Can content marketing become more genuinely inclusive?

Gen Z is an inclusive generation and so it’s no wonder they can smell performative marketing a mile off.

When it comes to representing people with disabilities, 49 percent of Australians can’t name a single brand doing disability inclusion well. Interestingly, 70 percent say it’s important that media content is accessible.

If you haven’t factored disability into your inclusion strategy yet, I urge you to take a look at the groups you’re still excluding.

And if you do have disabled representation in your campaigns, it’s time to ask yourself: is your content truly accessible and are you investing in the creators and communities you’re championing?

Disability inclusion can’t just live in your marketing. It has to live in your product, your process, your people. Here’s where to actually start.

Accessibility and aesthetics can (and should!) go hand in hand

Create your content, campaigns and marketing materials with both accessibility and aesthetics in mind, and that includes your sales materials.

Consider your colour contrast, font readability and alt text, and whether it’s a social post, a sales deck or a product demo.

Caption every webinar, add alt text to your LinkedIn posts, and keep your pitch decks legible and high-contrast.

And all of this counts for B2B just as much. Business buyers are still people: one in five Australians live with disability, and Millennials and Gen Z now make up around two-thirds of B2B buyers, and they care about inclusion, including disability equality, more than any other generation. Accenture also found that companies leading on disability inclusion can see 1.6 times the revenue and 2.6 times the net income of their peers.

Let lived experience lead, and use authentic representation

Don’t try to control the narrative around disability. If you’ve got staff with lived experience, or the budget for creator collaborations, lean in and utilise their authentic lived experience.

For B2B marketers, feature disabled people as experts, not extras. Feature them in case studies and thought leadership, not just stock imagery. If your client’s team includes disabled staff, show them as the experts they are.

And if you’re going to use stock imagery, across B2B or consumer marketing campaigns, be sure to use authentic disability representation: no hospital wheelchairs standing in for everyday mobility aids. Spend the time to get the details right.

Support the communities you champion

Pay your talent properly, the same as you would on any other campaign. Make sure the shoot itself is genuinely accessible to them, not an afterthought. If you’re taking on lived experience feedback, that’s consulting work, so pay for it like consulting work.

Think about other ways you can support too. Are there campaigns, events or creators you can champion on your socials, eDMs and beyond, without expecting anything in return?

Real inclusion is not performative

The trick is not making a song and dance of how inclusive your brand is. Instead, focus on actually building disability inclusion across the board: have a disability action plan, consider hiring disabled talent, have disability representation on your website, but also in lo-fi content on socials.

The big win for those who get on board early is that hardly any businesses or brands are doing this well, so that’s the opportunity.

With nearly one in two Australians unable to name a single brand doing disability inclusion well, any brand that moves now gets a point of difference over competitors, and that applies just as much in B2B.

If no other provider in your category is doing inclusion well (and they’re probably not), it’s one of the easiest differentiators available.

Saskia Veronique is the founder of Studio Veronique, a social impact marketing agency