Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Picture this: you're on an agency website, looking at their case studies. Same format everywhere. Generic project description, vague results, sanitized testimonial. "Oh look, another 150% conversion rate increase." Right?
After building websites for agencies for 7 years, I realized something that changed how I think about showcasing work. Traditional case studies aren't converting prospects into clients. They're just pretty portfolio pieces that look professional but feel hollow.
The breakthrough came when working with a B2B startup website revamp. Instead of creating another boring case study page, we built what I call a "project highlight page" - and their lead quality immediately improved. Not just quantity. Quality.
Here's what you'll learn from my experiment:
Why traditional case studies fail to convert prospects
The specific structure that makes project highlight pages work
How to document behind-the-scenes work that prospects actually care about
The psychological difference between portfolio pieces and business documentation
Why showing your process is more valuable than showing your results
If you're an agency or service provider struggling to convert website visitors into quality leads, this approach changed everything for my clients. Let me show you exactly how to implement it.
Industry Reality
What agencies think case studies should do
Every agency website follows the same playbook for case studies. You know the format: hero image, client logo, project overview, challenges faced, solution provided, results achieved, glowing testimonial. Rinse and repeat.
The industry believes case studies should:
Showcase impressive results - bigger numbers mean better agency
Build credibility - client logos and testimonials prove you're legitimate
Demonstrate expertise - complex projects show you can handle anything
Tell a story - narrative structure makes it engaging
Follow templates - consistent format looks professional
This conventional wisdom exists because it mirrors what works in other industries. Product companies showcase features and benefits. Consulting firms present case studies to enterprise clients. It feels logical to apply the same approach to agencies.
But here's where it falls short: your prospects aren't buying a product or hiring McKinsey. They're trying to solve a specific business problem and evaluating whether you understand their situation well enough to help.
Traditional case studies focus on what you accomplished, not how you think. They highlight outcomes, not process. They showcase your successes, not your problem-solving approach. This creates a fundamental disconnect with what prospects actually need to see.
When someone is considering hiring your agency, they're not asking "Can this agency get results?" They're asking "Will this agency understand my specific situation and know how to navigate the challenges I'm facing?"
That's why I started building project highlight pages instead. Let me show you exactly what happened when I made this shift.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The moment I realized traditional case studies weren't working came during a project with a B2B startup. They needed a complete website revamp, and I was building their new site using my usual approach - beautiful design, optimized conversion flows, all the standard agency case study elements.
But as I was documenting this project for my own portfolio, something felt wrong. The case study I was creating looked exactly like every other agency case study. Client had a problem, we provided a solution, results were achieved, everyone was happy. It told you nothing about how we actually work.
The real story was much more interesting. This client came to me with what they thought was a design problem - their website looked dated. But after digging into their analytics and talking to their team, I discovered the real issue wasn't visual design. Their contact form was getting plenty of submissions, but 90% were completely unqualified leads wasting the sales team's time.
Instead of just redesigning their site, I made a counterintuitive recommendation: make the contact form harder to fill out. We added qualifying questions, required company information, included budget ranges. Most agencies would never suggest adding friction to a conversion form.
The result? Contact form submissions dropped by 40%, but qualified leads increased by 120%. Sales team stopped wasting time on tire-kickers. Revenue from website leads doubled in three months.
Here's the thing: none of this complexity showed up in my traditional case study format. The case study made it look like I just redesigned their website and magically got better results. It completely missed the strategic thinking, the discovery process, the counterintuitive recommendation that actually drove success.
That's when I realized: the behind-the-scenes work is what prospects actually want to see. They don't care that you increased conversions by 120%. They want to know that you'll think strategically about their unique situation instead of applying generic solutions.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of creating another sanitized case study, I built what I call a "project highlight page" for this client work. The structure is completely different from traditional case studies:
Business Context First
Instead of starting with the solution, I begin with the client's actual business situation. What was their revenue model? Who was their target market? What were the real challenges affecting their bottom line? This isn't about the website - it's about the business.
Discovery Process Documentation
I document the questions I asked, the research I conducted, the assumptions I challenged. For this client, I showed how I analyzed their Google Analytics, interviewed their sales team, and reviewed their competitor landscape. Most case studies skip this entirely.
Decision-Making Framework
Instead of just presenting the final solution, I explain my reasoning process. Why did I recommend adding friction instead of removing it? What data supported this counterintuitive approach? How did I convince a client to make their form harder to complete?
Implementation Challenges
I document what went wrong and how we adapted. The first qualifying question format confused users. The budget ranges were too broad. The form completion analytics weren't tracking properly. Real projects have problems - showing how you solve them builds trust.
Metrics in Context
Instead of just "120% increase in qualified leads," I explain what this meant for their business. How much revenue did this generate? How many hours did it save their sales team? What was the actual business impact beyond the vanity metrics?
Lessons for Future Projects
I include what I learned that applies to other clients. The principle of strategic friction. The importance of qualifying leads early. How to balance conversion optimization with lead quality. This shows prospects you're constantly improving your approach.
The key insight: project highlight pages focus on your thinking process, not your portfolio pieces. They demonstrate how you approach problems, not just what you can produce. They show you as a strategic partner, not just a service provider.
For this specific client, the project highlight page generated 3x more qualified inquiries than any traditional case study I'd ever created. More importantly, the leads were already sold on our strategic approach before they contacted us. They'd seen exactly how we think and work.
Strategic Thinking
Show your problem-solving approach and reasoning process, not just deliverables and results
Client Context
Provide deep business context that helps prospects see if their situation is similar
Implementation Reality
Document actual challenges and adaptations, not sanitized success stories
Business Impact
Explain metrics in terms of real business value, not just percentage improvements
The impact was immediate and measurable. Within 30 days of publishing the project highlight page, we saw:
Lead quality transformation: Instead of generic "Can you help us with our website?" inquiries, we started getting specific questions about strategic challenges. Prospects would reference details from the project highlight page in their outreach.
Qualification efficiency: Sales conversations became much shorter because prospects already understood our approach. No more explaining why we ask so many discovery questions or why our recommendations might seem counterintuitive.
Premium positioning: Prospects stopped asking about pricing upfront and started asking about availability. The project highlight page positioned us as strategic consultants, not commodity vendors.
Most importantly, the projects we won became more strategic and higher-value. Clients hired us for our thinking, not just our execution capabilities. This led to longer-term relationships and more referrals.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The biggest learning: prospects want to hire your brain, not your hands. Traditional case studies showcase your hands - what you built, designed, or optimized. Project highlight pages showcase your brain - how you think, analyze, and solve problems.
Key insights from this experiment:
Process trumps portfolio: Showing how you work is more valuable than showing what you've made
Context creates connection: Business context helps prospects self-identify if you can help their situation
Vulnerability builds trust: Admitting challenges and showing adaptations makes you more credible
Strategic positioning requires strategic content: If you want to be seen as strategic, your content must demonstrate strategic thinking
Behind-the-scenes is the differentiator: Everyone can show results, few can show reasoning
What I'd do differently: Start with an even deeper business context section. Include more specific questions I asked during discovery. Add a section on alternative approaches I considered and why I rejected them.
This approach works best for agencies and consultants selling strategic services. It's less effective for commodity services where prospects are mainly comparing price and basic capabilities.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies showcasing customer success:
Document your customer success team's problem-solving approach
Show how you adapt the product to unique customer workflows
Include implementation challenges and how you solved them
Focus on business outcomes, not just product metrics
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce brands highlighting partnerships or collaborations:
Show your brand partnership evaluation process
Document how you integrated new suppliers or vendors
Highlight operational improvements and business impact
Include lessons learned for future partnerships