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THE “HOW I DID IT”

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MODULE 2 LESSON 4
WORKSHEET
MODULE 2 LESSON 4 WORKSHEET THE “HOW I DID IT” POST

WOR KS H E ET

The “How I Did It” Post

As you learned in the video, most case studies fail because they cover WAY too much
material in a single post.

On the other hand, case studies that succeed tend to follow this rule: One strategy. One
result.

When your case study features one result, it has an easy-to-understand narrative.
A narrative that makes it easy for people to remember, share and link to your content.

For example, take this How I Did It Post that I mentioned in the video.

That post focuses on one strategy (“The Content Upgrade”). And one result (785% more
conversions).

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And thanks to this “One Strategy. One Result” approach, people still remember reading that
post even though it came out years ago (I still get asked about it at conferences and events).
And it’s “top of mind” for bloggers and journalists that are writing about blog conversions…
which leads to lots of backlinks and mentions.

With that, let’s get into the steps for creating a How I Did It case study.

1 Identify Your One Result

This is the result that you’ll highlight in your case study.

Your One Result can be just about any result that your readers care about.

For example, for this case study, I knew that my audience of marketing professionals
are always looking for ways to get more Google traffic.

So when I got specific results on one of our pages (652% more organic traffic),
I KNEW it would make for an awesome How I Did It post.

And remember:

Your results don’t have to be remarkable for this to work.

In fact, sometimes it’s BETTER to have modest results. That way, your results are more
relatable and believable.

Note: Even though this Blog Post Template is called a How I Did It Post, the
results don’t necessarily have to come from you. They can also be from a client,
friend, family member, reader… or anyone else.

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Write your One Result in the box below:

2 Outline Your Post

Now it’s time to write out 3-5 steps that you used to achieve your outcome.

Yes, you want to be detailed and thorough. But that doesn’t mean you want to have
78 steps.

For example, with my original “Skyscraper 1.0” post, I distilled the entire process down
into three steps.

This obviously oversimplified how it went down. There were probably 20 “microsteps”
that went into this process.

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But the most important steps are there. Which is ultimately what matters.

Jot down the 3-5 key steps right here:

3 Fill In Each Step

Here’s where you fill in the details for each of your 3-5 steps.

Don’t be afraid to include LOTS of details here. In fact, you want to show people every
little detail that you can.

This level of detail is one of the things that makes the How I Did It Post Template
so powerful.

Sure, your post “only” contains 3-5 steps.

But each step is INSANELY detailed. So you get the best of both worlds: a simple
3-5 step strategy with lots of meaty details.

Pro Tip: Use as many visuals as you can. These visuals really bring your case study
to life. And instead of describing everything, you can SHOW your readers how
that step works.

You can fill in the details for each step here, or in a Google Doc or WordPress post.

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4 Write Your Title

Here’s a template that works really well for case studies:

How I [Specific Result] in [Timeframe]

For example:

How I Lost 10 Pounds of Fat in 27 Days

The exact wording doesn’t matter that much. As long as your title contains a specific
number and a specific timeframe, you’re good.

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5 Create Your Introduction

The goal of your How I Did It Intro is to tell them what you’re going to tell them.

For example, in my Skyscraper Technique 2.0 case study, I show people that I used
a new strategy to increase my organic traffic.

And I let them know I’d walk them through the steps.

6 Write Your Conclusion

With the How I Did It Post, the goal of your conclusion is to encourage questions
in the comments.

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Take it from someone that’s published a ton of case studies: no matter how detailed
your steps are, people are going to have questions. And that’s a good thing.

When your readers see that you’re openly fielding questions in your conclusion,
they’re much more likely to leave a comment.

In fact, if you take the time to answer questions (which I highly recommend), your
comments area becomes like a dynamic FAQ page.

* Bonus Step: Brand Your Strategy

At this point you’re technically done.

But there is one last bonus step. And that bonus step is to brand your strategy. In other
words: give your strategy a unique name.

This rule applies to any type of post that you publish: not just How I Did It Posts.

I first discovered this idea from Ramit Sethi, who coined the term: The Briefcase
Technique.

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Even though Ramit’s technique was pretty straightforward (bring a report to a job
interview or meeting), the cool name helped the strategy spread and stick.

So I decided to follow the same approach with my original Skyscraper Technique

post… and lots of others.

This REALLY helped make my How I Did It case studies easy to remember and share.

Instead of saying: “Did you try Brian’s new technique that he talked about in his post
last month?”. You can say: “Have you tried The Skyscraper Technique?”.

That said, you don’t NEED to name your technique. In fact, unless your technique
contains something new, I don’t recommend it.

That’s why this is a completely optional step. Your How I Did It post can do great
without it.

So yeah, that’s it for this Blog Post Template. And in the next lesson, lesson 5, you’re
going to learn all about The Content Hub, a new format that’s been working really
well for us.

See you then!