The Science Marketer’s Quest for Clarity
How is a science marketer supposed to make sense of an ever-evolving marketplace and an economy defined only in retrospect? How are you to deal with black boxes like Google’s internal algorithms, not to mention the inscrutable minds of very human prospects?
Is data the key to liberation? 📊
The scientist side of you might run to quantitative measurements. “And the data will set you free.” Have you actually found that to be true? Sure, it makes for a presentation that your PhD scientist CEO finds familiar. The problem is you are likely more qualified to make a marketing decision than your nonmarketer CEO, and the data he/she prefers is not necessarily the most relevant or most important.
You need to begin at the end. What is your objective in your role? The answer is different than your CEO’s objective or even your company’s objective. In a functional world, these objectives are not at odds. But they have their different details and foci. Some of them are KPI-level quantifiable. But some of them are qualitative rather than quantitative. You minimize or ignore the qualitative at your peril.
Google is a quixotic deity 🧑💻
At the core of any marketer’s objectives is trust. How do we make prospects trust us, and especially trust us to solve their problems? In the twenty-first century, the trust earning game starts steps before our prospect sees us.
Google has risen to be a monolith that either grants us entry into the marketplace or stubbornly blocks our way. It can generously favor us over our competitors or, without comment or explanation, shuffle us pages down to a wasteland no buyer ever visits.
So the question to ask is: What does Google trust?
Google trusts websites and content that adhere to its admittedly changing guidelines and algorithms. While the factors that matter shift in importance, the list is essentially:
Relevance: Google values content that is relevant to users’ search queries. Websites that provide high-quality, informative, and useful content TO THE READER’S EYES are more likely to be trusted by Google. This really requires you to step up and stand out.
Authority: Websites with a strong reputation, backlinks from other trustworthy sites, and expertise in their respective fields are considered authoritative by Google. (Incidentally, Bitesize Bio is a rare provider of this hard-to-come-by factor.)
Quality Content: Google prioritizes websites that produce original, valuable, and engaging content. This includes text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements. Don’t let your competition regularly best you here.
User Experience: Websites that offer a positive user experience, including fast loading times, mobile-friendliness, and easy navigation, are favored by Google. Attention spans are at historic lows. People won’t wait for 2.5 seconds for a page to load. They won’t wait to get back to their laptop when they have their phone right here.
Security: Google values websites that prioritize user security, such as those with SSL certificates (https://), which encrypt data transmitted between the user’s browser and the website’s server.
Technical Optimization: Websites that are well-optimized for search engines, with proper meta tags, structured data markup, clean code, and efficient crawling and indexing, are more likely to be trusted by Google.
Consistency: Websites that consistently adhere to Google’s guidelines over time build trust with the search engine. In short, Google will punish anyone who tries to fool them.
Ultimately, Google’s goal is to provide the most relevant and high-quality search results to its users. This isn’t because of their now abandoned motto, “Don’t be evil.” It is brutally, even cynically practical of them. The moment they stop presenting pristinely relevant search results, somebody else will and there will be a rush for the doors. Websites that align with this goal and meet the above criteria are more likely to earn Google’s trust and rank higher in search results.
You won’t be able to get away with cherry-picking this list or only delivering on the low-hanging fruit either. In our current world, you ignore Google’s most demanding desires at your peril.
Is the economy even a thing? 💹
The economy is measured by economists, brilliant people who are famous for either regularly getting it wrong, or staying so vague that they can’t face that accusation. To be fair, they deal with a staggering volume of data that would give even the most wizened microscopist pause.
The size and stature of your company may relate to how you are impacted by larger economic trends. If your company is large and influential, you could do everything right and still be hindered by overarching trends. If your company is small and scrappy, the broad trends may be less of a factor but hot topics can make or break you. In short, the economy impacts businesses of all sizes differently.
Whether your company is a cruise ship or a jetski, you need to pay attention to the waves that are relevant to you. Recognizing trends that may impact your company is crucial. Marketing is about being present, not so much being aspirational. Sell what you can deliver today, wait until tomorrow to sell what you can deliver tomorrow. I know, that sounds like advice for the salesperson, not the marketer. The point is, don’t get too far over your skis. You have to present what you can plausibly deliver on. Take notice of the waves you are right now encountering, not being distracted by the waves impacting others.
Riding a wave is a good analogy for the economy. Even the Navy doesn’t haughtily try to control waves on the open ocean. Rather, they use them to good purpose and know when fighting the tide is fruitless. Live to sail (or surf) another day.
What is more qualitative than a human? 🤝
You are not marketing to an audience of machines, you are marketing to people. The scientists who buy your wares may seem like mere dispassionate logicians but they are not. They have hopes and passions, aspirations and careers. Don’t forget they are part of the equation.
It goes without saying that what you sell has to WORK. But does it make your buying scientist’s life easier, more predictable, more innovative? Accuracy in measurement, speed of operation, or delivery of scale are indicators of what they buy, not the reasons themselves. The drivers will have to do with the human impact.
Whether you choose to refer to these impacts directly or indirectly is a matter of style. But you can’t afford to talk only quantitatively. If your competitors cover the qualitative in addition to the quantitative, they will eventually beat you in the marketplace. Competitors with holistic messaging (like you) will ultimately outshine those who focus solely on the numbers.
Take heart ❤️🩹
Everyone is up against the same murkiness here. You don’t have to be a bonafide prophet, you just need to do a little better than the next guy. If you commit to that, the results will be favorable both qualitatively and quantitatively.