Inclusive marketing: 8 tips for enhancing the accessibility of your marketing
I believe that creating inclusive and accessible marketing materials should be at the forefront of every business owner's objectives when it comes to communicating with their audience. And although accessibility can be a complex topic with many different variables, there are a number of ways that small businesses can market their products and services to meet the various needs of their target audience.
The rules and regulations for accessibility will depend on the area that you live in, so it’s always best to do your due diligence and find out what the regulations are for your particular business. There are lots of free resources available online that can help you increase the accessibility of your marketing materials.
The extent to which you create accessible documents and adopt best practices in marketing could depend on a number of factors, including the size of your team and your operating budget. However, there are a number of ways you can drastically improve the visually accessibility of your communication that are relatively easy to implement.
Here are a few ways to get you started:
Determine the final size of your marketing graphic before you start creating it. While it is always best to design any type of marketing collateral as it’s intended size, businesses are often purposely graphics for their marketing. You could be resizing a postcard into a social post or reusing social assets across multiple platforms. So best practices is to be mindful of what the final destination of your graphic is and to test that graphic at 100% of it’s final size on various devices.
Keep your messaging simple so that it can be easily understood. The language that you use will be dependent on your target audience but be mindful not to use terms and acronyms that will confuse your reader
Be mindful of marketing messages and type sizes in small spaces. This is especially important if you are designing on a desktop computer but the majority of your audience will be viewing your material on a mobile device.
Keep graphics simple for social posts so they can be read easily and quickly and/or ensure your primary message is seen first. Remember you only have a few minutes to grab a readers attention as they scroll.
Always check your social posts on various devices, especially mobile to see how big they will display.
Use typefaces that can be easily read. You most important information (primary information) should be the first thing that a viewer reads and should be the most clear on any marketing piece.
Ensure that there is all copy has enough visual contrast against the background that you are using. For more information about the ratio of visual contrast that is needed, visit https://www.w3.org/WAI/ and https://webaim.org/
Ensure that all essential text is live text in your website platform of choice so that it can be can be read by screen reading devices
There are a number of incredible resources and free training available to business owners to educate them on best practices when it comes to design accessible marketing materials. Here are a few to get you started:
For residents of Ontario: https://www.ontario.ca/page/accessibility-ontario-information-businesses
For free training: https://accessforward.ca/training
Free tools and education: https://www.w3.org/WAI/