Why I Don’t Use Gendered Language in Marketing

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
What if for women, marketing is actually turning away the very people that you would love, love, love to work with? In today's episode, I'm going to talk all about why I really try not to use gendered language in my business and how you can maybe decide if that is the right path for you or not. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio and the video like Chef's Kiss magical, making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their Magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself. Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside.

Andréa Jones [00:00:57]:
It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes and make sure to use my code DREA D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. Hi. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast where I'm all about simpler, smarter marketing for busy, busy people.

Andréa Jones [00:01:22]:
And when I say busy y', all, I mean busy. I am nearing the end of my journey as a mom of babies. I am done having babies. No more babies for me. Literally impossible at this point. And my youngest is going to daycare, y'. All. I am low key, sad and also kind of excited.

Andréa Jones [00:01:42]:
Mixed feelings all around. But my time is opening back up again. I have got lots of ideas for the things I want to work on and this is part of it. Talking more about kind of like the inclusionary language or excluding language we use in our marketing and really digging into diversity equity inclusion topics. I got certified as a diversity equity inclusion business owner and marketer back in 2021. And so it's a lot of things that I kind of apply and implement in my business just naturally. And now I want to talk more about why that is. So let's take you back in the day.

Andréa Jones [00:02:19]:
I started my business in 2014 and even back then when I started my business I never said I am a social media manager for women. Okay? I my entire brand was pink, y'. All. Like totally pink, very feminine coded, fem, cod and but even back then I never said for women because I worked with all genders and it kind of felt like something I was doing back then that didn't really. I didn't really have the words to explain it because it was definitely different from my peers. A lot of my peers were marketing themselves as, you know, a coach for women or a therapist for women or even, you know, a lot of, you know, that's when a lot of gyms and fitness centers were rising in population and the popularity. Sorry. And they would market themselves as for women.

Andréa Jones [00:03:11]:
And so it's a very popular thing to do. There's a lot of women business groups and things that I was joining, but I just couldn't bring myself to market my business as for women. And it wasn't until, I think this was around 2020. So before I got my certification, one of my business friends, Liz Goddard, posted something on social media about gendered marketing. And it really clicked for me because the way that she explained it, and I tried to go back and look at the post, y', all, but there are too many posts. Uh, but the way for my. From my memory, the way that she explained it was that when you market your businesses for women, you're actually excluding everyone else. When really what you're saying is you don't want straight men.

Andréa Jones [00:03:55]:
It's real. Like, when people are marketing their businesses for women, a lot of times they're trying to send this signal out about who they don't want. And they really may be including all sorts of identifications in that process, like all sorts of people that they actually would like to work with. They just don't have the words to explain that. So I want to talk about how to navigate that. How I've navigated that, really, over the years. But before I get into that, I do have to frame this episode with a bit of a disclaimer, because this is not like, I want to cancel you party. This is not a, like, you're doing it wrong kind of scenario.

Andréa Jones [00:04:36]:
This is really a question, an exploration, if you will, an invitation to think about things a little bit deeper, to think about things a little bit more exploratory. You know, I want to invite people in. Yes. To our spaces, but I also want to make sure we're very careful about the words that we use. And I also want to say, I do not get this perfect. There are certain words that I know are insensitive, and I am actively trying to erase them from my language, and they still pop out sometimes. I have talked about this on this podcast before, but I love a good y' all moment. But when I Used to say, address a group of people.

Andréa Jones [00:05:14]:
I would say, hey guys. Hey guys, what's up? It is in my lexicon. I've been saying it that way for 30 years. So at the ripe old age of 35, sometimes this old dog is hard to learn new tricks. And so sometimes the hey guys slips out. I've been focusing in on y' alls and folks and friends, so that has been great journey for me. But the other one that I really struggle with is saying the word crazy. Like, that's so crazy.

Andréa Jones [00:05:43]:
I used to say that all the time. It's insensitive. So now I'm like, that's wild. Thank you, Bob the Drag Queen for those words. But it really is for me, a signal, an invitation to invite people into the conversation. And instead of excluding the very people that I want to feel welcomed in my space. Okay, so let's start off with a few statistics, because this isn't just me sharing my opinion. It's really kind of how we're shifting as a culture as well.

Andréa Jones [00:06:17]:
So 64% of consumers take action after seeing inclusive marketing. And it's even higher for my LGBTQ2s + community and marginalized groups, like, for example, I am a black woman running a business. So when we use inclusive marketing, consumers, those are the people who purchase your products. It sends a signal out to them that they can purchase and feel comfortable. 64%. Okay, 64%. This is increasing over time, especially with the younger generations. Gen Z.

Andréa Jones [00:06:54]:
Gen Z and below really put their buying dollars behind brands that they feel have the same values as them. And inclusive intentionally and not just, you know, checking off a box is something that's very important to them. Another stat is inclusive marketing leads to 3.5% higher short term sales and 15% higher loyalty. And I will have all of the links in the show notes for the the data points and the references that I use in this episode. Because there's a ton of stats in here that's in the show notes. You can find it on online dre.com when I think about the buying power, like if we want to be objective, it's like we're as a culture, as a community, moving this direction just naturally. And so if we want to kind of take the feelings out of it and focus on the facts, that's where we are. People buy from brands that they feel are aligned with their values.

Andréa Jones [00:07:53]:
And when you say, for instance, that you are a web designer for women, you may be excluding non binary people, you may be excluding trans people, you may be Excluding gender fluid people. And if that is your intention, go off says, that's for you. But if that is not your intention, you may want to take a look at your language there and see who you are excluding. Okay. Another thing to think about is that 61% of consumers say they'll stop buying from a brand when they feel excluded. Okay. When they feel excluded. And I struggle with this just from like a black woman standpoint, sometimes there are brands that feel like they're not marketed to me.

Andréa Jones [00:08:43]:
And I don't know if they know this, but sometimes when I look at the way that they use photos, the way that they choose their words on social media, it feels like they're marketing to, for example, white women. And I go, I don't know if this brand is for me or not. Right. And so I will not purchase from a brand based on that as well. And I'm not alone. 61% of consumers say that when they feel excluded, they don't want to buy from that brand. So the TLDR of this is that in some cases, saying for women might help you feel specific enough to include people, but it also might be quietly closing the door on the people who would have walked through it. So if you're using inclusive language to be strategic.

Andréa Jones [00:09:32]:
Absolutely. For example, I mentioned earlier the gyms. Women feel safer in women only gyms. That study has actually been proved. Okay, so if you're saying you are a gym, a fitness center for women, that can actually help you more that it could hurt you. If you are a web designer, though, saying you're a web designer for women, I do want you to think about why you're using those terms. And if you are inviting in a certain group of people or if you are experiencing excluding other people who you would potentially have worked with Anyways. Now, I said in 2014 that I chose not to use gendered language.

Andréa Jones [00:10:11]:
And I really struggled with why that is. And it. And thinking back on it, it's because I like working with all genders and I like working with a variety of people, men included. One man in particular who I remember distinctly. He's a celebrity now, y'. All, Brian Michael Smith. You look him up. He's on lo star 911.

Andréa Jones [00:10:33]:
He is a trans actor. And I worked with him before he was famous, y'. All. And he's so cool. Just like the coolest dude ever. And we worked on this project that was essentially he was doing a short indie film project that was a web series about police brutality in America. This was around 2017, 20, 18. So very hot topic.

Andréa Jones [00:10:59]:
The comment section was OMG, some of the worst comments I've ever seen being a social media manager. But my team and I, we worked on that project. We helped the launch campaigns, we designed the launch campaign, we helped with the initial launch and all of the nasty comments. We actually did shifts because after responding to comments for like three hours straight of people being just absolutely belligerent, we needed a break. We needed a break. So I remember we, my team and I, we did shifts and we managed that whole project and it's so cool. He gave me an amazing testimonial afterwards. It's on my website and anytime I see him pop up in my newsfeed, I'm like, re share because he's so cool.

Andréa Jones [00:11:43]:
I would not have worked, I don't think, with Brian Michael Smith if I had said I was a social media manager for women. Okay? Probably not now. That being said, most of my community happens to be women. Okay. I think because I am a woman, I attract women clients naturally. Especially as a black woman, I attract black women clients. I would never say I market for black women only because Brian Michael Smith is a great example of someone who is absolutely fantastic to work with. And I don't know if I would work with him had I had used that exclusionary language in my marketing.

Andréa Jones [00:12:23]:
So I work with humans point blank, period. And I'm very open about that. And so in my branding, yes, it's still very femme coded to this day. I don't use my on brand pink as much because to be honest, y', all, I wear pink a lot. And so having a pink outfit and pink background was too much pink even in this. If y' all aren't watching the video, I have like a pink headscarf on right now because pink is my color. However, I don't need pink in my branding. So I actually went with like a more jewel tone.

Andréa Jones [00:12:55]:
I have like a gold tone that I use a a lot in this like deep teal color and like a deep maroon color. Things that go really well with my skin go really well with me as a background or so me in the foreground, those colors in the background. And so I chose my brand colors to highlight my natural characteristics. I in the way that I talk is very fem coded. My clients, again, do tend to be mostly women. However, even the men that I work with tend to be very open, shall I say? Like, I'm thinking of my one client client who was a fitness instructor and he was a great client. Most of his brand was marketed towards women. He owned a company.

Andréa Jones [00:13:41]:
Actually, I'd say it was pretty about, probably pretty even men and women. And I wouldn't have worked with him. Got an amazing testimonial. Again, if I had marketed myself as a social media agency for women or social media manager for women. So I think I want to challenge you all to think about that in your business. What are you actually trying to say when you add the for women to a tagline when you're trying to describe your business? Okay, now there. Here's some more stats about this, because the 4Women branding is actually. I don't know if declining is the right word, but it's definitely shifting.

Andréa Jones [00:14:22]:
So back in my day, let's say between 2010 and 2020, it was like girl boss central. I do think that there is a time and a place for this. Again, don't get me wrong, it's a very nuanced conversation. There is a time and a place for girl boss central because to be honest, most businesses are owned by men, especially the big men. Sorry. Especially the big businesses are run and owned by men. So it feels quite natural to actually create a space for women, especially women business owners, women entrepreneurs. Last year, for instance, I was nominated, for instance, in the women Entrepreneur Business Business award here in Niagara region.

Andréa Jones [00:15:04]:
I was nominated for the entrepreneurship award. And I do think there is a time and a place for that. And I think that it honestly feels very empowering. And so I'm not saying there isn't a time and a place for that. However, Labeling everything, hashtag GirlBoss is on the decline because some brands kept slapping the four women on everything instead of doing the actual work of making it inclusive. So, for example, example, there is a brand y' all may know. Bic. Y' all know the pens.

Andréa Jones [00:15:38]:
Bic. They came out with this line of pens that said pens for her. Okay, I. I hate stuff like this so much. Pens for her. What's the difference? They're pink and they, oops, cost more. Like what? And so to me, it's like things like that where brands are trying to market to a specific demographic, demographic of people, just by saying, pens for her. Pens for women.

Andréa Jones [00:16:04]:
And they tanked. They bombed. They don't exist anymore. Because people, humans were like this. This does not need to be gendered. Right? It's not something that needs to be gendered. Pink pens. Men can use pink pens.

Andréa Jones [00:16:18]:
And anybody, any human can use a pink pen. Okay? That doesn't need to be for women. And it definitely doesn't need to Be more expensive, AKA the pink tax. Right? And so when you add four women to your branding, I want you to think about if it's rooted in purpose or if it's just some sort of stand in where you're like, I want to work with people like me, okay? This requires deeper work. So let's talk about what that is. I want you to think about leading your business with values instead of labels. It's what I do in my business. I would never start off off by saying all of my labels to someone hoping that they want to work with me.

Andréa Jones [00:16:59]:
Because honestly, I do work with a variety of businesses. For example, I consider myself agnostic, okay? Religiously, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not saying there's nothing, but I don't know what it is, okay? I'm just a little human here in this great big wide world. I have no freaking clue. However, I have worked with clients in the past who are religious and have very strong religious perspectives. I would never say I only work work with people in a certain religious demographic because that doesn't fit my business. Instead, I lead with values.

Andréa Jones [00:17:34]:
You know, if a, if a brand were to come to me, there are certain signals I send out to help them decide for themselves if they want to work with me. For instance, right now in my Instagram bio, there's a rainbow flag. Intentionally, if that bothers you, we aren't going to be friends. I put my pronouns in my email signature and they're on my social media. Whenever there's a chance to put them, I put them. Because if that bothers you, we're not going to work together. I still. You do this on my application forms as well.

Andréa Jones [00:18:06]:
When I'm hiring someone, I still do this. It's optional, right? You don't have to put it in. But I find that people who are upset by it always have something to say. And so when I say, you know, what's your name? If you feel comfortable, what are your pronouns? They always say like, why do you need to know this information? If someone doesn't feel comfortable, nine times out of 10, they just skip it, right? Just skip it and move on. And then most people put their frickin pronouns just so I can know how to address you. I even ask for other things like how do you pronounce your name? You know, I want to get to know you. I want to make sure that we are on the same page here. And if that bothers you, well, we're probably not going to work well together anyways.

Andréa Jones [00:18:53]:
Some other things I do in my marketing is I talk about who I work with without necessarily putting a label on it. So for example, in this season of my life, I'm a mom. I've got a three year old and a one year old. I'm busy. The way that I teach marketing has always been we're going to take the shortest path with the highest output because, yes, you could do all of the things. We don't have time to do that. Okay, so what is going to get you the most impact in the shortest amount of time? That's where I'm at. So I use that in my marketing.

Andréa Jones [00:19:26]:
Marketing that fits your real life, simpler, smarter marketing for busy people. I used to talk a lot about being a lifestyle business or being a heart led business. Some people like that. A soft space for ambitious entrepreneurs who don't want to burn out. The people who have no problem posting the Instagram stories 10 times a day, they're not my people. They don't need my help. The rest of us who are like, I accidentally went two weeks and I didn't post anything and now I'm panicking because, well, I didn't post anything for two weeks. What do I say? Y' all are my people.

Andréa Jones [00:20:01]:
And so I use that language in my marketing to help describe my people without excluding necessarily a certain group of people, but really calling in the people who I really want to work with. Okay. I also use a lot of inclusive languaging visuals and case studies to show diverse identities and lived experiences. For example, I recently taught an Instagram Stories masterclass in my membership at the Mindful Marketing Lab and I'm hosting my Instagram bootcamp soon. I don't have dates yet. When I do work like this and I create a character, I make sure my characters are diverse. Okay, I used to do Lucy. Okay, this is Lucy.

Andréa Jones [00:20:51]:
Here's what she does. Lucy is not as diverse as I am. She's not as diverse as my people are. So now I use different names. Kenesha, Aria, and Darius. And I actually had someone reach out to me afterwards and said, thank you for naming your characters with diverse names. I can't tell you how many times it's like Brad and I'm like, yeah, I do that intentionally because I want to reflect my values in everything that I do. For some other big brand examples here that I like learning from.

Andréa Jones [00:21:26]:
Fenty Beauty is another example. They, when they launch, marketed themselves as Beauty for all. They often use all sorts of people in their marketing, all genders in their marketing. They have a wide range of colors and they did a hundred million dollars in their first 40 days of launching. Okay, so there's the stats and facts. One that didn't do so well. Tarjay. Omg.

Andréa Jones [00:21:55]:
And they're trying. They are trying so hard. But they really need to redo their diversity team because they fumble the ball almost every pride month. And when they release their pride collections, they're terrible. It's like, it's like they didn't consult the people that actually want to purchase their pride paraphernalia, if you will. And so they fumble the ball consistently and. And people don't buy them for that reason. And I can guarantee you there's some big wigs in some office somewhere that goes, huh, our pride collection isn't selling that well.

Andréa Jones [00:22:31]:
We tried. It's not working. And it's like, you didn't try hard enough. You didn't try hard enough. Another brand that I love though is Dove. The Dove soap. I use it exclusively because my skin is very sensitive, like my emotions. And they very consistently use all size people in their branding, which I appreciate and love.

Andréa Jones [00:22:54]:
They do a lot of campaigns around real beauty, so they, you know, oftentimes showcase what real people can look like. And now we relate, we associate those two things. Dove, Soap, real beauty. Like, they go together because of their marketing and they're doing an amazing job, I think, of really establishing a brand identity for what's basically soap. It. It's just soap. Right? But they're really calling in their people and I make the choice now intentionally to use the soap because of the way that they're marketing themselves. So I'm not saying you have to make big, massive, huge, you know, rebranding changes to what you're doing in your business.

Andréa Jones [00:23:41]:
I just want you to ask yourself a few questions and really understand if you're making an intentional choice in the language that you're using and know that this is a process. There is no finish line. Somebody told me recently that I'm too woke and I will never be woken up. And I was like, I hope not. There's. There's not like an end point to being what I think is just a human living in society. I'm constantly learning, changing, and growing. And I hope you're doing the same.

Andréa Jones [00:24:13]:
So a few questions to ask yourself. Do you actually want to only work with women or do you want to work with some clients who make you feel a certain way? I think this is super important question to ask. For example, are you looking for more feminine clients instead of just women because you could be excluding a whole group of people. Are you looking for clients who think a little bit differently or have a certain set of emotional regulation skills? You know, really think about why you're adding that four women label on there. Next question. Does your language match your values and your community's lived experiences? Okay. Your language, what you're using in your marketing, does it match your value system? So another one that I struggle with here is I love to use hey girl. I think I even said it in this episode.

Andréa Jones [00:25:07]:
Hey, sis. I have to stop myself from saying that all the time because it is exclusionary to some people I work with with, and I don't want them to feel excluded. So this is something that I'm working on. I have been replacing it with hey, babe, which I love. So, yeah, that's something that I'm a work in progress on. Next question is, am I using gender as a shortcut for, like, vibe and energy? Think about this. Are you trying to cut corners? Because you're cutting corners could be really excluding a lot of people. Would someone trans, non, binary, or gender expansive feel like they belong here? That is a question you have to ask yourself.

Andréa Jones [00:25:49]:
Because if the answer is no, like they don't feel like they belong, ask yourself why, because there are spaces where that. That does need to be edited. Sure. And if you can't answer that, it's really time to go back to the drawing board and look at that. And then lastly, am I excluding folks I love to work with just by how I've worded things? Okay. Think about that as well. Okay. My final thoughts on this.

Andréa Jones [00:26:16]:
I don't think marketing can be neutral anymore. Okay. I do not think marketing can be neutral any longer. Every buying decision we make in 2025, the year of Beyonce, is and has to be intentional. Okay. Will you get it wrong? Absolutely. There are people all the time that are like, they come to me for marketing consulting and they say, andrea, I'm hiring you because I don't want to get this wrong. And my first response always, well, you still may get it wrong because we're all learning, right? Your community, every community is unique.

Andréa Jones [00:26:53]:
And if as long as you're open to hearing feedback, gathering that feedback and adjusting, then I promise you, you're going to be a better person by the end of it. And I know we live in cancel culture. The people who get canceled usually are getting canceled because they're not listening. Okay? I have seen numerous times where someone gets called out or called in on something spec, and it's all in how they respond, which helps mitigate any backlash. When there's a lack of response, when there's no response, or when the response is diminishing, belittling, whatever, what have you, that's when things go off the rails. Okay? So, yes. Does it require work? Of course it requires work. Everything in business requires work.

Andréa Jones [00:27:38]:
That's just one area of it. And I encourage you to think about that. I also want you to think about the difference of being for women, women and being exclusive to women. Okay, so for women or being inclusive for women, same with men, same with non binary folks, same with anyone on the gender spectrum. What is the difference for you, you personally as a business leader, and then for your business, if you can't answer that question, you have some journaling, some meditation, talking with your peers and work to do. Okay. And you can invite your community into this process as well. Get curious about it as well.

Andréa Jones [00:28:19]:
Well, there are certain things that you can do to really open up that lane of communication. But ultimately, for a lot of you listening to this podcast, your business is really your personal values. So your business values are your personal values. And so you really have to look deep into what your values are and make sure that they're accurately reflected in your business. All right. I hope this episode has helped you really think about some things. It's something that's been on my mind for a while, and it's something that I'm hoping a lot of people will start thinking about more as they create new offers. I'll be back again next Tuesday with another episode.

Andréa Jones [00:28:57]:
In the meantime, make sure you rate and review on Apple podcasts. And Spotify helps keep us in the top 100 marketing podcasts. And that's all because of your support. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.