How Can Diversity Marketing Help You Reach a Wider Audience?
“Diversity” is quite the buzzword today. It’s a word that has grown in meaning and evolved in reach – and while many business owners want to embrace it, few understand how to do so.
This often leads to one of two extremes, especially when it comes to marketing: either the business ignores it altogether out of fear of “doing it wrong” or goes all in, but in a way that really doesn’t resonate with the people they’re trying to attract.
What is the “right” way to approach diversity in your marketing – and can doing so really help you reach a wider audience?
What Is Diversity Marketing?
In order to answer these questions, we need to first ask a foundational question: what is diversity marketing?
Put simply, diversity marketing pays attention to the segments of your target market, rather than just lumping them all in together.
Gone are the days of designing messaging aimed toward one main buyer group, hoping that you’ll scoop everyone up. As society has changed, different generations are looking for different things. Because of this, brand loyalty is a bit harder to come by – instead of being able to depend on “brand loyalty for life,” many people (especially Gen Z and Millennials) consider their brand loyalty a bit differently.
Diversity marketing takes these things into account. It requires Marketing Teams to dig a bit deeper into who your audience is and what they’re looking for, but it makes a huge difference in the end!
Marketing in an Age of Diversity
It’s important to understand that including “diversity” in your marketing doesn’t stop at choosing pictures that represent a diverse audience or highlighting a few special months throughout the year. (Don’t get me wrong – these are good things to do, and they’re things we’re intentional about – but it doesn’t stop there.)
Being intentional about diversity in your marketing also includes finding authentic “touch points” with your audience – something that can only be done when you take the time to understand them.
Studies show that today’s audiences want to be seen. They want to know that your company aligns with what’s important to them, that they’re dealing with real people.
But how does this work? It will look different for every company, but the main thing to be aware of is that your marketing should be data-driven, authentic, and culturally aware.
Your insights and analytics will give you the data you need; if you’re wondering how to go about this, let us know – we have resources to help you train your team! These numbers will equip you to know what types of content your audience is resonating with and what they want to see more of.
It’s also essential to be authentic in your marketing. This can be challenging, but it’s worth it.
At UYB, this starts with my being intentional about being available to my Marketing Team. If they’re going to effectively market my company, I need to be consistent about setting and communicating the vision, direction, and voice.
It also includes creating a culture which encourages collaboration between team members. One thing I love about my team is how incredibly diverse they are. The UYB Team includes people from around the world, from different backgrounds, viewpoints, and skillsets. By openly encouraging collaboration, we’re able to put all of our strengths to work!
Delivering the Right Content
As stated above, your insights will tell you what types of content your audience is resonating with; however, there are opportunities to dig deeper into what your audience is really looking for.
For example, you’ll be able to tell whether your audience prefers written or video content, but you won’t know their questions, interests, or the information they’re really looking for.
This is where engagement and research come in. Your Marketing Assistant can take care of daily engagement, but during this time, they can also be on the lookout for what types of questions, pain points, and wins your audience is posting about.
By implementing a system that allows them to quickly communicate this information to you and the rest of your Marketing Team (Slack works well for this), you can easily keep up with what your audience is looking for!
Once you have this information, you can create content that is more likely to resonate with your audience. When you plan this out, remember to repurpose it into different forms like graphics, written content, video, and infographics. This allows your audience to engage with your material, even if their learning style is different from yours!
Diversity marketing may take more planning – and perhaps a bit more time – than traditional forms, but it tends to bring in much better results. If our team can help you expand your marketing game, let us know!