If your company is truly mindful and proactive about diversity, equity, and inclusion, then B2B content writing with DEI in mind should be one of your top marketing goals. Publishing a diverse range of quality written content that both informs and entertains is the engine of a holistic content marketing strategy. My promise is to give you five actionable tips that will help you and your team become great content creators who are also mindful of the wide spectrum of people within your target audience.
B2B Content Writing With DE&I In Mind
Corporate diversity and inclusion aren’t simply about hiring a VP of Diversity and Inclusion and calling it a day. Nor is it about making content for Black History and other heritage months. These are all good things, but it’s important to know that true diversity, equity, and inclusion are embodied within the fabric of the entire organization.
DEI is about making genuine efforts to include people from all backgrounds, creeds, ages, and identities. This will give your team, customers, and stakeholders a sense of belonging, the satisfaction of being heard, and the joy of making valued contributions.
Let’s proceed to the five key areas that will help your organization excel at B2B content writing with diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind!
Tip #1: Your Team Must Reflect DE&I
“Inclusivity [doesn’t just mean] ‘we’re allowed to be there,’ but ‘we are valued’. I’ve always said: smart teams will do amazing things, but truly diverse teams will do impossible things.”
– Claudia Brind-Woody, Vice President and Managing Director of intellectual property at IBM
A diverse staff will help give your team the range of perspectives needed to write B2B content the right way. Seeking out and amplifying diversity within your staff opens up beautiful opportunities for creative content, whether it’s written, audio, or visual. Give different people a voice and watch the magic happen!
Your extended team of vendors and contractors with whom you work closely should embody and reflect DEI as well – this is especially true for any B2B marketing agency that you hire. You are trusting them to know, discover, and effectively deliver messages to the full scope of different people within your audience.
I argue that along with domain knowledge, a diverse staff is the most important thing for ensuring success. I try to live this out in my career as a marketing team leader. At NeoLuxe Marketing, we keep our team’s diversity in mind and make sure everyone has a voice.
Tip #2: Engage the Full Spectrum of Your Audience
Experienced content marketers know that audience discovery is absolutely critical to building a marketing strategy and ultimately reaching marketing goals. Think about it…how will your written content (or any content for that matter) do its job if your organization doesn’t know its ideal customer personas? Taking it a step further, you must consider subgroups within your audience – including the marginalized and underrepresented.
Consider the various ethnicities, genders, and ages of the people who should be consuming your content while you plan your content calendar. Think about even the smallest details for the individuals that make up your B2B audience:
- Are women included in your audience?
- Are people of color considered among your personas?
- How does access (or lack of access) to quality transportation and routes impact your audience?
- How do the various age groups within your target audience communicate?
Of course, there are many more questions that can be asked, but the general idea is to paint a complete picture when researching your audience.
Tip #3: Cover Topics that Reflect DE&I
Plan topics and write B2B content that shows that diversity, equity, and inclusion are important to your company and are ingrained in your culture. Does your content speak to and/or consider people of different ethnicities, genders, orientations, abilities, and ages? Here is a list of things that your team can do to make your business content effective for the wide spectrum of your audience:
- Diversify your writing team
- Publish case studies that feature a wide range of people
- Use gender-neutral language and gender-neutral pronouns when appropriate
- Cover a variety of topics and situations
- Consider individuals with disabilities in terms of stories and content accessibility
Tip #4: Use Diverse and Accessible Images
Stock photo websites have gotten so much better in providing a wide range of diverse images for content. Your readers are all different so the people they see in your content images should represent different people, too!
Also, remember that the visually impaired among your audience need to access your content. Be stringent with web accessibility best practices like describing what’s in your images with the Alt Text tag.
Tip #5: Keep DE&I Top-of-Mind
Don’t let the comfort of engaging the powerful majority negatively affect your content marketing’s reach. Do the human thing and keep diversity, equity, and inclusion top of mind from hiring to strategy to content production. Here’s to your more mindful organization and your more inclusive B2B content marketing goals!