How To Create an Effective Pride Marketing Strategy

Pride Month celebrates human diversity and individuality every year, but it is also a time for brands to celebrate their uniqueness. Creating LGBTQ-related content/campaigns can increase brand visibility and brand loyalty. This article discusses things brands must remember while planning Pride marketing campaigns.

As we enter the month of June, Pride Month is celebrated worldwide. And over the years, the popularity of Pride Month has increased, especially with the rise of social media. While Pride Month provides brands an excellent opportunity to vow the customers and win their hearts, brands should remember that Pride marketing should not be restricted to just Pride Month but is a year-long activity.

According to recent Similar WebOpens a new window research, people searching the keyword Pride was as high as 415,950, and “Pride Month” boasted 305,500 searches. The stats are a testament to the fact that marketers can create long-lasting impressions on customers by sending the right message via their various campaigns. However, creating Pride marketing campaigns can be like a double-edged sword. If marketers get it wrong, they risk losing customer trust, but with the right message, brands can increase brand loyalty.

So, here are some ways to honor Pride marketing sincerely and genuinely.

1.Win Hearts With Authenticity

One of the best ways to improve customer relationships is with brand authenticity. Brand authenticity is all about being open, honest, and true with your customers. So if, as a brand, you try to jump on the Pride Month trend during June just for the sake of it, you might fail to win customers’ trust.

As mentioned above, customers prefer honest and transparent brands. One way to do this is by showing customers that you actually care and support the LGBTQ community through your actions. So instead of running campaigns for just a month catering LGBTQ community, you are better off creating campaigns throughout the year. The year-round campaigns need not be extravagant; a simple poll, an educational blog post about LGBTQ, fun quizzes, and hosting educational webinars can help customers immediately connect with your brand. Carefully crafted content can lead to more followers and engagement on social media.

One of the major mistakes brands tend to make when it comes to Pride marketing is changing of  logo when the topic is trending. This trick might have worked a few years ago, but not anymore, as today’s audience has matured. So rainbow marketing won’t win you any brownie points. If you’re serious about LGBTQ rights, show it all year round. Don’t just change your logo to a multicolored background for a month as an easy marketing ploy.

2. Collaborate With LGBTQ Influencers

Influencer marketing has come a long way, whether through social media or TV advertising. According to a recent Matter surveyOpens a new window , 69% of customers trust the information influencers share. Partnering with LGBTQ influencers can help customers win their trust due to the authenticity factor.

One major challenge while creating content for the LGBTQ community is creating non-stereotypical content. Partnering with LGQBT influencers can help you create content that resonates more with the LGBTQ community. Members of this community represent a cross-cultural range of races, ethnicities, religions, and socioeconomic levels. So for brands, creating content that caters to people from diverse backgrounds can be challenging. However, as a brand, you can resolve these issues by partnering with diverse LGQBT influencers. This helps you establish that you don’t care about a particular gender or sexual orientation but the larger community.

Similarly, you can also use user-generated content (UGC) to grab customers’ attention. The reason UGC helps marketers is the same as influencer marketing. Customers feel an immediate connection to UGC, which increases brand loyalty. So you can ask people from the LGBTQ community to share their stories about their personal life. This will help you strike the right cord immediately with customers.

See More: Six Capabilities Marketing Organizations Need To Cultivate Now

3. Don’t Try To Sell

One of the major don’ts of Pride marketing is trying to sell your product. This problem arises from marketers lacking awareness regarding the LGBTQ community and failing to understand the diversity and individuality of this community and instead selling products that might end up hurting the sentiments of individuals. However, many brands try to jump on the bandwagon to sell their products, which can result in a backlash and reduce the brand’s reputation.

Here is classic example of the same:

Source: Instagram

Instead of selling the product, highlight the work you have done for the betterment of the community. You can partner with a non-governmental organization (NGO) and educate customers about the LGBTQ community. This way, you can win customers’ trust as they will know that you are not doing it because it’s trending but because you care about the cause. While it’s great to create public awareness, if your marketing efforts do not match your company’s value, all your efforts can backfire. Hence you must educate your employees and have clear DE&I (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies.

You can host virtual parades, seminars, and fun activities to educate employees about the community. You can make LGBTQ employees feel included by providing a platform where they can share their own experiences. You can later leverage the social media pages of your company/website to share all efforts you have taken to educate not just customers but also employees to win customers’ trust.

Conclusion

June is a great time to show your appreciation for diverse perspectives to your staff and customers. By celebrating Pride marketing correctly, you can support the LGTBQ+ community and win the hearts of your customers. However, to win customers from this community, ensure you create campaigns throughout the year and not merely for one month.

How are you approaching the Pride Month strategy? Please share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you! 

Image Source: Shutterstock

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