I craved a long nap. 

I’d had an overworked, yet unproductive day. Recording my first online course was tolling me more than I imagined. After years of practicing what my course taught, writing the scripts was easy. But using SendSpark, the Loom alternative I use for sales videos, to record the lessons didn’t yield what I desired. The videos were okay. But I’d taken many other people’s video courses to know it could be better. 

“I’ll take a nap, rest, and come back to this tomorrow,” I say in my mind. Because it’s past 8pm. I’ve been on this all day. Over 11 hours, to be precise. While shutting down my MacBook for the day, I recall an article by Jay Clouse, the Founder of Creator Science, where he listed his course-building tools. I Google the article again. And jump straight to where he mentioned the tool he uses to record videos: 

The mentioned product is Tella. 

Below the hero section of their website is a tab with the label, ‘Courses.’ Under this tab is a 3-second GIF product demo. But I can’t resonate. I can’t relate to how it will solve the specific problems that brought me here. I’m nowhere convinced. So I continue scrolling. 

Down the page, before the footer, is another set of tabs with reviews underneath. I click on ‘Online Course.’ All I see are raving reviews of fast setup time, looking super cool, sick features, impeccable speed, blowing out the competition, etc.: 

But I still couldn’t resonate. 

Raving reviews, yes. But the specifics of how the product solves the problems that brought me here weren’t explicitly spelled out. So I go back to Jay Clouse’s article. Somehow I find the strength to spend three minutes reading it. Because I need to solve this video course recording problem. The next morning, I paid $19/month for Tella. 

A few weeks later, my course was live: 

Why weren’t the raving reviews on Tella’s site compelling enough to convince me? How come going back to actually reading Jay’s article did the heavy lifting of making me buy their product instead? 

As you’ll see, buying Tella and researching this guide exposed many SaaS customer success story flaws. So if you’re a SaaS Founder or B2B Marketer trying to write and use customer success stories to grow your startup, you’ll see how to overcome those flaws today.  

No better place than to start with…

What a SaaS Customer Success Story Isn’t

It is not just a case study.   

According to Gartner, more than 90% of case studies don’t contain the necessary components to pique a target audience’s interest: 

 This finding didn’t surprise me. 

Typical SaaS case studies obsess over promoting one big outcome or numeric number. You’ve seen them: ‘This customer used our product to achieve that by 1,039%. Now, buy our product, and you’ll achieve the same.’ Such were prominent across Tella’s reviews. But I was deaf to them.

Saving 1,000 hours and growing my course business by 1,039% are both inviting. The Issue? They weren’t what triggered the search that eventually landed me on their site. Being my first time creating a video course, the recording, re-recording, and re-editing back and forth was too much to handle. I sought to see (and not just be told) how a product eliminated such back and forth. I sought what would fit well into my existing course creation workflow. I hoped to record each lesson in batches, so I could pause and attend to my pregnant wife if needed, without losing any progress. I liked courses with captions. But hated the stress I realized was involved in having captions. 

These tiny, often ignored, details are crucial. 

They are the difference between a case study and an effective customer success story. Focus solely on one big outcome, as case studies and Tella’s raving reviews did, and you’ll miss out on the finer storytelling details everyday prospects can relate to. 

Says Matthew Dicks, Author of Storyworthy: 

As Dicks rightly stated, the goal isn’t to declare a big number or brag about blowing out the competition. But to craft a story your prospects can connect to, relate to, and understand. Without these, you’ll lose business as tiny questions that circle in the minds of hard-to-convince B2B prospects are left unanswered. 

This is why we designed a new template (next section below) to help solve this problem. 

But before that...

Template for Writing B2B Customer Success Stories

As I unpack the tiny details I saw in Jay’s article, you’ll notice something. When it comes to buying SaaS tools, except in rare cases where they know founders of the startup personally, the average prospect won’t tread uncharted territory. Not when their time, hard-earned money, and business growth are all at stake.

Your customer success story must, therefore, tell and show. On the one hand, tell the story of existing customers who used your product to overcome problems and achieve desired outcomes. On the other hand, show, with as many relevant details as possible, how they actually did it. Aim to make prospects see that using your product to solve problems is a path well-traveled by ordinary people like them. 

It follows that there should be two heroes in a great customer success story. The first hero is the customer who overcame a challenge to achieve a desired result. The second is the potential buyer you’re seeking to attract, engage, and nudge to buy your product. 

Therefore, your first step is to:

1. Identify Success Story Heroes

Most startups already have this data. 

They don’t just put in the work needed to unravel them. But it’s the most important part of the process. Because fail to identify the two heroes (potential and existing customer) for each success story you write, and you’ll likely end up with a bland case study. 

Here’s how we help startups do it: 

• We talk with the sales team and review sales call transcripts for insights into who the hard-to-convert prospects they’re struggling to close are. This gives us ideas about the potential customers a success story must attract, engage, and nudge. 
• We talk with the customer success team and review support call transcripts for insights into who the happiest customers are. This gives us ideas about the existing customers whose success stories will resonate most with the target potential customers. 
• We collaborate with the product team for insights into product usage metrics, feature adoption, and possible workflows of the happiest customers identified by the customer success team.

After these, we proceed to have conversations, and not just interviews, with existing customers identified from step two who fit the profile of prospects from step one the most. 

The purpose of this conversation is to understand how your product usage metrics, features, and workflows from step three are actually being applied in solving their problems. But most importantly, to truly empathize with who they really are and how your product fits into their company workflow and overall tech stack. This conversation, if done well, also helps you uncover their struggles, why they chose your product over others, and how results they’ve achieved fits into their broader business objectives and goals. 

All these lay the foundation for the actual writing. Specifically, they help you identify the tiny, often-ignored details, for crafting effective customer success stories potential customers can resonate with that’s more likely to nudge them to convert. 

Once you have them…

2. Craft a (Product-Led) Success Story

Here’s why I bought Tella. 

As you already know by now, it wasn’t the raving reviews on their site. It was the section of Jay Clouse’s article, the one I read for about three minutes, that convinced me. After reading it and revisiting Tella, I went straight to buying their product the next morning. The article was engaging. Credits to Jay for being such a great writer. 

But it didn’t engage me by raving about Tella. The pull came when Jay showed glimpses of how he was actually using Tella to solve his video course-building problems I was also struggling with. Especially, the parts showing how it simplified the entire process of recording and editing course lesson videos without back and forth: 

This is what Matthew Dicks meant when he implied that a story shouldn’t just focus on one big numeric outcome. But it should detail the fine details target readers can easily resonate with. Jay’s article was his story on building courses. But it was detailed enough to touch on the finer details of solving the struggles that mattered to me. Most importantly, he showed how Tella was helping him overcome those struggles, giving me a real peek into the product’s unique value. 

Your customer success stories should do the same. Include a big number or outcome in the title, as this helps to attract potential buyers. But in the actual content writing, show (and don’t just tell) how specific features of your product solved specific problems for the customer the success story is about. Do this well, and you’re more likely to persuade and convert, as Jay’s article did me. 

And for that, the layout below is a peek into what a well-crafted (product-led) success story executed by VEC Studio would look like: 

Imagine Tella, for instance, had detailed success stories of the customers posting raving reviews about their product on their site. Chances are, I wouldn’t have revisited Jay’s article to be convinced about buying their product. I probably would’ve clicked on one of those reviews (if a success story was linked) and learned the many things that convinced me while reading Jay’s article. 

But most of their potential customers aren’t subscribed to Jay’s newsletter, as I am. Even the ones that are, most won’t remember the said article as I did. This means Tella could be leaving money on the table. This is because if those raving reviews weren’t enough to convince me, it’s probable they won’t convince other prospects. 

What an avoidable miss!

If you’re reading this and thinking, “okay, you’re making sense, Victor. But how do I actually craft a (product-led) success story?” Apparently, there’d be many ways others go about it. But here at VEC Studio, when crafting customer success stories for B2B SaaS startups, we leverage our 9-step Product-Led Storytelling approach: 

These nine steps are: 

1. A specific, value-promising headline
2. A relatable story-driven intro
3. State who’s involved in the success story to resonate with the target reader and feel like someone like them can succeed
4. Use H2s/H3s to discuss specific queries or make relevant problem statements the story will address
5. Show (and don’t just tell) your product features addressing the queries and stated problems in step four, respectively. 
6. Nudge action, subtly. 
7. Use more H2s/H3s to address queries/discuss problems resolved by your existing customer whose story is being written. Do this in a way to drive product interest. 
8. Reveal and drill into the results and outcomes achieved. 
9. Nudge the reader to act by pointing out your CTA. 

The order of these steps aren’t cast in stone. But even if re-ordered, they should help you craft customer success stories more likely to address the little, often-ignored tiny details and compel conversion. 

This client of ours is a testament: 

B2B Customer Success Story Examples

We’d look at two examples. 

One I consider exceptional, mostly because it adheres to many of the drafting steps above. And one that could use some improvement, mostly to help you avoid crucial success story writing pitfalls.

1. Mutiny’s Collaborative Approach

Mutiny’s collaborative product-led content playbooks are a proper example of customer success stories done right. I was so in awe of them that I sought a conversation with their Head of Content, Stewart Hillhouse, for an inside scoop into how they go about them. 

One of the points he shared with me reinforced the importance of the first part of VEC Studio’s template for crafting client success stories. According to Stewart (edited slightly for clarity): 

I can’t tell of a better way to identify an existing customer fit to be a hero in crafting a success story likely to resonate with prospects. 

Mutiny’s success stories prove this: 

As I’ve annotated above, from the headline to the layout, this success story does a lot of heavy-lifting. You immediately get an idea of the specific problem the existing customer solved. And you can jump straight to the impact solving that problem yielded. 

But it doesn’t end there. 

As you scroll into the story, the things Jay Clouse did in his article that convinced me to buy Tella is expertly done. Mutiny doesn’t just tell you what problems were overcome. They show how the customer used their product to successfully overcome them: 

2. Attio Could Do Better 

I consider Attio to be a breath of fresh air in the crowded CRM space dominated by Salesforce and HubSpot. Their brand is growing, as anyone can tell from the customers they’ve amassed. The feel of their website, especially the clean UX, often gives me a peek into how smooth using their product might be. But my company is so integrated into the HubSpot ecosystem. It runs our business. 

Other people —and companies— currently using Salesforce or HubSpot may be admiring Attio, too. One way Attio can convince such prospects to make the switch is through detailed customer success stories of other people and companies that have made the switch. 

But they could do better here: 

However, I must admit that the points highlighted above aren’t that bad compared to worse customer success stories I’ve seen. At least, Attio stated the challenge, solution, and results clearly. They could improve this by crafting it to appeal to prospective customers. 

But where I think they need the most improvement is in the actual success story writing. There’s a lot of telling flying around. However, the product, how it solves problems specifically, is missing: 

Using Client Success Stories Across the Sales Funnel

When I first landed on Tella’s site that faithful evening, many things were running through my mind. Should I just hire a video editor? Maybe I should just make it a written course. Should I try a cohort-based course instead to avoid recording videos? 

There were other thoughts. But you know the last thing on my mind that evening? Visiting a directory on their resource page in search of a collection of their customer success stories. 

I’m not alone. 

Your customer success stories are a marketing and sales asset. As such, you shouldn’t, after investing so much time and resources creating, lump them in a resource directly to wear dust. Prospects would rarely, if at all they do, take up the burden of going to look for them when they are ready to buy (aka, when they are at the BOFU buying stage). If you don’t do that, don’t expect others to. 

This necessitates the need to strategically use your client success stories across the entire sales funnels. The goal, as you’ll see via the examples below, should be to make them easily discoverable, since they are more likely to generate demand and drive pipeline. 

1. On Your Website

Mutiny is, again, top on this list. 

And it’s well-deserved: 

What you see above is the section just below Mutiny’s homepage hero. Instead of making verbose claims, the copy is itself a customer success story excerpt, which a visitor can click on to read the full story. But they didn’t stop there. Right under the brand logos, they provide a link to see their impressive collection of success stories. 

If you miss those and scroll to the ending part of Mutiny’s homepage, and their core landing pages, you won’t just find raving reviews as Tella has. You will find raving outcomes with links to check out the success stories:

Show me a better example, I’ll wait.

2. Within Blog Articles

I bought Tella from reading a regular blog article. 

An article an external party wrote and published on his blog. An article Tella can’t update or optimize as they want. This should tell you a lot. People can buy your product directly from reading your articles. The VEC Studio’s customer testimonial shared earlier proves it. Yes, conversion from blog articles, as we all know, is abysmal. But injecting excerpts of your customer success stories within them, be it TOFU (top of the funnel), MOFU (middle of the funnel) or BOFU (bottom of the funnel) blogs, can go along in pulling random readers down your pipeline. 

More importantly, it’s a good way to ensure the success stories you invested so much into are, at least, being discovered and not wearing on dust in a directory no one visits. For instance, this MOFU ranking article we wrote for one of our clients gets over 500 organic visits per month. Within it, we strategically infused a success story: 

Out of the 500+ monthly visitors to this page, it’s safe to say that a good percentage of them see this success story. It’s also safe to say that those it resonates with will click on to learn more. The possibilities, as you can imagine, are endless from there. 

But it’s not just for MOFU-stage articles we do this. Whether it’s thought leadership, BOFU, or TOFU, where it makes sense, we always strategically infuse excerpts of relevant success stories. 

Like how we did it in this TOFU piece: 

3. Paid Search & Social Campaigns

I rarely click on ads.

Especially on social media, and LinkedIn to be precise, I don’t go there with the slightest intention of clicking on a company’s ad. I want to engage people in my network and learn new things. I’m not alone. 

According to this research, the clickthrough rate on LinkedIn is between 0.49% and 1.09%. So if 1,000 people see your ad on social media, only a measly 4–10 people will click. It follows that if you must earn a click, you must give scrollers a compelling reason to do so. 

Attio could also do better here:

After I visited their site, the ad above popped on my LinkedIn feed. But instead of highlighting a real value achieved from the success story of a customer who switched from HubSpot to their product, they rave about liking to “live in 2024.”

They could’ve redirected this ad to the actual customer success story from where this raving review originated. There, they could’ve shown (and not just raved) about the intrinsic value of switching from HubSpot to their product. Instead of doing that, they are rave about being used by the “world’s leading startups” as their CTA.  

How does that help me? 

4. Within Newsletter Emails

Look no further than, again, Mutiny. 

But there is no need for me to do so much talking and telling here. I’ll suggest that you go subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Once you do, in the coming weeks, you’ll get a masterclass on how to effectively distribute your client success stories through newsletters: 

You’re welcome.  

5. Webinars & Organic Social

Lately, I’ve been following Adam Robinson closely. He’s almost everywhere on my LinkedIn feed these days because we have lots of mutual connections. His story-driven content game is dope. Their newly-launched startup, RB2B, is growing because of it. Over $1M ARR in just 15 weeks. You know one area I think he’s killing it most to bring eyeballs on RB2B to drive such growth? 

Using organic social to share a success story, which promotes a webinar that’s basically to talk about the same success story. 

Talk about mix and jam done right: 

The impact of this can be profound. Say you’ve crafted and published a customer’s success story. You can share an excerpt of that on social media. You can create another excerpt and encourage the customer whose story you told to share it on social media. Across this dual effort, you can invite those who engage each post to join a webinar where you can collaborate with the customer whose story was told. Show me. Who said you couldn’t kill three birds with one stone?

Apparently, there’s no limit to where you can use customer success stories. You can promote them via search and social media ad campaigns. You can create YouTube videos off of them. Across stages of the SaaS sales funnel, the possibilities are almost endless.

But keep this in mind.  

What you must worry about is crafting stories that don’t just announce big numbers or outcomes. Stories that aren’t just raving reviews with no relatable context like the ones I saw on Tella’s site. Stories that aren’t just braggy remarks of how your product is revolutionary or blows out the competition. In other words…

Show, Don’t Just Tell

Imagine I wasn’t subscribed to Jay Clouse’s newsletter. I wouldn’t have known about his article on building an online course. I first came across the article when Jay shared it in his newsletter. I bookmarked it then because I knew I was going to create a course soon. If by chance I landed on Tella’s site without having that article to fall back on, I probably wouldn’t have bought their product. In short, that article was how I got to know Tella even existed. 

Time and chance, as they say, happens to us all. Jay’s article was Tella’s time and chance that compelled me to convert. Yours could be the customer success stories you create. Because if Tella had these, I probably wouldn’t have needed to revisit Jay’s article. 

So your customer success stories shouldn’t, as that article didn’t, just focus on big numeric numbers or outcomes. They shouldn’t, as that article didn’t, declare verbose claims of blowing out the competition. They should, as that article did, detail how your product helped a customer to solve very specific problems to achieve results.  

In a nutshell, show, don’t just tell. 

VEC Studio is all about that: 

See our process.