Strategy services
Communication and marketing strategies for STEM companies and organisationsScience communication strategy services
Having a science communication strategy: crucial for STEM organisations
Communication and marketing are key tools to help your organisation adapt and respond to the challenges of today. Many of the clients we talk to say they need to:
- connect with different audiences (to try to understand their needs, co-design with them)
- address ‘fake news’ and misinformation
- cope with funding uncertainty
- manage complicated project reporting, administration and operations (taking time away from strategic time)
- navigate intense competition within and between sectors
- respond to comments from cynical or frustrated customers or stakeholders
- figure out how to embrace rapidly changing digital and media landscapes.
Having a clear science communication strategy, engagement strategy or marketing strategy is absolutely essential to achieve your long-term goals and impact and manage your day-to-day operations effectively.
Innovate Communicate thrives on delivering tailored strategies with clients.
Why communication and marketing strategy is important for innovation
When you can effectively communicate your value, and work with stakeholders,
you can achieve your goals faster and more effectively.
This isn’t only beneficial for you and your organisation…
it’s also important for public engagement, policy makers and society.
We need you to make your positive impact for a better community, environment and world.
Whether you want to unlock commercial potential, communicate evidence for policy or influence behaviour change…
You need a strategy to ensure effective science communication.
If you get science communication strategy wrong, it can all go very wrong
There are many cases of life-changing innovations ending up on the scrap heap. Not because they didn’t do what they were designed to do but because their creators didn’t properly understand or engage with customers and end-users.
Trust — one of the most important foundations of your brand — is extremely valuable. If you don’t communicate well your stakeholders may no longer trust you.
“Financial analysts estimate that 70% of a typical private firm’s assets are intangibles, like goodwill, that can be lost when communications fail. Public institutions’ reputations often depend on their ability to communicate.”
— 2011 Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User’s Guide
Wondering if you need a science communication strategy?
Without a clear communication or marketing strategy, you’re likely feeling unsure about your priorities. You’re making only slow progress towards your goals. Frustrating!
Clarity of purpose, effective strategic direction and brilliant communication are three crucial elements for leadership teams who want to connect with customers and stakeholders to create positive change.
Strategies don’t need to be set in stone; adjusting as you learn is important. But without one guiding your next steps, you’ll be missing opportunities to make a bigger difference.
Is this you?
- you’re not sure how to communicate about and market your science
- you’re struggling to know what to focus on due to lots of competing demands
- you’re time-poor and can’t see any space where you could start working on a new project
- the idea of creating a strategy immediately makes you feel overwhelmed
- you’re concerned you might not know how to produce a science communication or engagement strategy, what to include and what the process involves
- you wonder how much a strategy can help given the workload of your team or organisation
- you are concerned about how much extra work it might take to connect with diverse audiences and stakeholders.
How good would it feel to have your communication and marketing sorted?
We are experts in creating communication and marketing strategies in STEM fields. The Innovate Communicate team focuses on understanding you and your priorities. We then get laser-focused on your customers, stakeholders and the community.
Imagine having a science communicator (or three) 100% dedicated to you and your goals.
We can help you:
- clarify your overarching vision, mission, purpose and strategic plan
- understand the current broader context that your organisation is working in; for example, the wider economic, industry, policy or social conditions
- dive deep into challenges, fears or concerns that are keeping you and your team up at night
- explore opportunities and what success looks like
- set communication and/or marketing objectives that align with your overall strategic goals
- explore aspects of marketing that might be relevant like product-market fit, your Unique Value Proposition or Unique Selling Proposition, brand perceptions, competitors, market demands, customer behaviour
- take a close look at your stakeholders, partners and customers, including exploring the current ‘customer journey’ and how this could be improved
- clarify and articulate your key messages to embed in communication and marketing activities (from websites, speeches to social media)
- review your communication channels and content to understand what’s resonating, or not, and where you could be achieving greater traffic and engagement
- develop creative ideas grounded in evidence to connect and engage with the people that are part of your organisation’s success
- recommend a monitoring and evaluation framework, including indicators to track progress.
Our science communication strategy packages
Strategy Discovery
Strategy Discovery includes:
- initial research e.g. client, market and desktop
- 90-minute video call, which will be an opportunity to: clarify main objectives; explore the aspects of communication, brand and marketing that are applicable; begin to audit the existing communication channels and platforms; scope what’s in and out with regards to Strategy Delivery
- a report including a suggested ‘skeleton’ of the strategy for Strategy Delivery phase.
Strategy Delivery
The scope of Strategy Delivery is tailored but may include:
- organisational and stakeholder surveys, meetings or interviews
- a draft strategy document, tailored to your needs
- edits to the strategy following review and feedback
- 30 days of Q&A regarding the strategy and implementation
- check-ins to see how you are going with implementing.
We understand STEM
The role of STEM is debated frequently because of the political and democratic nature of our current times. Increasingly, public engagement can lead to more questions about research and the integrity and motivations of the organisations conducting it.
This is part of the reason why having a clear strategy and investing in listening and open communication is crucial for those working in STEM.
Innovate Communicate is passionate about implementing best practice science communication or marketing while working with innovative leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
We can help you articulate why you do what you do, what your research intends to achieve, what your results mean, how your organisation/brand stands apart from others and how you create value. We can dig into understanding your communication goals so that we can chart a path forward to engage with people and organisations that can help you create greater impact.
Check out some of our recent client work
Let's connect
You're ready to explore how communication and marketing could enhance your work.
You need an experienced consultant who understands what you do.
Get in touch with us.
