Inclusion and Marketing
Sonia Thompson
Attract, convert, and retain a bigger, more diverse, and fiercely loyal customer base with inclusive marketing strategies that fuel business growth. Inclusion & Marketing is hosted by Sonia Thompson — inclusive marketing strategist, consultant, and columnist for Forbes, Inc., and HubSpot — and gives you practical strategies to infuse inclusion into every stage of your customer journey, from customer acquisition and conversion to customer loyalty and customer success. Through solo deep dives, expert interviews, and behind-the-scenes case studies with top brands, you’ll learn how to create customer experiences that resonate with underrepresented and underserved communities — and drive business growth. Part of the HubSpot Podcast Network.What you’ll hear:
How to build internal systems that support inclusive marketing — so your campaigns are authentic from the inside out.
How to deliver marketing campaigns, communications, and customer experiences that win more customers — including people from underrepresented and underserved communities.
What’s working (and what isn’t) for brands today as they try to effectively engage today’s consumer.
If you’re asking these questions, you’re in the right place:
How do I deliver authentic marketing that actually converts more customers?
How can I grow my customer base in today’s diverse marketplace?
How do I effectively engage underrepresented and underserved customer groups?
How do I connect inclusive marketing directly to business growth and results?
How to build internal systems that support inclusive marketing — so your campaigns are authentic from the inside out.
How to deliver marketing campaigns, communications, and customer experiences that win more customers — including people from underrepresented and underserved communities.
What’s working (and what isn’t) for brands today as they try to effectively engage today’s consumer.
If you’re asking these questions, you’re in the right place:
How do I deliver authentic marketing that actually converts more customers?
How can I grow my customer base in today’s diverse marketplace?
How do I effectively engage underrepresented and underserved customer groups?
How do I connect inclusive marketing directly to business growth and results?
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 23, 2025 • 17min
147. A critical lesson for marketers from the Blake Lively v. Justin Baldoni saga
Over the last week I've been riveted by ongoing developments in the legal feud between actress Blake Lively and actor and director Justin Baldoni, who worked together on the film It Ends With Us.There so much to unpack with the filings, however, there is one point, that is the focus on this episode, that is very relevant to you from an inclusive marketing standpoint as you work to establish it as just the way marketing is done for your brand.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterBlake Lively lawsuitJustin Baldoni lawsuitEpisode 117: Power dynamics in brand imagery
Jan 16, 2025 • 43min
146. How to use data to increase customer success for all, with Deborah Pickett
A core element of being effective with inclusive marketing and therefore any inclusive marketing strategy — is data.We’ve got to know not just the rates at which your customers overall achieve success, but we’ve also need to know what that data looks like by subgroup.In other words - we need to find out if everyone is achieving success at the same rates.Now I’ve noticed the as I talk to different people and marketers about this, at times the thought of capturing and analyzing data in this manner feels uncomfortable.So I thought it would be helpful to have a dialogue about this with someone who is steeped in data - particularly by subgroup all day every day.After this short break - you’ll hear my conversation with Deborah Pickett — who will be bringing her expertise with data in the education system — and we’ll apply it to what you do in marketing’sThis is not Deborah’s first time on the show —- she stopped by way back in episode #19 - The Critical link between equity and customer success. It was a really great episode if I do say so myself, so if you haven’t listened, I’ll drop a link to it in the show notes so you can check it out.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterEpisode 19: The critical link between equity and customer success with Deborah Pickett
Jan 9, 2025 • 33min
145. How to implement systems for inclusive marketing, with Kumi Croom
Agencies are an integral partner and part of the marketing process for many brands. But when it comes to incorporating inclusion into the work brands produce, if the agency isn’t an inclusive marketing or multi-cultural marketing agency, infusing inclusion isn’t something that always happens consistently.So that’s why I was excited to sit down with my guest today, Kumi Croom, Managing Director at Duncan Channon, a marketing agency, who’s done a really fantastic job of operationalizing inclusive marketing into the way her agency shows up and delivers for clients.Get the Inclusion and Marketing NewsletterDuncan Channon
Jan 2, 2025 • 35min
144. A chat with Wistia co-founder and CEO about inclusive marketing
In this episode, I had a conversation with Chris Savage, co-founder and CEO of Wistia, a video marketing company, on their Talking Too Loud podcast, all about inclusive marketing.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterWistia
Dec 27, 2024 • 1h 22min
143. The mistake that made me
On this episode -- I'm bringing you an interview I did with Eman Ismail, on her super cool show Mistakes That Made Me. In it, I talk about my journey to becoming an inclusive marketing strategist, and the mistakes I made as a business owner (for years) that led me to be in this position today. And of course, we get into a real good chat about inclusive marketing in practice -- which you'll find at the beginning of this episode.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterMistakes That Made Me podcast
Dec 19, 2024 • 32min
142. How to make more people feel seen, with Jasmine Star
Representation matters. I think people know this, and get it intuitively, but for some, it can be hard to do in practice consistently. In this episode -- I'm bringing to you my chat with Jasmine Star on her podcast --- which is all about how we can do a better job of bringing representation to the forefront of our thinking, as we work to make more people feel seen, supported, and like they belong with our brand.Get the Inclusion & Marketing Newsletter
Dec 12, 2024 • 18min
141. How to be effective with inclusive marketing over the long-term
As I've worked with clients of various sizes over the years, one of the things that has become clear is that an organizational transformation is required. You can't do the same thing or slightly different things every now and then and expect to attract and retain a more diverse customer base over the long term.In this episode, I walk you through nine core components of the organizational transformation needed to enable sustained inclusive marketing success—in essence, to help you build an inclusive brand.Get the Inclusion & Marketing Newsletter
Dec 6, 2024 • 35min
140. This AI tool assesses how inclusive brands are
In this episode, I sat down with Asha Shivaji and Jason Klein, co-founders of SeeMeIndex, and AI tool that evaluates how inclusive brands are with their marketing across a number of factors.We covered a lot during our chat, including trends they've identified in their work as they've evaluated brands across many industries, including the beauty and wellness industries.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterSeeMe IndexThe UN Business Case for Inclusive MarketingMore data on how inclusive brands drive sales
Nov 28, 2024 • 8min
139. The biases we hold
My personal belief is that we all hold some time of bias -- much of it unconscious. In this episode, I share a brief story of when one of mine recently showed up. Also covered is the impact of bias in marketing.Get the Inclusion & Marketing Newsletter
Nov 21, 2024 • 15min
138. How smart brands demonstrate their values to consumers
Brand values are increasingly more important to consumers. As a result, brands need to communicate not only what their values are but how they are living them. In this episode, I walk through various ways brands are demonstrating not only what their values are, but how they are living them.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterEpisode 122: How Michael Graves Design and Pottery Barn are working to bring accessible design to more consumersBrands mentioned in this episode:Ben & Jerry'sPatagoniaSeer InteractiveThe Home DepotTory BurchWarby ParkerMichael Graves Design
