Do you want to learn how to build case studies that help sell your offers—without overpromising?
In the online space, case studies often bring to mind dramatic “before-and-after” transformations or those flashy claims like “I made $100,000 in five minutes.” And it can make you wonder: Do my case studies even stand out against all that noise?
If you’ve ever thought that, you’re going to love today’s conversation. I’m joined by Jocelyn Montemarano of Scale Your Resonance to talk about how to create case studies that actually convert. Honestly, as I listened back to this episode, I was taking notes myself—because case studies are one of the highest-converting tools you can have in your sales and marketing toolkit. In my own business, I’ve been experimenting with them more and I asked Jocelyn the exact questions that are probably on your mind, too.
Questions like:
- What if you don’t have screenshots of past results?
- What if you’re not sure how to compete with those “big launch” stories?
- What if your case studies take forever to put together, or you feel like they’re not moving the needle?
Jocelyn gets very specific, and that’s what I loved most. If you’re more advanced in business, you know it’s rare to get truly tangible takeaways from a podcast episode—but not this time. Whether you’re brand new to case studies or you’ve been using them for years and feel stuck, you’re going to walk away with clear ideas on how to do them better.
So, who is Jocelyn? She’s a sales and content strategist for coaches and service providers with a motto I adore: “as simple and fun as possible.” Inside her program, Best Seller, she helps clients create consistent content that breaks plateaus, increases leads and sales, and ultimately turns their offers into industry bestsellers. She’s helped clients double their launch results, boost evergreen funnel conversions, and attract more right-fit buyers—all without using a dozen complicated strategies.
As a former journalist, Jocelyn is obsessed with storytelling, especially case studies. She focuses on timeless strategies that work across any platform, and she’s brilliant at creating systems that help you stay consistent.
I could keep gushing about this episode, but let’s dive in.
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Table of Contents
Who Is Jocelyn Montemarano from Scale Your Resonance?
I’m Jocelyn Montemarano, a sales content coach. I’m obsessed with client stories, timeless content strategies, and creating systems that make it easy to consistently show up online. We first connected on Threads and stayed in each other’s circles for a while, so I’m really excited to finally chat with you “in real life” instead of just in DMs or quick comments.
What makes a case study different than the other styles of social proof (like screenshots and testimonials)?
I love to use Rent the Runway as an analogy because it’s such a great, tangible example. If you’ve ever gone on Rent the Runway to look for a dress—whether for a wedding, a mastermind, or some other event—it’s kind of like any online clothing store.
You scroll through all these beautiful dresses and outfits, and you see the star ratings—maybe 300 reviews with a four-and-a-half-star average. That makes you think, Okay, people are loving this dress or this pantsuit. But that doesn’t automatically mean you’ll click “add to cart.” You’re still wondering: Who specifically loved it? Was it petite women? Was it tall, model-type bodies? Even though the overall feedback is positive, you still want to know if it will actually work for you—your body, your height, all those details that affect fit.
And that’s where Rent the Runway really helps. When you click into an item, you don’t just see “great reviews.” You also get detailed feedback: how tall someone is, what size they normally wear, what size they rented, whether it ran big or small, their body type, their cup size—all those little specifics. So if you’re petite, you can find reviews from people who are also 5’2” or 5’3” and see how the dress worked for them. That’s the kind of detail that helps you decide, Yes, this will work for me too.
When you click into that dress or pantsuit, Rent the Runway gives you really detailed reviews. Sure, people can leave an open-ended response like, “Oh my God, I loved this, it was so cute,”—but it’s paired with what I like to call “case study data.” Things like: How tall are you? Was it too long or too short? What size do you normally wear, and what size did you rent? Did it fit true to size, run small, or run big? What’s your cup size, your body type, your weight?
All of those details help you figure out if it will work for you. For example, I’m petite, so if I’m renting a gown, I need to know it’s not going to drag five feet behind me. I’m specifically looking at reviews from people who are 5’2” or 5’3” to see if they rated it five stars—or if it’s mostly taller women saying it worked for them.
That’s the exact same concept with our offers when we build case studies. Screenshots and testimonials are great for grabbing attention—Look at these wins! Look what people are saying!—but they don’t answer the deeper question: Will this work for me? Will this program, service, or strategy fit my unique situation, my business model, my life? That’s where case studies come in.
Done well, they provide the missing context: where a client started, the key data points, or—if you’re not B2B—the background of what they were struggling with, what their life looked like, and how things changed. That’s what allows someone to say, That person is just like me. If it worked for them, it’ll work for me.
Can you share the 3 types of case studies services providers should show in their marketing?
I love thinking about three different types of case studies, because when we think of a case study, we usually default to one type—what I call the offer goal case study. You might also think of it as a promise or results case study. It’s that big, sexy one: my program is designed to help someone hit $10K months, and here’s the client who did it.
Offer Goal Case Study
Whatever your offer goal is—whether it’s a specific metric or just the main outcome you’re promising—these case studies show the clients who’ve reached it. And those are important, because they address big objections like, Will this work for me?
But when we only focus on those, we miss out on other types that are just as powerful.
Progress Case Study
The second type is the progress case study. This is where you highlight clients who’ve made progress toward the end result. Maybe they’ve taken an action, or if you’re a done-for-you service provider, you did that action for them—and now they’re seeing momentum.
A lot of people hesitate to share these, thinking, Why would I show a client who hasn’t gotten the end result yet? But the truth is, some people don’t even believe the end result is possible for them. These progress stories make them think, Even if I only got to that point, it would be worth it. Or they’re someone who’s been stuck at the same spot forever, and seeing someone else break through is exactly what they need.
For example, I had a client who’s a career coach. She was only creating case studies about people who landed new jobs. I told her: you also need to share stories about clients who went from applying to 100 jobs with no response, to finally getting interviews. For someone stuck in that exact place, that’s huge.
Implementation Case Study
And then the third type is what I call the implementation case study. This is when something inside your offer made it faster, easier, or more effective for a client to take the actions needed to get results. For me, as a sales content coach, my clients need to create content in order to sell.
So if a client says, “Using your writing frameworks, I batched two weeks of content in three hours—something that used to take me three hours for just one post,” that’s an implementation case study. It shows that I can help them get to results more quickly and with less struggle. And this can apply to done-for-you providers as well. For example, if you’re a website designer and your client needs to provide the copy, but you also give them a resource that makes writing that copy easier, that becomes a powerful implementation case study. It shows that working with you will be a smoother, faster experience.
Even if the work itself is significant—because let’s be honest, deeper transformations aren’t always a quick five-minute win—implementation case studies show that the process will still feel easier, with less second-guessing along the way.
So those are the three types: offer goal case studies, progress case studies, and implementation case studies. And I’ve seen all three convert really well across different clients and industries. The lesson here is: don’t sleep on the smaller wins. Highlighting those incremental results can be just as powerful as the big flashy ones.
How should we present case studies—on Instagram, sales pages, or even a dedicated case studies page?
My overarching philosophy is that case studies are incredibly high-converting. I can create a single case study and make immediate sales from it, but beyond that, they also make all of your marketing more effective—your content, your sales pages, everything. So my belief is: the more you can use and leverage case studies, the better.
That said, I usually have my clients start with email, because it’s the closest point to the sale. If you have people on your list that you’re emailing for a funnel, a launch, or evergreen sales, that’s where a case study can make the fastest impact—moving hot leads directly into your offer. From there, you can repurpose it onto your sales page and in other places.
One of my clients, who’s a website designer, does these amazing “talking head” case studies. She’ll record herself on video, with the client’s new website design showcased in the background. Then she walks viewers through the whole story: Here’s what the client was struggling with before. Here’s how we made changes in the design. Here’s what it looks like now. And here’s how she’s closing more clients as a result.
Other clients present case studies as carousel reels, while those with YouTube channels or podcasts often build them into interviews. It really depends on your marketing system. The key is to start small so it doesn’t feel overwhelming, and then gradually expand.
What I’ve seen consistently is that the clients who get the best results—the ones making five or even multiple five figures from case studies alone—aren’t necessarily the ones with the flashiest results. They’re the ones who are leveraging their case study stories across as many platforms as possible.
What if you offer a service that doesn’t have dramatic results? In this interview on Talk Copy To Me, she talks about how sometimes the transformation doesn’t happen while working together.
Number one, I break offer goals into six different genres that they usually fit into. For example, if you’re doing an SEO intensive—maybe you’re writing website copy and handing it off—that offer goal is different than an SEO retainer. A retainer means you’re optimizing every month and building things up over time, while an intensive is more of a one-and-done. So what you track, and what’s appropriate to show for those different price points and timelines, is totally okay to be different.
That said, I still have my clients who run intensives track results three or six months after, and we set those expectations early so it’s a win-win. That way, the client has an incentive to come back and share their results. And in some cases—like SEO or social media—you might already have access to their data.
Number two, inside of Best Seller, my program, we go through the process of building a case study collection system. It’s tailored to the offer. An intensive that ends in 30 days is going to need a very different tracking system than a 12-month group coaching program. It’s about setting expectations, identifying the offer’s main goal, and knowing the difference between the data you must collect versus the data that would be “nice to have.”
So, for an intensive, the offer goal might simply be: We optimized 12 pages for the top SEO keywords. That’s the done-and-delivered result. Sure, the best-case scenario would be checking back three, six, or nine months later to show SEO wins—but the primary reason someone buys an intensive is, I just need this done. And of course, we still want to track that longer-term data when we can.
What do most people get wrong when it comes when they build client case studies?
I love this question because people get it wrong when they try to build case studies all the time. Most people think client results are just about proving your offer and showcasing outcomes. You know, the big flashy ones: “Jane made $30K in five minutes.” We want to show those sexy results.
But what your potential client actually needs to move forward and buy from you isn’t the sexiest result—it’s having their objections addressed. That’s the key.
So when you’re writing case studies, start with the question: What objection could this client’s story help overcome for someone considering my offer? That’s far more effective for conversion.
For example, instead of simply saying, “Jane had a $50K launch,” you’d frame it like: “Jane had a $50K launch with a list of only 300 people—and she didn’t host a live event.” That way, you’re directly addressing objections like, “I can’t have a $50K launch because my email list is too small.” You’re showing exactly who your approach works for.
That’s what I always encourage my clients to do: when we’re looking at their client data, we ask two things—what’s the result, and what objection could this story help address for potential clients?
When you look at the data to build case studies, what are you looking for?
When I’m reviewing a case study, there are a couple of key things I’m looking for. First, is there enough context about who this person is who achieved the results? I put on my “Rent the Runway” thinking cap and ask: what details would the potential client need to see to know this could work for them?
For B2B, that often means showing the niche the client is in. If you only work with, say, wedding photographers, you don’t need to specify that. But if you serve different types of photographers—or multiple industries—then showing the niche is critical. Otherwise, people will default to, Yeah, but will this work for my niche? Including those details gives the necessary context.
Then, based on the client’s primary result—or what I call the “offer goal,” the outcome their offer is designed to help people achieve—I want to see: Where did they start? If you’re promising sales, leads, or anything tied to a metric, you need to show the starting point with that metric.
For more nuanced offers, like leadership coaching where tangible data isn’t always available, you still need to set the stage. Maybe the client thought they were on track for a promotion but their review revealed otherwise. That kind of before/after framing—what department they’re in, what level of leadership, what the problem was—creates context. Then on the other side of the case study, you show the results: where they are now, what’s changed.
So really, it all goes back to that Rent the Runway idea: Who is this person? Where did they start? And where are they now?
If someone is trying to build case studies but haven’t seen an uptick in inquiries, what would you say they’re probably doing wrong?
I can almost guarantee that in most case studies, you’re either not addressing an objection at all, or if you are, it’s not the right objection for your offer. Or you’re missing key details that make the story resonate.
And another big piece I see people leave out is the how. Most people only show the before and after. But you need to include the how, because that’s what builds demand for your unique approach.
I don’t just want to sell someone on the idea that they “need Pinterest” or “need email.” If your case study says, “Jane made $30K because of Pinterest,” the reader might just think, Great, I’ll go use Pinterest. What you really want is for the case study to say, “Jane made $30K because of Pinterest—specifically because of my approach to Pinterest.” That’s the difference.
So we want to make sure we’re showing the how—and that means bringing in your original solutions, frameworks, methodology, process, systems, or approach. Whatever specifically contributed to the result, spotlight that.
You’re not teaching the whole thing step by step, but you are highlighting it: She used this method, and here’s what this method is designed to do. Or, She applied this specific framework, and here’s why it works. That way, the case study doesn’t just show the outcome—it also builds demand for your unique way of getting there.
You want to point to the specific piece of the method and what it’s designed to do. That’s what builds demand for your unique offer. The takeaway shouldn’t be, “This client got results because of Pinterest.” It should be, “This client got results because of this particular tool, framework, or concept inside my program.”
So instead of just saying, “Pinterest worked,” it becomes, “She got this result because she used my Pinterest AI caption generator.” That shift shows that the result came from your unique approach—not just the general platform or tactic.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to start creating case studies for their clients?
There’s kind of two pieces to this when you build case studies.
The fast and quick way is what I call a retroactive case study. That’s where you retroactively fill in all the gaps you haven’t really been tracking or collecting or organizing well. Basically, you create a form—it can also be an interview, but usually a form is enough—where you figure out: what was the starting point data I needed, what’s the end result data, and also the story behind it. What were they feeling? Where did they start? Where are they now? What happened in between? That’s what you’re collecting.
If you have access, like to a client’s Pinterest dashboard or Google Search Console or whatever SEO tools you’re using, you can sometimes grab those actual metrics yourself. And then just focus on the most important ones—like where they started and where they are now—so it feels really simple.
The second piece is moving forward, figuring out how to track this better so you can get more of those “sexy” progress case studies. Things like: They had this type of progress in 30 days, or 90 days, and you can quantify both the data point and the timeline.
So if you’re someone who meets with clients once a month for a strategy call, it might look like: before the call, they fill out a form with X, Y, Z. When I had a podcast agency, I had my clients submit a monthly report before our strategy calls. I already had their podcast data—listeners, downloads, all of that—but I didn’t have their sales and leads data. So I needed that from them to complete the story. It also made it easier to build case studies.
I positioned it as a win-win: In order for me to best consult with you on this call, I need this data. These numbers will show what’s working and what’s not, so we can double down on what is working and troubleshoot what isn’t. And it only took them about 10 minutes to pull together.
So that’s really the two-step process. Usually we start with the retroactive case study—just get where they started and where they are now for that fast data. Then we layer on the ongoing tracking to get more nuanced data moving forward.
What would you say to someone who is nervous to talk to their clients about their results to build case studies?
I think this is also a really important mindset piece, because so many people worry, What if my clients don’t get results? But if you’re actually tracking, staying in conversation with them, and teaching them what to reflect on and report back, you can shift that fear.
For example, you might add a question to your onboarding form: How did you find me? and make “Google” one of the options. That gives you hard data on who’s coming in from Google. Or maybe you ask clients to submit data monthly, and in exchange you commit to doing a 15-minute optimization based on what they share. That way, it becomes a win-win: they’re getting better results, you’re gathering case study data, and if they aren’t getting results yet, you’re still helping them troubleshoot and improve.
What happens is you start learning in the process—Okay, that didn’t work, but I adjusted, and now I see it paying off. Then you can bake those optimizations into your process moving forward. It creates a feedback loop that benefits everyone.
And that’s why I always say: don’t let mindset issues stop you from asking for results to build case studies. Even if clients aren’t seeing the “big win” right away, they’ll feel supported, and that’s what people really want. We don’t expect a service or program to be 100% perfect—we expect our coach or provider to show up, identify what’s not working, and help us move forward. That’s the kind of partner people want to hire.
Connect With Jocelyn Montemarano (+ Build Case Studies With This Free Gift!)
First, I’d love to offer all of you listening today, who’ve made it to the end of this episode, the chance to sign up for my Case Study Sprint mini-course. It’s normally $98, but because you tuned in for the whole conversation, you can grab it for just $9 with the code KARAREPORT.
You’ll find the link in the show notes, or you can go directly to scaleyourresonance.com and use the code there. This course will walk you through exactly what I talked about today—how to create a retroactive case study—so you can pull together three or more case studies in the next seven days. If you’re prepping for a launch, running a funnel, or building evergreen sales, this is a quick way to get case studies working for you right away.
And if you’d like to connect further, I’m most active on Threads and a little bit on Instagram. My handle is @scaleyourresonance on both—come say hi!
LINKS MENTIONED
- Grab Jocelyn’s Case Study Sprint Mini Course For $9 Using The Code KARAREPORT
- Learn more about working with Jocelyn
- Follow Jocelyn on Instagram and Threads
- Listen to this interview on the Talk Copy to Me podcast
- Learn more about working with our marketing agency here
- Follow me on Instagram
