Sales
Case study to video that a buyer will finish
The written format opens with company background. In video, that is the twenty seconds where you lose them.
The structure that has to be inverted
Written case studies follow a convention: company background, the challenge, the solution, the results, a quote. It works in print because a skimmer jumps to the results box.
Video has no results box. A viewer given ninety seconds of company background before any outcome leaves, and they leave in the first fifteen seconds, which is before you have said anything worth staying for.
So invert it. Open on the result. 'They cut onboarding from six weeks to nine days' is a first line. 'Acme is a mid-market logistics provider founded in 2011' is not.
- 0–8s: the outcome, as a number.
- 8–30s: what the situation was before, briefly.
- 30–70s: what specifically changed.
- 70–90s: the customer's own words, and where to go next.
The numbers are the whole asset
A case study without a quantified outcome is a testimonial, and testimonials do not need video. If the study has a real number, that number is the video — on screen, large, for longer than feels comfortable.
Show the before and after together. '6 weeks → 9 days' as a single frame does more work than any amount of narration about efficiency improvements.
Using the customer quote
The quote in a written case study is usually a sentence of polished praise. Read aloud by a synthesised narrator, polished praise sounds exactly like marketing copy, because it is.
Two options that work. Show it as on-screen text with attribution and let the viewer read it in the customer's register rather than a narrator's. Or, if the customer will record thirty seconds on a phone, use that — imperfect audio from a real person outperforms a perfect read of their written quote.
Length and placement
Ninety seconds for the version that goes in a feed or a sales email. Three to four minutes for the version on the case study page itself, where the visitor arrived deliberately and will watch more.
In a sales sequence, the ninety-second version does the work. Sales emails containing a short, specific, outcome-first video get replies at a noticeably better rate than the same email linking a PDF — mostly because the recipient can evaluate it without committing to a download.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a case study video be?
Ninety seconds for outbound and feeds; three to four minutes on the case study page. The long version exists for people already evaluating you.
Do I need the customer on camera?
No, and waiting for it is why most case study videos never ship. On-screen quotes with attribution work. If the customer will record thirty seconds on a phone, that is a bonus, not a prerequisite.
What if the case study has no hard numbers?
Then it is a testimonial and video adds little. Go back to the customer for one quantified outcome before producing anything.