Skip to content 2020 Consumer Culture Report by 5W Public Relations reveals that 71% of consumers prefer purchasing from companies that align with their core values, according to Small Business Trends. The relationship between customers and brands is no longer about the exchange of products for payment. Today’s consumers want to engage with a brand they believe that foster diverse audience.
For these reasons, marketers need to pay more attention to improve diversity and inclusivity in their campaigns. Embracing inclusion and diversity in marketing helps brands to reach a broader audience and stand out from the competition. If inclusivity is not a priority in your advertisement, that might be why your advertising needs change.
Marketing used to be pretty simple. You developed a compelling message, used mass media to broadcast that message to large audiences, and grew market share. Mostly, you aimed for the meaty part of the curve, where the law of averages conspired in your favor.
Then came the cable TV era. Audiences fragmented and targeting became the order of the day. Instead of starting with the message, marketers thrived on consumer insight and tried to identify a specific emotional trigger that would win them, loyal customers.
Now mass marketing has shifted to mass personalization and messaging and targeting have given way to activation. It is no longer enough to simply grab attention, we have to hold attention. Today’s marketers need to inspire movements in which their customers become their best salespeople. We need to make a fundamental shift in mental models.
Here are some tips for creating inclusive content marketing campaigns that engage a more diverse audience.
Audit Your Current Content
Before creating a content marketing campaign that features inclusion and diversity, you need to assess your previous strategy. Ask yourself how you would score for inclusivity in your current content. As much as the outcome might not meet your expectations, this step is essential. It helps you identify parts in your marketing strategy that need improvement to ensure your content and ads present diversity.
While you may conduct content auditing on your own or with your team, it pays to consult a third party. You will be sure the results highlight key problem areas and what you can do to diversify your content from social media posts to email newsletters and blog posts.
Know Your Target Audience
It’s easy to try and create a strategy that attracts the ever-increasing diverse audience, but doing so inefficiently, you get poor results. For you to succeed in customer engagement, understanding your target customer should be a top priority. Apart from knowing their age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and location, strive to understand your audience’s lifestyle deeply. Find out which events they attend, know their buying habits and behaviors, and get a clear picture of their neighborhood.
The idea is to know your targeted demographic at a personal level and then diversify your ads. With advanced technologies, you can obtain accurate data about your potential customers without facing many challenges. For example, high-tech analytics will help you get an idea of what consumers like about your brand.
Understand Content Writing vs. Copywriting
As a digital marketer, you are aware of the differences between copywriting and content writing. However, it pays to get a clear understanding of the significant roles content writers and copywriters have in digital marketing. Successful marketers know content writing is the most effective way to create brand awareness and authority online. Publishing informative content helps you attract potential customers, build trust, and eventually convert leads into profitable sales.
With this in mind, you can write inclusive blog posts, product descriptions, white papers, SEO content, and print ads using a language that brings emotion to readers. As a result, prospects convert to loyal customers, and ultimately you establish a strong relationship. On the other hand, copywriting involves creating ads for topics that align with your customers’ interests.
To achieve the best results, copywriters use persuasive language in sales copy, email newsletters, landing pages, and case studies. They also create a call to action messages that help in conversions. Once you know what content writing and copywriting entails, you can focus on writing inclusive content for your customer base.
Diversify Content Creation
Although they are not always easy to write, articles and blog posts are the most preferred content marketing materials. When you write and share interesting and valuable blog posts, you increase the chances of ranking high on Google and other search engines. That is why many companies focus their time and money on written content.
However, committing to only written copy isn’t a good idea. You miss out on reaching an untouched customer base. As an entrepreneur or marketer, you should diversify your content creation. When you provide content in various formats, you can engage your targeted demographic and marginalized groups.
For instance, videos with captions reach those with hearing impairment, while podcasts are suitable for visually impaired audiences. The good thing about diversifying content is that you don’t have to create a new piece for each format. There are ways you can repurpose content like converting a blog into podcast episodes and videos, or video to case studies and blog posts.
Be Mindful of Your Writing Tone
Inclusive copy entails addressing your audience as you would talk to a friend. This tactic is one of the most natural tips to write compelling blog posts, SEO articles, and email newsletters that help you create brand recognition. When you use a conversational tone, you can rest assured customers will engage with your marketing copy because they feel like they’re part of the conversation.
So, instead of using pronouns like “he” or “she” in your content, use the word “you” often. When sharing case studies highlighting a specific gender, opt for gender-neutral pronouns like “they” to ensure your hypothetical customer feels represented.
Build a Diverse Team of Creatives
Building a diverse team means having people with different perspectives, backgrounds, lived experiences, and cultures. After all, the ultimate goal of inclusive marketing is to ensure your brand represents the values that matter most to a diverse customer base. When you prioritize, creating a marketing team that represents all your target consumers, implementing inclusion in your campaigns becomes easy.
With a diverse team, you can spot hidden biases each member of your organization represents before publishing any content that customers might consider inappropriate. Therefore, take time to evaluate your team to ensure your new marketing strategy succeeds. Determine if they are the ideal representative of your brand.
If not, consider recruiting a group of marketers that make conversations broader. For example, if you are clueless about transgender, able-bodied issues and ethnicity, focus on finding marketers who have life experiences.
Don’t Overlook The Power of Images
Diversity is becoming essential in all aspects of content marketing elements, including images on blog posts and social media platforms. While there is no problem in using stock images in your content, creating your graphics and photographs adds a personal touch in your campaigns. In the modern world, consumers tend to engage with companies when they see photos or graphics that portray the world around them. Besides, there is no better way to ensure customers feel valued and welcome in your business than creating custom pictures.
Adding diversity in your imagery also showcases your commitment to structure inclusive marketing strategies. However, like most entrepreneurs, you may not have the luxury to create unique photographs. Fortunately, there are some websites where you can find a variety of images for your ads. All you need to do is search for pictures depending on who your customers are with age, gender, race, ability, and religion in mind. A general rule is to avoid using photographs that portray a negative perspective of a group of individuals or playing along with racial stereotypes.
As the world grows diverse every day, companies must strive to create inclusive marketing campaigns. This is because customers want to feel represented when they engage with your brand. To meet this demand, consider incorporating diversity in images and graphics, and write inclusive copy.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views, or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
