6 Essential tips for creating accessible marketing campaigns

In today’s diverse digital landscape, accessibility in marketing isn’t just a nicety—it’s a necessity. As marketers, our goal is to engage as broad an audience as possible, but without considering accessibility, we may exclude a significant portion of our potential audience. With more than 1 in 4 adults in the United States living with a disability, it’s essential that our campaigns are inclusive. Here are six essential tips to ensure your marketing campaigns are accessible to all.

1. Understand the Scope of Accessibility

Accessible marketing involves designing campaigns that everyone, regardless of ability, can engage with. This means creating content that is usable by people with various disabilities, including visual, auditory, and cognitive impairments. The goal is to reach a wider audience, increase engagement and build brand loyalty through inclusivity.

2. Identify Potential Barriers Early

During the planning phase of your campaign, consider what obstacles your audience may deal with when it comes to accessibility. Here are some key questions to guide you:

• What barriers might your audience face?
• How can you modify assets for visually impaired or hearing-impaired users?
• Does your messaging use inclusive language that avoids potential misinterpretations?
• Does your client/organization have the resources or standards to ensure accessibility?

By anticipating these issues, you can modify your assets to be more accessible. This includes things like adding alt text to images, captions to videos and ensuring that your messaging is clear and inclusive.

Planning for any additional time needed to ensure accessibility compliance and internal review will be key. Thinking ahead will help you make sure deliverable timelines can be met without sacrificing accessibility.

3. Prioritize Visual Accessibility

Visual accessibility is a cornerstone of accessible design. Ensure that your content meets the following criteria:

• Alternative text: Provide descriptive alt text for all images.
• Color contrast: Maintain a minimum color contrast ratio of 4.5:1.
• Font choices: Use simple, readable fonts.

4. Enhance Auditory Accessibility

For content that includes audio, such as videos, it’s vital to consider:

• Closed captions: Always include captions to capture all dictated content or audio descriptions. To reach audiences in other languages, consider offering subtitles when possible.
• Supers: Use text overlays or supers to emphasize key messages.

While captions and supers make audio content more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, it also improves user experience for audiences that may be interacting with content with sound off.

5. Simplify Cognitive Accessibility

Simplifying the cognitive load of your content ensures that it’s accessible and easily digestible to a wide range of audiences. Key strategies include:

• Consistent type hierarchy: Use a clear and consistent type hierarchy to guide the reader’s eye.
• Emphasizing key points: Highlighting top takeaways allows readers to understand the main purpose of designs right away.
• Straightforward navigation: Design intuitive and easy-to-navigate layouts.

These adjustments make your content easier to understand and engage with, benefiting all users.

6. Use Tools and Resources for Compliance

Creating content that’s compliant with standard accessibility standards is made easier with a few important tools. Here are some resources available to put your campaign to the test:

• Check color contrast: Use tools like the Adobe Color Accessibility Tool to verify that your colors meet accessibility guidelines.
• Check website accessibility compliance: Free and paid tools are available to ensure your website is meeting ADA and WCAG compliance.

Integrating these tools and practices from the outset can save time and resources while expanding your campaign’s reach.

Creating accessible marketing campaigns is not just a legal or ethical obligation—it’s an opportunity to enhance the quality of your work and broaden your audience. By following these six essential tips, you can ensure that your campaigns are inclusive, effective and impactful.