Four simple (and effective) marketing communication strategies for researchers
Usually, researchers spend several months or even a couple of years developing a piece of research, which will take the final shape of a scholarly paper, a peer-reviewed manuscript, a policy brief, etc. However, once it is done, how do you communicate to others (especially among stakeholders outside academia) that you have produced this relevant piece of research?
Therefore, this is the provocative question that I want to address in this article and sharing four simple, yet very effective, marketing communication strategies to help you tell the world about your recent academic achievements.
Naturally, if you have already become a well-established scholar with a solid reputation in your field, chances are that you might not need to make too much effort for people to become aware of what you do. Nevertheless, if you are in the early stages of your research career, I am confident that you will profit from these marketing communication strategies.
I also consider important to explain from the beginning that weblinks displayed in this article are meant for information purpose only. In other words, none of them is an affiliate link, I am not commissioned or commercially associated with any of the companies or business mentioned, and neither implies an official endorsement.
Social media
It is undeniable that nowadays, social media platforms have become powerful channels of communication, affording many people to send their messages across to a wide audience. As you are certainly aware, there is a vast array of platforms to choose from and it would not be possible to review all of them in this article.
However, for the sake of focus and strategic use of your time, energy and resources, I suggest that you prioritise first the ‘professional’ social media platforms (e.g. Academia.edu, LinkedIn, Orcid.org, Publons, Research Gate, etc.) and, secondly, the ‘general purpose’ social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) if you already have an account in one or some of them.
In the case of the ‘professional’ social media platforms, they comprise interesting and useful channels of communication, mainly because they afford you the possibility to send the message about your achievements directly to your community of peers, students, etc. In other words, it is a very specific demographic group, which might not be easily reached through other means or channels of communication.
Regarding the ‘general purpose’ social media platforms, although they can be quite useful to convey your message to a wide audience, I just would like to alert you to adjust your expectations concerning the level of engagement, which not necessarily will be as high as you would like to. In this regard, see the article ‘Twitter’s relative engagement power’ to learn more about this aspect.
However, within the group of ‘general purpose’ social media platforms, YouTube seems to be amongst the most underexplored resources by researchers and, paradoxically, the one who can offer more interesting features. Different from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which I consider more relevant to tell people what is happening now, YouTube affords you a diverse array of possibilities. One of the most interesting is that you can build a repository of knowledge and nurture a loyal audience of followers, and your posts do not disappear in the crowd overnight, as it can easily happen on Facebook and Twitter, for instance.
On the other hand, if you spend a reasonable amount of time and energy establishing your YouTube channel, creating meaningful playlists, crafting high-quality videos, and posting them regularly, they will bring you interesting results in the long run. It might take some time to reach a reasonable amount of views and subscribers, but you will get there if you persevere.
Furthermore, although it can eventually happen, I say that it is very unlikely that you will become a sort of influential (and affluent) YouTuber with millions of followers and dozens of viral videos. However, I am confident that, albeit modest in number, your YouTube audience will be composed of users who are really interested in what you have to say, and this is what should matter the most.
Yes, despite the ubiquitous presence of social media in people’s lives, e-mail still remains an important and widely used means of communication. Indeed, recent figures reveal that 188 million e-mails are sent every minute around the world. Thus, I suggest that you use this tool wisely for your benefit in two ways.
The first, and simplest way, is to incorporate an automated signature to go along with both new and replying messages. In this signature, in addition to your name, institutional affiliation, contact details, etc., add one or two lines to communicate about your latest publication with an embedded link to it.
Alternatively, you can also use this strategy to invite the recipients of your message to visit your academic repository (e.g. Academia.edu, Orcid.org, Research Gate, Publons, etc.) or your social media profile (e.g. LinkedIn or your YouTube channel).
I am aware that for many people, this suggestion might seem too obvious but, even so, there are still many others who fail to employ this strategy for a number of reasons. Therefore, I could not avoid bringing this strategy to the conversation.
Another interesting strategic use of e-mail comprises subscribing to relevant e-mail lists in your field, where members circulate and share many important news of interest to the community. They usually include calls for papers, conference alerts, special lectures, job postings, news regarding funding bids, events, and new publications. Therefore, once you have got a new piece of research out, you can just drop a message to the group explaining what is about, which gap it fills, where it can be found, and so on.
Finally, I just thought it relevant to leave a piece of advice regarding e-mail signatures. In the case of your institutional e-mail account, I think that is appropriate to check beforehand if there are certain internal policies and guidelines regarding its use. Just to make sure that unbeknownst you do not violate any internal rule.
Infographics
People use to say that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. Yes, I know that you might have already heard this adage before, and it is quite cliché. However, the relevant question is ‘why not use this to your advantage?’
Thus, my suggestion is that you produce an engaging, visually attractive and jargon-free infographic summarising your new research findings. There are several free and paid online tools that you can use to produce excellent infographics such as, for example, Canva, Easil, Stencil, among many others. It is just a matter of exploring their resources and functionalities to decide which one to use. Nonetheless, if you do not feel comfortable or confident enough to use these digital tools, you can also hire a freelance graphic designer on platforms such as Fiverr, People per Hour, UpWork and many others. You can easily find numerous and affordable options for this type of platform.
You will need to prepare a detailed briefing to them explaining what you want to communicate, which are the relevant data you want to highlight, what is the general profile of the audience of the infographic (i.e. knowledgeable, expert, or the general public), and any other relevant information. Moreover, I also suggest that you request to receive the file both in PDF format and high-resolution image (e.g. JPEG or PNG) because this will give you much more flexibility regarding how you choose to distribute or use it afterwards (including, for example, if you need to have it printed in the future to use in conferences).
This infographic can be very useful to be uploaded on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or WhatsApp because, in these virtual environments, people tend to engage with more visually attractive material than solely textual. Thus, there is a higher chance that they will share your infographic among their contacts.
Regarding the PDF version, you can upload it to your ‘professional’ social media profile (e.g. Academia.edu, LinkedIn, or Research Gate), where people can download and share them more easily. Finally, you can also share it via e-mail with your community of peers, colleagues, students, etc.
Press release
Another communication strategy underexplored by researchers comprises the development of a good press release and its wide distribution amongst journalists. Although theoretically speaking, you can write this document yourself (and there are plenty of free guidelines and templates online), I recommend that you resist the temptation and avoid doing this. It is understandable that you could save some money doing it yourself and that nobody else knows your research better than you.
However, it is very difficult to look at your own work with the necessary objectivity and impartiality to produce a solid and engaging press release. Therefore, I say that it is better that you hire a freelance journalist to do this job or, alternatively, if you have a reasonable budget, a small or medium-size specialised public relations bureau. Moreover, apart from objectivity and impartiality, this professional will also manage to craft an appealing jargon-free piece of communication that will attract not only people’s attention but also the attention of other journalists as well. Do not forget that journalists have been trained to accomplish these communication goals, while most researchers have not.
Once this document is done, you must think about its distribution among a relevant cohort of journalists, which are not that easy to find. However, there are plenty of online distribution platforms charging from a few dozen dollars (or other currencies) up to a couple of hundreds. They are specialised in doing this distribution work and they have all the relevant media and press contacts that you do not (or at least not in the same amount as them). However, which company to choose will depend mostly on your budget but in any case, you should always make a detailed background checking before choosing one.
Take a look at independent reviews published in specialised review websites such as Reviews.io, Trustpilot and alike to learn what people say about them, check their reputation and which customers they have already served, check if they have a real address and telephone number, verify if they can distribute your press release among a specific geographic audience, and so forth. In other words, they should not just look pretty online (that is very easy to be accomplished) but they must prove themselves really trustworthy to you independently of how much they charge.
Alternatively, some public relations bureaus are also able not only to craft your press release but to handling its distribution for an additional fee. Therefore, do not forget to explore this alternative according to your available budget and strategical needs because it can be quite convenient. Furthermore, do not forget to empower your press release by incorporating visual resources such as, for example, the infographic because it will help to turn your press release even more attractive and engaging to the readers.
Finally, although your press release might not call the attention of large international media organisations such as Aljazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox, Time, etc. (unless you have a fantastic breakthrough in hands), even so, it is a valid communication strategy. You never know for sure who is going to read your press release and where it can lead. However, you will be establishing a dialogue with a wide audience beyond the academia realm, which most probably, you would not reach through other means. This accomplishment also means that you are disseminating your knowledge and creating some degree of public engagement with your research findings, which are increasingly valuable assets in the academic career.
Furthermore, the qualified distribution of your press release might also trigger a couple of invitations to be interviewed, and on this occasion, you will have the golden opportunity to talk more about your findings, about your work, among other relevant aspects not covered in the press release.
In summary, the four marketing communication strategies explained in this article are not meant to cover the whole spectrum of possibilities, since there are many other things that you can do to make your work known among many people. However, the aim was mostly to call attention to these relatively simple, affordable, highly effective and yet underexplored marketing strategies.
