There’s a lot of talk in the personal development world about the subconscious mind.
Gurus talk about how you can “flip a switch” in your brain and become a new person.
You can eliminate fear and beliefs that hold you back… And even get your body to heal itself.
I read a lot of books on how to use the subconscious mind to create “overnight transformation” in your life — they usually recommend things like visualization, affirmations, vision boards, etc.
It never worked that well. But once I started to work with my coach/therapist Brent Charlton, I actually experienced that kind of change regularly.
Another therapist who specializes in creating fast change using the subconscious mind is Marisa Peer.
She’s been the therapist for celebrities in London. And she has a course that teaches people how to do therapy the way she does.
I’ve seen a bunch of her case studies appear on my LinkedIn feed. So I decided to do a breakdown of this case study featuring Relational Transformational Therapy (RTT) graduate Isabella Ivory.
Here’s a look at what makes this case study awesome, plus a couple of tweaks that could make them even better.
What makes Marisa Peer’s RTT case studies awesome
1) The headline
“Finding purpose” in life is a core desire for this kind of audience. People in the therapy and personal development world often feel stuck. They’re not inspired by what they do. And they’re bombarded with people who talk about how if they “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!”
So this headline immediately draws people who lack purpose in. Because it offers the promise that they, too, can find purpose through RTT.
2) They reinforce the promise
In the body copy, they include several more quotes where Isabella talks about how she “found her purpose” thanks to RTT. Weaving those quotes in multiple times drives this point home into the reader’s mind.
When you have a great product that can help people in a lot of ways, it can be tempting to talk about all the benefits you can get from it. But staying laser-focused on one core benefit will increase conversions. When you make too many promises people lose track of what you can do. And when you are super clear about one promise your copy and offer become more compelling.
3) The mix of copy and images
They copy is littered with images mixed with quotes from Isabella. They help suck in skimmers and can be repurposed for social media. These are awesome.
4) They show what makes it different
When asked what makes Rapid Transformational Therapy different from other programs, Isabella talks about how it focuses on the subconscious. She goes on to say that other methods don’t work because they don’t go deep enough. And unless you have a way to work with people at the subconscious level, creating dramatic change is very difficult.
This is a great way to show the value of this program over others. However, it would be great if she went even deeper here.
As I said, the personal development market is loaded with people talking about how important the subconscious is. So what is it about Marisa’s method that works better than other people who also claim to help at the subconscious level?
Answering that would go a long way in proving why people need this. It would get them to see any other program as a waste of time and money.
5) They show the impact you can make
The best part of this case study is when Isabella talks about a client she helped. This woman was a dance instructor who had been in a wheelchair for over a year.
They use fantastic visuals when describing this story. They dig into the pain by talking about how she couldn’t even go to the bathroom by herself. And then describe what it was like to finally walk again and step outside her door and feel the sun on her face.
They did a wonderful job here. And as you’ll see in a moment, this case study could be even more impactful if they used visuals and moments like this throughout the entire case study — not just in this section.
Ways to make the case study even better
1) Teach
Teaching valuable lessons is the difference between a case study that’s just “fluffy marketing” and one that people are happy to read.
They do some teaching in this case study. They talk about the importance of the subconscious. And they link to Marisa’s “Rule of the mind” article on how your brain responds to the words and pictures you use.
And Isabella even talks about how the Rule of the Mind was a key lesson in helping her find her purpose.
It would be great if they went into even more detail here. If they could explain the rule of mind enough to make it valuable. Or at least enough to help the reader see why it’s so important.
Also, it would help to have a stronger link to show how this helped Isabella “find her purpose.” Right now, it’s vague. It’s “Hey I learned this thing… and I found my purpose!” That’s great, but how are those things connected? How did that lesson lead her to find her purpose? We don’t really know.
We can assume her purpose comes from the way she’s able to help people. But it’s never explicitly stated that this is the case. In marketing, you want to be clear above all else. Show what “finding purpose” looks like, how it feels, and how it impacts her life now. Otherwise, it’s just a vague concept devoid of a lot of it’s power.
2) Dig deeper into the pain, journey, and what life is like now
When talking about life before joining the program, Isabella talks about how she felt “stuck” in her career.
This is a great start. Because it will connect with other people who feel “stuck”.
But “stuck” is a concept. If you want people to feel that pain and get in touch with that emotion then don’t just rely on concept. Show what that looks like. And show the negative impact being “stuck” had on her life.
For example, did “stuck” mean she came home from work tired and burnt out… and would then yell at her kids because working a job that wasn’t rewarding took so much out of her?
Did she lay on the couch all day feeling depressed and thinking like life was pointless?
Painting a picture of what life looked like and digging into the negative impact it had will twist the knife in the reader. It gets them to connect with their own pain and increases their desire to get rid of it.
This idea of telling a story with visuals and moments instead of vague concepts applies for every section of the case study. For example, Isabella talks about how great the community was. And she talks about how much better her life is. But it would be far more powerful to show these things.
Give an example of her feeling down and depressed until a community member reached out and helped her…
And share a story of what her life looks like now. How she’s able to afford extra birthday presents for her kids because of all the money coming in… how she went from dreading work to now working late because she just loves it so much… how her friends and family now introduce her as “an amazing therapist” to their friends…
Bring people into those highpoint and lowpoint moments from the story. It will rile up their emotions and desires which makes it much more likely they’ll buy.
3) Make it a story
Stories grab and hold attention. They take the reader on a journey and show what it can be like for them to make this transformation.
Q and A’s, on the other hand, don’t hold attention as well. It’s much easier for the reader to bail after a few paragraphs because there’s no compelling thread or story pulling them through the copy.
Stories also give you more opportunities to connect with your reader’s emotions. They help you spark more desire or alleviate the doubt/skepticism they have.
For example, this case study focuses on the positive aspects of Isabella’s RTT journey.
That’s what most case studies do, they only show the good stuff.
But including the struggle Isabella faced after joining and how she overcame can be incredibly powerful. Becasue it makes for a compelling story. And it makes your story more believable because you’re willing to show your flaws.
This also gives you a chance to address and overcome the reader’s objections. For example, maybe Isabella had such a busy life that she fell behind on the lessons in the program. They could talk about that and how she almost quit early on. But then share how the support of the community helped her stay on track and keep going.
For readers who feel they are too busy to join this program, that kind of story can help them see that they too can have success even if they’re busy.
The best way to include things like this is to make sure your case study is a story, not just an interview.
With a Q and A format, there aren’t any open loops the reader hopes to see tied up. There’s no core thread that pulls people through the copy. It’s just a bunch of answers that can feel disconnected.
Bonus tip!
There’s a lot of great material in this case study.
One mistake people make is they publish a case study and then move on to the next thing. But there are so many great quotes and stories here that it would be a waste of time and money to not get the most out of it.
Working with clients I’ve found a single case study can easily be turned into copy for:
- Several FB and youtube ads
- Tons of engagement emails and Instagram posts
- Sales emails
- Lead and body copy for a sales page
I’ve got a whole system on how to turn case studies into just about all the copy you need for your marketing. It’s called the Buyer Multiplier system. It can save you dozens of hours and tens of thousands of dollars on copy.
With this system, you and your team can crank out amazing copy fast — even if you have a brand new copywriter who doesn’t understand your audience or offer yet.
Shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’ll show you how to create and use that system in your business.
But you should know, in order to create that system you first need case studies that teach and show key moments from your customer’s journey like I explained above. To get case studies that do all that, check out my book Case Studies That Close sales. You can download that now free on my homepage.