Working with an LGBTQ Marketing Agency

Sandy is the head of the department for a company that produces a unisex clothing line which it markets primarily to Gen Z consumers. One of her friends is a gay guy who tells her that she could really grow the brand and increase company revenue if she and her team went beyond just Gen Z and targeted the LGBT audience. Unfortunately, Sandy, and no one on her team, had inside knowledge of LGBT consumers. And she knew that to connect with a new audience and develop the relationships necessary would require work that her small team did not have the time for. What she did gather was some research on the buying power of the LGBT community and was astounded. When she took those huge numbers to her CEO, she got a go-ahead and an increase in her budget to go out and find an LGBTQ+ marketing agency that could develop a campaign for gay and lesbian audiences - a firm with experience and expertise in this specific market that her own sales team didn't have.

What is an LGBT Marketing Agency?

There are marketing agencies that specialize in LGBTQ+ consumers. Usually, they are founded and operated by member of the LGBT community, and these are the best types of businesses to work with. Generally, they have two services.

First, they work with companies, like Sandy's, that are looking to move their brand into the LGBT community. They create individualized campaigns for each firm, using a diverse strategy of venues, all of which are then approved by the client before being implemented.

Second, they work with a variety of LGBTQ+ organizations, profits and nonprofits, to capture a larger audience of the LGBTQ+ community. For example, if an online dating service is looking to increase its membership, the agency will develop creative strategies to attract and engage the LGBT audience.

Or, if non profits are looking to increase their presence and generate affiliations and donations, the marketing agency will develop media campaigns for them.

How to Choose a Good LGBTQ Marketing Agency

Look at Its Accreditations, Affiliations, and Awards

• Is it a certified LGBT business enterprise?

• Is it LGBTQ owned?

• What awards and affiliations does it have? Is it accredited by top SEO agencies?

• Does it have success stories from brands that have used the agency? Are there recommendations from clients?

• Is it a certified LGBT business enterprise that tracks success rates for you and revises as necessary?

Look at the Details of Its Services

• How does it plan to reach LGBT audiences? Digital marketing is where it's at today, so is that the agency's major focus? And does it have a team that can focus on each marketing venue?

• Does it offer a free consultation up front?

• What do you find in the way of testimonials and reviews of its work?

Check Out its Advertising Venues - Is It Comprehensive?

Here are all of the ways in which brands should expect an advertising campaign to include:

• Content Marketing: This includes reaching consumers via blogs, forums, videos, infographics, customer-generated testimonials, stories, and reviews. The company should provide a variety of these options. And the strategic placement of backlinks is a branding must.

• Using Online Dating Services: There is a myriad of LGBTQ+ dating apps, both in niche and all-inclusive areas. Advertising on these venues taps into a huge potential customer base.

• Social Media: Here is another venue used by many competitive brands. The company should be able to determine where a brand's potential customers hang out and develop a plan for clients reach on these platforms. Content should be engaging, entertaining, and paint the brand as genuinely committed to the LGBTQ population. Building brand loyalty is all about relationships and trust.

• Search Engine Optimization: This is a complex and tricky marketing endeavor. The goal is to have content that is picked up by search engines as cool and relevant and to show up on the first page of search results. It takes real pros to make this strategy work.

• Influencer Marketing: When an agency takes on companies that want to make serious inroads into the LGBTQ marketplace, and if that agency has worked with the right influencers before, there is already a relationship between them and the right influencers who can shine a spotlight on the brands of companies with products and services to sell.

• Reputation Advertising: Businesses must be mindful of their online reputations. Any marketing agency that serves its clients well will have the systems in place to monitor any mention of its clients on the web, so that issues and complaints can be addressed immediately. It will look at such things as reviews of your products/services and make sure they respond to anything negative.

• Digital PR: A critical part of marketing for clients is making sure that potential customers are made aware of a company's commitment to the LGBTQ community within its workplace. So, industries that have a diverse workforce and that provide benefits and healthcare for its LGBTQ workforce should be celebrated and applauded. When these actions are publicized as a part of a marketing strategy, queer people become customers, and brand loyalty is built.

• eCommerce Marketing: So many industries have e-stores, one of the biggest challenges is to stand out among the competition. A marketing agency worth its salt will have strategies in place to boost its clients' business brands by promoting its products and services, using SEO tactics so that the store is among the top search results for those products and services.

• Generation of Leads: Again, this is a tricky and complex branding strategy. Digital marketing involves the use of resources that will create real leads through the use of big data and partnerships with quality lead-generation professionals. The add on is then creative methods of making contact with the leads in a non-intrusive way.

• Paid Advertising: This can be one of the most effective sales tools to generate revenue. The use of the right media and social venues, even a presence at Pride events, along with compelling ad copy, can empower a business to pass up its competition. When a client is putting out his bucks for paid advertising, branding success better happen.

• |The Brand Website: All marketing has one goal in mind - through the best advertising tactics, an enterprise captures a solid market share of consumers or its product or service. And one of the most important pieces is the brand's website. Think of all that a killer website can do - it features products and services of course, but it also can house a blog with content of real interest to its potential customers; it can publish customer testimonials and reviews; it can showcase its commitment to the gay/lesbian/queer community with activities such as Pride events; it can tell its own story of how it came to be a champion of LGBTQ+ equality and rights.

  When an LGBTQ marketing agency has the pros in website design, their client gets a sleek presentation of itself and regular reviews to ensure that it is updated as its clientele evolves. This is an invaluable service because enterprises rarely have their own on-site developers.

The Right Agency Makes the Difference

Digital marketing is the only marketing there is today. In fact, there is no talk anymore of marketing in any other way. People don't read their snail mail anymore. Even when print media is used as an advertising venue, that print media is online.

Whether you are located in Miami Florida, or somewhere in Illinois, Colorado, Texas or the West coast, it doesn't matter anymore. Your customers come from anywhere. When you partner with an agency that doesn't just talk the talk but walks the walk, it will target your desired LGBTQ+ audience, develop a comprehensive plan, ensure that they have your reviews of everything they propose, and provide you with real results.

Pick the right LGBTQ+ marketing agency and you'll have the results you want.