What is inclusive marketing and why is it so important?

By Emily Grote

Inclusive marketing is about creating meaningful relationships with consumers. When brands champion stories that represent all groups of people, it builds trust. After all, we all want to see ourselves represented in the content that we consume from our favourite brands.

Read on to learn about why it is more important than ever to embrace inclusive marketing and discover some top tips on how you can create campaigns that strike a chord with your audience.

What is Inclusive Marketing?

Simply put, inclusive marketing takes all forms of diversity into account. This includes representing real people of all genders, ethnicities, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, abilities and much more so that you are connecting with everyone that makes up your audience. This creates opportunities for potential customers to empathise with your brand’s message because it truly resonates with them. Also, creating campaigns that lots of people can relate to, means that your content will be seen, shared, and talked about by a larger number of people, widening your audience.

But it’s not just about appearances. Inclusive marketing shouldn’t only be done to tick boxes, it should be a core value of your business. Indeed, Microsoft’s recent inclusive marketing research found that 49% per cent of participants stopped buying from a brand that didn’t represent their values. In other words, in a world so saturated with adverts, consumer choice is more important than ever.

To make sure that your brand doesn’t fall into the trap of developing a ‘one-size-fits-all’ marketing approach, it’s important that your campaigns are relatable to lots of different people. The best way to do this is for your organisation to hire diverse talent. That way, the marketers crafting your campaigns will all have different lived experiences, and points of view, which they can input into the content.

How Can Your Brand Get it Right?

Create thought-led campaigns:

It’s easy to agree that campaigns which are crafted with a well-researched objective, angle and selling point are the most enjoyable to engage with. Spending time researching the best touch points for your audience, is the best way to ensure that your output will resonate with them.

Be inclusive of everyone:

As under-representation in the marketing industry is still a pressing issue, it’s important to include all groups of people. This includes more visible differences, but also people’s experiences that are less obvious, like mental health issues.

Work collaboratively:

Ever heard of the saying two heads are better than one? Well, that applies to inclusive marketing campaigns too, as the more people that have eyes on an idea, the likelier it is that the campaign will be representative of a larger number of people’s lived experiences.

Last but not least, be authentic:

This is probably the most important thing you can take away when looking to diversify your marking strategy. Ultimately, consumers can tell when they’re being pandered to or pushed to engage with a campaign that is only inclusive on a surface level. So, the best way to gain their trust is to be true to your brand ethos, and stick to what you believe in. That way, people who believe in the same values will be drawn to your brand.

Remember that inclusive marketing should never be just for the sake of seeming to be diverse. Instead, making sure that your output is as inclusive as possible can mean that your campaigns are stronger, better received, and resonate with a bigger audience. In short, being inclusive helps your brand, and makes your audience feel seen and heard.

If you want some help planning and implanting an inclusive marketing strategy that will speak to the lived experiences of your audience, make sure to get in contact today.