Case studies are a popular form of social proof for service-based and SaaS businesses. Can they work for coaching businesses? If you’ve ever wondered if you needed a case study, then keep reading.
What Are Case Studies?
A case study is an analysis of your coaching program in action for a particular client. It is used as evidence that your method works. You can show prospective coaching clients case studies so they can get a better idea of the transformation that they can expect. A case study will highlight the problems the coaching client was experiencing before working with you and the specific areas you targeted to provide them with the transformation.
When written correctly, a case study is an extremely compelling piece of social proof because it is relatable for prospective coaching clients. They can see their problems in the problems of your current and former coaching clients. They see the end results as results they desperately want for themselves.
Compared to a testimonial or a piece of copy, a case study is more trusted because it comes from someone who has experienced your coaching first-hand.
Elements of a Case Study
There are a lot of different forms a case study can take, but at the very least it needs to have the following elements to be effective.
Benefit-Driven Title
Your case study needs to be focused on the transformation that the particular client experienced. It works best when you have a number of different case studies that all have different primary benefits (even if some of the additional benefits or aspects of the process are similar.) For example, if you’re a fitness coach, you may have a case study for a client whose primary benefit was losing weight, another was gaining muscle, and another was training for an athletic event.
The primary benefit needs to be communicated in the title in an attention-grabbing way. For example, your title could be “Lost 15lbs but Gained Energy to Play with her Toddler” or “Chicken Legs to Beast!” (For the last one, use your judgement as to whether that will be offensive to your coaching client.) You want your ideal coaching client to see the title and think, “I want that for me!”
Background
Your case study should walk readers through the transformation that your coaching client experienced. That starts with where your coaching clients were when they first started working with you. Think about this as the “Before.”
Talk about the issues they were experiencing and what their goals were for their business as well as for working with you. You could even talk about the reservations they had about working with a coach, just make sure you show that you blew their expectations out of the water by the end of the case study.
If you have stats or screenshots to contribute, do so. If you are writing a B2B case study for your coaching business, then you may need permission to share these.
The Process
The process talks about what the client experienced during your coaching. Don’t give away any of your coaching secrets but talk about the problems that you worked on and how you solved them. The best way to plan this section is to identify the key benefits (2-5) the coaching client experienced and write a paragraph on each of them.
Benefits
This is the “After” section of the transformation. What does your former coaching client’s life look like now?
- Address all of the problems you mentioned in the background so you can show how all of those areas have been improved
- Share ongoing improvements after coaching (not all results are immediate)
- Talk about future goals
The benefits section should address both immediate benefits and benefits that the coaching client experienced a few months or more after coaching. You can get the information about immediate benefits during your onboarding process. At that point, you can ask if you can check back in a few months. (You can always offer a free refresher session if you’re finding clients unresponsive to these).
Proof
A case study is made strong with forms of proof. Try and include at least one (but ideally multiple) forms of the following:
- Testimonials
- Photos
- Stats
- Screenshots
Depending on your coaching and your clients, not all of these will be possible. In some cases, you may need to adjust your coaching a little to receive access to these stats. They will be helpful for tracking your clients’ process in tangible terms throughout the coaching, so you can bake them into your process.
Testimonials are particularly powerful when you can’t access stats. Read more about getting testimonials from coaching clients here.
CTA
Include a CTA (call to action) at the end of your case study to encourage people to contact you/view your services page if they want to get similar results. Your case study has done a good job convincing prospects that your coaching works, so tell them how to get started.
How to Use Case Studies for Your Coaching Business
Case studies are vital marketing tools for your business. They can greatly increase your conversion rates and seal the deal with any hesitant coaching clients. Here’s how to experience the benefits of case studies for your coaching business.
- Write case studies often – Pick the best results from each cycle of your coaching program and write a case study. Where possible, try to find coaching clients that experienced different primary benefits to write about.
- Display your case studies prominently – Make it easy for prospects to find your case studies. Have them linked to your homepage and coaching program landing page so your clients can find them easily.
- Share your case studies regularly – Actively promote your case studies on a regular basis as part of your marketing content. You can include links in your emails, blog content, or even share snippets as social media content.