How to create inclusive content for everyone

Creating inclusive content allows you to connect with people from any background. Speaking to different age groups, ethnicities and genders broadens your horizons and your target market. Creating inclusive content is an easy and effective way to increase your marketing and brand awareness.

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On this page, we’ll go over the basics of inclusive content and explain some ways to incorporate it into your website. Keep reading to learn more!

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What is Inclusive Content Marketing?

Inclusive content is content that is accessible, accessible, and appropriate for people of diverse backgrounds. There are no exceptions to inclusive content marketing – it’s for anyone and everyone, no matter who they are.

Content is the asset you and your team create within digital marketing. These can be blog posts, explainer videos, or any other form of content. You need to include them so that everyone can engage, interact with, and understand your content.

The truth is, you don’t know who might be accessing your content at any given time. Anyone can access your content, even if you know your target audience leans in a certain direction, such as a certain gender or education level.

Anyone can be an audience member for your industry. To reach those people, you need to show that you’re taking steps to include them in the conversation.

3 ways to be inclusive in your marketing and digital presence

It’s important to consider all the different strategies you can use to become more appealing to your audience. Here are three ways you can help create more inclusive content:

1. Word choice

Whether you’re designing a blog or a service page, language plays an important role in how your audience feels about your brand.

Your goal should be to use positive language that describes more than your product or service—you need to use positive language about people, too. Below are some ways to do this.

Use human language

In many cases, you should try to use person-oriented descriptions. Some examples might be “a person of color” or “a person with an anxiety disorder” instead of more obsolete forms of these expressions.

Ask for clarity

In some cases, certain groups may not prefer a person’s first language for specific reasons. For example, many people with physical or cognitive disabilities preferred “disabled person” to “disabled”.

That’s why it’s always important to ask for clarity to ensure you’re creating inclusive content.

If you have a reliable source you can turn to for clarification, be sure to cross them to see what they think of your statements. You can also search the web and look at forums to see what the general public is saying about applying to certain topics.

2. Website Accessibility

Yours the website must be accessible for all people, whether or not they have physical or cognitive disabilities. You can start by following the ADA’s accessibility guidelines. However, it is important to go as far as possible to exceed these standards and be inclusive to as many people as possible.

Website accessibility provides a better connection with your audience and it improves search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines like Google love accessible websites because they provide a good user experience. A good user experience translates into higher rankings in search results.

Increasing web accessibility means including:

Alternate text and video titles

People can use screen readers to access the content on your website. Alternative text for images helps those readers describe exactly what the image looks like. Feel free to fill in relevant and keywords.

You should also add captions to the videos. Closed captions provide context for people watching your videos and make content more accessible to viewers.

Reading level

Use simple language whenever you can. Create content with clear, concise language and sentence structure to be accessible to people with learning or cognitive disabilities, low educational attainment, or less familiarity with your industry.

The average American sings 7th-8th grade levelthat is, creating pages of jargon-filled text will not be accessible to the average American. Keeping your content simple and easy to read ensures that it is accessible to anyone at any reading or educational level.

you can do Use a tool like Hemingway Editor to check the reading level of your content. This will give you an approximate reading level and highlight areas for improvement.

Color scheme

Another area for website accessibility is the color scheme. You should have a background color and fonts contradict each other. The same goes for the content itself on the site, such as infographics or charts.

People with color blindness are a special group who benefit from a uniform, contrasting color scheme. However, everyone really benefits from it. Black text on a white background is easier to read than black text on a navy blue background.

Being selective and thoughtful about what colors you use and how you use them

Read Next: The Ultimate Website Accessibility Checklist

3. Images, videos and other visual media

The visual media you post can say a lot. Images and videos should reflect a diverse population, regardless of your target audience. Your visual media should include bodies of color, disabled and able-bodied, all genders and ages and body sizes.

Target is a great example of using diverse representation in its media. They often use models of different ethnicities, looks and abilities to showcase their products.

Even if you don’t think these are particularly relevant to your industry, your audience may disagree. Representation is important and key to building a strong connection with your audience.