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Inclusive Marketing

Considering diversity is critical in helping your business stay relevant and grow in the years to come. Inclusive marketing can make your brand reach a bigger audience, including all different groups of people from all backgrounds. It also helps existing customers to create a stronger bond with your business.

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What is inclusive marketing?

Inclusive marketing is marketing that considers diversity in all forms, creating content that truly mirrors the diversity of the communities that our brands target. This includes age, appearance, ethnicity, gender identity,  physical/mental ability, among other characteristics that define who our customers are.

The global marketplace is also becoming increasingly diverse, and inclusive marketing includes more groups. Inclusive marketing works to reach a larger audience of potential buyers by looking past preconceived notions and prejudices about minority communities.

Embracing diversity in marketing isn’t about simply including diverse groups of people in your images or your ads. It’s not about making a list of who is included. Rather, it’s about reflecting who your audiences are and connecting with them.

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Why is important inclusive marketing?

As our societies become more diverse and interconnected, it’s more important than ever that companies are thoughtful about the messages, images, voices, and values that represent their brands.

Inclusion and diversity in marketing matters for brands who want to show that they care, that they understand what people want to see. As marketers, we spend our time telling people about how our brands offer solutions to their problems. But how can people trust you if your advertisement and marketing campaigns don’t truly represent your audience?

Imagine you sell products or services to small business owners. These business owners can come from any background. Would it be correct  assuming that all your customers are all the same age, gender identity, ethnicity, etc, and promote your brand based on this belief? Of course not.

Inclusive marketing speaks to all groups of people, including marginalized and underrepresented groups in a way that breaks stereotypes. It represents real people in real situations in the real world.

In addition to appealing to underrepresented groups, recent studies show that modern buyers in general not only want to see more diversity in marketing and advertising but consider it as a positive when making purchasing decisions.

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4 inclusive marketing principle

1. Truly represent diversity

People don’t only want to see an image about diversity, they want to feel identified and represented. You have to be mindful of whether the visuals you’re using truly mirror reality.

2. Be considerate of tone and language

Considering tone and language is as important as choosing the visuals. These elements can attract and please the reader, and at the same time can offend. When writing copy for your ads or posts, be mindful of the tone you write in and the phrases you use.

3. Take time to truly understand

You have to consider how to truly represent all those groups you want to approach. To do this authentically you must take the time to understand them, their opinions and experiences, what they believe in, what their traditions and history are. In this way we will create a more positive image and approach a more diverse audience.

4. Include everyone

In inclusive marketing you have to take everyone into account, you can’t reduce everything to a few groups, consider all the characteristics that make someone belong to a group: race, age, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, native language, mental/physical ability, and so on.

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