Supporting the Black Marketing Community

If a customer feels seen, heard, and represented by our product, brand, or company is a job well done by the marketer. How do we make sure we get all the diverse perspectives of our audience? Products and organizations mirror the teams that built them. Our teams have to represent our customers, proportionately. It’s not exactly a novel solution.

In reality, diversity in marketing teams is not as much as we’d like it to be. Black marketers are especially low in number. You know what that means - an entire community’s voice is underrepresented in our work.

Diversity and Inclusion are not only the right things to do, but they are also good for business. Research shows that diverse companies are more likely to outperform their competitors.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black people comprise only about 6% of the marketing industry. In proportionality terms, it is less than half of the percentage of Black people in the US. That means we, as an industry, have a long way to go to support Black marketers and the Black community. Here are three organizations that are making a difference:

The African American Marketing Association was launched in 2019 and is a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit membership organization. Their mission is to foster the growth and professional development of African-American marketers, creatives, and entrepreneurs. It was founded by Michelle Ngome. She is a consultant who helps companies approach diversity and inclusion from a marketing perspective.

The Black Marketers Association of America is a digital community of and for Black marketers. It was established to discuss marketing best practices, and for Black marketers to help with building and growing their careers through networking. The community was started in early 2017 when there was a need for a group to help marketers of color in Atlanta with finding jobs and learn more about the marketing industry. Today it has grown to a national network of over 600 active marketers. It was founded by Natalie Gullatt, a marketing manager at Hubspot.

Hire Black Marketers is a directory of Black and Black identifying marketing talent-for-hire and/or speaking and consulting opportunities. Their mission is to diversify the marketing industry by increasing the representation of Black and Brown marketers to more than 12%. It was founded by Destiny Yemayá Davis, a social media marketing manager at Skillshare.

Speaking as a founder and long-term marketer, diversity helps us build better. Build better products that can make a connection and build better campaigns that can reach further. The customers we serve connect with our brand values when we can adequately represent them.

Diversity and Inclusion is not just the hiring policy for us at Inflection. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive marketing and technology industries and encourage you to support this cause as well.