How Inclusive and Accessible Is Your Marketing?
The internet is rapidly evolving. You can only imagine how competitive companies are in attracting as many potential customers as possible to their websites, blogs and social platforms.
Introducing a more accessible and inclusive approach to your business will guarantee that your content can be read, watched and used by an even wider audience. It means accommodating your designs and techniques to transform more potential customers into sales. So what's the difference between the two?
Accessibility Marketing
Accessibility marketing is about laying the foundation of how everyone can experience your content similarly. It is about making minor changes to the information you publish across social media, blogs and your website, allowing customers to interact with your brand.
There are over 11 million people who live with a disability in the UK. Firstly, consider those with hearing and visual impairments. Think about how they receive information differently from others. But that is just the beginning.
What Is Inclusivity?
Inclusivity can often be mistaken for accessibility when in reality, they are two different meanings.
Inclusivity allows for equal opportunities so that everyone can feel welcomed and included. In marketing, inclusivity focuses on creating content and promoting your brand to speak to an audience as if you were in their shoes. Brands should consider their audience's gender, race, beliefs, age, sexuality and language, to name a few.
An effective marketing strategy will always have a target demographic. Still, it should also include the option for other customers to relate to the content and enjoy it. Businesses must adapt their approach to developing content for a broader audience to access the information they produce.
How Can Inclusivity Promote Accessibility?
Customers are more likely to choose one brand over another if they demonstrate how inclusive and accessible they are within their marketing efforts. It shows that the business has developed an understanding of its audience and how to address them through various communication techniques.
Customers will often pick mindful brands they trust and resonate with over competitors. Introducing more inclusive marketing techniques will allow your audience to feel respected and welcomed. This makes room for more accessible content to be enjoyed by all.
These days there are plenty of ways where brands can create more accessible and inclusive content for everyone to enjoy.
Ways To Make Your Next Campaign More Inclusive and Accessible
Video Captions
Video captions are the most well-known tool to increase accessibility across content. Many social media platforms allow users to publish videos with automated captions; however, sometimes, the text doesn't correlate to what the person is trying to say. Creators should review the automated captions or create their own.
Use clear, bold text on your video content, so it is easier to read. Not only does it help silent watchers, but it helps those with hearing impairments in understanding what content they are accessing.
Alternative Text
Alternative text allows screen readers to describe an image or an article to users. This will enable people with visual impairments to understand your content and what it is about.
Keep the text short and sweet but try to include keywords. You don't need to have "a photo of…" or "an image of" as a screen reader announces it's a picture before reading the provided text.
When you introduce alt-text, identify the purpose of the image and remember that you are writing for a person and not the screen reader. Alternative text is another way of communicating with your audience.
Colours And Visuals
Over 3 million people in the UK are colour blind, around 4.5% of the population.
Most people see colours in the same way as everyone else. However, we still need to consider these people when designing graphics, visuals and logos. Colours may appear dulled down or entirely different shades.
Source: https://www.visioncenter.org/conditions/color-blindness/
As you can see from the picture above, there are three main types of colour blindness: Deuteranopia, Protanopia and Tritanopia. It's important to consider this when developing graphics and logos as the colours wouldn't be the same visually.
Be wary of text placement in graphics. Use contrasting colours so people with visual impairments can still read the information. You want to use colours that contrast well. For example, pink and blue work well together as they use different shades from the hue circle.
Top Tip: Avoid overlapping any text on images as it could be challenging to read.
Dyslexia Friendly
According to the NHS, it is estimated that 1 in every ten people has some degree of dyslexia, so how can you adjust your content to help them?
You can start by spacing out your text. This includes any paragraphs in blog content or photo/social captions for posts. Make the content skimmable: short sentences, spacing, bullet points - they are all good techniques to start including in your copy. People with dyslexia are a lot more creative people. They won't like to spend a lot of time reading information. They want quick, short and sweet facts that they can remember easily.
Capitalising words within hashtags can provide many benefits. People with dyslexia can differentiate between words. Still, it is also visually appealing and can help screen readers to understand your content.
Speak To Everyone
The language that you use is more critical now than ever before. Social media platforms have introduced pronouns to help users share how they want to be addressed. Try switching up 'hey guys' to a more gender-neutral option such as everyone, folks, friends, pals, or team. This can make all the difference in your brand becoming more inclusive. It is best to refrain from using masculine or feminine words as they may not be addressing everyone.
We suggest avoiding topics that could trigger issues such as religion and politics, as you will purposely exclude groups of people who disagree with your opinions and beliefs. These topics could also be very damaging to your reputation.
Considering these points, your next marketing strategy could exclude many people if you don't make these changes to your content. Your marketing should be available for everyone to consume.
Brands that have adapted their marketing strategies to become more accessible and inclusive grow businesses and reach potential customers. It helps to build trust and relationships with the demographic as it demonstrates the commitment to communicate and connect with a vast majority of people.
So now you understand how to include everyone in your next marketing strategy, reach out for a chat about how we can help your business.
