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Your marketing needs more than one perspective: the importance of diversification in marketing
It’s no surprise that consumers expect more from the brands they’re supporting.
Recent years have shone a light on the broken and unethical systems that are in place in our society and the general public, particularly younger generations, want to support brands who are instead demonstrating values like diversity, accessibility and inclusion.
As business owners, it’s our job to respond to this public demand, and ensure we’re making authentic diversity and accessibility a priority in our marketing. (Not just because it’s being demanded, but because it’s the right thing to do).
Here are a few common issues that I see far too often in marketing.
It’s no surprise that consumers expect more from the brands they’re supporting.
Recent years have shone a light on the broken and unethical systems that are in place in our society and the general public, particularly younger generations, want to support brands who are instead demonstrating values like diversity, accessibility and inclusion.
As business owners, it’s our job to respond to this public demand, and ensure we’re making authentic diversity and accessibility a priority in our marketing. (Not just because it’s being demanded, but because it’s the right thing to do).
That means not only promising to address inequalities or to make changes in support of a more inclusive experience for consumers, but actually committing to seeing this change through.
Here are a few common issues that I see far too often in marketing.
Lack of understanding and/or research of inappropriate symbols, words, and practices
It’s imperative to do your due diligence when creating marketing materials. There shouldn’t be just one set of eyes running over content!
Especially if you’re making reference to something that you don’t have first-hand experience with, it’s your responsibility to ensure that what you’re sharing is appropriate and will be well-received by the group impacted.
A clear example of this is the unfortunate use of the puzzle piece symbol in autism awareness marketing. This symbol was adopted by numerous organizations, most notably Autism Speaks, to “represent” autism.
However, the puzzle piece symbol is often seen negatively by autistic people, as it indicates that there is something puzzling or mysterious about autism.
Beyond that, Autism Speaks as a corporation has somewhat of a history of questionable actions related to autism. The puzzle piece symbol therefore is often a reminder of this organization and the inappropriate and tone-deaf messaging they disseminated through much of their past marketing, framing autism as a tragic condition and autistic people as a burden on those around them.
In a similar way, those involved in or knowledgeable about the autistic community would likely know the importance of using identity-first language in messaging, rather than person-first language.
Identity-first language is that which puts a person’s condition or disability before the person, like “autistic child,” rather than, “children with autism.”
While for a period of time person-first language was being pushed, the majority of autistic people, experts, and advocates now prefer identity-first language because,
While people’s individual preferences are always the priority, using person-first language or a puzzle piece symbol when creating public marketing campaigns centered around autism is an indication to the larger community that you aren’t knowledgeable about the group you claim to be speaking to.
Of course, we’re simply using autism here as an example of the variety of intricacies and potential perceptions that can be communicated through content among groups of different abilities, cultures, and backgrounds.
If you don’t have first-hand knowledge of the group you are trying to speak to in a campaign or messaging, it’s up to you to do the appropriate research to ensure you’re presenting the information in appropriate ways.
Surface-level campaigns that don’t represent real impact or change
It’s not enough to simply talk about creating change or impact.
Consumers are incredibly smart, intuitive, and resourceful, and don’t want to be supporting companies who are making empty promises about inclusiveness or diversity.
In fact, results from a recent Deloitte study show that, “57% of consumers are more loyal to brands that commit to addressing social inequities in their actions.”
That means not going “full rainbow” every June for Pride month if you’re not walking that talk behind the scenes, or talking about how Black Lives Matter if you’re not practicing diverse hiring and promotion, including outsourcing vendors, changing your policies, donating to relevant organizations, and establishing metrics for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
I spoke about this more in my blog, authentic inclusion and activism aren’t tied to a calendar, but the bottom line is that inclusion and activism aren’t marketing strategies.
They’re either done for real because they’re at the core of your company values and you’re dedicated to committing appropriate time, energy, and resources towards them, or they’re not done at all.
Lack of flexibility and accessibility in marketing content and service delivery
Beyond careful planning, research, and intention when it comes to what’s included in the content itself, it’s also important to mention the importance of being flexible and accessible in marketing and service delivery.
For example, although it’s a big job and will take time and resources to complete, website and content accessibility standards need to be taken into consideration when building out your marketing.
While in general the introduction of the internet has enabled more people to access information, not everyone’s experience has been the same.
Digital accessibility is the principle of designing websites and information to ensure that users with diverse abilities have an easy and enjoyable online experience.
Those standards include everything from using the right amount of colour contrast so your content is readable, to providing alt text for images on your website so they can be interpreted by screen readers, to including transcripts for media content, to choosing simple-to-read fonts and providing the option to increase font size and spacing.
This also extends to having flexibility in how you deliver information through the process of working with clients.
From offering to record sessions and generate transcripts, to being transparent in and communicating how you work and the expectations you hold, to asking your clients what their expectations are and how they best receive information, your clients deserve accommodation based on their needs and abilities.
While you may not be able to predict and adequately prepare for every potential user or client experience, it’s your responsibility to do your due diligence in the initial creation of your campaigns and content, and then to have an openness to shift your practices as needed for the good of your reader(s) and/or client(s).
Right now, there isn’t an adequate understanding of accessibility needs or how to address them, especially for the smallest businesses and organizations (this includes me). However, I do believe this is going to be increasingly important for maintaining your place in search results as technology gets better at enabling us to provide accessible accommodations to our audiences.
Your marketing needs more than one perspective
Above all, anything that happens in a marketing context should include input from the groups affected. If you aren’t that person, then you need to be resourceful about finding someone (or a group of people) who is/ are.
It’s also your responsibility to make sure employees don't feel coerced to participate if they're uncomfortable!
Utilize your network, hire appropriately, spend time researching, learning, and unlearning where you need to, and don’t put out any content that you haven’t done your due diligence with.
Not only is a lack of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion in your marketing disrespectful on a basic human-level, but it’s also going to negatively impact your business and bottom line.
Voice, tone, and style (oh, my!): What they are and why you should care
Voice. Tone. Style. These words get thrown around a lot in marketing circles but what do they mean for you? If you want to build a strong brand, they mean a lot. These three little words have the big job of helping shape your brand through the words you use and the personality behind them.
What will your audience see in your words? How will they describe your business and perceive your organization as a result of how you put your message out into the world?
Voice. Tone. Style. These words get thrown around a lot in marketing circles but what do they mean for you? If you want to build a strong brand, they mean a lot. These three little words have the big job of helping shape your brand through the words you use and the personality behind them.
What will your audience see in your words? How will they describe your business and perceive your organization as a result of how you put your message out into the world?
The voice, style and tone decisions should start with how you want to be known. You will never have full control over what people think of your brand, but you can influence it through the choices you make.
As you make decisions, it’s important to be honest about what’s realistic so you don’t end up with a misalignment between what you want and what you can do/maintain. Otherwise, your brand will just come off as insincere. This is what happens when a brand that’s conservative and reserved tries to be fun. They may just come off as flippant and that’s not a good impression to make.
A case study in setting voice, tone and style
Let’s say we have a company, ABC Corp, and they’re a B2B SaaS business selling to mid-market and enterprise corporations. The end-user can be anyone from an individual contributor to manager to executive. The champion and the one with the primary problem is usually a mid-level manager. They’ve got some purchasing power, but for this tool they’ll need additional buy-in from their exec to get approval.
I’m being intentionally vague about what area of the business they’re in for now. It gives us freedom to explore different directions we can go with establishing the voice, tone and style of the brand.
Voice: How do you want to portray your brand?
I like to start at the top with the voice of the brand because it’s going to influence decisions you make about style and tone. The voice of your brand where your personality comes through. It’s injected in your content in different ways - through words, visuals, even the processes you establish for dealings with customers and prospects.
Your voice is the brand’s inherent personality and the style and tone of your content help add colour and texture to the big picture of your business. So, how do you establish what each one means for your organization and make them work together cohesively across all your content?
A brand voice can be friendly, helpful, technical, intellectual, or any number of other descriptors that fit your company. When I’m talking with clients about building their brand, I ask for words they want people to use to describe them. This is to establish a guideline for their brand voice.
ABC Corp: They want to be perceived as an approachable, knowledgeable, and friendly brand with some occasional fun mixed in.
Tone: How do you express your brand’s voice?
If content is king, then context is queen. The expression of your brand’s voice changes in different contexts and settings. Having a good understanding of the voice and how to switch up the tone is important to creating compelling content for any medium. But this is something many brands haven’t quite mastered.
Social platforms are built for casual promotion and conversation. The speed of content is fast and furious and it’s a great place to make connections with customers, evangelists, and potential customers.
But what tone resonates with them? Would you adopt a conversational, business casual, or corporate tone?
If you’re using the same tone on Twitter that you use in a white paper, you might not be getting much traction with your social presence. That said, it’s part art, part science. The lifespan and agility of social leaves room for testing the waters with tone and content. If formal works better than casual for your particular audience, by all means keep it formal and technical!
ABC Corp: Most of their content is going to be conversational to business casual. In particular, they want to keep social and blog posts very conversational to promote engagement. Their digital assets (ebooks, white papers, etc.) will sometimes adopt more of a business casual tone as they take a deep dive into educational content.
Style: What are your preferences for communicating information?
Determining the style your content takes isn’t always easy, but it’s by far the least subjective aspect to establishing preferences for your brand.
It’s easy to tell someone to write content with a friendly voice in a corporate tone but everyone’s going to interpret those instructions differently based on their personal experiences and perspectives.
However, your style guidelines are the mechanics of writing copy. They’re the standards you adopt to ensure consistency. When I’m working on style guidelines, I usually start with an existing guide (AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style) as a baseline.
With the selection of a reference resource, I use the corporate style guide to define any exceptions. This is a good way to settle whether the Oxford comma is necessary, unnecessary or used only for clarity. Or perhaps you don’t like the way AP formats bulleted lists. Your corporate style guide is a living document you get to adjust to suit your business.
It’s also a good place to set standards for how your products should be written out, including instructions for when and where any registered or unregistered marks should be added. Here are a few other good items to include in your style guide:
Messaging, words, or phrases that are no longer used/applicable - this includes products/services
Regional spellings of words specific to your industry
Instructions for capitalization in headlines and headings
If you’re using an established style guide like AP or Chicago Manual, it might seem redundant to include grammar, spelling and punctuation guidelines as well. However, it can be really helpful to throw in a handful of explanations and samples you see come up regularly or particularly important rules for quick reference.
ABC Corp: They’ve started a writing style guidelines document for their content creators and editors to use as a reference. Because the vast majority of their audience is in North America (especially the U.S.), they’ve adopted the AP Stylebook with some supplementary preferences and instruction included in their internal guidelines.
What will your audience see in your words?
The goal is for your audience to see a brand that’s consistent with its voice, style, and tone. And, when combined with the message they’re putting out into the world, it feels authentic and relatable to the people you want to help. When you do this you’ll have nailed one of the key components of great content that resonates.
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Not sure where to start with establishing tone for your brand? My next post will give an overview and samples of three of the most common tones used in business writing. Stay tuned!