Multicultural Marketing: A #CMWorld Twitter Chat with Sydni Craig-Hart

Multicultural marketing is no longer an option. It’s a necessity. But developing content to ensure relevancy among multicultural audiences is no easy feat. Even harder to accomplish is aligning diversity and inclusion strategies with existing business activities. What’s a marketer to do?

Enter Sydni Craig-Hart. Sydni is CEO of Smart Simple Marketing and a good friend of CMI. Sydni sat in on a recent #CMWorld Twitter chat and gave key insights for creating a strong multicultural content marketing strategy. She also described what separates best-in class brands producing multicultural content from its competitors.

What follows is a brief look at our discussion.

As content marketing evolves, what role does diversity and inclusion play?

A2. C) NO one has actually talked to a customer about what the customer actually wants and needs. We, as content marketers have a profound responsibility to proactively seek out diverse voices and create content that is inclusive of different perspectives. #CMWorld

— Sydni Craig-Hart | #CMWorld 2019 Speaker (@SydniCraigHart) August 13, 2019

A2: Diversity & inclusion are essential to marketing now. I’m an openly queer person serving as a public face of my company with full support. We see this as a strength for our brand, not a liability. It helps attract clients we want to work with. #CMWorld

— Mark Traphagen (@marktraphagen) August 13, 2019

A2. For starters, we need more diverse content creators. And I’m excited to see how content marketing evolves when we bring more people to the table. There are ideas & inspiration out there that we’re totally unaware of… so far. #CMWorld

— Corinna Keefe (@corinna_keefe) August 13, 2019

What is one actionable thing you can do today to help bring about more inclusion in content?

A7 Talk. To. Your. Customers. For real. Invite them in for lunch. Get to know them. LISTEN carefully what they have to say. Spending $20 on lunch could dramatically shift your perspective and positively impact the effectiveness of your content. #multiculturalmarketing #CMWorld

— Sydni Craig-Hart | #CMWorld 2019 Speaker (@SydniCraigHart) August 13, 2019

A7. We all need this reminder:

We can have different views and still honor each other

If we don’t engage with people just because they have an opposite view, we can never grow or serve our customers well#CMWorld

— Gene Petrov – Leadership Based Marketing (@GenePetrovLMC) August 13, 2019

A7 so can I say this? Please examine your everyday vernacular and refrain from words that have been misappropriated from original meaning.

There are words that are really microaggressions to some of us:

pow-wow
off the reservation
spirit animal
wampum
etc.#CMWorld

— Kylo Ben #CMWorld Speaker (@bhrome) August 13, 2019

A7: Thinking before you post

Have a read of your next piece of content. Instead of looking for the usual typos think about what “feel” it gives.

Does it feel inclusive? If not – can you make some edits before you post?#CMWorld

— Jake Symons (@jakeswrites) August 13, 2019

The conversation was fast and furious. There was no way we’d be able to include all of the tweets here. So, we created a Twitter Moment summarizing the hour.

Our community also shared several resources on the topic.

• 4 Ways to Increase Diversityby David Simanoff
• What inclusive marketing looks like to me — and how to get there recommended by Corinna Keefe
• STEM professionals webseries produced by Ben Rome
• Sydni speaks with Robert Rose on The Weekly Wrap

What are some ways multicultural marketing has helped your brand remain relevant with diverse audiences? Let us know in the comments below.

Meet Sydni at Content Marketing World, where she will cover multicultural marketing with her co-presenter Wil Hart. There’s still time to register. Use code SM100 for $100 off your ticket. But hurry. This discount expires soon.