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
Apr 18, 2024 • 31min
107. How changes to the 2030 U.S. Census impacts your brand today
Major changes are coming to the 2030 Census in the U.S. And even though we're a few years away from those changes taking effect, the implications for brands start now. In this episode, I walk you through the changes the U.S. government recently announced for the Census, why the changes were made, and how they impact your brand.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterU.S. Census Changes Just ApprovedSample 2030 U.S. Census QuestionnaireSuzanne WertheimSightsSet Consulting - Renita Bryant
Apr 11, 2024 • 29min
106. How Zumba built a global customer base in more than 180 countries
Inclusive marketing really is just doing marketing well. Even though we aren't there now, eventually, we'll get to a place where won't even need to call inclusive marketing inclusive marketing anymore -- it'll just be the way we do marketing.The good news -- we're not too far away from that being our reality. That's because that's the way some brands are already operating today. Zumba is one of those brands that has that approach.In today's episode, I sat down with Zumba's Chief Marketing Officer, Carolina Moreas, who gave a ton of insight into the way the brand operates, that has enabled them to build a global and fiercely loyal customer base in more than 180 countries.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterZumba
Apr 4, 2024 • 28min
105. How The Home Depot became "The Most Culturally Inclusive Brand"
The Home Depot was recently named "The Most Culturally Inclusive Brand" by the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive & Multicultural Marketing (AIMM).I thought it would be great for you to learn about their approach to inclusive marketing, so I sat down with Chante LaGon, Sr. Manager of Multi-Cultural Marketing at The Home Depot to get insight into how they think about and execute inclusive marketing.There's lots to learn from this chat. Pull out your pen and dig in.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterThe Home Depot
Mar 28, 2024 • 26min
104. How smart brands use an inclusive marketing consultant to spark growth
Inclusive marketing is a fairly new discipline. As a result, inclusive marketing consultants and strategists are newer areas of expertise for talent.Whenever I introduce myself and explain that I'm an inclusive marketing consultant, coach, and strategist, I always find that I need to explain what that means. That includes sharing the ways I support clients for people to get it. An inclusive marketing consultant isn't like a copywriter, sales person, or even market researcher where people tend to understand right away more or less what you do.Thankfully, more brands are focusing on building inclusive brands that attract and retain a bigger and more diverse customer base. As such, I thought it would be helpful to understand how an inclusive marketing consultant can support you in your efforts. This is especially relevant if inclusive marketing isn't firmly rooted into the DNA of the way your brand operates.Get the episode transcriptGet the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterBook a call with Sonia
Mar 21, 2024 • 33min
103: Why we fumble when talking to people different from us (and how to fix it) with Topsie VandenBosch
Have you ever encountered someone different from you, and then fumbled your way through interacting with them?I know I have, and I included a few of those stories in this episode. From my observations -- it seems like too often, we struggle to build authentic connections with people who are different from us, and I wanted to explore why that was.So I sat down with Topsie VandeBosch, a mindset and emotional intelligence consultant for business leaders, and a licensed psychotherapist.Topsie helped me understand why we behave in this way and gave some super practical tools for how to do better so we can authentically build relationships with people who are different from us -- which is becoming critically important as demographics change in our society.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterTopsie VandenBosch websiteTopsie VandenBosch LinkedIn
Mar 14, 2024 • 38min
102. How (and why) to get better at talking to your customers with Andi Jarvis
Customer intimacy is one of my five pillars of building an inclusive brand. The most effective way to build customer intimacy is through actually talking to your customers. But a lot of brands don't do this -- and get nervous of even the thought of doing so, especially when it comes to people from underrepresented and underserved communities.So in today's episode we're going to fix that. I sat down with the brilliant Andi Jarvis, the founder and Strategy Director of Eximo Marketing, a marketing strategy consultancy based in the UK and Ireland. Andi also hosts the Strategy Sessions podcast.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterStrategy Sessions podcastAndi Jarvis on LinkedIn Andi Jarvis on Instagram
Mar 7, 2024 • 40min
101. Multilingual SEO Strategies to reach more consumers with Sarah Moon
Search engines connect interested consumers with willing brands. That's why smart brands optimize focus on SEO to make it easy for these curious customers to find them.But too often, brands forget about customers who have the problem their brand solves when it comes to consumers who speak other languages -- even when they are equipped to serve customers who speak other languages.In this episode I sat down with Sarah Moon, an SEO marketing and business strategy consultant, to cover practical ways you can do multilingual SEO to so you can attract and convert consumers who are looking for what your brand offers.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterGet the episode transcriptSarah Moon
Feb 29, 2024 • 37min
100. Research strategies big brands are using to to deliver better customer experiences with Santronya Smith
More brands are acknowledging the many ways consumers are different, and adjusting their marketing approach accordingly to ensure they make all the people they serve feel like they belong with them.In this episode, I sat down with Santronya Smith, Director of Enterprise Sales at Suzy, a market research company, where we chatted about strategies some of the brands she's worked with have used to do a better job of connecting with and serving consumers from underrepresented and underserved communities.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterGet the episode transcriptSantronya Smith on LinkedInSuzy
Feb 22, 2024 • 35min
99. How this former CMO used inclusive marketing to rapidly grow eCommerce brands with Bryan Alston
One of my goals this year is to bring you more stories of marketers who've been out in the trenches using inclusive marketing to grow their brands. For this episode, I sat down with Bryan Alston, former CMO of Greater Than, who's also worked on brands such as Magic Spoon and GoClove.com. We chatted a lot about inclusive marketing strategies he's used with these eCommerce companies that helped them achieve a greater degree of growth.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterGet the episode transcript Brand Castle Growth Partners - Bryan's new company
Feb 15, 2024 • 31min
98. How to be authentic in your marketing (and where brands mess up)
People want authenticity in their food. We need authenticity in our relationships. And we definitely crave authenticity in marketing.Today, we’re going to talk about authenticity in marketing.These days especially, more and more consumers want brands to be authentic. That is one of the things that makes inclusive marketing – and really, most marketing effective. Authenticity.Get the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterGet the episode transcriptEpisode 97 - Inclusive marketing ethicsShaq Buick commercialJimmy Kimmel - Basketball mean TweetsFresh Prince of Bel Air cheesesteak episodeKendall Jenner Pepsi AdBen & Jerry's bans 2 scoops of same flavor
