Deep Dive into Biotech Messaging: Enhancing Engagement and Trust (Part 2)
Jargon, social proof, colors — each element can assist your startup in reaching and resonating with your audience.
Let’s continue our exploration into biotech and life sciences communication. The second part offers nuanced strategies to enhance your startup’s messaging. Jargon, social proof, colors — each element can play a pivotal role. Each can assist in reaching and resonating with your audience.
Maximize your biotech website’s ROI
Websites in biotech and life sciences aren’t just mandatory. They’re an investment meant to yield returns. Unfortunately, I see many sites failing to justify the money, time, and effort spent on them.
So what makes a good website? A good one generates:
- Email lists,
- Subscribers,
- Qualified leads,
- Inspires word-of-mouth,
- And enhances user engagement.
To be more than a mere expense, a website’s content and CTAs should lead to:
- Book calls or sell directly for sales.
- Sign-ins and downloads for lead generation.
- Automate processes to reduce costs.
- Engage with storytelling to educate and update on research. It is worth driving traffic even when products are in development.
- Nurture the community for customer engagement.
- Optimize for SEO to rank and drive traffic.
- Gather user data for insights and product improvement.
- Validate the idea through monitoring engagement.
- Encourage product use with sign-up and login processes.
- Help finding partners with clear contact nudges.
In essence, every component should attract people to your brand. It can be through a click, a download, or a meaningful connection.
A journey-focused approach to delivering information
I’ve found that biotech websites often fall into the trap of trying to convey everything at once. And it’s natural to share all the benefits upfront. Yet, I’ve noticed this can lead to visitor paralysis rather than informed decisions. Transparency isn’t about laying all your cards on the table immediately. It’s about not concealing them. It’s a delicate dance of revealing information at the right time in the customer journey.
Try to understand your audience better. What are their motivations? What questions do they have at each stage? The common stages are: awareness, consideration, decision and after purchase . Grow understanding gradually. Familiarity breeds preference. That’s called a “Mere exposure effect.”
For a biotech website, a home page is an entry point. It offers introductory information that piques interest and invites exploration. Where would you include more technical aspects of the product? Or science that went into developing it? On the technology or product pages. By this time visitors are usually further along in their journey. They will be looking for details. “A curiosity effect” is at play here. Thus, they can delve into the complexities. This approach provides information when the visitors are ready to receive it.
What about other touchpoints? For presentations, chunk information. It’s about guiding the audience through a thought process, slide by slide. For materials like flyers and white papers, consider the audience segment. Each segment will have its level of education on the topic. Tailor content to it.
Color as communication: shaping perception and trust
The impact of color often precedes even the recognition of a logo. Terry Goldstein’s sequence of cognition — colors, shapes, symbols, words — underlines this. Colors signal the status and state of a startup. It silently communicates messages before a single word.
The role of color as an interface is versatile. It’s not only about aesthetics; it’s about trust, user experience, and differentiation. A website stuck in the 90s color palette might signal outdatedness. Meanwhile, clean and elegant colors convey modernity and reliability.
Among the most common challenges are:
- Dated color combinations
- Insufficient contrast for guidance and accentuation
- Lack of excitement and differentiation
- Cluttered color schemes
- Overreliance on typical ‘health and nature’ colors like blues and greens
- Misuse of grey, a color often associated with nostalgia
The book “The Senses: Design Beyond Vision” describes color as a way-finding element. It’s not only about visual appeal; it’s about guiding, understanding, and remembering. Colors enhance recognition and help in consuming information. For example, people with severe Alzheimer’s respond better to brightly colored tableware. It aids their food intake. This shows how colors can be a passive guide. Color can provide direction and feedback, crucial for user interface and experience.
In biotech startups, striking the color balance can help develop better brand perception. It can become a step from blending in and standing out. The challenge lies in choosing a palette. A good one will serve both the business and the customer. It will reflect the innovative nature and meet your audience’s expectations.
In short, why do we use color?
- To guide visitors through the whole experience
- To distinguish your brand in a sea of similar hues
- To signal status
- To develop associations
- To establish trust
Khroma helps me quite often when looking for color combinations.
Streamlining your website: why less Is more for speed and engagement
For biotech websites, it might be tempting to want to impress. So you may want to include some cool animations and interactive infographics. But here’s the thing: they can cause some nasty hiccups in comprehension and marketing. Heavy assets like these slow down website load times. They also interrupt the seamless flow of information. This buffering is a bottleneck that hinders comprehension. Aside from that, search engines also flag those sites for poor user experience.
For those keen on using videos, embed explainer videos. Yet, the appropriate use of heavier assets tends to be outside the website:
- On social media, their algorithms favor engagement and the asset weight isn’t your concern.
- In presentations, where you control the information’s flow and speed.
- In pitch materials for investors and client interactions, to provide more technical aspects.
- In conference materials, where real-time competition is a factor.
As for your website? Keep it slick, fast, and to the point. Let it be the place where your info flows uninterrupted and your message gets across loud and clear.
Jargon: to use or not to use
Most resources suggest to avoid jargon. I think it’s more about knowing when to use it.
Consider the following:
- Who you’re talking to: how educated are they on the topic?
- The type of conversation: is it active dialogue or passive exploration of a flyer, for example?
- Conversation stage: Starting out? Keep it simple. Going deeper? Specific terms might be okay.
- Time they have: More time means they might be ready for complex terms.
Websites often serve as the first touchpoint and main educator. Here clarity is paramount. The home page should remain jargon-free. Reserve the technical details for deeper, specialized pages. Aim for not more than 10–15% of jargon throughout the site. Remember, people Google their problems, not drug names. So your language better include jobs-to-be-done and benefits to rank better on Google.
Silent marketing materials such as flyers should aim for accessibility. So keep jargon to a minimum. Design flyers and trifolds for scanning. Conversely, white papers and case studies can accommodate more specialized language. Why? Readers expect to invest time to explore those materials. So they have more attention span.
However, conferences or webinars usually rotate around a specific and niche topic. So jargon becomes more acceptable and expected.
The guiding principle? The more engaged and knowledgeable the audience, the more appropriate the jargon is.
Social proof in biotech: strategies for credibility
Tough one, I’m not going to lie. On one hand, there are privacy concerns. On another, nothing makes the idea more trustworthy than seeing it being in use by real people.
Many resources say that anonymous social proof will harm your brand. But it may serve a different purpose here. Usually, social proof shows who and how many people love the product. In return, it signals the quality of the offer. But with novel solutions, the question to address is different: has anyone even used it and is it safe? As a customer, I’m looking if anyone is using to assess if it is safe to use. Social proof signals safety, not quality.
So, how to include social proof without violating customer trust and privacy?
- Anonymize and create avatars and characters to respect customers’ privacy.
- Explain the reason for anonymity. Clear reasoning nurtures transparency.
- Use qualifiers like job positions or disease specifics. You can also go for initials or industry descriptors. This will add context without revealing identities. For instance, highlighting “1 of 10 who got better” can create a powerful narrative.
- Highlight benefits. It’s all about where you direct the attention your visitors’ attention.
- Incorporate links to case studies for deeper validation.
Social media mini playbook: engage, enlighten, entertain
Social media strategy often takes a backseat. After all, who has time to share thoughts when there are so many fires to extinguish? Yet it’s a powerful tool for building a presence and engaging with a wider audience. Here’s how to leverage each social media platform:
- Twitter: Engage with your audience and industry conversations.
- Instagram: Curate visual content and insights.
- LinkedIn: Share your expert opinion and industry insights.
- Facebook: Gather your community for updates and discussions.
- TikTok: Show a lighter, more approachable side of your brand.
It’s worth thinking of social media as more than event and feature announcements. It’s where you can build a community. It’s where you can become a thought leader and an industry expert. It’s where you can drive meaningful traffic to your site.
References
Customer journey map by frog design
Customer journey mapping by Hubspot’s Growth-Driven Design
Coglode Cookbook — a deep dive into behavioral nudges
Podcast episode “Mastering Brand Building in a Regulated World” with Terri Goldstein by JUST Branding
“The Senses: Design Beyond Vision” by Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps
Khroma — The AI color tool for designers
