What You Need to Know to Ensure Accessibility in Digital Marketing Campaigns

Accessibility in Digital Marketing

Content marketing is all about creating experiences. And a negative customer experience can be worse than no experience at all. But if you’re not prioritizing accessibility in your digital marketing campaigns, you’re all but guaranteeing that people with disabilities will not be able to enjoy the experience you’re trying to create.

A recent study that examined the home pages of the top one million websites worldwide found that 97% had detectable WCAG 2.0 violations. Only 3% of the world’s most popular websites offered a fully accessible experience to all users.

How do you think your marketing content stacks up?

Inclusive Marketing Matters

More and more, organizations are making accessibility and inclusive marketing a priority. The reasons behind this trend range from a genuine commitment to making sure everyone can access and enjoy content marketing teams create to preparing for — or in some cases, responding to — legal action over a lack of accessibility.

But regardless of what factors are driving your push for accessibility in digital marketing, it’s essential to understand the audience you’re serving. Most of us have moved past only thinking of accessibility in terms of physical access like wheelchair ramps and elevators, but making your message accessible goes far beyond serving people with permanent disabilities.

Inclusive Marketing Matters
Image source: Microsoft Inclusive Design. Microsoft Inclusive Design. https://inclusive.microsoft.design/

Accessibility in Marketing Guidelines

Accessibility isn’t something you can just add to your content once it’s ready to go live. As one of the experts at Level Access put it, accessibility isn’t a “thing”. Accessible marketing content is built from the ground up with equity and inclusion in mind. Let’s examine some easy steps you can take to ensure everyone in your audience can enjoy the experience you’ve worked so hard to create.

“Being locked out of the online world is the same as being locked out of the world.”

Writing Inclusive Copy

Writing Inclusive Copy

Whether you’re creating blog content, web copy, email sequences, or social media posts, it’s important to avoid using language that could exclude any part of your intended audience.

Designing for Accessibility

Your design and development teams should also play a major role in building accessibility into your digital marketing campaigns.

Designing for Accessibility

Posting on Social Media

The rules for accessibility in copy and design apply on social media, but platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and others also have some special guidelines that don’t come up elsewhere.

Digital Accessibility is an Ongoing Process

Digital Accessibility is an Ongoing Process

Building accessible marketing content isn’t a “one and done” process. Once you’ve decided to make inclusive marketing a priority, you’ll need to keep working on it. Here are a few suggestions for keeping your efforts on track:

Stress testing

Think of the various personas that make up your audience. Consider how each of them will interact with the assets and experiences you’ve created. Look for things that will be inconvenient, unpleasant, or downright impossible for them to achieve.

Audience feedback

Your audience is the best barometer for your success in designing for accessibility. Let them know you’re open to feedback, and be sure to implement changes based on what you hear.

Accessibility tools

There are many digital accessibility tools (with varying prices and levels of efficacy) available to help you keep an eye on your progress. Most organizations (regardless of size, vertical, and maturity) use free tools, typically browser extensions and page testers.

Training

Consider regular training on accessibility in digital marketing for your team. Our partners at Level Access offer a range of excellent programs to help keep your organization current and compliant.

We Understand Accessibility in Digital Marketing

Struggling to create accessible content that engages and educates your entire audience? TPM creates marketing collateral, sales enablement content, and educational material to help grow your reach, build trust, and generate leads. Get in touch to discuss how we can help you.

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