How to be more inclusive in your charity marketing

Is your marketing speaking to everyone it should? Or are some people being sidelined by your choice of content, tech or channels?

Diversity and inclusion should be core values for all organisations today, embedded across your policy and practices. 

This blog explores our top six pointers for more inclusive marketing. But don’t just take our word for it – ask the people you want to reach!

1. Think gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, disability, age…

We’re all full of unconscious biases. Like it or not, we’ve got a picture in our heads of who our customers are.

But you need to make a conscious effort to challenge these ideas. All inclusive marketing is an important consideration as a customer could be, for example, transgender, gay, visually impaired, or elderly – and you might not even know it. 

So get training for you and your team, and carry out your own research. Don’t make assumptions. 

Hopefully, you’ll start to change your thinking – and your marketing. 

2. Nurture an inclusive company culture

Too often, inclusive brand marketing is treated as an afterthought, but audiences can spot when your words don’t match your actions. 

Authenticity is increasingly valued: Ernst and Young’s Gen Z Segmentation Study from November 2021 shows that 92% of young people believe that being authentic is very or extremely important. 

For brands, that means examining your HR policy and practices. That could include: changing recruitment practices, improving training, educating leaders, celebrating employee differences, and making your workplaces accessible.  

3. Involve everyone in marketing design

As well as drawing on your colleagues’ insights, you should look outside of your workforce. 

Your service users have invaluable contributions to make, based on their own expertise and  experience. You could also turn to partner organisations and consultants. 

Find ways to involve all stakeholders in developing your brand and campaign – perhaps by setting up working groups. They should help shape key messages, tone of voice, image guidelines and so on. 

This input will lead to a marketing strategy that better reflects what your organisation stands for. 

4. Pick the right channels

You need to go where your audiences are! But these days, there are hundreds of different channels, and you can’t be across all of them. 

So do your research to find the ones that meet your objectives, whether it’s posters in GP surgeries, high impact TV ads, or smartphone videos shared on social media.

Of course, it’s not just about reaching your audience – it’s also about getting them to take your message on board. So when choosing channels, think about where your audience will be in a receptive frame of mind.

5. Make your tech accessible

Despite the fact that more than 14 million people in the UK have a disability, they’re all too often ignored by marketers. 

Make sure your website and other marketing tools meet accessibility guidelines, and consider introducing voice assistants to guide people with visual or certain physical impairments. Connect Assist’s digital experts would be delighted to help you with this. 

6. Choose words and images with care

With all the above foundations in place, you can think about your actual content. 

Do your images show people with disabilities – without portraying them as helpless? Do you picture families who don’t meet the ‘norm’ of mum, dad and two children? 

Now think about your language. Is it easy to read, for example, by people who don’t speak English as their first language? Are you using inclusive terms, and not perpetuating stereotypes?

If you’ve set up an inclusive working group, get their input. Because fundamentally, inclusivity is all about listening, learning, and respecting one another. 

Let Connect Assist boost your social engagement

When it comes to inclusive marketing, social media is a great place to start. Connect Assist uses Oracle Service Cloud to integrate all of your channels into one easy-to-use administration interface, so you can streamline processes and spend more time on what’s important. 

Get in touch to learn more about our cross channel services, and how they could help your charitable organisation.