#B2BWebsites 5: How to Approach a B2B Case Study That Reveals Sensitive or Secure Information w/ Eric Sharp

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.519 Are you struggling to come up with original content weekend and week out? Start 2 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:09.189 a podcast, interview your ideal clients, let them talk about what they care 3 00:00:09.230 --> 00:00:14.589 about most and never run out of content ideas again. Learn more at sweet 4 00:00:14.589 --> 00:00:23.699 fish Mediacom. You're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for B 5 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:28.100 TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary Vannerd truck 6 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:32.020 and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. 7 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:36.649 That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. 8 00:00:37.210 --> 00:00:41.049 Most of our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're 9 00:00:41.090 --> 00:00:46.530 implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the fastest growing BB companies 10 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:49.770 in the world. My name is James Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet 11 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:53.399 fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm also one of 12 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:57.439 the cohosts of the show. When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, 13 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.280 you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business. Will share the 14 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.549 ups and downs of our journey as we attempt to take over the world. 15 00:01:04.189 --> 00:01:15.469 Just getting well, maybe let's get into the show. Welcome to another episode 16 00:01:15.510 --> 00:01:19.859 of the BEDB website series here on BB growth, where we discuss practical and 17 00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:23.579 actionable topics to meet you wherever you are in your website journey. My name 18 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:27.299 is Eric Sharp and I'm your host. If you're a returning listener to the 19 00:01:27.379 --> 00:01:30.579 series, welcome back. If this is your first episode, thank you for 20 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:34.969 your time. We're going to be chatting about case studies and not so much 21 00:01:36.049 --> 00:01:40.370 how to research in right case studies, but how to approach case studies that 22 00:01:40.450 --> 00:01:47.049 reveal sensitive or secure information. Now, this is an extremely slippery slow because 23 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:51.799 sometimes you're very excited that you just did something amazing for a customer. You 24 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:55.000 want to Brag, you want to shout it from the mountain top. You 25 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:57.719 want, of course, put it on your website, put it in all 26 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.480 your different marketing channels, you want to use it as a tool, as 27 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:05.189 an asset right moving forward in the sales process. But there's a problem here. 28 00:02:05.709 --> 00:02:09.710 Either your customer isn't comfortable with it or you aren't comfortable with it. 29 00:02:10.030 --> 00:02:15.539 So they're both external and internal issues here at play. So this is really 30 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:21.860 the dilemma for many BEDB companies. That solve critical and sometimes sensitive problems for 31 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:25.740 their customers. But the good news is you do have four options and that's 32 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:29.460 what we're going to dive into today. I'm going to share the four different 33 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:34.650 options that you can use if you are in that situation where you are going 34 00:02:34.729 --> 00:02:39.930 to reveal potentially secure or sensitive information that would make your customer wiggle. So 35 00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:46.919 let's start with examining these external and internal issues and then I'll provide some options 36 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:52.919 for how to navigate this. So let's begin with the external problems that you 37 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:59.310 face, with creating BEDBE case studies that reveal sensitive or secure information. So 38 00:02:59.710 --> 00:03:05.710 do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you? Your product or service helped 39 00:03:05.789 --> 00:03:08.789 fix a problem that they want to keep private. Of course, shining a 40 00:03:08.870 --> 00:03:14.979 spotlight on their inefficiencies or, worse, they're incompetence doesn't really sound like a 41 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:17.500 win win. It doesn't really sound like your customer wants to reveal that information 42 00:03:17.539 --> 00:03:23.419 right. So that could be one scenario here from an external issue. The 43 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:28.569 second is how you tackle their problem. Would probably maybe reveal too much behind 44 00:03:28.610 --> 00:03:34.050 the scenes and maybe your customer doesn't want to jeopardize their competitive edge there. 45 00:03:34.289 --> 00:03:38.449 So that could be another reason why this is an external problem. And the 46 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:43.400 third they just they don't want their customers to know that they hired you. 47 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:47.000 So for reasons you don't know, maybe they're just keeping it close. You 48 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:51.520 know, for all those that have seen the Rock, a great movie from 49 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:55.030 the S, if you remember, Nicholas Cages character said you know you're on 50 00:03:55.110 --> 00:03:59.270 a need to know basis and you don't need to know. Maybe that's what 51 00:03:59.430 --> 00:04:01.590 your customer is saying to you. You don't need to know. Why? 52 00:04:01.629 --> 00:04:05.110 We don't want to really reveal this information. So I'm sure there are a 53 00:04:05.229 --> 00:04:10.939 couple more scenarios that you've experienced, is if you are in this space and 54 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:17.139 you have solved really critical and sensitive problems. But those are the three that 55 00:04:17.259 --> 00:04:20.699 I've seen with my clients. Again, those are your product or service help 56 00:04:20.779 --> 00:04:25.129 fix a problem that they want to be kept private. How you tackle the 57 00:04:25.209 --> 00:04:29.930 problem would reveal too much behind the scenes and you know you're on a need 58 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:32.129 to know basis. So they don't want their customers to know that they hired 59 00:04:32.250 --> 00:04:36.649 you. Those are external problems right. I'm sure if you're listening and you're 60 00:04:36.649 --> 00:04:40.120 in the space, you're nodding your head and saying yes, you know, 61 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:43.040 we've talked a lot about this with our customers and it is a problem. 62 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:46.600 So let's shift into internal problems, right because that's the other side of it. 63 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.720 Maybe your customer doesn't have any issues with you revealing details in a case 64 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:56.949 study. Great, so let's get writing. But then here comes the monolog 65 00:04:57.550 --> 00:05:00.790 well, hold on a second. What if our competitors see our competitor list 66 00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:04.389 and then they try to steal them away? What if we reveal all our 67 00:05:04.470 --> 00:05:10.379 wonderful secrets and then the prestige of hiring US gets dumbed down because we're too 68 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:15.459 transparent? Or there are some legal issues and assist not worth time spending writing 69 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:19.180 a case study and publishing it and getting it on our site and pushing it 70 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:23.250 all through our marketing channels because it's not going to see the light of day 71 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:27.250 because there's just going to be some legality things to worry about. Internal problems 72 00:05:27.290 --> 00:05:30.889 can be a little tricky to navigate. Contrary to external problems they're seeing. 73 00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:35.199 Seems to be kind of some more gray here. Sometimes the politics are a 74 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:40.639 little too much to push forward and get these case studies done. But again, 75 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:44.519 these are some internal problems that you do face, even if your customer 76 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:46.240 doesn't have a problem with it. So again, just a review that really, 77 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:49.910 really quickly. You're worried. You are worried that you come, your 78 00:05:49.990 --> 00:05:54.069 competitors are going to see your customer list right and they're going to try to 79 00:05:54.069 --> 00:05:57.949 steal them away. So some paranoia right going on there. You're worried that 80 00:05:58.310 --> 00:06:00.829 you're going to reveal all your wonderful secrets. You know, in the prestige 81 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:03.540 of hiring you kind of gets dumbed down. And then three, there are 82 00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:09.459 some legal issues. Those are the internal issues, and so let's talk about 83 00:06:10.139 --> 00:06:13.180 what you can do now. What are the options? Maybe you've got a 84 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:15.860 little bit of both. Maybe you've got external and you have internal. What 85 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:21.970 are the options that you can take to create a nice, effective bebk study 86 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:26.009 on your website if you if you have some of these worries and some of 87 00:06:26.050 --> 00:06:30.009 these challenges? Option number one, and we've seen this a lot with some 88 00:06:30.089 --> 00:06:32.480 of our clients that are that are in this space, is they don't they 89 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:36.480 create a case study, but they don't use the customer name right and they 90 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:42.360 focus in on the solution. So this is really straightforward. You can talk 91 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:46.680 through the products and services that you use. You can talk through the vertical 92 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:50.269 that you service, the specific outcomes, but just don't list the company's name. 93 00:06:50.910 --> 00:06:57.870 So we've got a client cactus technologies, and my company Proto Fuse, 94 00:06:58.269 --> 00:07:01.980 and they do industrial grade flash storage and it's a really competitive space and they 95 00:07:02.339 --> 00:07:06.100 wrote a case study and kept the title of the case study very generic. 96 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:10.980 So, just to give you a very concrete example, the title that case 97 00:07:11.019 --> 00:07:16.209 study is customized cactus parts solve customer storage issue. Right, so they use 98 00:07:16.290 --> 00:07:20.329 customer instead of the actual customer name. And then if you dig into that 99 00:07:20.490 --> 00:07:24.290 case study a little bit more, you'll notice that they don't use the logo 100 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:27.649 of the customer and so the saying company X, Y Z. They said 101 00:07:27.730 --> 00:07:30.920 they they are in Oem. You know. They use more of a generic 102 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:38.079 approach, right. So they're still revealing how they solve problems and the specific 103 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:42.319 products and services that they use to solve those problems and they get it on 104 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:46.029 their website, but they're just being somewhat generic in not revealing the customer name. 105 00:07:46.189 --> 00:07:50.389 So that's option number one. Option number two you can make the entire 106 00:07:50.670 --> 00:07:56.029 case study gated. So a lot of you listening know what gated means. 107 00:07:56.069 --> 00:07:59.500 It means you know that that person has to give up some sort of information 108 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:01.939 in order to access that piece of content. So that could be a name, 109 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:05.620 an email address, a phone number, a company name, maybe more. 110 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:11.060 A lot of different companies choose to make various fields required, but typically 111 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:15.490 it's going to be a minimum of an email address. So this kind of 112 00:08:15.529 --> 00:08:20.089 puts in another layer of protection we which may help ease both internal and external 113 00:08:20.490 --> 00:08:24.930 concerns. If you're willing to forego a little marketing performance to keep your case 114 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:30.680 studies under lock and key, this may be your best option. Option number 115 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:35.840 three is that you want to make the case study somewhat gated. So option 116 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.840 number two was to make it completely gated, but maybe maybe make it somewhat 117 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:41.149 gated. We've seen this with one of our clients where they kind of tease 118 00:08:41.269 --> 00:08:46.070 out some of the information. So they've kind of done it in a format 119 00:08:46.149 --> 00:08:50.269 of challenge solution results, which is a pretty typical framework for bdb companies when 120 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:54.269 it comes to case studies. They've teased out some of the content, but 121 00:08:54.350 --> 00:09:01.340 if they want more information, like maybe a downloadable pdf or something that reveals 122 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:05.659 more detail than they request first name, last name, email address and company 123 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:11.250 name, and so they're making this case study somewhat gated right, which again 124 00:09:11.330 --> 00:09:16.009 may alleviate some of these internal and external challenges that we've talked about. So 125 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:18.409 that's option number three. And then option number four, which is a pretty 126 00:09:18.409 --> 00:09:24.600 easy one. Just invest somewhere else with your content marketing. If you're facing 127 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:28.279 some of these especially external where your customer has a big problem with this, 128 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:35.159 then you know maybe, unfortunately, case studies are not going to be the 129 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:37.960 route that that you need to take with your content marketing. So there are 130 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:41.269 a lot of other marketing channels to explore. Ditch the case study idea focus 131 00:09:41.350 --> 00:09:46.470 on another tactic. But before you do that, I just a little forewarning. 132 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:50.710 Just remember what you're giving up before you you pull the plug on case 133 00:09:50.710 --> 00:09:56.899 studies. There are a couple different statistics here. There's one from Linkedin's demandgin 134 00:09:56.059 --> 00:10:01.539 report from two thousand and eighteen that mentioned that case studies are the preferred content 135 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:07.490 format of bdb buyers, with seventy nine percent of those respondents consuming them in 136 00:10:07.649 --> 00:10:11.929 the last twelve months. BB case studies they help people know, like trust 137 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:16.970 you. They make a direct impact in your marketing and your sales. Just 138 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:20.169 know that you are giving that up if you're releasing the case, the case 139 00:10:20.210 --> 00:10:24.600 studies from a tactic, if you decide to go this route of investing somewhere 140 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:28.159 else, here a couple different ideas that you could do. You can maybe 141 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.559 double down on some of your blog content, you can start to invest heavily 142 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:35.360 in your video content, you can create quarterly webinars, you can start a 143 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:41.190 podcast like like you're listening to here. There are definitely different ways to navigate 144 00:10:41.309 --> 00:10:43.990 this, but again, I think the goal is to find a tactic that's 145 00:10:45.029 --> 00:10:50.100 going to help replace the cut study as a nurturing in trust building, marking 146 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:54.059 asset. Right. Those are the four options again. I just want to 147 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:58.340 go through them very quickly just to review this. Option number one, don't 148 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:01.779 use your customers name in the case study and just focus on the solution. 149 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:07.690 Option number to make the case study entirely gated. Option number three, make 150 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:13.769 the case study somewhat gated and then option number four, invest somewhere else in 151 00:11:13.970 --> 00:11:18.559 your content marketing. So again, this is a very tricky situation you, 152 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:26.080 I know you're very excited to reveal all this wonderful solutions and the results that 153 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:30.120 you've generated for your customer, but you're just facing these internal and external problems 154 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:33.590 don't give up. There are a couple different options here that I've outlined that 155 00:11:33.629 --> 00:11:39.230 you can follow and hopefully help resolve some of these issues and maybe give you 156 00:11:39.269 --> 00:11:41.950 some options for for just saying, you know, if case studies look they're 157 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:46.220 two difficult let's go a different direction. So hopefully that's been helpful. Thank 158 00:11:46.259 --> 00:11:50.340 you for your time. Again, you've been listening to BB growth with the 159 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:54.940 BEDB website series. I'm your host, Eric and we will talk to you 160 00:11:54.059 --> 00:12:01.330 next time. We totally get it. We publish a ton of content on 161 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:05.649 this podcast and it can be a lot to keep up with. That's why 162 00:12:05.690 --> 00:12:09.330 we've started the BEDB growth big three, a no fluff email that boils down 163 00:12:09.450 --> 00:12:15.049 our three biggest takeaways from an entire week of episodes. Sign up today at 164 00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:20.399 Sweet Phish Mediacom Big Three. That sweet fish Mediacom Big Three