If you clicked on this blog hoping for a simple “hack” to make your marketing more inclusive, think again. However, don’t get discouraged. Sharpening your inclusive marketing lens is one of the most rewarding and impactful things a leader can do.
When I first began my inclusive marketing education, I had no idea where to start. With copious amounts of content on the web discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion, I found starting my educational process a bit overwhelming. However, I quickly learned that inclusive marketing is a journey; one that is filled with failures and successes, ups and downs, but most importantly, a lot of learning.
True efforts for inclusivity are longstanding, but here are 3 ways your team and your efforts can become more intentionally diverse and inclusive today.
Reflect on your team
The first thing to do when creating more inclusive marketing strategies for your company, is to reflect internally on your team. Who are the key stakeholders? Who is not represented in meetings? Whose voices are most amplified when folks gather in groups to speak? Which teammates receive constant recognition? Who might be quiet, reserved, or most often overlooked? Or, worse, not represented at all?
Asking hard questions can feel uncomfortable and while it may feel discouraging at first, reflecting on your team’s diversity is crucial. Lived experiences influence the way we operate and by creating a more diverse team, you can include more perspectives into the conversation.
On the way to broader representation, even knowing important perspectives are lacking can diversify the way folks who are present tend to think.
Create an accessible experience
Creating marketing content that is more accessible brings a broader range of prospects into reach. A few tangible steps towards creating inclusive content are simple, yet impactful. Revising old color pallets, font sizes, and buttons to create a more accessible experience can allow your audiences to engage with the content in a way that works for their needs. This blog here has some great recommendations of where to start in terms of standardizing font sizes and colors for improving legibility.
Of course, colors and fonts are just the beginning. As your team expands on efforts of inclusivity, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provides a list of internationally-recognized standards you can aim to achieve.
Review images and icons
Representation is a foundational pillar of inclusivity. Consider then for your company, how do you portray people in stock photos and icons? Do you have only men represented in icons? Do you have stock photos that reinforce gender or race stereotypes? It is important to make sure that the customer base feels reflected in the content your business produces. Being mindful of who you are using in your marketing campaigns can make for more representative content.
This is a journey about intentionality and learning - picking somewhere to start and getting underway is key. Want help reviewing your marketing strategy for areas of particular opportunity? Reach out! Wheels up can assess and provide suggestions along the way.
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