Learn to Speak “Scientist” in 5 Minutes or Less

The Language of Science for Marketers and Sales Staff

by Rusty Bishop

Scientists are a pesky lot.  We come from all parts of the world and focus on the tiniest minutia for years on end. We sleep in the lab and generally ignore everyone around us.  We’ll come to your booth and stand there idly touching your brochures, when what we really want is a very specific product. We’ll agonize over spending a nickel on an antibody that works and drop thousands to fly to a “meeting” in Hawaii.

Most important for the life science Marketer, scientists have a language all to our own. Unfortunately, the language carries a lot of redundant terms and abbreviations.

Consider “protease” or “proteinase”?

Is it “anti-actin” or “actin antibody”?

How about “ChiP” vs “chromatin precipitation”?

“DMPK” or “drug metabolism pharmacokinetics” – It’s endless…

..and the way we use that language is the way you have to market your products, especially online.

How Do You Figure Out the Words Scientists Use to Describe your Products?

Just like a new language – you listen! Or more specifically, you search for the most relevant words online.   Through their search inquiries for products, protocols, publications, and conversations about experiments, scientists are telling you what they want online -in real time and, most important, in large enough volume to be relevant. All you need is a simple keyword search tool and access to a Social Media Monitoring tool to “listen” and improve your marketing message.

Here’s what you are listening for:

Keywords -

1. What are the exact phrases scientists are using to describe my products (vernacular)? Ex - anti-actin or actin antibody?
2. What terms are associated with my products (context)? Ex – actin antibody + western blot
3. What volume (focus)? 10 searches per month or 1o,000?

The 5 Minute Exercise!

So let’s take the above and see what we can learn in 5 minutes.

1. Open up a Google Search Bar. Enter your product term – I’m entering “PCR machine”.  (Total time - 15 secs)

2. Note what Google returns for results. You’re looking for synonyms. Hmm, Thermal Cycler is the first hit.  Jot that down. (Total time - 45 secs)

3. Open your favorite Keyword Search Tool. Mine happens to be Google’s. (Total time – 55 secs)

4. Enter your product term – “PCR machine”. Analyze the data to see how many searches are conducted using the phrase – Google tells me there are 9,900 global monthly searches for “PCR machine”. (Total time - 1:30 minutes)

5.  Enter the other term “Thermal Cycler” – 22,900 global monthly searches. Not sure about you,  but I like to fish in a pond that has more fish. I now know that the majority of scientists online call a PCR machine a Thermal Cycler. (Total time - 2:00 minutes)

6. Analyze associated words in the list and build context  - gradient, troubleshooting, mulitplex, quantitative, buffer, etc. Note how the terms are used – “pcr troubleshooting” (Total time - 3:00 minutes).

7. Finally, compile the list into an excel sheet with primary terms and second terms. (Total time - 5:00 minutes).

Armed with this information you are ready for Step 2 – Discover what scientists want by speaking the language…

… and that’s the topic of our next post.

The author doesn’t do PCR anymore, but he sure did use a lot of Thermal Cyclers in the lab!  You can catch the next article by following the Red Funnel on Twitter or by subscribing to our newsletter.

Rusty Bishop

Rusty’s expertise rests in his ability to apply his Scientific Experience to the Marketing and Sales Funnel. Something we call the Red Funnel. He has developed a deep understanding of the web and the toolset needed to analyze websites as well as sales and marketing tactics both online and in the field.

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