10 Best B2B Case Study Examples For Your Sales And Marketing Team 

Case studies build a perfect, not to say persuasive narrative that features real-world experiences of a product or any marketing or sales endeavour by a company. Apart from demonstrating the value of the product, some case studies help you draw some marketing and sales lessons from real-time experiences. 

What is the real purpose of case studies? 

  • For one, it makes your product stand out amid the competition. 
  • You can look at other case studies and try to emulate their marketing or sales technique.

That’s why we put together various B2B Case Study Examples For Your Sales And Marketing Team. Have a close look and see different styles of marketing and get inspired. 

Top 10 Case Study Examples For Your Sales And Marketing Team

1. Salesforce – Content Marketing 

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is the noisiest channel on the web, probably in a good way. However, one cannot refute that the competition is rampant. Now, amid this competition, Sales Force has emerged as one of the world’s largest vendor of CRM applications. 

Saleforce case study

That said, even the Salesforce had some issues maintaining steady traffic and customer base to their channel. Salesforce decided to change their content marketing strategy to achieve business growth in search and paid traffic in the UK.

Thus, they deployed their content marketing campaign to entertain and engage their target audience in the UK to achieve growth in the region. 

How did Sales Force go about making their content marketing strategy a success?

They leveraged and thrived using these methods and strategies:

  • Video on sales and marketing which was highly entertaining and fun.
  • World’s first stop-motion slide share.
  • A presentation to showcase a customer success story.

As a result of this campaign, their website witnessed a dramatic rise in their audience base from the UK region. They enjoyed 80% increase in web traffic, over 10000 downloads of their customized ebook, approximately 6500 email-newsletter signups and a staggering 2500% rise in traffic from social media sites.

2. HubSpot – leveraging inclusivity 

HubSpot is now a pillar in their domain, which is actually every organisation’s dream. To not just become a part of the horde, but someone who is seen as a benchmark for everything in the industry. And that is HubSpot for you. 

One way to achieve this goal is by leveraging the power of inclusivity. That is, by playing a host. 

This is how HubSpot – an Inbound marketing and sales software provider – made its name in the industry. They lent their name as a partner to various organisation and digital marketing and e-commerce related events.

From a social media camp in British Columbia and a UX conference in Cape Town to partner events in Leeds, Milan and Tel Aviv, HubSpot left no stone unturned by being featured and partnering in various events globally. However, it is a given that to make their brand a focal point they had to shell out a huge chunk of the budget. 

hubspot-event case study

That said, even if you lack a huge budget, you can still partner or play host to events that do not require heavy budget and start by inviting people in our region. 

Inclusivity paid off

Some of the events offered by HubSpot and its partners carry a ticket price – but most of these are priced very reasonably, and others are free.

By making their events affordable and free to everyone in their business community, they established themselves as a focal point in the industry. 

3. Google AdWords – high-value giveaway

If you are a salesperson or a marketer, you have probably come across this high-value, but low-cost give-away by Google. This is an ad offering you £75 free ad credit when you sign up to Google AdWords. However, if have not been offered this giveaway then chances are that you probably had AdWords already.

Google-voucher marketing

The fact that this £75 ad credit voucher campaign has been around for years is not a hidden fact. And they keep attracting customers and sign-ups owing to this campaign, even to this day. 

Why is this campaign such a massive hit? 

  • Generosity – £75 free credit! Doesn’t that sound generous? And you only have to pay £ 25 to avail this package. This makes it, 300% extra value when compared to just spending £ 25. Of course, Google can afford to be this generous. Plus, they eventually incur more than they are giving away. Customers who sign-up for this program, end up purchasing services like pay-per-click accounts. 

4. Social Chain – engaging social media followers  

Social Chain is a meme factory that has carved its niche and risen to become one of the biggest B2B brands in social marketing within a few years of starting out. They offered their clients the opportunity to appear on immensely popular channels like Love Food (Instagram, 6.8m followers), BeFitMotivation (Twitter, 1.78m followers) and Hogwarts Logic (561,000k followers).

Apart from this, this plot of digital marketing strategy turned Social Chain’s founder, Steve Bartlett, into a prominent influencer. However, becoming a social influencer, in turn, worked out in favour of his brand. 

social chain case study

How did their brand acquire so many followers? 

  • Becoming an influencer – People genuinely look up to influencers, sometimes even more than the A-list celebrities. For one, they are more relatable and secondly, they are easily approachable.
  • Regularly engaging your audience – Consistency is the key! Steve Bartlett’s vlogs go out every evening at 8 o’clock sharp, providing a regular fixture for his audience. This way, his audience knows beforehand when the next vlog is going to come up, thus they wait for it turning this consumption into a habit. This, in turn, also gave rise to loyalty in their audience.
  • Humour & Wit paid off – You cannot bind your audience with straight-laced and bland content. That’s a fact. Thus, the best way to go about it is by taking a more multifaceted approach. That’s what Steve Bartlett of Social Chain did. He combined honest advice with lighter and more colourful moments. This gave a much-needed character to his content, hence the success and legions of followers. 

5. AeroLeads – when a soft-launch made them acquire IBM as a paying customer 

By the time AeroLeads got IBM as their paying customer, they already had a couple of other Fortune 500 companies as their signups. Before going all the way, Aeroleads sought feedback and validation by launching a beta version. This resulted in proving their mettle in the market and they got umpteen reviews, some suggesting changes and some reviews served as validation.

First of all, for AeroLeads it was an Inbound Inquiry. Though they indulged in email marketing, they still avoided sending emails to bigger companies because of their complex hierarchy. It is decidedly a bit difficult to reach the right person not to mention, they already have a set of tools and process in use. 

It was the salespeople of IBM who found AeroLeads through Google while searching for prospecting software and lead generation software as they rank for such keywords.

How did AeroLeads get IBM, Their First Fortune 500 Client?

IBM- case study

The key is not to go out and mail big companies. Instead, focus on startups and build your company strength by strength by seeking validation. That’s how AeroLeads acquired IBM without even pitching their product. 

6. Scripted – consistent blogging & producing podcasts 

Scripted operates a marketplace of writers, who could help businesses with content creation. They are basically a virtual platform to connect writers who have the skills to write in different niches to the businesses who require freelance writers. Scripted wanted to offer differentiated services. They contended that scripted was not just a marketplace but offered the best subject-specific writers.

Using their content marketing strategy, which entailed consistent blogging and churning out informative and helpful podcasts, they witnesses that 46% of their visitors went to the next stage of their signup process. Plus, their bounce rate was 3 times lower than other sources.

scripted case study

What methods did they use and how they executed their campaign to enjoy such a massive success?

  • In the initial stage, Scripted created engaging and informative blogs that generated massive traffic to their website. Plus, they created podcasts to explain the common problems faced by those looking for content writers. They gave strong emphasis to customer feedback and actually improved and fine-tuned their content in accordance with the feedback.
  • Now, in the middle stage, they asked their visitors to sign-up for their email newsletters, white-papers and asked them to participate in webinars. The idea was to guide users on the specific solution they needed and how they could go about it.
  • Now, in their final stage, Scripted leveraged vase studies to show their customers different content requirement and how they boost the sales and visibility of a business. Apart from case studies, customers were also familiarized with offers by Scripted and how each of its services fulfilled specific needs.

7. JMF International Trade Group – LinkedIn Marketing 

JMF International Trade Group is a business consultancy and contract manufacturer run by James Filbird. What they did was something that seems so ordinary, but most of us don’t do it. The company used LinkedIn, the most populated professional social media platform on the Internet today, to generate revenue. And today, the founder claims that the credit of building a company that accounts for $5,000,000 in revenue largely goes to LinkedIn.

What did the JMF International Trade Group to generate massive revenue? 

  • For starters, the company always kept its profile up-to-date without ever slacking. 
  • Then, they joined 50 LinkedIn groups in their niche and consistently engaged with the audience. 
  • Filtered group digests and constantly connected with the relevant and targeted audience in their group. 
  • From there, they moved the conversation offline, mostly through Skype 
  • Constantly re-evaluated their groups and contacts. 

8. AXWAY – Leveraged LinkedIn Ads 

AXWAY case study

AXWAY is a software service that manages, runs, secures, and monitors all your business interactions – emails, files, messages, services, events, and processes.

At first, AXWAY leveraged Google Adwords which was working fairly well for them. However, according to the company, they saw better potential in LinkedIn Ads. First and foremost, the competition with Google Ads is fierce, not to say the cost was also not incurring appropriate results, at least, not as much as it should have. 

Thus AXWAY used LinkedIn Ads to specifically target job titles, their niche industries and productive leads in their domain. They tested over 30 ads with custom landing pages. As a result, their LinkedIn ad campaigns generated more than 25% conversion rate with the lowest cost per conversion ever achieved.

9. DELL – Using Social Media Outreach 

DELL directly went where their customers are, that is on social media channels. Rather than expecting their customers to come to them, DELL offered technical support directly through their social media pages by responding to customer concerns and building business digitally. 

They launched a social media campaign going by the name @DellCares, a program that used social media platforms and online communities to address their customer concerns & questions. They also replied directly to customers through tweets and other response methods. 

According to Amy Marquez Bivin, Social Media Outreach Manager, “98 per cent of customer issues responded to through @DellCares are resolved without customers needing to work with an agent and 85 per cent of social-media-assisted customers with negative initial opinions of Dell reported a positive opinion following the support experience.”

This program articulated that the company cares about their customers, hence as a result, the program is also generating an average of $265,000 in additional weekly revenue.

10. Lloyd’s Register – articulated dangerous implications using virtual reality

Lloyd’s Register Group Limited is a technical and business services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and engineering. 

The company witnesses huge revenue deterioration when the gas prices started to fell, which resulted in many of their clients beginning to withdraw their decreasing budgets from the company’s training services. Now, it was up to the marketing team at Lloyd Register to present their company in a more valuable light and demonstrating why it was crucial that clients dedicate some part of their budget to Lloyd Register’s training.

Lloyd Register case study

So, how did the company succeed in convincing people to avail Lloyd Register’s training? 

They simply tried to present the Health and safety sector, otherwise considered to be boring, into an interesting light by introducing and integrating it with virtual reality (VR). They demonstrated the real-life accidents using real-life examples using the exceptional experience of virtual reality (VR). It was actually a very different approach than the usual blog posts and videos. 

The VR simulator aimed to inform rather than scare prospects into business, and mindful of the project’s sensitivity, the marketing team used crash test dummies in place of victims.

According to Luis De La Fuente, head of training, Lloyd’s Register Houston, “Due to the downturn in the oil and gas sector, we’d been looking at ways in which we could drive interest in our training portfolio in a rapid and effective way. What we’ve done with the LR training simulator is illustrate to the industry that we’re using the latest technology to help keep safety training engagement at a level we just haven’t seen before.”

What were the benefits of this new approach of conflating Lloyd Register’s training program with Virtual Reality? 

It seems that the majority of their prospects were impressed by this new approach. So much so, that it created a 23% increase in bookings, which kick-started a number of one-day workshops, won three key accounts, and garnered considerable press attention.

Summing it all up 

So, this was it! One thing that all these case studies have in common is – engagement and connecting with your audience. There’s another similarity between all these case studies – that is, you have to adopt the practices that are best suited for your audience, thus, whatever you start or produce, do it with your targeted audience in mind. 

Whether it is launching an ad campaign or carrying our content marketing or launching a free beta product, the social point in all this is your audience. 

Furthermore, these case studies not only tell you success stories but also provide for great user experience. You can also write down your case studies to attract customers as well as to inspire your rivals and contemporaries. 

Did you find one relevant to your business? Which one of them are you most likely to emulate for your own B2B campaign? 

About Deepti Jain

Deepti is a senior content writer with AeroLeads. She spends a lot of time brainstorming ideas and writing marketing and sales content. She also has a knack for writing and reading about politics and prevalent social issues and regularly pens letters to the Editor of The Hindu newspaper. When she is not working, you’ll find her socializing with friends or binge-watching Netflix. (And devouring sushi).

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