Top Science Marketing Articles of 2020

As we take a look back at our most read articles in 2020, we saw a very unsurprising trend. Read our recap of what resonated with science marketers this year..

By C&EN Media Group

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This past year has truly been unprecedented for science marketers, digital strategists and marketing agencies around the world. The chemical industry has had to adjust –  and is still doing so –  to a new normal, with in-person events transitioning completely to digital platforms and many scientists, – and the marketers trying to reach them – still working from home.

So as we take a look back at our most read articles in 2020, we see a very unsurprising trend: you all were looking for best practices around digital marketing, and how to ensure that your lead generation campaigns – the lifeblood that replaced in-person event marketing – would be successful. Here are the top posts that resonated most with you this year, and will likely help guide your campaigns going into 2021.

# Five

C&EN BrandLab Brand Study

How Brand Perception Influences Buyers in the Chemical and Life Sciences Space

Do you know what drives buyers to purchase your products? Or what influences buying teams to consider your brand in the first place? C&EN BrandLab set out to help our clients answer those questions when we conducted our first-ever brand study, gathering responses of 779 scientists who represent more than $150 million in purchasing power.

In one of our most read blog posts on our C&EN BrandLab blog, which covers native advertising tactics from our custom content studio, we discussed the findings of the survey and how they can be applied through smart content marketing tactics.

Bonus: Be on the lookout for the results of our industry-specific brand study in petrochemicals later this month.

Read ‘How Brand Perception Influences Buyers in the Chemical and Life Sciences Space’


# Four

A Beginner’s Guide to Personalized Digital Marketing

Yes, receiving a coupon code in your inbox for that exact piece of equipment you’ve eyed does come off a little invasive. However, targeting your audience by their search, browsing, or purchase history isn’t as off-putting as one may have thought. In fact, nearly 80% of Americans said that personalized content from brands increases their purchase activity. And marketers that use a personalized web experience see on average a 20% increase in sales.

In this blog post, we discussed how you can personalize your marketing tactics to answer the needs of users specifically in the scientific arena, hitting them with the right suggestions at the right times. Which, in a Working-From-Home era, is more important than ever.

Read ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Personalized Digital Marketing’


# Three

Editor’s Desk: Serving the Chemistry Community

Throughout this past year, our C&EN newmagazine has conducted thorough reporting on the science behind the coronavirus pandemic, and to combat misinformation, has ensured that all of our readers – whether they are ACS members or not –  have full access to content they can trust.

In this post from our recurring Editor’s Desk series, our editor-in-chief, Bibiana Campos Seijo, highlights the initiatives C&EN has been undertaking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,  including making all of our coronavirus-related content free to the public. It was heartening to see that highlighting these programs made the list of our top 5 most read posts of the year!

Read ‘Editor’s Desk: Serving the Chemistry Community’


# Two

Best Practices in Science Communication

Best Practices: Communicating Your Science

Industry jargon can really get the best of us. We use it so much in our day-to-day conversations at work that we don’t realize how easily it slips into other conversations. Even worse, we all tend to be under the impression that certain jargon is well-known industry wide, when in reality, not everyone knows that “PDF” has multiple meanings.

In this article, we share tips on how you can communicate science to non-scientists and scientists alike. Through these simple steps, like de-jargoning and clarifying your content, the key concepts and findings you are looking to share will be the very thing to get your audience excited about your news.

Read ‘Best Practices: Communicating Your Science’


# One

Lead Generation Campaign Checklist

The Lead Generation Campaign Checklist

When global crises left many marketing teams with canceled in-person events, they turned to digital lead generation tools that they knew could still deliver sales-ready leads, such as webinars and whitepapers. But how does one ensure they can properly evaluate the success of these lead generation tactics? We recommend building a plan, from beginning to end.

So in our most popular blog post, we walked you through Pre, During and Post-Campaign items you should be checking off to ensure that your lead generation campaigns deliver the results you need. 

Read ‘The Lead Generation Campaign Checklist’


The start of a new decade means the start of a new wave of science marketing resources to share with our community! In addition to our growing library of case studies and events, catch up with our webinars on-demand, and our new report on B2B marketing trends. Use the comment section below to tell us what type of marketing resources, how-to’s, and other content you would like us to add to the Marketing Elements blog.

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