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Case Studies are a great way to tell a company’s story. I’m adding it to my marketing.
Back in the day, long before I took my first class to get my real estate license, I edited the real estate section in the Palm Springs, Calif. Desert Sun.
It was more than just a section. It was several sections. One on Friday, another one on Saturday and then I launched Desert Real Estate, a weekly tabloid. The largest Saturday section ever numbered 80 pages. The framed news rack placard announcing that achievement hangs proudly in my home.
Unfortunately, Utah newspapers never caught the vision of a separate real estate section on that scale. During a staff meeting one day, a spokesman for the Evening News Association, which owned the paper then, announced that the real estate sections pulled in a cool $1 million every month. I remember wishing I was paid on commission.
Of course, the sections were so large because Palm Springs was and is a wonderful real estate location. And we had a great advertising sales staff. It was my job alone to fill that gaping, weekly news hole. So, additionally as a reporter, I covered every aspect of desert real estate, the housing market and development and wrote a weekly column on the subject.
Wearing Two Hats
Then the business editor quit and the managing editor handed me that role. After a few years wearing both hats, I decided to go out on my own and become a freelance writer. One of my clients, actually my bread and butter, was the largest commercial real estate developer in the desert. That worked well for almost a decade, then a recession hit and writing jobs became less and less.
One day, my wife announced, “I’m moving to Utah, “wanna come?”
So, we made the move with no job, but lots of hope. I took a tech writing job, which lasted only a few months and then moved over to the Deseret News. I also got my Utah real estate license. Real estate supplemented my news writing income, but became my main focus after retiring from the paper 12 years ago.
Crazy Real Estate Market
Now we’re facing another recession. After several years of a crazy market punctuated with low interest rates and ever-climbing home prices, real estate listings are scarce and buyers are taking over the market. Yet high interest rates have kicked a ton of them to the curb and put fear into the hearts of many would-be sellers.
So, while still servicing a shrinking buyer and seller pool I’ve been gearing up to jump back into the freelance writing business. No, I’m not giving up on real estate, but I am adding a new element. After training with the American Writers and Artists Institute to polish and reinvigorate my skills, I’m now ready to face the challenging world of freelance writing. Despite the looming recession.
My focus I that arena is writing business to business commercial pieces starting with what’s known in the industry as Case Studies. These are short, approximately two-page tomes that highlight the successes customers have with a certain company, product or service. They are much more than a testimonial.
And they are in high demand.
Starting With My Clients
I’m starting with writing them about my clients’ successes, while offering that service to other industries.
Companies use them in their marketing, whether it be in newsletters, email or mailed campaigns, webinar fodder, website content, sales training, white papers, press releases, the list goes on. Everyone has a story to tell and Case Studies tell that story very well. They are very much like the feature stories I wrote as a journalist, with much more prep.
So, don’t pigeon hole me, a common Utah practice. Whether you want great marketing to sell your home, a compassionate Realtor to lead, guide and protect you in buying a home, or someone who can tell your company’s story, we need to talk.
