How to Create a Science Communication Plan for Your Lab

Last year, a research lab brought me in after hitting a wall.

They had just made a major discovery — the kind of breakthrough that had everyone inside the lab excited. Confident the news would make waves, they published a press release, posted on social, and waited for the momentum to build. But it didn’t.

Outside of their colleagues and collaborators, no one noticed. The story fell flat. They were confused and honestly, a little discouraged. How could something so important get so little traction?

That’s where I came in. The problem wasn’t the science. It was the lack of a communication strategy. No clear message. No audience context. No reason for anyone outside their field to stop and care. And it’s a common mistake. Many teams treat communication as a last step — when in reality, it needs to be built in from the start.

Sharing science effectively isn’t about flooding social media with data or sending the occasional newsletter. It takes more than that. Real communication starts with a clear plan with a thoughtful strategy. The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) breaks it down: define your goals, give people a reason to care about your research, and avoid jargon so you can keep them engaged.

As the National Academies bluntly put it, communicating science is a complex, learned skill, and the best approach “will depend on the communicator’s goal” and the specific audience you’re trying to reach.

In other words, you need a plan tailored to your lab’s goals and audiences. Good news: creating a science communication plan is absolutely doable and it can even be fun and inspiring. In this post, I’ll walk you through a step-by-step guide to crafting a practical communication plan for your lab. We’ll cover how to set clear goals, identify who you need to reach (hint: it’s not “the general public”), develop compelling messages (yes, including the all-important “So what?”), choose the right channels, and measure your impact. Along the way, I’ll share examples and tips based on best practices from science communication experts (like myself). By the end, you’ll have a reusable template you can apply over and over to effectively share your science with any audience. So, let’s dive in!

Step 1: Define Goals for an Effective Science Communication Plan

Every great plan starts with knowing what you want to achieve. Ask yourself: Why are you communicating in the first place? Are you trying to inform others about your research? Inspire public interest in your field? Attract new students or funding? Influence policy or correct misinformation? Get specific. For example, your lab’s goal might be “Increase local community awareness of our climate research so we can build support for our conservation project.” That’s much clearer than a vague goal like “public outreach.” The first step of any science communication effort is to establish your ultimate goal(s) and everything else flows from that.

Different goals call for different approaches, so be concrete. You might have multiple goals, but try to prioritize. If you aim to both educate and advocate for action, you may decide to create separate communication strategies for each. For now, pick one primary goal to focus on in your plan. Make your goals measurable. How will you know if your communication made a difference? Set targets or indicators of success. Many people call these KPI's (key performance indicators). For instance, if your goal is community awareness, you might aim to get coverage in a local newspaper or a specific number of attendees at an open house event. If it’s recruiting students, maybe your target is an increase in inquiries or applications mentioning your outreach. “Goals are key to post-activity evaluation,” as one article notes, so define goals that are specific and testable or quantifiable whenever possible

That way, when all is said and done, you can look back and say, “Did we achieve what we set out to do?” Take a moment with your team to write down your communication goal in one or two concise sentences. This will be the North Star of your plan. Keep it front and center.

Step 2: Know Your Audience (and Be Specific!)

With your goal in mind, the next question is: Who do you need to reach to accomplish that goal? The biggest mistake here is to answer “the general public.” 😅 There is really no such single audience. Communicating effectively to everyone at once is nearly impossible. Instead, identify a specific target audience that aligns with your goal.

For example, if your goal is to influence local conservation policy, your primary audience might be local government officials or environmental policymakers. If you want to inspire young people in science, your audience could be high school STEM teachers or students in your community. Trying to increase your lab’s visibility among peers? Then maybe it’s other scientists in your subfield, or a related industry sector.

“Know your audience” is a fundamental rule of science communication. The intended audience will shape almost every decision in your plan. It’s much easier to craft a clear, resonant message for a well-defined group than for that nebulous “general public.” In fact, communications research strongly advises targeting an audience that is “as discrete and specific as possible.”

For instance, an activity that works great for 8-year-old kids at a school science fair will likely flop if you present it in the same way to retirees at a community center – different groups, different interests and needs.

The more clearly you can picture who you’re talking to, the better you can speak their language. Take some time to really think about your audience. What do they value? What are their demographics, background knowledge, or possible misconceptions? What do they care about in relation to your science? If you’re not sure, do a little homework.

If it’s a lay public audience, maybe talk to a few non-scientist friends or family members and see what they find interesting or confusing about your topic. If it’s a specialized group (like a local birdwatching club, or a patient advocacy group), consider reaching out to someone in that group for insight, or at least put yourself in their shoes.

Science communication pro tip: empathy is your friend. The more you can see the world through your audience’s eyes and not your own, the more effectively you can connect with them.

It can help to create an audience persona – a semi-fictional profile of one representative person in your target group. For example: “Meet Maria, a high school biology teacher who loves bringing real research into her classroom. She’s strapped for time and not an expert in our field, but she’s eager to inspire her students. What does Maria need from us? What format would engage her? What language will resonate with her (or confuse her)?” When you craft your messages (next step), do it for Maria.

This exercise keeps your communication grounded and audience-focused. Write down a clear description of your primary audience. (If you have more than one key audience, you can create additional plans or sub-plans, since one size won’t fit all.) The clarity you gain here will make the rest of your planning so much easier. Want help building audience personas or diving deeper into segmentation strategies? Check out my other blog: Audience Segmentation and Storytelling in Science Communication.

Step 3: Craft Your Key Messages and Story

Now for the fun part – figuring out what you’re going to say. This is where you develop the core messages you want to communicate, tailored to your audience. Essentially: What’s the story you’re telling, and why should your audience care? A helpful approach is to boil your message down using a tool like the Message Box, a framework developed by the science communication organization COMPASS. It forces you to distill your story into five key elements: Issue, Problem, So What?, Solution, and Benefit. Think of it as a simple template to organize your thoughts.

Here’s how it works:

The “Message Box” distills your science into five key elements: the broad Issue or topic, the specific Problem or question you address, So What? (why it matters to your audience this needs to be specific), the Solution or response (what you found or suggest), and the Benefit (the positive outcome or impact). Filling out a message box for your lab’s work helps ensure you cover the context, significance, and payoff of your science clearly. Let’s apply this to an example.

Hypothetically, let's say our lab studies a new method of plastic recycling:

1. Issue (Big Picture Context): Plastic waste in the ocean is a growing environmental problem. (Sets the stage with broad context of interest to audience.)

2. Problem (Specific Question): Traditional recycling can’t handle mixed plastics; tons still end up in landfills. Our lab’s research addresses this specific bottleneck.

3. So What? (Why Should the Audience Care?): If we solve this, we could dramatically reduce pollution and protect marine life. This is important because it links the science to something the audience values.

4. Solution (Our Work and Findings): We engineered a new enzyme that breaks down mixed plastics efficiently. Here’s what we found and how it works in the lab.

5. Benefit (Outcome/Implications): With this enzyme, recycling could become vastly more effective meaning cleaner oceans and a healthier planet for all of us.

Notice how the “So What?” answers the audience-centric question of why it matters. In fact, the “So What?” section is perhaps the most critical part of the Message Box, because it translates the significance of your work into terms that hit home for the audience.

It’s essentially the heart of your story – the reason anyone outside your lab would give a damn about your research. So don’t skip over it! Ask yourself bluntly: “Why should my audience care about this?” and be honest in your answer. If you ever find your communications falling flat, it’s often because the audience can’t see why it matters to them personally. A strong “So What” fixes that.

When crafting your messages, use clear, accessible language. Keep in mind that you are deeply immersed in your research, but your audience isn’t. Avoid technical jargon or, if you must use a technical term, explain it in simple terms. As the message guide notes, use “simple, clear language that is accessible to non-experts” and steer clear of acronyms or lingo that might alienate people. (For example, instead of “stochastic process,” you might say “a random process, like flipping a coin.”)

This doesn’t mean dumbing down your science it means respecting your audience’s perspective and making your ideas graspable to more people than your inner circle. A good trick is to imagine explaining your research to an interested neighbor or a cousin at a family barbecue. How would you describe it in a way that makes their eyes light up instead of glaze over?

Tell a story. Wherever possible, frame your science in a narrative with real-world context. People are wired to respond to stories more than isolated facts.

• Can you share a brief anecdote or example that illustrates what you’re doing?

• Maybe start with a problem scenario (e.g., “Picture a turtle tangled in plastic that’s the problem we’re tackling with our enzyme research.”).

• Use analogies and metaphors to help explain complex concepts (like comparing a new material to something familiar).

• Let your work show some human element. Stories with emotion, stakes, and personality are more likely to land.

• Perhaps you share why you care about this research, or a moment of eureka in the lab.

  
  

These narrative touches make your message more relatable. For more on how to build narrative into your messaging, read this post: Tailoring Messages Using Narrative Techniques.

Finally, focus on just a few key points. It’s tempting to tell every detail of your research, but an overwhelmed audience will remember nothing. It’s often said that people can really only absorb about three main points in one sitting. In fact, one set of science communication tips explicitly advises: “Stick to three points.”

So decide on your three (or so) biggest take-home messages – the things you want your audience to remember – and build your narrative around those. Everything else can be supporting detail, or maybe it doesn’t need to be said at all. Prioritization is key. By the end of this step, you should have a short list of core messages or talking points, shaped into a bit of a story, that you’ll communicate. Try to summarize it in a few sentences or a quick elevator pitch. (Developing a succinct elevator pitch for your work is a great exercise. Can you convey what you do and why it matters in 20-30 seconds? Give it a shot!)

Step 4: Choose Your Channels and Tactics

You know what you want to say – now how will you get the word out? The next part of your plan outlines the communication channels, formats, and tactics you’ll use to reach your target audience. This should align both with where your audience is and what you’re comfortable doing (or can learn to do). Brainstorm all the possible ways to reach your audience.

Here are some examples of channels and activities to consider:

• Digital media: Social media platforms (Twitter..it will never be X to me, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, etc. wherever your audience hangs out), your lab or department blog, YouTube videos, podcasts, webinars, email newsletters. For instance, if your audience is early-career scientists, Twitter (academic Twitter is quite active) or LinkedIn might be effective too. If it’s local community members, maybe Facebook or NextDoor groups are more appropriate.

• Traditional media: Press releases and media pitching (to get news articles written), radio interviews, op-eds or articles in popular press, television news segments. Engaging with journalists can amplify your reach to broader publics. If one of your goals is to inform as many people as possible, an article in a major news outlet could be golden.

• In-person events: Public lectures, open house days at your lab, workshops, science café events at a local pub or library, school visits, conference presentations (for scientific peers or interdisciplinary audiences). Don’t underestimate face-to-face engagement; a well-run public event can create deeper connections.

• Visual exhibits or materials: Posters, infographics, interactive demonstrations, lab tours, or even art-science exhibits. If your lab research is visual or hands-on, invite people to see it (either in-person or virtually via live demos or lab tour videos).

Choose channels that make sense for your audience and goals. For example, if your goal is to get local community support, you might plan an “Open Lab Day” for community members and pitch a story to the local newspaper. If your goal is to reach other scientists in your field, posting a preprint summary on Twitter or doing a talk at a conference might be better tactics. Also consider the format that plays to your strengths (or your team’s strengths). If you have a great on-camera personality in the lab, maybe do short YouTube or TikTok clips explaining your experiments. If writing is more your forte, focus on blog posts or op-eds. One of my personal recommendations is to pick a mode of engagement that suits your goals and also plays to your strengths.

A scientist with a knack for drawing might create compelling infographics, whereas a good conversationalist might shine in a live Q&A or podcast interview. You don’t have to do every channel just prioritize a few that you can execute well.

Another consideration is the level of interaction. Do you want a one-way communication (you broadcasting info) or two-way engagement (dialogue)? Each has its place. A well-written blog article or press release is mostly one-way – great for informing or explaining something succinctly (hopefully you are getting a lot of good info from this!). On the other hand, a Q&A session, Twitter thread, or town hall meeting invites questions and discussion which is better for goals like building trust, addressing concerns, or co-creating solutions. Research suggests that two-way communications (like dialogues or forums) can lead to deeper engagement and even behavioral change, especially if your goal is to encourage action or understanding through discussion. So match the tool to the task.

At this stage of your plan, list out the specific channels and tactics you will use. Be realistic about your capacity because it’s better to do a couple of things consistently and well than to spread yourself too thin on ten different platforms leading to eventual burnout. For each channel, jot a note on what content or activity you will do.

For example:

• “Twitter – share one cool finding or lab life anecdote per week; respond to comments”

• “Local science festival – run a booth with an interactive demo”

• “Department YouTube – upload a 2-min explainer video about our project”

Make sure each tactic ties back to reaching your chosen audience. If it doesn’t, reconsider why it’s on the list.

Step 5: Plan the Logistics – Timeline and Roles

A plan isn’t complete until you get down to brass tacks (as a kid I thought the saying was brass tax lol): when and how all these great ideas will actually happen, and who will do them. This section of your communication plan is about turning strategy into action. First, set a timeline. Some activities might be one-off events (e.g. a talk or open house on a specific date). Others, like social media or blogging, are ongoing. Sketch out a simple schedule for the next 3, 6, or 12 months.

For instance:

• Months 1-2: Develop materials (slide deck for public talk, demo prototype, blog post outlines).

• Month 3: Host Open Lab Day event. Issue press release one week prior.

• Months 4-6: Post weekly social media updates every Tuesday. Publish a bi-monthly blog post (Feb, Apr, June).

• Month 6: Present at community science night in town. Evaluate metrics and feedback, then refine plan for the year.

• Months 7-12: (Repeat ongoing activities, ramp down during holiday if needed, etc.)

• End of Year: Evaluate metrics and feedback, then refine plan for next year.

Having a timeline ensures you pace out your efforts and don’t leave everything to the last minute. It also helps avoid long radio-silence gaps that make an audience lose interest. Use whatever tools work for you – a simple calendar, a spreadsheet, project management app, or good old wall planner. Mark key dates and deadlines (e.g. abstract due dates for events, desired publication dates, etc.).

Next, define roles and responsibilities. Who on your team will handle each task? If you’re a small lab, one person (maybe you) might be wearing many hats – and that’s fine, just be clear about it. Maybe you’ll take charge of the social media accounts and video demos, while a grad student helps with the blog posts, and your lab manager coordinates the open house logistics. If you have multiple people involved, write down each person’s name next to the tasks or channels they own. This creates accountability and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

If you’re solo, consider enlisting help for certain tasks (maybe a university communications officer can help with press outreach, or a student volunteer could film your demo). Also plan any resources or budget you might need. Most academic labs won’t have a huge comms budget, but think creatively. Do you need materials for an event (like printing flyers, or supplies for demos)? Will you offer pizza to entice students to your talk? Even a small amount of funds (from a grant’s outreach portion, for example) can go a long way.

Note any resource needs in your plan and how you’ll meet them. By the end of this step, your communication plan stops being abstract and becomes a concrete roadmap: We know what we’re doing, on what timeline, and who’s doing it. Now there’s only one thing left... actually doing it!

Step 6: Execute, Evaluate, and Evolve

It’s go time – put your plan into action! As you roll it out, keep track of how things are going. This is where those specific goals and metrics you set earlier become really useful. Evaluation doesn’t have to be super formal, but you should regularly check in on your progress. Throughout your plan’s execution, gather whatever metrics or feedback align with your goals. Did that public lecture draw 50 attendees (your goal was 30, yay!). How many people opened or clicked your lab newsletter? Are you getting engagement (likes, shares, comments) on those social media posts? Did any local media pick up your story? Perhaps you even collect qualitative feedback – a few comments from attendees or an email from someone who saw your video and loved it. All of this helps you gauge what’s working and what’s not.

At the end of your timeline (or at some checkpoint, say six months in or any half-way point), pause and evaluate. Revisit the goals you set. How did you do? Maybe you hit some out of the park, while others fell short. That’s okay it’s a learning process. Science communication is often iterative.

Use what you learned to evolve your plan. Perhaps you discovered that your blog posts got little traction, but your hands-on demo at the local museum was a huge hit – that’s a clue to double down on interactive, in-person engagement next time. Or you might find your social media reach is growing, but a particular type of post (e.g. short behind-the-scenes lab videos) outperforms others, so you adjust your content strategy.

Importantly, if you set quantifiable targets, note whether you met them. If not, why? Maybe the target was unrealistic, or maybe the execution or timing could improve. Science communication research encourages an attitude of treating activities as experiments: get feedback, evaluate, and refine continuously.

Don’t view a shortfall as a failure, but as data to inform your next cycle. Also consider any new opportunities that arose. Sometimes success breeds more opportunity e.g., after seeing you speak at an event, a teacher asks if you can visit their class. Or a journalist reaches out for an interview. These can feed into your next iteration of the plan.

Finally, celebrate your successes (even the small ones!). Share the outcomes with your lab members or department. Not only does this validate the effort you all put in, it can also build further support for doing outreach. Maybe your PI or chair will be more inclined to give you time or resources for communication when they see concrete positive results.

Creating a science communication plan isn’t about making your work simpler it’s about making it clearer and more effective for the people who matter. Whether you're trying to reach policymakers, engage local communities, or help students understand your research, a thoughtful plan gives you a foundation to build trust, spark interest, and actually make an impact. If you’re ready to put this into practice, I’ve created a free downloadable you can use to map out your own strategy. It’s flexible, designed for real labs, and includes space to brainstorm and adapt for different audiences.

References & Further Reading:

• AAAS Center for Public Engagement – Communication Toolkit (2018). Helpful guidelines on setting goals, understanding audiences, and avoiding jargon in science outreachgenengnews.com.

• Borowiec, B.G. (2023). Ten simple rules for scientists engaging in science communication. PLOS Comput. Biol., 19(7): e1011251. (Excellent step-by-step advice on planning, including defining goals and targeting specific audiences) journals.plos.orgjournals.plos.org.

• COMPASS Science Communication – The Message Box tool. A framework to distill your message into Issue, Problem, “So What?”, Solution, Benefit. Emphasizes tailoring content to what an audience cares about and avoiding technical jargonbroadsighttracker.cabroadsighttracker.ca.

• National Academies of Sciences, Eng. & Medicine (2017). Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda. (Highlights the importance of aligning communication strategies with specific goals and audiences, and moving beyond the one-size-fits-all “deficit model” of science communication) nap.nationalacademies.org.