:15:01] But if you want help with that, I have a checklist and I can mention that at the end too. But really, if you're being intentional, With who you help, how you help them, what you wanna be known for, what your why is. If you're being intentional with all of that, it's gonna show up in your messaging naturally. So you're probably doing better than you think you are.
[00:15:20] But yeah, I mean, it's definitely like, why not try to have this story. Show up as a search result, have a warm lead click on it. And then one of the beautiful things that I think case studies do is they speed up that, you know, process of gaining, earning that know, like trust factor faster. So you know, why not try to have someone convert a little quicker?
[00:15:43] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, that makes sense. Cause they're seeing themselves in that story and they're going, oh, and it's the same thing with testimonials. With this as more in depth, they can kind of see the whole process.
Make sure you have permission to share case studies and client results
[00:15:53] Samantha Mabe: So just as like a quick kind of legal thing, I'm assuming if they're getting on video with you, they know that you're gonna be using it as a case study, but like do you let them review stuff before you post it? How does that kind of work to make sure they are okay with everything you're sharing?
[00:16:12] Brittany Herzberg: That's a good point and actually part of my process that I frankly need to tighten up a little bit. But I, everything has been great so far with all of the clients. My clients, and their clients.
[00:16:21] I have had a number of people, if I'm doing the interviewing, And I'm talking with them, a lot of people are like, so who are you and what are you doing? And why are we talking? Because I do interview my clients', clients for these case studies often.
[00:16:34] Many people come in already with like the interviews done, audio or video. But if they need help, I'm happy to help and I love talking to people and getting to know them.
[00:16:43] So while I'm on the call, I will tell them like, this is the project that we're working on. This is what's what it's gonna look like, and if you'd like for me to, I can send it to you before it goes live or before I turn over the final copy.
[00:16:55] Most people are just excited to see their story. But there have been a couple times where I knew that there was some hesitation around like part of the story or something like that. And so I wanted to handle that with care and we were able to work together like me, and then the case study subject, if you will, work together to figure out the wording of that.
[00:17:14] People are generally just like so excited and flattered to be featured.
[00:17:18] I will take this moment though to mention because I recently gave a talk at a virtual conference for nonprofit coaches and consultants, and several of them were like, well, what if I don't wanna name names? And there is a way to handle that.
[00:17:31] You could do one of two things. The first thing you could do is just give the person an alias and upfront, just let them know, we're gonna call this person so-and-so, but that's not their real name. But you know, for HIPAA purposes, we're gonna do that.
[00:17:43] The other thing you could do is leave names out of it and just be descriptive. So like, if I was gonna talk about myself, I might say, you know, Brittany Herzberg, SEO and case study copywriter, a 32 year old white female living in New England. Something like that. Like give enough where, Like, I live in New England, I have a dog. I've got, you know, these elements that people can latch onto and say, oh, I can see myself being friends with her. Oh, I have a dog too. Or like, whatever that might be. But giving them enough anonymity where like you're not identifying the person.
[00:18:12] So it is possible to do case studies that way as well.
[00:18:15] Samantha Mabe: That's really helpful. Cause I think some people listening might be in those fields where it's like, I can't share their name, or there might be some sensitive things that we're talking about in our work together. And so we want to just, we wanna make sure there's consent all around.
[00:18:29] And it sounds like as long as you're upfront and they, if they have some questions, you can answer those then people are open to it. If they've had a good experience with you, they want you to succeed.
[00:18:40] Brittany Herzberg: Right. They really do. And that's, that's part of it too.
Who should you feature in your case studies?
[00:18:43] Brittany Herzberg: If we rewind all the way back to trying to figure out, this is a question I get a lot is like, how do I figure out who to feature in a case study?
[00:18:50] So, This is a, a really good example of like someone had such a wonderful experience, they've had really great wins. They're your biggest cheerleader.
[00:18:59] Honestly, I'm a great person for people to write case studies about, cuz if I like working with someone, I am out here talking about them all day, every day.
[00:19:06] So that's the kind of person that you would want to feature in a case study and who would be so excited to be featured in a case study that they're gonna put it in their blog and they're gonna talk about it on a podcast and you know, so you'll get traction from them as well.
[00:19:19] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I think that's an easy way to look at it. If you have clients who are referring other people to you, those are probably the people you want to reach out to first.
[00:19:28] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, definitely. The ones that are out there, like waving their hand already, go with them.
Using case studies in your launches
[00:19:32] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So how do you use these case studies when you are launching a service or a product or a course?
[00:19:43] Brittany Herzberg: Something I've seen a lot of my clients do and also things that I recommend to them are to use them in that the launch email sequence. Um, People want to hear stories now more than ever.
[00:19:53] I had a program that I launched last year where I was showing people how to write case studies and when I was doing a little bit of my like, voice of customer language before I launched it, so many people, like nine out of 10 people were like, I don't know if I can trust testimonials anymore.
[00:20:09] So having a case study would give it so much more, again, nuance. Give me the full details. Let me see the full story.
[00:20:15] So testimonials are great and I use them in case studies and case studies are just like testimonials on steroids. So there's a way to like up level it.
[00:20:25] When it comes to actually using them, having an email that you link out to, and that can take shape in several different ways. Having them linked in your bio for Instagram, things like that.
[00:20:35] If this is more of a service and not something you're launching, you can link it in your pricing guide or pricing menu. You can even link it throughout your website. Maybe you have a certain service that you really wanna highlight and you could link the person's case study under that: see how this worked for Britney, or see how this worked for Samantha. So there's different ways to actually have that come into play for that.
[00:20:57] For social media posts specifically, I've seen some people do a couple really interesting things, things that I like, where they will take a carousel, for example, on Instagram and they'll share these snippets of this person's story.
[00:21:10] So like the first slide will be like the headline of like the big win or the big thing that we wanna highlight. And then it's going into who this person is, what their problem was before, what their experience was like, the transformation, and then how you can, you know, be like this person or have a great experience like this person.
[00:21:28] Um, and then reels. Having reels is another great example. Whether that's you scrolling through the case study on your phone and recording that, whether that's you face a camera talking about it, like it doesn't matter what your level of comfortability is on social media. There's always some way that you can make this happen, and then encourage people to click out to it.
Make sure your case studies give a simple next step
[00:21:48] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, and I think from my web designer hat, just reminds people once you're, once they're on that case study page, there needs to be a call to action for them to very easily work with you. Especially if you are linking from something like a pricing guide or from your sales page, you don't want them to leave that page and then have to like find their way back in order to work with you.
[00:22:08] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah. And that can be part of the tricky thing. So usually if it's living in a pricing guide, I suggest that people actually shrink it down. To where it's maybe like three or four paragraphs. So it is taking up some real estate in the pricing guide, but they're not needing to click away.
[00:22:20] Samantha Mabe: Okay.
[00:22:20] Brittany Herzberg: So again, there's different ways that you can do things, and it just depends on like what's your funnel, what's your client experience or client journey that you're walking someone through? But yeah, being mindful about that is huge.
[00:22:32] And that's also a good point too, when it comes to links that are actually in the case study itself, sales pages and case studies in my mind are similar, but like completely opposite because with sales pages, we want people to make one choice like I'm in or I'm out. There's no header, there's no footer typically with these pages, as you know, I'm preaching to the choir.
[00:22:53] But with case studies, um, I've actually played around with leaving the header and footer or taking it away. Don't have data on that yet, but when it comes to the links that are in there, I imagine it almost like someone is like going, walking out on a diving board and they're gonna jump into the pool that is your online existence.
[00:23:10] So let's take me for example, I wrote one of my case studies about my client, Meg. I linked out to her webpages that we created. I linked out to her Instagram because that came up in the story. I linked out to a podcast where I had talked about case studies and like the specific things.
[00:23:26] So there's different touch points that I'm giving them because typically if someone is gonna go and investigate a case study, It's usually the person that's going to read through everything and click on everything.
[00:23:38] Just to be really strategic with that. And then again, take advantage of those headlines for the Scrollers, because there will be scrollers that are just gonna be like nosy and curious and interested, and they'll click over, but they don't wanna read everything.
[00:23:49] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, but people who read case studies, especially if it's like got his own page on your website, are going to, they wanna know everything. They wanna like dive into your blog and figure out what you're an expert at.
[00:24:01] And I think that's a good way to kind of introduce them to your service. Instead of like just sending them to a blog where it might be, here's some tutorials and here's this and here's that, you're giving them a really. Practical way to get to know you and your service and what you do while still fulfilling that desire to just dig into everything in somebody's business before they make a decision.
[00:24:23] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, and you're making it really easy for them. If you're thoughtful about how you're linking things, you're making it really easy for them to go chase down these variety of things.
[00:24:33] You're just like, here's the stuff you really need to know, especially if you're interested in this particular story. So like go click on these things. Have fun.
Why people don't always trust testimonials
[00:24:43] Samantha Mabe: I also thought it was super interesting that your voice of customer is telling you people aren't necessarily trusting testimonials anymore. Do you have any insights onto like why that might be?
[00:24:56] Brittany Herzberg: I think so. It's very interesting cuz I just recently went through and was grabbing more statistics about SEO and storytelling and social proof. And people are very much like, they don't wanna make a buying decision. They don't wanna click buy unless they see some social proof, like testimonials. And at the same time we're like, did this person actually write this?
[00:25:16] I'll give my personal example. I'm staying in different Airbnbs while my boyfriend and I house hunt, and some of the reviews, we get to the place and we're like, really? You thought this was great? Like I'm very confused. Did your neighbor write this? Did your best friend write this?
[00:25:31] So people are having a lot of these experiences and we're very, you know, we're smart buyers now. Our buyers are very savvy. Our clients are super intelligent and they've caught on to the different marketing methods and, and things that are at play. So they know that you can buy likes. They know that you can buy followers. They know that you could probably do something really shady and buy testimonials, so that makes them a little bit more skeptical, especially when it's like those like pie in the sky winds where it's like I had the a hundred thousand dollars watch in an hour. That does happen, just not to everybody.
[00:26:03] Samantha Mabe: So I've been on Amazon a lot trying to like find shoes for my kiddo and there are people that you read through the reviews, they'll have like five star reviews and people will go, these reviews are for a different product. They just changed the listing.
[00:26:17] Businesses have gotten smarter to try to trick people, but people are now are like, okay, I know what you are doing. And so I think that's where a case study can be really helpful. Like you are showing the whole thing. It's really hard to make up a whole case study.
[00:26:31] Brittany Herzberg: It really is. Like, I haven't even tackled that because I'm like, I don't wanna create a character and figure out all the things.
[00:26:37] Real life stories, real people are much more interesting than things that we could make up. No offense to fiction writers.
[00:26:46] Samantha Mabe: When I've been on somebody's website and I recognize a testimonial from somebody that I know, I will reach out to that person and be like, okay, how was it really? Like, what was, what was it really like?
[00:26:55] And so we have to know that people are gonna do that. They understand that you're only listing the, the best testimonials. You're not going to list on your website somebody's bad feedback.
[00:27:08] If we can share the story, if we can share where they were at and where they, the experience and even maybe some of the struggles or things you had to work through, that can be a whole lot more helpful in their decision making.
[00:27:20] And for so many of us, we want to be authentic. We want to be ethical in the way we do business. And that's a really simple way to get that across to people.
[00:27:30] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, it's great. And it's a really powerful and effective way too.
[00:27:33] And I have definitely been, like I said, I'm, if I like something or someone, I am like shouting it from the rooftops. So I do get featured as testimonials on a lot of my, um, mentors websites. And I've had that happen. Where people will reach out to me and say, okay, how was it really?
[00:27:50] So again, like you said, if you're, you know, listening to this and you can be proactive and you're like, I'm just gonna write a case study, you're getting ahead of the curve and you're helping that person make a well-informed decision.
[00:28:02] You might be saving them time because they won't have to reach out to the person who's featured in the testimonial. They'll just be able to click over to the thing, oh, this is how it works. Okay, that's cool.
Connect with Brittany
[00:28:10] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So as we wrap up today, I know you've got a couple of links that you wanted to share and you've got a really cool freebie for people.
[00:28:18] So can you share all of that where people can connect with you and find out more about case studies?
[00:28:24] Brittany Herzberg: Yeah, sure. All of the things.
[00:28:25] So I'm most active over on Instagram and I'm Brittany underscore Herzberg. Don't try to spell that. I'm sure we'll link that. Um, I'm also Brittany Herzberg on LinkedIn, which I'm picking up my activity over there.
[00:28:37] And then for places to connect with me. Um, another one website and then the free things. There's two, so there's two big ones. The first and possibly most interesting if you're listening to this is probably gonna be the profitable case study roadmap, which is a pretty big download. But I walk you through like step-by-step everything that you need to do in order to create the case study and then give you some of those ideas that we talked about as far as like how you can use it to actually market with case studies.
[00:29:06] The other thing, the other kind of like component or um, companion piece that I like to think of it as is the SEO basics checklist. And that walks you through, like I said, when you're creating these case studies or really any webpage, these are the, I think it's seven places where you need to utilize your keywords. And I walk you through that and there's a video and it's a whole thing.
[00:29:25] Then my friend Crystal and I have a podcast called The Simple and Smart SEO Show, where we have guests like Samantha on our show and we talk all things SEO and the different ways that. We can link to things and be smart about this, you know, three letter little thing that seems so intimidating to most of us.
[00:29:44] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. I wanted to have this episode after I did your case study roadmap, so people should definitely check that out. And the podcast is so smart and I've learned so much even knowing some stuff about SEO. So definitely check that out. We'll link to everything in the show notes.
