Being a researcher is often like being an entrepreneur – you have to create high-quality outputs, but you are also expected to market and “sell” them to relevant audiences. And yet, most of us are trained to focus on the research itself, not on how it is communicated, positioned or received. We assume that impactful work will naturally find its audience. In reality, it rarely does. As entrepreneur Phil Fernandez said: “The best content in the world won’t drive revenue if nobody sees it.” If your research outputs do not reach the right people, even the best research can go unnoticed. As with academic visibility more broadly, it is not just about what you produce, but how and to whom you communicate it.
It’s not about you, it’s about them
As a marketer and a marketing academic, thinking about target audiences and personal brand comes naturally to me. But I recognise that is not the case for everyone. For many of us, mapping out a communications plan for our research outputs feels daunting and unnecessary. An early career researcher once told me in despair: “I’m a marketing academic, not a salesperson – it’s not my job to ‘sell’ my papers!” Yet this is precisely where a marketing approach can be incredibly useful, and it starts with a principle we call customer orientation.
At its core, customer orientation means focusing on the needs, priorities and perspectives of the people you are trying to reach, rather than starting with your own work. In other words, instead of asking “what do I want to say?”, you begin with “what does this audience need to hear?” But first, decide who your audience is.
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Identifying your audience
One of the most common challenges I see when working with academics is this: we try to speak to everyone at once, and more often than not, it’s to other academics and researchers. On the other hand, a research project might be relevant to other groups of stakeholders, such as grant funders, industry practitioners, policymakers and communities. As such, we often attempt to include all of them in a single pitch. The result is often unclear and diluted.
In marketing, we take a different approach. We start by identifying a primary target audience. This is the group most likely to engage with, fund or use the work. We then build the message around them using the language they can understand. Other audiences still matter, but they become secondary for the moment.
For researchers, the initial questions to ask are:
- For whom might this research be the most impactful?
- Who is most likely to act on it (for example, fund, implement or adopt it)?
- Who are you trying to influence right now?
For example, if you are applying for a research grant, your primary target audience is the funding body. They are likely to be interested in feasibility, alignment with their priorities and clear potential for impact. In contrast, if you are pitching to an industry partner, your audience may be more concerned with practical application, efficiency or competitive advantage. If you are speaking to investors, the focus shifts again. They are typically interested in scalability, market potential and return on investment (ROI). This means that how you frame your research matters. Rather than leading with theory or methodology, you may need to emphasise how your work can translate into a viable product, service or solution with realistic and timely ROI.
Taking this notion of target audience one step further, you might also consider whether you are in conversation with a decision-maker, influencer, gatekeeper or end user. A practical way to bring this to life is through a tool marketers call a persona. This is a fictional profile of the kind of person you are trying to reach. Rather than pitching to “an investor”, you can personify them. For example, Zara, 44, a partner at a mid-sized life sciences fund, focused on Series A deals, sceptical of academic jargon, and under pressure to show her own board a clear route to market within five years. Having these details to hand will help you figure out important questions, such as:
- What are her concerns?
- What does she need to hear?
- What would grab her attention?
It is also worth acknowledging that for many of us this way of thinking can feel uncomfortable, self-promotional or even “salesy”. But if we want our research to make a difference, it needs to be seen and understood. In that sense, communicating the value of research is part of our responsibility as academics. Like any skill, this takes time to develop and it often becomes easier with practice. Something that may have felt like “selling” yesterday may feel like a natural part of explaining the value of your work to your audience tomorrow.
The next resource in this series will explore how to adapt your message to suit different audiences by creating a value proposition, a concise statement that explains the benefit of a product or services in solving a specific problem.
Rushana Khusainova is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Bristol Business School, UK.
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