Marketing is a complex task for most scipreneurs. On the one hand, they tend to neglect it on the premise that scientists don't pay attention to marketing but to facts. On the other hand, it is very hard to understand what needs to be done, when, and by whom.

However, marketing goes hand in hand with understanding our customers, their needs, and how our solution fits into their current workflow.

The value proposition is what guides all the efforts around marketing, and the secret is to structure it in a way to guide customers through the different levels of awareness.

Digital marketing will have three main pillars: The website, e-mail, and social networks. Each one will be more or less relevant depending on the stage of the company and its products, but they all require some degree of attention. Consistency and transparency are the secrets to being successful.

Websites for sci-tech

A company website is normally the focal point of all the efforts. You can gather examples from other companies and competitors, but you must be aware that creating content takes time. And making things look pretty requires a skillful designer. Fortunately, getting started is not hard and doesn't require a large investment. WordPress is a battle-tested and future-proof solution. There are many templates already available, and designers who can give you a hand down the line.

The key elements to focus on are: - the value proposition: explaining why people should care about your solutions. This is the hardest and requires lots of thought. It is, however, the first thing your customers will see when they land on your page. - the solution: a brief overview of your product. Think about the benefits for your users before you think about the features. The solution is what your customers will receive when they purchase your product, reinforcing the image with photos or renders is always a good idea. - the company: some form of validation about your claims. Perhaps listing partners or advisors, linking to papers if you can. If someone has already tested your solution and provided positive feedback, adding testimonies is an effective way of increasing your trustworthiness.

A good website will be easy to expand as time passes. Many modern marketers focus on content creation. The challenge for scipreneurs is that good content takes a very long time to be created and it involves different skills: from design to make nice graphics, to scientific expertise to check the accuracy of the claims.

On the other hand, content accretes: if you make a brochure for your next conference, reuse the content for a page on the website. If you give a presentation, record it and publish a video. If someone publishes a paper, check if you can reutilize their images (many papers are published under Creative Commons licenses) and leverage the insights they've gained.

Every small step you take will keep adding content and will help your customers understand you better. Consistency is key to adding credibility. If you have contradictory claims such as "easy to use" and "takes 1 hour to get data out" may not be aligned if the current methods take 5 minutes.

E-mail

Often neglected when discussing about marketing, e-mail is a crucial tool for scipreneurs. Sending e-mails is how we all have started. Cold-emailing has a variable success rate, that depends on many factors. From reaching the appropriate person to using the correct wording.

The key to sending a good e-mail is to deliver value and not just ask for value. For example, if we reach out asking to set up a meeting, the recipient will have no incentive to react. Why would they spend time talking to us? On the other hand, if we offer them a way of doing something better with our tools, and get new insights, chances are they will pay attention.

Thinking about the levels of awareness, you must gauge who you are contacting and adapt the content to them. First give them something, even a link to a paper they may not have known can go far. Establish your trustworthiness as an individual, and only then ask for something in return, like their time.

Attaching a brochure or a white paper is useful, but you still need to convince them to open it. First, explain why would they be interested in opening the PDF and spending time skimming through it. In the beginning, it takes time, until you understand what patterns repeat and which ones work best for the message you are transmitting.

Newsletters

I have seen many companies setting up newsletters. This is normally a push from some marketeer who has seen newsletters all over the place. Perhaps founders themselves have seen sign-up forms on other websites. The reality is that newsletters take a very long time to build, and an even longer time to produce.

I have registered to many newsletters to try to learn from them, and after a couple of issues, they disappear. It's extremely hard to deliver value to your potential customers in the form of a newsletter associated with your company. Are you willing to highlight papers in which they use other instruments and not yours? Are you only going to provide lists of conferences you will attend?

Social Media

Today, everything moves through social media. From recruiting to highlighting papers to commenting on conference presentations. Companies have no choice but to establish a presence on social media channels that relate to their customers.

One of the challenges with social media is that most knowledge on marketing relates to paid advertising, and not so much to organic growth. That's mostly due to the poor performance of company accounts compared to personal accounts. An "influencer" (whatever that means) will have many more engagements than a company sharing updates.

Therefore, there's always a duality between founders taking the lead from their personal accounts and companies doing it.

If possible, both personal and company accounts will be present on the same networks and will reinforce each other.

Some founders try to establish themselves as thought leaders. They share insights they've gained by doing what they do. From management recommendations to scientific results. Sometimes they post about topics that give them an immense amount of visibility, some of which permeates the company.

There are many rules for driving engagement, from the best time of the day to post, to how often. But even companies with tens of employees will struggle to keep to an agenda. Again, content is hard to produce and in many cases requires some form of checks for accuracy, and people will have no time for it.