A UK PR AGENCY GOLDEN ASSET: CASE STUDIES

As a UK PR agency working with new technology and innovation, we often have to translate the new and the technical to make it exciting and relevant, and one of the best ways to do this is through sourcing and placing case study stories. Our amazing Account Manager, Caroline Emberlin shares her tips on making case studies a real asset for your PR.

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Case studies are the real-life stories of customers who have used a product or service to make their lives or business better. These success stories are hard-working endorsements that show the benefits of services or products in action. However, they also unlock brilliant, inspiring angles and captivating stories for media. When anchored into a newsworthy topic or tried and tested story arcs like “triumph over tragedy” or “regeneration”, these stories can land some impressive UK PR agency coverage.

Let’s take a couple of examples. For our CarTech client, Carly, our tech and innovation team used rising prices as context for a money-saving story around protecting customers against unnecessary car repairs; or for TFP Fertility, our health and wellbeing team placed this great story on how TFP Fertility helped start families. Media love sharing these powerful ‘real-life’ stories and they are more likely to garner interest from readers.

As a UK PR agency, working with case studies for media relations offers benefits for brands and journalists, providing tangible evidence of successful campaigns, initiatives, or stories, enhancing credibility and trust with audiences. Below are some key tips and reasons why working with case studies can be an asset to your UK PR process:

• Shout about your success: Great customer feedback should be celebrated and helps grow the credibility of your product or service. Reach out to customers who have given good reviews to ask if they would be interested in sharing their experience for media or marketing opportunities by being a case study.
• Relate to your audience: Media and consumers engage with relatable, real-life stories as they are seen as a reliable source and can show how the product or service can truly have a positive impact on someone, like this case study story which tapped into cost-of-living narrative and focused on how people can use their skills to earn money.
• Search for the story: It is important to brief any case study fully to explain what sharing their story with media would entail. Once you have their consent, get to know them and vet them fully if they are to be positioned in front of media. Have a friendly conversation, ask lots of questions and your conversation could lead you to finding out the most interesting facts. You never know what nuggets of gold will appear spark that headline and fascinating story.
• Back up your data: Create new research, or tap into data that is already available, to support the case study angle. Being able to offer multiple assets to journalists will strengthen your pitch and case studies can help leverage the offering by using storytelling techniques that resonate with real people.
• Validate your claims: Case studies are also strong assets for marketing. First-hand accounts provide valuable insights, using testimonials from case studies on social media and as part of your website will help validate the company’s claims, drive engagement and build trust.
• Score on your messaging and relationships: Case studies are a great way to build media relationships as they can be difficult for journalists to source, so if you have helped a journalist out with a strong real-life story before, they will likely get in contact for future articles.
• Pictures make perfect: As they say, a photo can tell a thousand words. Strong visuals help tell the story and can help sell a pitch. Media will often need strong imagery of your case study to support their articles, so getting your hands on these assets early will save a lot of time down the line.

Of course, close management of case studies and ensuring they are fully briefed ahead of any media interaction is very important and will help put the case study, and you, at ease. Ultimately, sourcing a brilliant case study, with a strong unique story can take time, but the investment can come with big rewards.