A diversity marketing strategy is not necessarily a marketing campaign, but more of a foundation for all other marketing campaigns you do. When your organization is committed to diversity in digital marketing, it will show up in everything you do. Consumers want to do business with companies that share their beliefs and are clearly committed to inclusion. It’s easy to go overboard with your diversity marketing strategy and look inauthentic as a result. We’ve discussed several factors to consider when thinking about your diversity marketing efforts.

Your Organization Should Embrace Diversity

You don’t have to fire everyone currently in your organization for the purpose of hiring a more diverse team. However, your current team needs to be on the same page and embrace diversity from within. The stronger your culture is internally, the more authentic it will appear to the outside world. Sometimes this might mean hiring someone from a different culture to help your team appreciate diversity. Your company’s success with diversity in digital marketing will depend mostly on how strong the culture is within your organization and how dedicated your employees are to fostering diversity.

Base Inclusive Marketing Decisions From Data

Collecting data and using it for marketing purposes is not a new concept. When developing a diversity marketing strategy, data should play a major role in shaping the decisions and campaigns you choose to pursue. You can gain some valuable insights into different cultures to truly understand what they are all about. Without this solid information, you could end up being offensive unintentionally, which could damage your reputation instantly.

Avoid Creating Bias Or Barriers

The language you use in your inclusive marketing efforts needs to be spot-on. This comes with understanding your audience, while being very careful to not exclude other audiences. If you work so hard at including one culture, other cultures might believe you are biased toward them. This will create unintended negative consequences and potentially put barriers between you and your audiences. Your diversity marketing strategy needs to be authentic and targeted, while refraining from creating bias or barriers.

Get Your Customers Involved

One of the best inclusive marketing strategies is to get your customers involved. If you want to highlight a particular culture or group of people, find a customer who is a part of the culture. Ask them to create some content for your website or social media platforms to talk about what beliefs they represent. There’s no better way to demonstrate your efforts to foster a diverse culture than to highlight customers of various cultures. This can also help you collect data on how your target audience reacts to the message so you can shape future marketing campaigns.

Educate Your Organization To Be Authentic In Diversity Marketing

Don’t hesitate to ask customers or other influential figures to speak to your organization about diversity. Being authentic with diversity marketing means knowing the ins and outs of a particular culture. Too many companies make the mistake of thinking they are being inclusive by highlighting a particular culture, but they are actually being offensive. When your organization is educated in a specific culture, it can portray messages effectively. The goal is to promote diversity and inclusivity without offending anyone, which can be challenging at times.

Create Clear Goals For Accountability

It’s human nature to only be interested in your own culture. This doesn’t mean you don’t care about other cultures, but rather, you might not be interested in learning about cultures that aren’t relevant to you. When you’re serious about inclusive marketing, this is a challenge you will have to face head-on with your employees. It starts with creating goals to keep them accountable for learning about different cultures. Teamwork is vital when creating a diverse organization and your team will be much stronger when everyone is held accountable.

Diversity Should Be A Priority

Half-hearted marketing attempts will be very clear to different audiences, and especially the audience you’re trying to target. By making diversity a priority in your organization, you won’t have to try as hard to spread your intended message. When diversity is a core value and belief, your marketing efforts will become natural. It’s a process that will take time and diligent efforts, but it is well worth it in the end.

Never Hesitate To Seek Assistance With Diversity Marketing

Don’t give up on your diversity marketing strategy if there are too many hurdles to overcome. Changing the mindsets of employees can be one of the most challenging things to do. As you’re in the process of building a culture of diversity, don’t hesitate to seek assistance from an outside marketing company. It could be beneficial for your team to see examples of what diversity marketing looks like. Over time, your team should look at diversity marketing as being more natural to them and your organization as a whole will benefit as a result. 

At iwebcontent, we have a unique ability to cater to a specific audience without disregarding other cultures or audiences. Our marketing team understands diversity and how it can be used to your benefit. And we also understand exactly what could have negative consequences. If you’re ready to foster a culture of inclusivity with your brand, contact us today to learn how we can help make the process easier.