3 Steps to Make Your Business’s Content More Inclusive

Inclusivity has been an issue for so long, but only recently has it created a loud buzz on social media. People, especially the marginalized, want change, and diversity in content and media is a must-have in today’s world.

Businesses are not exempt, and a company can only be successful if it serves its entire target audience. That means connecting with all customers and letting them feel that they are heard and valued.

In a sense, diversity in the online world means making an effort to reach different demographics. That means accepting all genders, races and ethnicities, sexual orientations, ages, disabilities, and other people’s choices and rights. 

If you want to take this path but don’t know how to start, begin with these three critical steps:

Step 1: Be careful with your language

Instead of using gender-based pronouns in your language, consider shifting to using “you” instead. Besides being inclusive, it encourages a personal relationship with your audience. Your readers will feel more connected with your content and be part of the conversation. 

Using “he” or “she” is an old-fashioned way to write. It also makes some people feel left out. However, that does not mean that you can no longer use the pronoun when talking about a specific person. You still can. However, for those topics that do not have a particular subject or when discussing hypothetical scenarios, you can use gender-neutral pronouns like “they” and “you.”

The pronoun “they” is already accepted when referring to a singular subject, so there is nothing to worry about. It might sound strange first, but it is the best way to make your statements inclusive. 

Before applying this suggestion, think whether your product or service applies to various audiences. If you only serve a specific market, this rule might not apply to you. However, make sure that your content is sensitive to diversity if you cater to a wider audience.

Step 2: Add diversity to your images

Another way to improve your content’s diversity is through a mix of images. If your company relies on stock images for marketing, consider adding more representation. 

When choosing an image, make sure that your audience can see themselves in your content. This move creates significant changes, more than you might realize. The more audiences see themselves represented in your media, the better the affinity your brand builds with them. 

Most images that websites use are photos of happy employees or customers. They are often portrayed by thin, young, white people. If your brand wants to be more friendly to a broader audience, consider adding people of different groups in your image choices.

Step 3: Be diverse with your content

Besides focusing on your language and image use, you can also diversify the content you produce. Blog posts are a must-have for optimizing your website, but there are other forms of content that Google loves. 

More people are getting into watching video blogs or listening to podcasts recently. These add a variety of content and provide opportunities to display inclusivity for your brand. For example, having audio recordings will help you reach vision-impaired customers. Creating video content and adding subtitles will also help you reach people with hearing disabilities. 

When diversifying your content, you do not have to start from scratch again. Use your existing blog posts and record them to create your podcast. If you already have video content, adding subtitles is easy. Link or add this material to your existing blog posts to make them more accessible to all groups of people. 

Conclusion

Making your content inclusive will require more work from your end, but the result will always be worth it. Reaching less represented groups of people is critical to attracting more customers to your products and services. Once you start incorporating these steps into your daily content creation process, everything will go smoothly, and it will be beneficial for both your market and your business. 

If your company needs assistance from digital marketing in Greenwood, contact us at Magnitude Marketing. We can develop strategies to diversify your content and reach more audiences while also helping you grow your revenue. Contact us today to learn how we can help.