Case studies are good for PR. They tell an interesting story to make a point – and journalists loves them. They publish them.
B2b and B2C writers and editors are forever asking PR teams for case studies. Once the use of case studies lodges in the mind, they seem to be everywhere, often boxed out within a feature.
They inject colour into an article by adding opinion and examples of a product or service in action For the brand they show how the product or service works with the backing of a testimonial from a client.

The ideal PR case study to accompany a feature should ideally contain these five elements.

– meet the particular requirements of the magazine. That might be that it should be no more than 6 months old, and feature a named UK based person or business
– be an interesting story – there should be something different or unusual or remarkable, and perhaps a human interest angle.
– feature a recognizable person or brand. A dull, big brand case study will probably get more interest from a title than a smaller, more interesting one. Also the press rarely accept
case studies in which the brand’s name is not mentioned.
– Results. They are important. It’s obviously ideal if there are numbers or some evidence to provide a measure of success. Sadly they are often hard to come by and rarely independent or
audited. Brands and PR agencies are usually reluctant to release out information on how well a campaign has done – unless the results are impressive!.
– Images – good ones. Far too often a good case study goes to waste because the pictures are either unusable or there aren’t any suitable ones at all. Journalists and PR teams find this
very frustrating. If there are good images, they can not only attract the reader, they can also greatly increase the overall size of the article.

The two key points that help to create good case studies are
– Start researching them and interviewing the subject well ahead of the deadline and
– Plan for the images at an early stage so that a photo- shoot can be commissioned if necessary.

The editorial coverage and PR can make all the effort worthwhile.

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