Hi ,

Happy December! Here’s what’s included in this month’s newsletter:

1. 8 fresh links to revive your marketing

2. Marketing meme of the month from The Marketing Millennials

3. What life science marketers can learn from Einstein

4. Quote on collaboration from Helen Keller

5. Staff spotlight with Bitesize Bio’s Developer, Fraser Smith

If you have a minute, we’d love it if you could reply to this email and let us know what you liked, what you didn’t, or what you think we could do better.

First time reading? Sign up here.

OUR FAVOURITE FINDS

For better marketing, check out these links

🌿 Don’t Ask For Feedback; Do this instead
Mark Jung explains why asking “Any feedback?” often triggers nitpicking instead of useful input, and how shifting your wording to “ideas,” “notes,” or “support” gets better results at each stage of your work.

🌱 Why Brand Communities Matter More Than Ever
Looks at how brand communities can help customers feel seen and involved in shaping a brand’s direction, not just consuming its content.

🌳 Driving Engagement Within Your Community
Highlights why great communities thrive on member-to-member interaction, not just messages from the brand.

What we’re reading this month

📚 11 Best Generative Engine Optimization Tools for 2025
A practical list of tools built to help marketers keep their content visible as generative search evolves.

📚 18 Smart Ways to Capture and Sustain Audience Attention
An idea-rich roundup from the Forbes Communications Council on simple ways to hold audience attention across platforms.

📚 Ten Years On from FutureBrand’s Radical Merck Rebrand
A decade after its bold 2015 rebrand, Merck’s identity still feels strikingly fresh. This look back explores how a distinctive visual language can sustain relevance and brand strength long after launch.

What we’re loving this month

🧡 Marketing Is a Multi-skilled Job
Chandan Sadangi reminds us that effective marketing depends on collaboration between specialists across brand, content, product, and digital.

🧡 Creating a Culture, Not Just a Community
Joe Glover of The Marketing Meetup shares how focusing on culture builds joy and belonging that lasts longer than metrics alone.

VIRTUAL NETWORKING SESSION

Want to make new biotech connections?

Join Sarah for our monthly virtual networking session this Thursday. It's agenda-free, sales-pitch-free, and all about making genuine connections with fellow life science marketers.

Whether you're at a startup or a global pharma company, grab your coffee and sign up for real conversations with people who understand the unique challenge of translating complex science into compelling messages.

MEME OF THE MONTH

DEEP DIVE

What life science marketers can learn from Einstein

Life science marketing demands precision, but that same rigour can stifle creativity. If you're feeling stuck in the details, here’s how to rekindle your creative spark, earn trust for bolder ideas, and stay energised in a highly technical industry.

Many life science marketers feel trapped between the technical demands of their industry and the creative freedom needed to stand out. When you're surrounded by scientists who scrutinise every word of copy, there's less room to experiment. Less space to try something new or take creative risks.

The irony? Creativity is essential to science itself.

You can't have groundbreaking discoveries without imagination. Einstein himself said imagination was more important than knowledge. Yet somehow, when it comes to marketing in life sciences, creativity often gets squeezed out.

Tip 1: Small wins earn you creative freedom

You won't get buy-in for bold creative campaigns without trust. And you build that trust through small, incremental wins.

Take a small risk. Test a new approach on a lower-stakes campaign. Show how it pays off. Then you've earned more freedom for the next one.

Big swings that don't land will damage relationships with your stakeholders and make it harder to get creative buy-in later. But consistent small wins demonstrate that you understand both the science and the marketing.

Tip 2: Nurture your creativity

Creativity ebbs and flows. You can't be 100% on all the time. But you can make space for it to grow.

Do something outside your normal routine. Work from a café instead of your desk. Take a walking meeting where you record voice notes instead of sitting in a conference room. Talk through a campaign idea with someone who has zero scientific background and listen to their questions.

Take actual time off and do something completely unrelated to your job. Build Lego. Do pottery. Garden. Cook an elaborate meal. Whatever gets you out of your head and away from technical specifications.

The goal isn't distraction. It's giving your brain different inputs. When you step away from the problem, your subconscious keeps working on it. You'll often return with fresh perspectives that felt impossible when you were staring at another product spec sheet.

And critically: make time for rest. Real rest. Not scrolling through work emails at 9pm. Your brain needs genuine downtime to make the creative connections that breakthrough campaigns require.

Tip 3: Build a peer support network

This might be the most important step, especially if you're a lone marketer at your company.

Set up monthly or quarterly meetings with two or three other life science marketers. Make it informal. A video call where you each share what you're working on, what's frustrating you, what's working.

Don't wait for the perfect group or formal structure. Reach out to marketers you've met at conferences or connected with on LinkedIn. Send a message: "I'd love to catch up monthly with a few other life science marketers. Would you be interested?"

The best ideas come from people wrestling with the same challenges right now. They've either solved your problem or need your perspective on theirs. And crucially, they understand the unique pressures of marketing in this industry in ways that general marketing communities can't.

You might discover that someone else tested the exact email format you're considering. Or that they found a way to get scientists on board with more creative content. Or they'll share a resource you didn't know existed.

Tangible things you can do this month

Start with one creative experiment. Something small and testable that won't raise alarm bells if it doesn't work perfectly.

Maybe it's writing one newsletter in a more conversational tone. Or creating a social post that shows your company's personality instead of just product features. Or interviewing a customer and turning their story into content instead of another technical guide.

Document the results. Even if it's just a screenshot of the open rate or a note about positive feedback. Share it with your stakeholders. You're building a track record of creative wins that earn you freedom for bigger ideas later.

And reach out to one or two other life science marketers this week. Start building that peer network. You don't need it to be perfect, you just need it to exist.

Want to connect with other life science marketers right now? 

Join Biotech Breaktime, our monthly networking session with Sarah, our Business Development Manager. It's an informal space to share challenges, swap ideas, and connect with peers who get the unique pressures of marketing in life sciences. Sign up for December's session here.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

“Don’t mistake a clear view for a short distance”

Fraser Smith handles development and project management at Bitesize Bio, overseeing the technical side of our websites and services while shaping the company's visual identity. But ask him about his background, and you'll find he didn't start out writing code at all.

From art school to Adobe Flash

Thirty years ago, Fraser was studying graphics and illustration at art school, planning to become a graphic designer. Life took him through Lloyds Bank and into learning design, where he created e-learning courses for employees. That's when everything changed.

"I got access to Adobe Flash, and that was just like learning to run," Fraser says. "I was able to make animations, do little coding blocks. As soon as I learned how to do that, I just ran with it."

His projects grew more complex. The coding element expanded. Eventually, he landed at Sky and moved into their development department, where he had a pure developer role—Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, just coding and nothing else.

"Working with a smaller company like Bitesize Bio is great because you do need to get involved in a lot of things," he explains. "It keeps it interesting and more creative. You get pulled into something that's entirely outside the normal remit, and it sparks different ways of looking at things."

What working at Bitesize Bio has taught him

The best advice Fraser's ever received is “Don’t mistake a clear view for a short distance” and he admits he still needs to take it more often.

"A new project will come along and I'll be like, okay, I can see what I need to do. We'll get that done in a fortnight," he says. "Then six weeks later when I'm putting the finishing touches to it, it's kind of, yeah, okay. Just because I knew exactly what needed done, you sort of neglect to remember how long each bit takes."

Since joining Bitesize Bio, Fraser's stepped into management for the first time. He's learning to lead a department and work with people in new ways. He's also picked up an unusual amount of medical terminology.

"I work with a team full of doctors and big science webinars," he laughs. "I probably know more medical terminology than a layman really should."

If he won the lottery, he knows exactly what he'd do

Retire. But retiring doesn't mean sitting idle.

"I like that this job gives me quite a lot of scope to pursue my own interests and do things in a way that I think might work," he says. "If I was retired, I could just follow areas that interested me. Learn new stuff. Get into whatever was interesting."

Outside work, music is his main passion—just look at the wall of CDs behind him during video calls. Nobody buys CDs anymore, he points out, but they'll come back just like vinyl did. He plays video games to wind down, walks his dogs, and starts his days early with coffee.

His go-to work snack is mixed nuts and dried fruit, though Pringles make more appearances than they should. "We deliberately don't keep them in the house because they don't last long."

The best place he's travelled? 

A Dutch town he stumbled upon by bike. Fraser and his partner were cycling in the Netherlands about a decade ago when they rode into Almere.

"This place is amazing. I want to live here," he remembers thinking. "That was that."

They nearly moved. It didn't work out, but the memory stuck.

If he could have dinner with any scientist, he'd pick Carl Sagan because of the way he explained complex ideas with enthusiasm and clarity. "I think he'd really communicate exactly how he felt about things and actually be able to educate me."

One misconception about his job? "People just assume if you know about computers, you can help them fix whatever," Fraser says. "It's relating to things I've never touched in my life, but it kind of goes with the territory that you become everybody's tech support consultant."

When development is done well, Fraser believes it should melt into the background. But at a company this size, there's room to leave your mark. And after three decades moving from design to code and back again, he's found a good balance at Bitesize Bio.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Remember: There are three ways that Bitesize Bio can help you grow better

• Brand awareness: Get your products directly in front of a relevant audience and foster credibility and recognition among scientists actively seeking technical information.

• Lead generation: Obtain qualified prospects for your product and robust data insights that allow your sales team to follow up with leads who show genuine interest.

• Integrated Marketing Campaigns: Blend multiple touchpoints to create a cohesive journey that amplifies the brand message, drives engagement, and generates leads.

Get in touch with us to find out more.

Have a great month, and keep on growing 🌱

—The Bitesize Bio Team

PS: Did you love this newsletter, or do you think we can do better? Let us know by voting in the poll below 👇

Why The Growth Factor? In cell biology, growth factors are molecules that regulate processes like cell proliferation and differentiation. One well-known example is transforming growth factor (TGF), a key player in cell signaling. Marketers are also focused on growth of audiences, engagement, and impact.