Consumers are increasingly turning to businesses that prioritize diversity and inclusion. These values not only reflect a commitment to social responsibility but also provide businesses with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As the holiday season approaches, you have the chance to expand your reach by developing an inclusive holiday marketing plan. Here are three tips to help you get started:

1. Choose Neutral Branding and Messaging

People celebrate different holidays in a variety of ways, and recognizing this diversity can help you create a marketing campaign that will connect with more people. By choosing neutral branding and messaging for your holiday marketing, you ensure everyone feels included, build your brand reputation, and appeal to more customers.

Language

Language is an essential aspect of making an inclusive holiday marketing campaign. By using neutral terms, your message will resonate with a larger audience.

Phrases like “Happy Holiday” or “Season’s Greetings” are more inclusive and don’t focus on specific holidays. You could also focus on the appeal of the winter season with phrases like “Warm Wishes.”

Messaging

The messaging and themes you incorporate into holiday marketing also affect how inclusive it is. Focus on things that most people experience around that time of year – whether it be winter sports, getting cozy indoors, or spending time with loved ones.

For example, you could choose a general theme like community, togetherness, gratitude, joy, or the cold winter weather. By highlighting universal values or experiences, you’re able to connect with people, regardless of religion, background, or beliefs. 

Imagery

When designing your holiday content, stick to colours and graphics that are widely relatable. Instead of traditional green and red, use wintery colours like blue, white, and silver. For imagery, you could use photos of families and friends enjoying winter activities and spending time together, for example. This way, your marketing efforts will make everyone feel included.

2. Diversify Your Content

Representation Without Tokenism

Referencing our Accessibility Glossary of Terms for the Workplace, Tokenism is “Actions taken for the sake of appearing to support minorities without meaningful action to engage with and promote them.”

In your business, ensure that you’re fully embracing diversity in your content, messaging, and practices to avoid tokenism. This means engaging with and involving minorities in meaningful ways, and ensuring that your business practices align with its values. Here are just a few ways to be more inclusive in different areas of business:

• Your team – Have a diverse team that reflects the diversity of the audience you want to reach. In doing so, you’ll gain diverse perspectives that will lead to more meaningful, authentic, and relatable content.
• Imagery – Using imagery featuring diverse groups has been known to improve companies’ reputations. In your ads, include individuals who vary in age, body type, ethnicity, and ability. You want to make sure that your depictions of them are authentic and don’t reinforce stereotypes.
• Language – Use inclusive and respectful language, such as using gender-neutral terms where appropriate, being conscious of pronouns, avoiding exclusionary and offensive language, and paying attention to how different communities prefer to be addressed. 

Inclusive Gift Categorization

It’s common to see categories in stores and online, listing items “For Him” or “For Her.” Not only do these categories limit gift choices, but they reinforce harmful gender stereotypes and exclude non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals.

It’s essential to recognize the diversity within your customer base and create an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere. This creates a shopping experience that resonates with more people, which can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Plus, gender-neutral categories encourage customers to further explore your products, potentially leading to increased sales.

Here are some examples of other ways to categorize your products:

• Interests – Organize products by interests so customers can find the perfect gift based on the recipient’s hobbies and passions, like cooking, reading, or fitness.
• Values – Group products based on values. For example eco-friendly products for the environmentally-conscious, or local products whose proceeds go to charity for the community-oriented.
• Lifestyle – Create a category with products that could cater to individuals with varying lifestyles, such as minimalists, travelers, and creatives.

Elevate Others

Partner with inclusive and diverse businesses that contribute to your community or industry. While it seems counterintuitive, connecting with other businesses allows you both to reach new potential customers and even collaborate to create limited-time offers. 

This also gives you the chance to expand your network and build connections with like-minded entrepreneurs. You never know what these relationships could lead to, whether it be joint projects, or shared resources and knowledge. 

3. Ensure Your Marketing Efforts Are Accessible

Creating accessible content benefits everyone, regardless of ability. It can improve user experience, make your content available to more people, and strengthen your connection with your audience. Plus, it can boost user engagement and customer satisfaction. Here are a few ways to make your marketing efforts more accessible:

Online Content

• Subtitles – Including subtitles on video content isn’t just helpful for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Approximately 92 percent of individuals view videos without sound, so subtitles are useful for you to get your message across to everyone.
• Alt-text – Alt-text provides brief text descriptions of images, making visual content accessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision. These descriptions are used by screen readers to convey the content and context of an image. 
• Image descriptions – Similar to alt text, image descriptions can be more detailed and expressive, offering a fuller understanding of visual elements. While alt text is typically concise, image descriptions can include more personality and depth.
• User-friendly interfaces – Having simple, user-friendly interfaces can be helpful for users, allowing them to focus more on your website or content. 

Events

Planning an accessible event means more than just choosing a location that meets basic accessibility standards. Here are some more things to keep in mind throughout the planning process:

• Physical space – Ensure the space has ramps, elevators, and accessible entrances and exits.
• Sensory considerations – When choosing a location and planning an event, be mindful of lighting, disruptive background noise, and other factors that may affect individuals with sensory sensitivities. You may consider creating quiet areas or low-sensory rooms for people who need a break from the event.
• Printed material – If your event involves handouts, design them with easy-to-read fonts and high contrast to make them more accessible. Also, offering information in alternative formats like braille or large print would be helpful for attendees who are blind or have low vision.
• Sign language interpreters and captioning – Having inclusive communication options like interpreters and captioning make the event inclusive for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Plus captioning can help individuals with ADHD, those learning English, people with auditory processing disorders, and more.
• Online participation – Offering an option for online participants is great for those with busy schedules or who may face barriers to attending the event in person.

For more information on accessibility, check out our Workplace Accessibility Resources page.

More Holiday Preparedness Resources

With the holiday season approaching, is your business prepared? There’s still lots of time to set your business up for success.

Check out our page, Preparing Your Business for the Holidays, to find more ways to get ready for the holiday season.

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