Your Biotech writing sucks because you forgot that what you do is cool

Let’s say you develop something cool and then go full marketing to shout about it. The output is usually rubbish. Sorry, but it is. Imagine you make some new tech that massively speeds up antibody staining by completely cutting out antibody diffusion and so basically eliminating waiting for washes and blocks. Super cool (and basically magic) and everyone in the lab can relate.

You hand the protocol to Marketing and you get,

We’re reimagining what’s possible in tissue imaging.

The truth’s in there but it’s buried beneath you trying so hard to make an awesome thing sound awesome. And then comes the slew of marketing material around it, the posts, the emails, the flyers, the landing page personal detail extractor machine, and they're filled with "greatest" "most advanced" and other members of the adjective-adverb soup. It’s like you’ve just discovered superlatives and now have a burning desire to throw them around like confetti. But, sure, you’re not lying – everything is truthful, although you’ve swapped clarity for big time hype.

But people clap and cheer internally because it all sounds very grand; the VP of Marketing and CEO are happy with how impressive it sounds; the Sales teams love all the flash; the writing team and glad they finally got some praise; and you scientists shed a little tear and potential customers just have more questions. And congratulations, you’ve faded into the background of every other bit of biotech copywriting out there. Meanwhile,

Instead, imagine, just for a wee second, you just say the thing:

This system makes antibody staining faster by actively moving antibodies through tissue instead of relying on passive diffusion.

If you branding allows it, you can even sprinkle on some personality:

This system makes antibody staining faster by actively moving antibodies through tissue instead of relying on passive diffusion. Because, as everyone who has ever left a primary on 'overnight' knows, diffusion is mostly just waiting [in the tea room/pub].

The scientists at the bench who've to run these assays all day will be impressed or at least a little intrigued. That’s when you can whip up the tech spec pieces and talk about exactly how this works, but with real data. You can walk people though the science, about how these special fields work and how they actively push antibodies into the tissues; you can explain how your labelling technique cuts out the need for a secondary antibody; you can show people how you’ve just cut out countless hours in an assay they run daily. This is all brilliant and appealing and you don’t need to dress it up.

Your stuff is probably already cool, so just say the thing. Please! Just say the cool thing because it's cool, rather than rolling it in marketing glitter.

And if you’re struggling, give me a shout, I’ll help.