How to Create Inclusive Case Studies That Convert, According to an Inclusive Marketing Consultant

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

Let me share something I've had to explain countless times as an inclusive marketing consultant: inclusive marketing isn‘t about reinventing the wheel — it’s about making what you’re already doing work harder for you.

Think about it. When potential customers are considering your product, they're all asking the same fundamental question: “Will this work for someone like me?” This question carries even more weight for people from underrepresented communities who often face higher barriers to success.

Case studies are your perfect opportunity to answer this question with a resounding “Yes!”.

Why People Really Care About Seeing “Someone Like Them”

When people from marginalized communities don‘t see success stories featuring people like themselves, it’s not just disappointing — it‘s a red flag. And it’s not because these communities lack qualifications or talent. The real reasons are much more systemic and nuanced, involving everything from unconscious bias to lack of tailored support.

The most powerful marketing doesn't just show your product works — it shows your product works for everyone you want to serve.

Let’s walk through how to publish case studies designed to answer that fundamental question, “Will this product work for people like me?” for all the customers you want to serve, including those with identities that are underserved.

Four Steps to Create Case Studies That Convert Everyone

Creating case studies that speak to the different types of customers you want to serve requires a layered and thoughtful strategy.

1. Define your audience (without trying to be everything to everyone).

Marketing inclusively doesn’t mean your brand needs to serve every single identity that has the problem your brand solves. Rather, effective inclusive marketing requires you to choose which identities you want to welcome.

This concept is foundational to inclusive marketing and one that many of my clients are relieved to hear. Focusing your efforts on specific identities increases both your impact and effectiveness.

This episode of the Inclusion and Marketing podcast goes more in-depth on this critical point.

When thinking about your case study strategy, consider which specific identities you want to target. Another option is to try this exercise:- If someone said, “I looked at your case studies and didn't see anyone like me, so I went elsewhere”— which communities would you most hate to lose?

This step is needed for your overall marketing strategy, not just for your case studies. It allows you to focus your efforts.

For instance, online marketplace Bol made a decision that it wanted to serve neurodivergent consumers. The brand leaned into that choice by focusing on highlighting that identity in this heartwarming holiday ad.

2. Recruit authentically.

Once you know which identities you want to reach, you can begin to figure out how to incorporate them into your case studies.

It is important to acknowledge this nuance: the goal is to highlight consumers who’ve had true success with your brand. You want to present an accurate picture of the types of customers you actually have — otherwise, you'll appear tokenistic.

This video goes more in-depth about what tokenism is and why you should avoid engaging in it.

Remember, your objective with case studies is to communicate “people like me find success here” – and it is difficult for you to answer that question with a sample size of one, especially when so many other factors could be at play.

This may feel like chicken or the egg. The more diversity you have in your case studies, the more diversity you’ll have in your customer base. But how do you attract a significant number of customers to have enough to collect case studies for them? That comes from being intentional about inviting specific types of consumers to be your customers.

This episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast walks you through how to win people from underrepresented and underserved communities as customers. When your marketing actively focuses on attracting people with specific identities you’ve chosen to serve, you’ll have a good amount of people with those identities as your customers.

Once you have various identities within your customer base who have success stories, the next step is to focus on recruiting them for your case studies. Reach out and give them a reason to want to share about the success they’ve had with your brand.

Plantmade is a holistic hair care brand that has a broad diversity of identities in its customer base.

One of the ways the brand encourages all different types of people in their customer base to submit their testimonials highlighting their hair growth and restoration (including beards), is by offering juicy incentives:

Whether or not you decide to incentivize your existing customers for their case studies, it is still important to ensure you’re actively seeking out people to share their stories, so you can get a broader diversity of consumers to showcase how your brand has made a difference for them.

3. Format for different preferences.

Your brand may have your own style and preferred way of producing case studies, including in written, video, and audio formats. It's also helpful to build a format strategy based on which manner will be most impactful for the people you want to serve. That includes taking into consideration accessibility and other preferences they may have.

A little while ago, I listened to a video podcast case study, and for me, that format was ideal, as I often find myself getting bored with written ones and rarely finish.

Other customers may love a written case study, and loathe the thought of watching a longer video.

Play around with multimedia versions of your case study. If you can, start with video, and then that content can be re-formatted into audio and text, allowing your ideal customers to select which works best for them.

You’re not creating case studies just to create them. So it's helpful to consider the different identities you want to serve and experiment with different formats that will work for them and their specific needs and preferences.

4. Display with purpose — make it easy to find “people like me”.

Remember the fundamental question we're answering: “Do people like me find success here?” Your display strategy should make it effortless for potential customers to find those answers.

HubSpot does a good job of this. The brand has a ton of case studies from a number of customers who identify in various ways. The filter tool enables consumers to quickly and easily find a case study that is relevant to them.

Figuring out the right way to display your case studies can also be dependent on the different types of identities you want to serve.

If, for instance, you want to ensure people of a specific race, ethnicity, or gender feel seen, including photos of people with those characteristics can help people quickly identify which case studies they want to dive into.

As a Black woman, when I’m looking into products for me or even for my business, I’m often looking to see if other Black women have found success. So I’m always delighted when I see case studies from people who look like me. Landing page builder Leadpages did this with their featured case studies by leading with women, including Black women:

One other way to show identities in your case studies, especially when those identities aren’t ones that are visibly identifiable, is through the headline.

Identity-risk platform Alloy has a case study from an employee sharing her experience working there as someone who is part of the LGBTQ+ community. A consumer looking at her photo wouldn’t be able to tell her identity, so including those relevant details is helpful for someone looking for a story from a person like them.

Make Your Case Studies Work Harder for You

You’re already creating case studies to help you convert customers. Being intentional about publishing case studies that feature a broader group of identities will ensure that more consumers, particularly those from underrepresented and underserved communities, will feel like they belong and can find success with your brand.

This component of your marketing mix will prove more effective as a result, as well.