Greg Boone, newly appointed CEO of digital marketing and branding agency Walk West, is an industry leader who says, “I’m AI serious, so get AI curious.” Named by NC Tech as tech executive of the year in 2018, Boone believes AI should be used responsibly and strategically to enhance, not replace, human ingenuity. He and his Walk West team are leveraging AI-powered tools to streamline processes, improve real-time collaboration and ensure efficient time management.  

Boone recently sat down with Amber Keister, Content Strategist at The Diversity Movement, to discuss how marketers—and organizational leaders—can navigate this new era with innovation and integrity. 

Amber Keister: Marketing and creative services are leading industries in adopting artificial intelligence. How do you see AI transforming the marketing industry? In other words, how big a deal is this? 

Greg Boone: AI is a massive deal in marketing. It has been used behind the scenes for years in paid media and other areas. The rise of generative AI has democratized intelligence, making it accessible to everyone. But it’s not just transforming marketing—it’s changing every business, profession, and life. 

Marketing always adapts to consumer behavior. The pandemic accelerated e-commerce adoption, and AI is following a similar pattern. As people integrate AI into their daily lives and jobs, they will expect marketing to meet them where they are. This will transform how we go to market, advertise, and attract customers.  

For example, marketers have aimed for hyper-personalization at scale for the last 10 to 15 years. Now, with AI, we can move beyond general personas to truly individualized marketing. Instead of targeting broad groups, AI allows us to tailor content and messaging to individuals based on their specific preferences and behaviors.  

You’d be foolish to not use these tools, number one, because of the productivity gains that allow marketers to create content at scale, and number two, to know what consumers really want. The tools are here to actually bring hyper-personalization to scale, and I think it’s going to radically transform marketing for the better. 

Amber Keister: Can you give me an example of hyper-personalization? 

Greg Boone: Let’s say you’re a B2B marketer targeting a specific industry and role. AI enables you to gather real-time insights about an individual—what they post on social media, what they engage with—and craft highly personalized emails, campaigns, or social posts in seconds. Instead of using broad personas, AI allows marketers to create messages that directly reflect what an individual has shared publicly. 

It applies to e-commerce as well. If I wear a size 14 shoe, I don’t want ads for shoes that don’t come in my size. Similarly, a grocery store shouldn’t send meat promotions to a vegan. AI allows brands to understand customers on a deeper level, finally achieving the long-discussed goal of true personalization. 

Amber Keister: Let’s shift to inclusive marketing as Walk West has been a leader in this space. A major concern with AI is built-in bias. How do you ensure inclusivity when using AI marketing tools? 

Greg Boone: Bias in AI isn’t surprising because AI is trained on data created by humans, and humans have biases. The key is acknowledging this and ensuring that there’s a human in the loop to review and refine AI-generated content. As that is happening, that person is educating the machine, training it to be less biased. But you also have to educate your team to spot bias in AI-generated content.  

Amber Keister: That’s a great point. Even as we use these tools and integrate them more in our daily work, we need to be aware of inclusive bias. We have to review what the AI gives us. 

Greg Boone: AI can also serve as a bias checker in real-time. For example, if I’m unsure about inclusive language, I can use an AI tool trained on diversity principles to review my message and suggest improvements. Tools like Gemini in Google Workspace already offer this functionality, helping users refine their language before sending an email or publishing content. 

Often, people are more willing to take advice from the machine, rather than another person, because AI feedback eliminates shame or embarrassment. When a machine corrects us, there’s no fear of judgment, making it easier to accept and learn from the feedback. 

People like to knock the machine, but it can, at times, make us more human. For example, if you say “please” and “thank you” in your gen AI prompts, you tend to get better responses. That behavior will then transfer to your human conversations. A lot of times on Slack, messages, and text, we’re more informal, even rude. Now, people are realizing that their interpersonal communication has improved, because they’ve gotten into the habit of saying “please” and “thank you.” 

Amber Keister: What about authentic storytelling—a cornerstone of marketing? How can marketers maintain authenticity while increasingly relying on AI? 

Greg Boone: Marketers need to focus on what makes us human. AI can handle repetitive tasks, but creativity, compassion, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication remain uniquely human strengths. 

One of AI’s greatest benefits is flipping the time equation. Knowledge workers spend 50–60% of their time searching for information, copying and pasting, or reformatting data. None of that is truly creative or authentic work. If AI can automate those mundane tasks, marketers gain 10 to 20 more hours per week to focus on strategy, storytelling, and human connection. By offloading routine work to AI, marketers can invest more time in crafting compelling narratives, engaging with customers, and fostering real relationships. 

Think about it: What makes us human? What makes us more authentic? It’s not doing busy work. Authentic storytelling isn’t about avoiding AI—it’s about using it to enhance creativity and move from the mundane to the mind-blowing. 

Amber Keister: That’s a great way to approach the technology, using AI to create more time for high-level, creative work. Is there anything you’d like to add about marketing innovation? 

Greg Boone: By the end of 2025, hiring managers in marketing and other fields will be evaluating job candidates based on how effectively they use AI to improve productivity.  

The idea that someone is more authentic and more human because they don’t use AI is a false narrative. If you refuse to use AI, you’ll be highly unproductive, spending time in front of your computer instead of making authentic human connections. Imagine if you had more time for lunches, water cooler conversations, or quick phone calls. 

Another critical factor is the intersection of employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX). You can’t deliver great customer experiences if your employees don’t have the tools and resources to succeed. AI provides opportunities to enhance employee training, streamline operations, and create a more engaging workplace culture. 

The biggest challenge right now isn’t AI capability—it’s adoption. Organizations struggle to implement AI effectively because their teams resist change. As much as I talk about hyper-personalization, increased creativity, and better customer experience—AI is not being integrated fast enough. If leaders don’t bring their entire organization up to speed, they won’t ever get there.   

Amber Keister: That’s an important point. Some companies are still hesitant to embrace AI. 

Greg Boone: And they don’t have a lot of time. The AI tsunami is coming, whether businesses see it yet or not. The “earthquake” happened two years ago with the rise of generative AI. If you’re standing on the beach waiting to see the wave, it’ll be too late. Now is the time to act.  

To discover how senior leaders, managers, and HR professionals can proactively shape an AI-powered workplace that fosters trust, inclusion, and connection, watch “The People Impact of AI: Does AI Help or Harm Employee Engagement?” available now, on-demand. Greg Boone and other webinar panelists will discuss strategies to maximize AI’s benefits, while safeguarding engagement, well-being, and workplace relationships. 

The post Q&A with Greg Boone: AI’s Impact on Marketing and Inclusive Strategies appeared first on The Diversity Movement.

We’ve moved! You can find the full episode here.

“Diversity Beyond the Checkbox” is presented by The Diversity Movement and hosted by Inc 200 Female Founders award winner, Jackie Ferguson.

This show is proud to be produced by Earfluence.

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Marketing leaders who rise to these challenges are the strategists and business operators who can configure their teams to understand their customers while fostering collaborations that deliver results. Enter a new type of role—the inclusive marketing leader.

Inclusive leaders assemble and sustain high-performing teams that create powerful messages that connect with target audiences while generating demand. Effective leaders value the presence and participation of a diverse creative team to understand multiple customer segments. For example, a creative team with a member who shares a customer’s ethnicity is 152% more likely than another team to understand that customer’s needs.

Inclusive leaders hire for culture add, rather than culture fit, and they are savvy enough to recognize when they need additional guidance. When inclusive marketers lack information about specific target audiences, they work with partners outside their organization to craft messages that are appropriate and authentic.

The creation of powerful marketing campaigns requires an innovation culture that balances marketing insights with teamwork. Culture is the biggest driver of employee engagement and worker productivity, and by definition, inclusive leaders establish healthy, trust-based workplace cultures to foster creativity. High-performing teams, guided by inclusive leaders, elevate diverse perspectives, which drive innovation, efficiency, and quicker, better decision-making.

“Being an inclusive leader isn’t just about your personal journey; it’s about fostering an environment where everyone’s experiences are valued,” says Edessa Polzin, the Manager of Learning Partnerships at the American Marketing Association (AMA). 

Here are six tips to become an inclusive marketing leader who builds high-performing teams.

1) Connecting With Teams Through Authentic Communication

Drawing from their communication skills in reaching prospects and customers, inclusive marketing leaders build internal support for new initiatives and craft compelling narratives that drive customers to act. This requires selling ideas within the marketing team as well as creating messages that reach customers. However, communication involves more than creating a persuasive message. True communication is a two-way exchange, one that requires deep listening and a willingness to mindfully and respectfully connect with another person.

Inclusive leaders approach interactions with empathy. They use inclusive language to demonstrate their respect and care for other people, and they listen to other perspectives before launching campaigns. 

On the advice of two women bloggers, fans of Stanley’s Adventure Quencher Travel Tumbler, the 110-year-old brand expanded its target audience and increased its annual revenues from $75 million to $750 million. Long popular among outdoor workers and adventurers, Stanley partnered with online influencers and is now a favorite with women who collect its colorful reusable travel mugs. 

2) Gathering Multiple Viewpoints and Perspectives

The creative process that leads to great marketing concepts hinges on synthesizing information and enabling the free-flowing exchange of ideas. From agencies partnering with clients to in-house professionals building an internal brand, marketers have to collaborate to generate persuasive messages that resonate with audiences. 

“Inclusive leadership means being open to many different perspectives and knowing that it’s not just about how I believe something should be thought of or done, even with the best of intentions. It means thinking about how others feel,” says Abha Bowers, Chief Growth Officer at Walk West, a marketing and branding agency.

Within their own teams, leaders can use questions to solicit a wide range of opinions and perspectives. Questions can also be used to identify the target customer more clearly, highlight assumptions when creating messaging, and reveal knowledge gaps that can lead to missteps. Not only does involving all team members in the decision-making process lead to more effective outcomes, but it also fosters a greater sense of camaraderie and shared purpose. 

3) Understanding and Bridging Cultural Gaps

Cultural intelligence enables marketing leaders to bridge cultural gaps and expand demand by authentically targeting new audiences. Savvy marketers are keenly aware of changing demographics and the reverberations of an increasingly diverse society. By understanding everyone’s individual worldview, marketing leaders can effectively navigate the complexities of a global business landscape needed to uncover new opportunities. 

Lenovo is a global technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related services. Calvin J. Crosslin, Vice President/Chief Diversity Officer at Lenovo and President of the Lenovo Foundation, says cultural intelligence is the key to creating relationships needed to foster powerful collaboration.

“By working to create a culture where your team acknowledges cultural differences, you can help your team forge meaningful relationships with colleagues and associates—no matter where they are from,” Crosslin explains. 

4) Mastering Self-Awareness to Increase Capability

Experience can make senior leaders less apt to question their assumptions and entertain conflicting points of view. However, by mastering self-awareness, understanding their unconscious bias, and listening to multiple viewpoints, leaders make decisions more quickly with better outcomes. In fact, self-awareness was the strongest predictor of overall success for leaders, accounting for 30% of the variation in leadership effectiveness. 

To amplify performance and innovation, inclusive leaders strive to create psychological safety within their teams. Creativity in particular blossoms when marketing teams feel empowered to explore new ways of thinking. When creating marketing campaigns, it is important to ask why a campaign might not work and what assumptions are being made about an audience. This helps to guard against bias while creating an environment to come up with new solutions that may have been discounted.

“Inclusive leadership involves admitting mistakes, taking responsibility, and ensuring everyone feels safe enough to push forward and innovate by questioning assumptions. Inclusion should result in safety, and safety should result in growth—in all its forms,” says Bob Osmond, president of Racepoint Global, an integrated public relations and communications firm. 

5) Approaching New Markets with a Growth Mindset

Creativity and an openness to new ideas also feed the growth mindset that every inclusive leader needs to flourish and achieve long-term success. Leaders who insist on ongoing improvement set the stage for greater innovation, proficiency, and higher productivity. Inclusive leaders work to learn about things they don’t know and are voracious in pursuit of good information. 

Marketing professionals who can leverage a growth mindset along with cultural intelligence give their organizations a competitive advantage. By amplifying the viewpoints of underrepresented groups and listening to customers who aren’t being served by existing products and services, companies can tap into new business opportunities. The result is more inclusive products and marketing strategies. For example, serial innovator Rihanna has built Fenty Beauty and SavageX Fenty by offering cosmetics for a wider variety of skin tones and lingerie for a wider variety of body shapes and genders. 

6) Fostering Brand Loyalty and Long-term Relationships

Marketers strive to create strong, trusted brands that inspire long-term loyalty. Every campaign is an opportunity to strengthen relationships with clients and consumers. Inclusive leaders have a similar outlook, one that values reliability, relationship-building, and high standards. 

“As a leader, you have to show up and put in a hard day’s work just as you ask your team to do. You also have to be there to support them—to help them succeed and grow,” says Donald Thompson, CEO and Co-founder of The Diversity Movement. 

A people-first orientation is woven throughout inclusive leadership and the seven core competencies of inclusive leaders–communication, collaboration, cultural intelligence, self-awareness, capability, growth mindset, and reliability. By adopting these inclusive practices, marketing professionals can enhance their personal expertise, build stronger teams, and create a workplace culture where every employee can contribute their best work.

For more on inclusive leadership and how it drives employee engagement in any industry, look for The Diversity Movement’s new book,  The Inclusive Leadership Handbook: Balancing People and Performance for Sustainable Growth, by Kurt Merriweather, VP of Marketing, and Donald Thompson, CEO. TDM has also created LeaderView, a leadership assessment tool that uses cultural competency as a driver for improving whole team performance. 

Kurt Merriweather, CDE, is an accomplished product strategist and marketing executive. He is co-founder and Vice President of Marketing at The Diversity Movement. Connect with him on Linkedin.

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ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, can understand and generate human-like text responses to a wide variety of questions and prompts. You can request information, engage in conversation, or even ask it to perform certain tasks. ChatGPT is a significant step forward in artificial intelligence because it can generate human-like language.

It’s really good at answering questions, particularly general knowledge questions. It’s not so good at giving opinions or weighing one option against another. For example, it can analyze a resume and tell you if a candidate has the relevant skills and experience for a particular job. However, it can’t tell you if a candidate is a good fit for a particular role. Anything subjective still requires human judgment and analysis. 

“Many people are afraid of what they do not understand, whether this includes interacting with different kinds of people or new technologies. When we work with organizations to uncover ways to embrace inclusive marketing, utilizing technology properly is a key piece of our approach,” says Kurt Merriweather, VP of Innovation at The Diversity Movement. “Given the fear and enthusiasm around ChatGPT, we decided to take our own advice and challenge our content marketing team to use ChatGPT to create content for inclusive marketing.”

Did ChatGPT speed up the writing of this article?

This collaboration with ChatGPT saved research time and made writing the initial draft of the article faster and easier. By gathering research from a variety of sources quickly, it was easier to explore the topic from a variety of perspectives, settle on the most useful advice for inclusive marketing, and synthesize that information into a coherent article. 

While ChatGPT’s voice is uncannily conversational, its articles still need editing to eliminate repetitive language and to include creative flourishes that add interest and flair. Some editors might find it easier to ask ChatGPT for a basic article and make the revisions themselves, which is how this article was created. 

ChatGPT’s vast body of information is an advantage, but because its answers come from so many sources as well as patterns in the text that it has been trained on, ChatGPT doesn’t cite specific sources. To get around this drawback, writers can ask ChatGPT for online resources on the topic, which may include information to link to. 

As humans gain more experience using the platform, the better they will become at getting ChatGPT to write acceptable content. ChatGPT suggests using clear, specific instructions and guidelines, and include any relevant information about the intended audience and brand messaging. By asking for several revisions and giving detailed feedback each time, writers can get results that will be closer to meeting their specific needs. 

How else can ChatGPT help marketers save time?

ChatGPT can save marketers time and help them become more productive by eliminating the less creative aspects of the writing process. Along with saving time on research, here are other ways ChatGPT can help marketers:

1. Idea generation: Chat GPT can generate ideas for your content marketing campaigns. Enter a topic or keyword and ChatGPT will suggest related topics or angles.
2. Personalization: ChatGPT can help you personalize your content to specific audiences, by generating content that is tailored to the interests and preferences of different segments of your audience.
3. Optimization: ChatGPT can generate content that incorporates relevant keywords and phrases to help you optimize your content for search engines.
4. Efficiency: ChatGPT can automate other content marketing tasks, such as generating headlines or social media posts.

How does ChatGPT work? How can it perpetuate bias?

ChatGPT is a tool for creating new content that is similar to what humans might create, but without the need for direct human input at every step of the process. It works by analyzing large amounts of data and learning patterns and rules from that data. Once it has learned these patterns, it can generate new data that is similar to the original data.

The problem with those large data sets is that they may contain biases and perspectives of the people who created them. ChatGPT was designed to be as objective and unbiased as possible, but there is always a risk that the content it generates could reflect those underlying biases or assumptions. 

Other potential problems include:

1. Inaccuracies: ChatGPT generates text based on patterns and structures that it was  trained on. However, this data is not always 100% accurate, so there is a risk that the content generated could contain errors.
2. Offensiveness: The content it generates could be offensive or inappropriate for certain audiences or contexts.
3. Legal issues: If inaccurate text created by ChatGPT is approved without being reviewed by human editors, it could result in legal issues for the brand or organization.

Additionally, ChatGPT is a machine learning model and may not always get it right, despite the best efforts of programmers and developers. For example, ChatGPT has been trained to use inclusive language, but some words might be appropriate in one context, but not in another. Therefore, humans should review any text created by ChatGPT, because social and cultural nuances are beyond the machine’s ability.  

How can marketers ensure diverse perspectives are included?

Marketers reach a wide audience and their work can have a significant impact on how people perceive and interact with the world around them. That’s why it’s vital that marketing content – whether created by human or machine – is free from bias and reflects a diversity of perspectives.

DEI best practices should be included throughout the planning and execution of any marketing campaign. As they use ChatGPT to create content, marketers should also consider the following tips:

1. Identify the audience that the content is intended for when asking ChatGPT to draft content. Consider the diverse identities and perspectives that are represented within that audience.
2. Use inclusive language to describe people and communities when you are interacting with ChatGPT. Correct any biased language in the revision process.
3. Seek diverse perspectives when editing ChatGPT’s content to ensure that it is inclusive and respectful. Partner with organizations that are also committed to promoting diversity and inclusion.
4. Reflect a variety of experiences and perspectives in your examples, source documents, and case studies. Highlight the achievements of individuals from diverse backgrounds.
5. Review and edit any machine-generated content to ensure that it is free from bias. 

How can editors with DEI expertise help eliminate bias in ChatGPT?

Anyone with knowledge of the subject matter being discussed can review text written by ChatGPT and eliminate any inaccuracies. However, to root out bias and stereotypes, it’s helpful for editors to have cultural competency and DEI expertise.

Individuals with cultural competency are aware of their own biases and assumptions, and they understand how societal factors can influence communication and perception. A phrase might be acceptable on the surface, but when read with a culturally competent lens, another wording might be more appropriate.

Not only can alert reviewers analyze the content to identify any potential problems, but they can provide feedback to ChatGPT so its content can become more inclusive. Individuals who represent diverse perspectives and identities can also help identify areas where ChatGPT’s language may be exclusionary or insensitive.

How are AI language models becoming more inclusive?

While ChatGPT can still struggle with reflecting diverse perspectives, efforts are ongoing to help it and other AI language models improve by incorporating better training data, along with individual feedback.

Researchers and developers are including more diversity in the large datasets that AI language models are trained on. Including a diverse range of authors and sources in the training data can help ensure that a variety of perspectives and experiences are represented. Developers should use data that is balanced and representative, and not skewed towards one particular perspective or group. The experiences and voices of historically marginalized groups should also be included, not just the dominant culture.

Learn more about inclusive marketing, and gain practical tips, tools, and how-tos at TDM Library. The one-stop content hub and resource center is filled with award-winning DEI content utilized by hundreds of thousands of professionals. The resources will spark conversations, increase teamwork, and make workplaces more productive.

The post A Guide to Inclusive Marketing with ChatGPT: How to Use AI to Create Content Faster and Easier appeared first on The Diversity Movement.

While awareness of these diversity holidays is a good first step, brands must go beyond one-off statements to show a true and authentic commitment to DEI. As a social media marketer, diversity, equity, and inclusion should be integrated into your social strategy for the long term. Otherwise, brands risk being called performative, or worse, alienating the very people you are trying to engage. 

But first, why is it important for brands to show a commitment to DEI on social media?

It ultimately comes down to your brand reputation and how that reputation informs actions of prospective customers and potential employees. In fact, 64% of consumers have considered making an immediate purchase after seeing diverse advertisements. On the flipside, research by Adobe found that 34% of consumers have boycotted a brand because it did not represent their identity in its marketing. Connect those statistics with the fact that 78% of consumers said they were willing to buy from a company after having a positive experience with them on social media, and you see why it’s critical to get this right.

We also know diversity and inclusion is important to employees and job-seekers, with more than three in four (76%) reporting a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. Where do job-seekers go to learn about the organization they’re applying to? Social media.

Within the entire marketing ecosystem, social media is specifically important due to its two-way communication stream. Social platforms allow brands to directly interact with their consumers like never before and gain audience insights and feedback in real-time. This can be incredibly positive when you get your messaging right, but also opens your brand up to backlash if you misstep. For example, many companies faced backlash for rainbow-washing their logos for Pride Month because they hadn’t demonstrated how they were actively supporting the LGBTQ+ community. It’s crucial to communicate your internal commitment to DEI if you plan to announce it externally.

Showcasing a commitment to DEI on your social channels can help build trust with your communities. Because you are communicating honestly about your DEI journey, authentic messaging can invite honest feedback from your audience. And, should you make a mistake, you can immediately correct it and start rebuilding trust with your community. For example, when the White Hot documentary came out about Abercrombie & Fitch Co., the brand was quick to acknowledge past non-inclusive behavior and to share current inclusive policies that reflect the brand as it is today.

Inclusive social media practices also contribute to building a strong brand reputation, attracting and retaining top talent, and in turn, increasing revenue. But how do you get started? A good place to begin is with these five tips for developing a long-term strategy for DEI on social media.

5 tips for developing a long-term DEI strategy for social media

1) Do: Determine how your brand fits into the conversation

As you develop your strategy, it’s important to decide where in the conversation about DEI it makes sense for your organization to weigh in. Ask yourself (and your team):

• What questions might our audience have that we could provide valuable insight on?
• How can my brand be there for those in our community who are looking for support and resources?

For example, if you manage social media for a digital marketing agency, it may make sense to post content about the digital accessibility or inclusive marketing best practices your agency recommends to clients. This not only shows your commitment to DEI, but also positions your brand as a thought leader on a subtopic within DEI. 

2) Don’t: Keep it surface-level

When you’re developing your strategy and planning your content, ensure you’re also thinking about what your organization is actively doing that your audience should be aware of. This is where you take your statements of commitment to DEI beyond just talk to show meaningful action. Perhaps your organization is conducting a pay equity audit. Equal Pay Day offers a great opportunity to highlight that positive action. Or maybe your company has created new employee resource groups. Share that with your audience, including potential employees, on social media. 

3) Do: Amplify diverse voices

Look within your organization, your clients, your partners, and your network for diverse voices and perspectives you can amplify on social media. For example, if your organization has a supplier diversity program, consider highlighting one of those diverse partners each month. You’ll show your commitment to DEI, while amplifying their brand and message. You could also ask employees to volunteer to share their experiences and stories for different diversity holidays throughout the year. In addition, consider what user-generated content you’re sharing. Is it representative of your audience?

4) Do: Create inclusive social media content

• • Implement digital accessibility best practices.
    • Add alt text to all image content so it’s accessible to those with visual impairments.
    • Upload or generate video captions to all video content. Not only does this make your content accessible to individuals with hearing impairments, captions also improve video view times as a whole.
    • Use camel case, the practice of capitalizing compound words in a hashtag. This is important for accessibility because screen readers cannot correctly read hashtags that aren’t written in camel case. Additionally, camel case improves readability for all users, especially for long hashtags.
    • Ensure you’re using adequate color contrast in your designed graphics so your content is accessible to people who are color blind. WebAIM provides a great free resource for checking color contrast against accessibility standards.
  • Use inclusive language so you don’t unintentionally offend or alienate followers. The Inclusive Language Handbook is a great tool to keep by your side and consult as you write content.
  • Use imagery—including photography, stock photos, and illustrations—that reflects the diversity of your audience. 

5) Don’t: Work in a silo

Ensure diverse perspectives are part of the creative process from start to finish. Even if your marketing team is homogeneous, there are alternative ways to bring diverse perspectives to the table.

• • 1. Ask culturally diverse employees from other departments to participate in marketing brainstorms and have them review mockups of your social media posts. 
    2. Bring in an outside review team to audit for blunders or insensitivities in your social content.
    3. Use culturally diverse focus groups to ensure your messaging resonates.

Wondering where your brand’s marketing ranks for DEI best practices? Take our free, 12-point marketing assessment. In return, you’ll be rewarded with a clear sense of priorities and we’ll send you additional inclusive marketing resources with tips you can use right away.

Allison Bennett, CDE is a marketing campaign specialist at The Diversity Movement. She recently received Marketing Brew’s inaugural Go-Getter award, highlighting up-and-coming talent in the marketing industry. Connect with her on Linkedin.

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5 Steps to Create Diverse and Effective Ad Campaigns

Finely tuned marketing strategy is dependent on demographic analysis. What do we always say in marketing? Know your audience. Yet, despite its essential role in reaching audiences, keeping up with rapidly changing demographics is getting more difficult. Marketers cannot ignore these shifts if they want to connect with consumers and build brand loyalty.

Even savvy marketers can be challenged to stay current as America’s population becomes increasingly diverse. Younger generations are more culturally mixed and socially conscious than previous generations. As a result, organizations need to adapt their marketing strategies to connect with these new consumers and potential employees. However, the U.S. population is also aging. To reach both of these audiences, marketers must stay in touch with the needs and expectations of broader consumer groups.  

The most effective strategy is an inclusive marketing approach that brings diverse voices into the creative process. Unlike older methods that targeted specific groups or simply included one or two diverse actors, inclusive marketing elevates the stories of many different kinds of consumers.

Today’s consumers want brands to portray them authentically. They also want the companies they patronize to live up to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) values. 

Demographic trends

The following statistics provide a snapshot of current U.S. demographics, where we’re headed, and how quickly the population is changing:

• U.S. Census data project that by 2030, the non-Hispanic White population is expected to fall to 55.8%, while the percentage of residents who are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American is projected to grow significantly.
• Generation Z (born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s) is leading America’s changing racial and ethnic makeup. According to The Pew Research Center, Gen Z is more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation. Slightly more than half (52%) are non-Hispanic White, 25% are Hispanic, 14% are Black, 6% are Asian, and 5% are some other race or two or more races. Gen Z is projected to become majority non-White by 2026. 
• The fastest-growing racial or ethnic group according to Census Bureau projections is those who are biracial or multiracial (projected to grow 200% by 2060). 
• People who are Hispanic and those who report they are “Two or More Races” are relatively young. The high growth rate is primarily attributed to natural increase. For Asians, the growth projection is based on immigration. By 2030, immigration is projected to be the largest driver of U.S. population growth.
• Overall, the U.S. population is getting older. In 2020, those under 18 (74.1 million) exceeded the number 65 and older (56.4 million). However, by 2030, the size of the two groups will be roughly equal. 
• According to the CDC, one in four U.S. adults, some 61 million people, live with some type of disability. Of those age 65 and older, two in five (40%) have a disability.
• In 2021, Gallup found that 7.1% of U.S. adults identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or some identification other than heterosexual.

5 key strategies for inclusive marketing

Organizations that fail to adopt an inclusive marketing approach are bound to be left behind. Multicultural consumers account for nearly 40% of the U.S. population, but multicultural media spending is only 5.2% of total advertising and marketing spend. 

Adopting an inclusive marketing strategy means integrating DEI into all aspects of the business, including brand strategy, content marketing, and messaging. This holistic approach leads to stronger brand authenticity and trust, loyalty of employees and customers, and a better ability to reach new audiences. Clear evidence shows that consumers are more likely to trust brands that showcase diversity in ads, while viewers find inclusive advertising more memorable.

To create authentic and inclusive marketing strategies, organizations should start with the creative process. Here are five ways to integrate DEI from the beginning:

1. Build a marketing team that is diverse and multicultural. Even if your creative team is homogenous, you can ask culturally diverse employees from other departments to review your campaign mockups. 
2. Develop and follow an inclusive editorial style guide. By using inclusive language and being intentional about the words you select, you can convey respect for all people.
3. Create branding and advertising campaigns that authentically reflect the diverse communities you serve. For example, avoid using images of “older” consumers who are actually younger models with prematurely gray hair.
4. Ensure your content, especially your digital content, is accessible. Designing for accessibility is one crucial but often overlooked step.
5. Thoughtfully consider what social action causes your company will support through financial and in-kind contributions and employee volunteerism. These intentional actions can deepen connections with communities, build feelings of belonging, and influence positive social change.

As you develop your inclusive marketing strategy, remember to consider not only how your company views the marketplace, but also how your employees, customers, and potential customers perceive your company. Recognize that your employees, customers, and prospects – especially, younger, more diverse individuals – are increasingly demanding that companies act on the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion and exhibit authentic branding. 

It is time to say goodbye to the outdated approach of target marketing to “minority groups.” The percentage of multiracial or multicultural people who are currently underrepresented in marketing, advertising, and media will continue to grow – eventually becoming the majority. In a few short decades, what we now call “inclusive marketing” will simply be “marketing.”

Wondering where your organization’s marketing ranks for DEI best practices? Take our free, 12-point marketing assessment. In return, you’ll be rewarded with a clear sense of priorities, and we’ll send you additional inclusive marketing resources with tips you can put to use right away.

Allison Bennett, CDE is a marketing campaign specialist at The Diversity Movement. She recently received Marketing Brew’s inaugural Go Getter award, highlighting up and coming talent in the marketing industry. Connect with her on Linkedin.

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