PR case study checklist

PR people have an arsenal of tools in their weaponry, and one of our personal favourites at Motive is the good old case study. 

Case studies are great for PR.They allow a brand to show, rather than tell, exactly what their product is about and how it can impact their customers, with the backing of what is essentially a really strong client testimonial. Click here for a great example of a successful case study we did for client Musclefood earlier in the year.

Even better, journalists love case studies, because they can inject colour into an article through an opinion or concrete example of a product or service in action. Plus, they have the all-important human element that make stories and articles so readable.

But not every customer story is going to make a good case study. To give you a better idea of what we look for, we’ve compiled a PR case study checklist with four tips and tricks of the trade.

1. Timeframes

Generally speaking, we want to produce case studies that are relevant to the here and now, and journalists will want the same thing. For this reason, we only tend to use customer stories from the last 6-12 months, but the more recent, the better.

2. Relevant

Does the subject of the case study fit into the same demographic as your target media’s ideal audience? If you want to target women25-40 and the titles they’re likely to read, there’s no point producing a case study on a 55 year old man.

3. Newsworthy

There should be something different, quirky, unusual or remarkable about a case study, with a really strong human-interest angle where possible. Try to think beyond the realm of your company and brand and think what you’d like to read. Does it pass the ‘so what?’ test?

4. Images

Far too often a good case study will have to be left to one side because the pictures are unusable. Maybe the case study doesn’t have any relevant images, or the ones they do have are such small files that they won’t work in print or online. Images have the ability to make or break a case study.Good images will not only attract journalists and therefore readers, but they can also greatly increase the overall size of an article or feature.

If you’d like to have a chat about how great PR case studies can benefit your business, get in touch!

© MOTIVE