134: Challenge Solution Result - a powerhouse formula for telling your story and showcasing client case studies
What if there was a simple formula that made writing your marketing content faster, easier, and more effective? In this episode of Ill Communication, I’m sharing one of my go-to copywriting formulas that belongs in every marketer’s toolkit—Challenge, Solution, Result (CSR). This versatile structure is perfect for your welcome email sequence, sales emails, and even social media posts. Whether you’re telling your own story or showcasing client success, CSR helps you build authority, provide social proof, and write content that sells—without feeling salesy.
If you caught my last two episodes on mastering your high-ticket message, you’ll recognize CSR as a powerhouse for selling premium offers. But it’s not just for high-ticket sales—it works for any offer, anytime. In this episode, I’ll break down the formula, give you a real example, and challenge you to try it out today. Let’s dive in!
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
The key copywriting formula you must have in your marketing arsenal
How to use CSR to craft compelling case studies and client stories
Why social proof and authority are non-negotiables in copy that converts
A breakdown of the three-part structure for maximum impact
The biggest mistake people make when sharing results (and how to avoid it)
Where to use CSR in your business for quick wins
A simple challenge to help you implement this formula today
Set a timer for 10 minutes and write an email or post using the CSR Formula. Don’t overthink it. You will be shocked by how much you will write in a short time when you’re using a recipe like Challenge, Solution, Result.
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Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and changemakers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hello! Hello and welcome.
[00:00:53]
Back to episode 134 of the Ill Communication Podcast. I have got a nice Shorty episode for you today to help you write a critical piece of your marketing. It's a copy formula that is an essential part of your welcome email sequence of your sales email sequences. It's also a great social media post formula. It's a brilliant way to tell your story and share stories of the clients who work with you. It is a beautiful blend of showcasing your authority and providing social proof. Two essential ingredients in writing copy that sells, and it's a formula you can use today or this week to quickly whip off an email or a piece of content. The copy recipe is challenge, solution, result, or CSR. Now, if you caught the last two episodes on mastering your high ticket message, you'll know that CSR or Challenge Solution result was one of the formulas I shared with you that works well for selling premium offers, and it's also a great all around copy formula to use with all of your offers, because it's a beautiful way to share case studies and client stories. Now, before I break down the formula for you, I want to remind you to always begin your emails, social posts, and articles with a great hook to grab your reader's attention. In episode 75, I shared ten scroll stopping hook formulas, so I'll link to that in the show notes.
[00:02:31]
I'll also include a PDF link to the cheat sheet of the ten hooks to help you kick off your CSR content. Okay, so what is challenge solution result? When you use this formula, you split your message or your copy up into these three sections. In the first section, it's the challenge section. Paint a picture of your client and what they struggle with. If you're telling your story, describe the challenges you were facing on your journey before you solved your problem. In the next section, we talk about the solution. So in a couple of sentences or a few short paragraphs, introduce your solution, your approach, and the experience for your client. If you're sharing your story, outline the steps you took to solve your problem, and in the final section, the results in a few sentences or short paragraphs. Highlight your clients or your transformation. Share the results of the work together, the transformation and the outcome or impact wherever you can throughout this piece. Include direct quotes from your clients, include data points or even screenshots to provide more social proof and authority building. Now I want to give you an example so you can see what it sounds like live in in action. This is an email I wrote for a client who makes super sweet bamboo clothes for every member of the family. This is an email I wrote as part of their welcome sequence.
[00:04:03]
Hey there, first name. And now here's the hook. Parenting and raising kids is no joke. Sometimes just getting out the door feels like a lot. Am I right? We want to make life a little easier for families so there's more time for fun. And that's why Cord Crew are family founded. Bamboo clothing brand was born. Here we get into the challenge section. It all started when Jeremy took four week old Grant on his first daddy date. And this is a quote I was so excited to take Grant out and show off this awesome kid I co-created. I wanted to have fun with the occasion and match outfits with my little guy. I looked through Grant's clothes. There were a lot of primary colors and train patterns, which isn't me. So I settled on an orange onesie just because I had an orange sweatshirt that was kind of similar. Womp womp. After that, I started searching for clothing to coordinate with our kiddo. Basically the only clothes available were matching PJs and ultra vibrant or cartoony patterns. Fine for bedtime, but not for a day out. This sparked an idea. Now we move into the solution section. This sparked an idea to create a brand of coordinated daywear great for babies, kids, adults, and even beloved fur babies to use inclusive designs and patterns that appeal to modern families and look great on all bodies, and to make them with sustainable and stretchy bamboo.
[00:05:33]
So the clothes last through multiple growth spurts and multiple kids. Now here we get into the results. Our coordinated collections make it easy to mix and match outfits, so it's one less thing to think about. Plus, the inclusive modern designs look great on kids and adults without being too matchy matchy. So whether you're posing for family portraits or just hanging out at the park, Cord crew collections make it easy to look put together. This way, you spend less time wondering what to wear and more time having fun and making memories with your crew. Ready to make getting dressed a little easier so there's more time for fun. And then we have a button to shop the collections. So do you see why it's such a natural and lovely formula that gives you just the right amount of guidance to write about your story or your client's story, without it being super salesy. Once again, the formula is challenge, solution, result, and just a little reminder when you're sharing client case studies or stories, particularly if you have a sales outcome or a revenue outcome, avoid overstating those outcomes or overinflating the results. Of course, we want to show what's possible, but we also want to show what's reasonable or a likely outcome for your clients, not the exceptions. So even if it's true, if an outcome seems unbelievable, like you cured my acne overnight, like that seems too good to be true.
[00:07:00]
It triggers our bullshit meter and we lose trust. So pick and choose your case studies and client stories. Pick them so that they're realistic. And even if you have some of those outliers where the results seem extraordinary, you'll have to just provide a lot of context and even include some objection boosters like, I know this sounds unrealistic and then include data to back up that claim. This copy formula works great toward the end of your sales and welcome email sequences. It's a great formula for retargeting ads. It's useful for social posts where you want to tell your story or a client story, and it's a powerhouse formula for client case studies for your website. So if it's been a while since you've shared a client story in your emails or social media, use the CSR formula today to whip off a powerful and effective piece of content. Seriously, just set the timer for ten minutes and bang it out. Don't overthink it. You'll be shocked by how much you can write in a short time when you're using a recipe like challenge solution result. As always, if you have questions, find me on social or shoot me an email. That my friend, is it for today? I'll be back again next week. Bye for now.
[00:08:20]
And that's a wrap on today's episode of Ill Communication. Hey, if you're picking up what I'm putting down, I would love if you would leave a rating and a review to let me know. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss out on the tips, prompts, and strategies I share in every episode. They're designed to make you an ill communicator too. As always, you can check out all the links and resources from this episode on the web page. Just head over to Kim Dotcom Slash podcast. I'll chat with you again next week.
Resources
Listen to the 2-part series on Mastering High Ticket Messaging:
Listen to episode 76 to find out how to create scroll-stopping hooks for your content
Download the Hook formula cheatsheet
Checkout the fun clothes at CoordCrew
Additional Resources
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