What’s the most important thing you can do to make your pet industry case studies more effective?
Before I tell you that, let me tell you some fascinating case study tips I learned at a recent conference…
At the AWAI Bootcamp this year, the keynote speaker was Andrew Davis.
Mr. Davis is a best-selling author and successful digital marketer, who produced for NBC and worked for The Muppets. And, he’s an expert on storytelling.
Here are a few of the takeaways from his impressive talk:
Attention spans aren’t as limited as we think…
As copywriters and marketers, the idea is drilled into our heads over and over again…
Attention spans are short nowadays…
So your copy can’t be too long, or people won’t read it.
But according to Mr. Davis, this just isn’t true. The fact is, people still do have enough attention to stay with your case studies, stories, emails, web pages, and other copy…
IF you know how to hold their attention…
As Mr. Davis pointed out, many of your prospects with so-called “short attention spans” are very likely to spend an entire weekend binge-watching a show like Stranger Things.
So, the challenge isn’t necessarily that attention spans are short… the challenge is figuring out how to hold someone’s attention.
In other words, if you deliver interesting, useful content – attention spans won’t be an issue.
Start with the end in mind…
Mr. Davis also mentioned that one common mistake with case studies is to start with a long back story of your case study’s “main character,” or protagonist. In other words, it’s common to begin a case study by describing, in painstaking detail, the protagonist’s struggle – all the things that were going wrong with their life or their business, and how your company stepped in to save them.
There are 2 problems with this…
The first is that the protagonist’s history isn’t necessarily the most exciting part of the story. While relatable, it doesn’t necessarily hold a reader’s attention…
What REALLY holds a reader’s attention is the outcome, not the background – in other words, readers care about how the protagonist now has more money and more time, or a life that’s improved in some way.
So, beginning with the outcome is the way to really grab attention. After that, you can elaborate on their journey to get through their struggles and reach the outcome.
Which brings us to the second problem, which is revealing the solution too soon. If you list your company, program, product, or service as the solution, a reader will have no reason to keep reading the rest of the case study – because they’ll already have the answer and will have lost interest. And the danger here is that, if they know the answer too soon, then they haven’t yet made an emotional connection with the protagonist, and are unlikely to take action.
But, if you withhold the specific details of the solution until the end, that will increase curiosity. This is one of the ways Mr. Davis suggested to increase a reader’s Curiosity Gap (which is basically our natural human tendency to seek closure, and have our questions answered).
Tension is your friend…
And speaking of Curiosity Gaps… the longer you maintain curiosity, the more tension builds as the reader is reading your story or case study.
Think of it as building tension in a suspense novel – the reader HAS to keep reading to find out what happens…
Here, it’s essentially the same process, but on a smaller scale.
There are many techniques to achieve this effect, which helps to maintain a reader’s attention – but a basic strategy you can use is to reveal a little more information bit-by-bit throughout the length of the case study.
Delay the reveal…
Of course, you’ll eventually want to give your reader the answer. But by delaying the answer or solution – by building tension and curiosity along the way – your pet company, product, or service will seem all the more valuable.
But of course, you’ll want to be sure the outcome was worth the wait, so as not to disappoint the reader – so be sure that you remind them of the great results your protagonist achieved. Of how their life has changed for the better, and how you’ve saved them time or money.
There’s definitely an art to this process – but it comes with practice. And when you look for a copywriter, be sure to look for a good storyteller who understands tension and storytelling.
For more information – and to watch an edited case study that demonstrates this concept perfectly, so you can see exactly how it might improve your pet business case studies – check out Mr. Davis’ site at Delay the Reveal. Trust me, it’s worth a visit!
And for more information on working with me to improve your pet or veterinary case studies – using Curiosity, which is the most important factor in holding a prospect’s attention – contact me here, or email me at drtammy@petcopywriter[dot]com.