7 Ways to Incorporate Inclusive Language In Your Marketing
Inclusivity in language can be quite a task for most who don’t understand how to incorporate it within everyday marketing techniques. But when done accurately, you open up the option to actively respect EVERYONE. With careful adjustments to our use of language we can begin to understand all folks in marginalized communities.
Educate yourself. In order to use inclusive language, you need to empathize with its derived importance. Don’t look to marginalized communities to teach you, rather seek your own knowledge and check for understanding. This is essential to gain a full awareness of the concept so that you can incorporate it into your company structure. Remember to listen, digest, and then ask questions. This is a major starting point so don’t take this step lightly!
Why it's important. When it comes down to it, you want to sell and promote a product/service that many people are going to love, but when you close off your narrative and language, you’re only able to reach a portion of your target audience. Therefore, don’t assume that you’re identifying everyone correctly. Rather, look at inclusive language as being ‘effective language’ so your whole audience benefits.
Enhancing Client rapport. We create these bonds when we truly understand who we’re speaking to/with. This will only strengthen when inclusive language is being used. Like mentioned before, the reach will be far more significant, but the trust and relatability will keep your customers around.
They/Them. Pronouns are essential to everyday life for every person. Think about it, everyone has a preferred pronoun and to respect that individual you would want to address them as such. However, when this pertains to marketing it is typical to leave out a whole spectrum of people especially when you're speaking to the masses. Instead of using gender specific pronouns, use they/them to include everyone. Examples of this could look like, ‘The perfect gift for them!’ or ‘Find out what they’d like for this special day!’
Gender Neutral Language. Now that we’ve discussed a little about pronouns, we also need to understand how to market using gender neutral language. Oftentimes, we fall into these grouped labels of gender. For example, when you’re making a speech you might address the crowd as ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ or ‘guys’ but this rejects non-binary individuals altogether. Avoiding these terms benefits the overall increase of gender equality within language. Instead, use words like people, folks, y’all, or even community-specific nicknames like Youtubers do for their fan base.
The color ‘nude’. Although this is most common in the beauty industry companies fail to include different skin tones while portraying something as ‘nude’. Nude, by definition, is ‘color resembling that of the wearer’s skin.’ So, when it is falsely advertised or marketed towards individuals of fairer tones, we exclude other shades of life. Get creative by incorporating other descriptive terms that match the shades of more individuals.
Avoid words referring to disabilities. Using metaphors linked to mental health conditions can be a detriment to inclusive language practices. You may describe things that are outlandish or inconvenient by calling them ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’, however, when this language is used you disregard a marginalized set of individuals with disabilities and more; even calling something depressing is not best practice. Using these terms lightly minimizes the reality of these experiences causing harm to their visibility and awareness.
