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As a science marketer, you’re used to creating content that is factual: based on experiments in the lab, and showcasing results from your company’s product or service. But do you apply the same approach in other areas of your work? When writing about yourself as a science marketer? From guest blog posts, to LinkedIn articles, – sometimes we even forget on our own company blogs, especially when we move away from our services and discuss industry conferences or trend thought pieces.
Focus on Data-Driven Content
While there are claims that an average reader doesn’t spend more than 37 seconds reading an article, numerous studies showcase that long-form blog posts generate up to 9 times as many leads than short-form blog posts.
If these stats seem inconsistent, that’s only because content marketing demands are sometimes hard to reconcile. The same applies to our topic: creating content that’s data-driven and interesting at the same time isn’t an easy feat. Forever the science marketer’s challenge!
Infuse Data in All Your Writing: Forward Facing & Internally
Much of your writing comes from your personal experience, and an informal, more personal tone is becoming more commonplace for company blogs. As a writer, you base your statements upon things you’ve read, learned and deduced. Though these assertions differ from subjective opinion, they still don’t count as data. As science marketers, you are well aware of this. It’s important to remember that you should use data to substantiate your claims even when it comes to more informal pieces. Like a scientific experiment, your opinions might be a sum of actuality and logic, but they are only as factual as they are backed up by studies, test cases, surveys, and proven by experts. Just like your product brochures or your peer-reviewed journal article.
You should also be checking your internal resources data points to inform your writing. What does Google Analytics say your most popular posts are? Perhaps whenever you write about informatics, you see a spike in new users. Brainstorm with your team how you can capitalize on those visits for your next piece.
Sources, Accuracy and Tone
The internet has made credible sources available to anyone, but there are just as many unreliable resources. Drive your assertions from media publications, research studies, and market analysis. Your own peer-reviewed articles are a great resource for your blog as well. Maybe you’ve been asked to share your thoughts on a panel – you can use this content to back up your opinion on new research trends, or what your customers can expect in their fields. Or if you’re writing a guest blog post about your career as a marketer, you’ll find plenty of resources on sites like HubSpot Marketing Statistics, but keep the scholarly approach as well. EasyBib offers a list of resources, mostly used by students, but your inquiries are likely not much different than theirs.
How to Evaluate Sources Accuracy? Even though these online sources are mostly reliable, you’ll still need to double-check their accuracy by answering these questions:
● What is the article’s aim? Does it inform and teach or advertise and sell?
● Is the post free of bias and supported by evidence?
● What kind of sources are linked?
● How current is the information? Was the article recently updated or not?
Factuality That’s Interesting to Read
We are well aware statistic reports are hardly a beach read. People want content that’s informational and useful, but engaging and easily digestible at the same time. It’s a type of content that educates and entertains. That’s why a clever article is both creative and data-driven, and why you need to learn to make factuality interesting.
It takes time, practice and effort. For years, educators and public speakers have been trying to develop a method that makes dull information fun, but nobody does it better than pop science. Educational TV shows like “Adam Ruins Everything” are a good example of this.
So, how do they do it?
● First, they make a statement.
● Then, they back it up with facts and refer to the source.
● Finally, they simplify the material as much as the topic allows it.
While visuals are easier to understand, and the demand for infographics has increased 800% in the past year, practical examples make abstract concepts relatable. (Just keep the end goal in mind. Humor around technical content in a sales brochure probably isn’t going to do the trick!)
In the hands of a good writer, data-heavy content is both informational and fun. Research skills are just as important as creativity – together, they make all of your content attractive and engaging.
Duke Vukadinovic works for FirstSiteGuide.com. He is passionate about the Internet world and can be of great to help web newbies build many successful blogs in various niches.
