Marketing Your Research in a World That Doesn't Care

You're not better than the business world

As a coral restoration scientist or a practitioner, you may think that your work is insulated from the pressures of the business world.  

You’re not hostage to KPIs, ROI, or any one of those stupid corporate terms.

You’re creating knowledge!

You’re saving the coral reefs!

In reality, your work is no different than any other business, especially when it comes to marketing.

That's soooo niche

When it comes to research, you spend years becoming an expert in a niche topic:

• Coral reproduction

• Coral microbiome

• Symbiont diversity

You spend so much time in your realm that you think your work is the most important thing in the world and that everyone knows it is.

I hate to break it to you, but no one knows what you’re doing.

Sometimes, not even your own boss/advisor.

Your work cannot "speak for itself"

Remember, a lot of people still think corals are rocks, including the ones who give you money…

You cannot expect them to understand the value of “whether host and symbiont genotype contributions to holobiont phenotypic variation are additive or interactive” (Gamache et al., 2025).

Nor can you expect them to browse–or have access to–scientific literature to know what ~should~ be funded. 

Instead, you need to advocate for your work often…and like a human.

Marketing your research

Many organizations and lab groups use social media platforms to document their progress.

This may seem like a lot of work, but you don’t have to make it a full-time job, posting your work every day.

If you want a fast, repeatable way to market your work online or in person, follow this framework:  

• Identify a human-understandable problem.

• Outline your method of addressing the problem.

• State what you’ve done–and will do next–to alleviate the problem.

• Show them the fun parts and what excites you! 

That last point matters more than you think.

If you’re bored while explaining it, your audience will be bored too.

You’re not insulated from marketing

You should be sharing your projects more often than at conferences and through publications.

You need money. You need visibility. You need a job.

Let Reef Unity Network take care of the marketing, so you can focus on research.

Submit a project you’re working on by March 15, and we’ll promote it for you!

It’s okay if it’s not perfect…or even complete. 

We like seeing works in progress. It’s more human.

Submit Your Project