When it comes to preparing for grad jobs outside of the lab and, specifically, developing some understanding as to how marketing works within science-based sectors, you might find yourself wondering:
What would a career in marketing look like?
Is it even possible to have a marketing career with a science degree?
Is it just making things look nice or is there more to it?
...And how can you even get that sort of understanding in the first place when you’re in the middle of your science degree?
I had very little understanding around what it actually takes to run a social media platform and develop content for a business, it’s just about advertising right? Not quite… After five weeks as a marketing exec intern at The Life Sciences Marketing Academy, I’ve realised there is a tremendous opportunity for businesses to build their reputation as an expert and informer by creating valuable content for consumers and offering tips and insight to their customers. This creates a much more effective strategy to build an online and social media presence.
The Power of Empathy
Possibly the most important skill to develop to be effective and successful in a marketing role is the ability to put yourself in your customers shoes; you’ve got to listen and understand your customer’s circumstances and challenges. And in order to do this, you need to understand who your ‘customer’ actually is. It’s easy to define your target market as ‘life science sector’ but who exactly is that? pharmaceuticals, young start-ups, medical equipment services? Focusing in on a specific aspect of a sector, and, even better, the individual human beings in it, will enable you to own your niche and really tailor and focus your marketing efforts to the issues, needs and wants of that market.
When it comes to Market Research, Get Specific
When it comes to gathering data and useful information, I’ve learnt it is important to ‘define what it is that I’m looking for’ before starting any market research. This gives you focus and avoids wasting time and resources. Finding the most relevant, up to date information - particularly when dealing with social media and dynamic business sectors - is in order to stay ahead of competition. Naturally, primary research is the best form of research as you can ask targeted questions and elaborate on their answers particularly during face to face interviews. From here it’s important to put yourself in your consumers’ shoes to be able to understand what to do with the information you’ve collected, how will this new information impact your business and improve the product or service you provide to customers.
Translate the science into online engagement
One thing I’d never really heard of was ‘microcontent’ …this involved the creation of eye catching and snappy bits of bitesize information, often with links attached to attract viewers and eventually followers. This is where it’s important to establish the purpose of each social media platform to your business. Microcontent is particularly useful for social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram that encourage smaller posts. Having an understanding of the science when creating microcontent for businesses within the life science sector is a huge advantage and should be drawn upon; transfer your passion and understanding of the science into readable, useful content for users to interact with.
Having an understanding of the science when creating content for businesses within the life science sector is a huge advantage and should be drawn upon; transfer your passion and understanding of the science into readable, useful content for users to interact with.
Be The Ultimate Champion
The best possible starting position when you’ve set the task of growing a following and awareness of a product is to be the ultimate champion of your product or service - having that deep-rooted passion for what you’re working on and wanting others to share that love for the product with you. Your knowledge and understanding of the product will come out in the content that you make and by offering followers valuable and insightful content you will grow your following further. The more people you reach, the more impact you will be able to make. That is the role of marketing and it is therefore as important in the life sciences sector as it is to any other sector.
Learnings
Five weeks at the Life Science Marketing Academy has given me the chance to gain exposure to a market I previously wouldn’t have been able to. A career in marketing isn’t centred around design and making your work look eye catching, you need to be mindful and in touch with your target market allowing you to build a relationship between the customer and your brand. No, you don’t need a marketing degree to be successful in marketing if anything pursuing a marketing career with a science background in the life sciences sector is an advantage, you already possess the core scientific understanding that’s necessary to create content and engage with customers.