Working in marketing, you’ve probably noticed things aren’t quite working the way they used to. Buyers are spending longer researching
people-first marketing
In this blog, we’ll explore what that looks like in practice, and how interviews, podcasts, webinars and video
Why “People-First” Matters in Scientific Marketing
In the Science, Engineering and Healthcare space your audience is trained to question:
Does this claim hold up?
Will this work in my environment?
What is the credibility of the people behind this?
People-first marketing builds trust because it does two things at once:
It centres the human reality behind technical decisions
It puts real expert voices at the front of your content, not just brand copy.
It's authenticity you can feel. And it shows up across the whole journey, from first touch to evaluation, implementation, and renewal.
What People-First Marketing Actually Looks Like
People-first marketing isn’t “being casual” or trying to look relatable. It’s much simpler than that. It means you build content and campaigns around:
Start with conversations, not campaigns
Here’s the key point: people-first marketing works best when it’s built from conversations.
Not because conversations are “nice to have”, but because specialist audiences trust real people explaining real work in their own words.
At AZoNetwork, people-first content usually comes to life through a handful of formats that already fit neatly into how scientific audiences learn and engage. Here’s what each one looks like.
Insights from Industry interviews: your internal expertise, turned into evergreen content
Insights from Industry interviews tap into the expertise within your own team and convert it into powerful, evergreen marketing content.
This is often the best starting point for people-first marketing, because it puts your technical expertise and credibility at the forefront.
Read an example Insights from Industry Interview here
They’re people-first because they humanize complex subjects and show how your team thinks, solves problems, and makes decisions. The best Insights from Industry interviews are not product pitches and feature-bashing.
They major on:
What you’re seeing in the market (new applications and techniques)
What teams are getting stuck on (accuracy, reproducibility, throughput)
What decisions matter most (and why)
What you’d tell someone trying to solve this problem today
The result is the kind of content your audience actually spends time with, because it resonates with their day to day issues.
Learn more about Insights from Industry Interviews
Thought Leader interviews: credibility and context from the people your audience already respects
Thought Leader interviews highlight respected academics, researchers, or end users who are already engaging with your products or services.
These interviews build people-first trust in a different way: they shift the spotlight away from your brand and onto the wider community.
Read an example Thought Leader Interview here
They work because they add third-party experience, expertise, authority and trust. The best Thought Leader interviews don’t read like endorsements. They read like insight:
What’s changing in practice
What’s harder than people admit
What teams keep getting wrong
What they’d do differently next time
Learn more about Thought Leader Interviews
Podcasts: long-form trust building that fits into real life
Podcasts are one of the most natural people-first formats because they fit into the gaps in a specialist’s day. Your audience can listen at their desk or on the commute, but the bigger benefit is what audio does emotionally: A voice heard regularly becomes familiar. Familiar becomes trusted.
Podcasts are especially strong for:
Making complex subjects feel accessible
Bringing personality and humanity into technical topics
Building ongoing thought leadership seamlessly
Download the Podcast Product Pack
And when you plan it properly, it’s not “just another channel”. One good episode becomes: An article, an email, a short clip, a social post. It quietly powers your entire content engine.
Webinars: education-first engagement that earns attention
Webinars are where people-first marketing becomes very visible, very quickly, because your audience gets to interact with you directly.
The most effective scientific webinars:
Teach something useful
Acknowledge constraints (validation, integration, compliance, workflows)
Give space for Q&A
Don’t dodge difficult questions
That last one matters. A strong Q&A is one of the most authentic things a brand can do, because it shows you’re not just presenting… you’re listening.
If your goal is meaningful engagement (not just clicks), webinars are one of the best formats you can invest in. Learn more about deep engagmnent and webinars here .
Download the Webinar Product Pack
Video services: professional content that still feels human
There’s a big difference between “polished” and “salesy”. In marketing, the best video feels professionally produced, but still grounded in real expertise. Because your audience is asking:
Who’s behind this?
Can they explain it clearly?
Do they understand the practical realities?
Is this a team I’d trust?
VIDEO
People-first video formats that strike that balance include:
Expert interviews with technical specialists and end users
Insight-led short clips pulled from longer conversations
Workflow explainers that show applications and decision points
Implementation stories that focus on what changed and why
The aim is to communicate your expertise in a way that feels both credible and approachable.
Learn more about Video Services
How to combine formats to stay people-first (and cost-effective)
One of the easiest ways to make people-first marketing sustainable is to stop thinking in “separate deliverables” and start thinking in:
When you plan for reuse upfront, you get more value from the same expert time, without diluting credibility.
Here are a few cost-effective combinations that work particularly well:
Record one expert interview once and use it across channels Film an expert interview, and publish it as a written interview, turn it into a podcast episode and clip it into clips for social.
Turn webinars into multiple assets (without extra filming days) A single webinar can become a written interview or Q&A-style article (built from the talk track and audience questions) or a podcast-style “webinar recap” episode.
Use Q&A as your content engine The best content topics are often already inside your webinar Q&A and interview follow-ups:
“Top 5 questions we got asked about…”
“What teams get wrong about…”
“How to approach X when you’re dealing with Y constraint…”
This keeps everything grounded in real audience needs (people-first) while reducing content planning time.
Create a “snippets” workflow for always-on social Pull short, insight-led clips from Interviews (internal or Thought Leaders), Webinars and PodcastsThen package them as:
30–60 second video clips
Quote graphics
Short text posts with a clear takeaway
This gives you consistent visibility without inventing new topics every week.
Build a themed series instead of one-offs Choose one priority theme (e.g. validation, scale-up, adoption barriers, workflow efficiency) and run it across formats:
An internal Insights from Industry piece to set the foundation
A Thought Leader interview to add authority
A webinar to go deeper and answer questions live
Clips and cutdowns to keep the theme active for weeks
The big win here is that you’re not paying repeatedly to “create content.” You’re investing once in expert-led conversations, then repackaging them in the formats your audience prefers, while keeping the message consistent across every touchpoint.
Ready to Build a People-First Content Engine?
If you’re aiming to build a stronger presence with specialist audiences this year, people-first marketing is a solid foundation to build on.
Speak to our team to plan a people-first approach that keeps your message consistent and your content working harder.
