Marketing Strategies for Scientists: A Simple Action Plan for Labs and CROs

Do you ever feel frustrated that your work is not recognized? You publish a paper that reflects the last 2 years of your research and no one pays attention to it. Your company may have the latest technologies and yet no client seems to notice. How frustrating.

The quality of your work does not automatically lead to recognition from your peers, even in the R&D community. Bear in mind they probably just don’t know about it.Using modern marketing can help you improve your communication.

In this article, we will share a basic marketing action plan to promote your R&I activities:

1. Start with high-quality content

The art of getting ranked by Google

2. Network, connect and open up opportunities

• One-to-one meetings during events
• Spread the word more widely with social media
• Discover and share scientific content on Twitter
• The power of LinkedIn groups

3. Proactively seek partnerships and sales

• Contact prospects
• Use established channels such as online platforms

Start with high-quality content

Everything starts with good content, as the content is the support for any type of message. Several types of content exist:

• Text : articles, web pages, wikis, brochures, etc. A text has the advantage of being less interpretable by readers than visual representations. It helps the target audience understand the details of a message. That’s why a text is often used to provide technical details, describe a diagram and explain in-depth concepts. Even if visuals are increasingly present in the media, a text is still the basis of any content: the script of a video, the caption of an image, the title of an article.
• Non-animated visual content: images, diagrams, infographics, etc. Images and infographics can also provide a lot of information and are often complementary to text. Infographics are built around icons or diagrams representing data and, in many situations, a technical diagram is very helpful to explain scientific complexities. Remember: a good infographic or image is worth a thousand words.
• Videos: interviews, explainer videos, documentaries, etc. Visual attention is caught by motion. No surprise there, since humans are built this way. Thus, videos are a savvy means to share information. Since the price of video production has dropped in the early 2000s, marketers fully embrace this new format. In fact, Cisco even estimates that “ 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021” will be video.

Scientist recommends Science Explainers for scientific videos./em>

As you see, content - whatever the type - is a very powerful means to convince, educate or inform, as its efficiency relies on its quality. High-quality content is unique and brings real value to the people who consume it. Don’t hesitate to invest in professionally-made high-quality content.

The art of getting ranked by Google

Google bots constantly scan the world wide web looking for high-quality content. Depending on their evaluation, your pages can rank higher or lower in the results. Unfortunately, there is no recipe to get #1 on the list. Google keeps the ranking algorithm secret and updates it constantly. Therefore, we can only make educated guesses! Nevertheless, here are a few solid basic principles:

• Provide high-quality content Needless to say that Google ranks web pages in regards to search requests. Thus, a simple rule applies one subject per page. When building your content, try to ask yourself the following question: what Google request does my page answer? Indeed, a structured and consistent answer has better chances of getting a higher ranking. Note that Google will know if you copy content from another website. Avoid plagiarism or your ranking and reputation will plummet.
• Highlight important information Google bots identify tags and keywords that surround content. They specifically look at titles, bold and/or italic text (page layout), image captions, links, video transcripts, etc. So, don’t hesitate to use titles to structure your message. Links should also be used with caution because they can influence your content reputation. Only link trusted and solid references.
• Forget about Google and write for your visitors Bots are getting clever. They are even trained to see if a page is enjoyable for a human reader. That’s why it’s useless to write content solely for bots as it will not rank properly. When creating content, always write for your readers: they are the ones you need to convince.

Keep in mind that nobody can predict your Google ranking. It takes times to get noticed by Google bots, so be patient. Plus, your content reputation builds up on your visitors’ behavior: how long they stay on the page and if they share the content on social media, etc. Depending on those results, your content will gain or lose ranks. Ahref, a blog about search engine optimization (SEO), carried out a study analyzing the pages ranking in the top 10. Most of the successful pages were more than a year 1/2 old. Therefore, you should consider content as a long-term project.

Network, connect and open up opportunities

A message without a distribution channel is like a forgotten book on a shelf. Therefore, once your content is ready, it should be distributed. And that starts with your closest colleagues. After publishing a paper, do you send an email to your partners and your colleagues? If not, you should try it.

Your close network is only a subpart of a larger ecosystem that your lab depends on: research is based on peer-to-peer relations that review the scientific content; innovation becomes technology thanks to the interaction between different fields and/or industries; technology comes into the market with the help of policymakers for both funding and legal support; the general public buys and uses the technology because they trust the work of scientists. This whole ecosystem works because of the communication between the different stakeholders.

Here are a couple of actions that research and innovation teams can roll it in order to broadcast their messages.

One-to-one meetings during events

The R&D community benefits from a huge advantage compared to other industries: professional networks are well established and organized around collaborations, associations, and events. In particular, events are very useful to distribute your messages, whatever they are: promoting a new publication, showcasing your latest technology, contacting potential partners or customers, introducing your brand or your research group, recruiting students or senior researchers.

Attendance at several kinds of events should be considered:

• Scientific conferences are a good place to monitor the latest advancement of knowledge and technologies in a specific field. They have several denominations: symposiums, conferences, congresses, etc. You can find a list of these events on learned society agendas (see the IOP events for example), or on aggregators such as conference-service. Nature also provides a directory of events on its website.
• Industrial fairs are dedicated to industry professionals, and they are a good place to get in contact with procurement offices. They are usually organized by theme. They also enable you to monitor trends and the evolution of markets and technologies. The websites tofair.com or expodatabase.com provide a thorough list of fairs.
• General public events are interesting opportunities to engage with the civil society and to connect with local actors including policy stakeholders. The general public can also provide you with feedback on their understanding of your expertise. Local and national events are organized on a regular basis such as the Science Festival in France or the European Researchers’ Night in Europe.
• Other opportunities to grow your audience during events might pop up: local events, public consultations, network meetings, etc. Evaluate these events to see if they are worth the time and financial investment. A clear advantage is to distribute your message to a non-expert audience (policymakers, investors, non-related industries, etc.)

Events allow you to organize on a short-time period a dozen one-to-one meetings (formal and informal). In order to optimize your reach, try announcing your attendance to such events to other participants before and during the event. A relevant post on social media will do the job.

Spread the word more widely with social media

Social media are a powerful tool to engage with your close and extended network. Tina Harseim and Gregory Goodey, respectively head of social media and research analyst at Springer Nature, carried out a survey on habits related to social media in the R&D community. The results highlight that researchers use social media to monitor news in their activity fields.

An earlier study shed light on the most used social media in the R&D community. Twitter, ResearchGate, and LinkedIn particularly stood out. The following infographics introduce you to the basic marketing and professional uses of these social media.

Discover and share scientific content on Twitter

Twitter is very popular in the R&D community. Both individuals and organizations communicate through this social platform. The above-mentioned survey shows a clear difference between Twitter and other social media: on Twitter, the advantage is that people connect with each other and discuss research. From a marketing point of view, it is a huge opportunity to engage with a qualified audience.