The Importance Of Integrating Accessibility And Inclusivity Into Your Digital Marketing Strategies

When creating digital marketing content, it is important to ensure that it is accessible to your target audience and fully inclusive. In this article, we discuss what the terms inclusivity and accessibility mean for digital marketing, and how you can apply these principles to extend your lead generation and sales reach.

Accessibility 

Accessibility in digital marketing terms involves designing your web pages, written content, videos, and digital experiences so that all users can access them regardless of any special access needs or disabilities. 

For instance, an important aspect of accessibility is making your content usable for people with visual impairments or hearing loss, by ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies – such as screen readers and close captioning, and that content is formatted correctly for all types of users.

You can improve access to your content by providing alternative 'alt' text for images, explanatory subtitles or captions for videos, deploying descriptive link text, and ensuring that your website navigation menu is easy to understand.

Inclusivity 

Inclusivity in marketing is the process of creating content and digital media that is respectful, accessible, and welcoming to people of all backgrounds, and that avoids implicit discrimination and unconscious bias that could be interpreted as micro-aggression or exclusion by some users.

A good example is the importance of using gender-neutral language in written content, as far as possible. For many people, this process doesn’t come naturally, as the business landscape includes many male-specific terms that are still used automatically and unconsciously – such as ‘man hours’, ‘Foreman’, ‘manpower’, ‘man down’ etc. When creating content, you should try as far as possible to be aware of the cultural implications of visual and descriptive symbols you use, including language and colour – as these things have different meanings from culture to culture.

Language itself is another good example. If you target a non-English-speaking market or ideal customer group, whether within the UK or outside, it’s worth investing in original marketing content in those target languages, and not simply relying on translations from English.

Inclusivity ties in closely with accessibility by making sure that everyone can access and use your tools, websites, and content easily, regardless of their individual differences. 

Inclusivity And Accessibility As Digital Marketing Strategy Development

Accessibility and inclusivity are important for SME digital marketing developments for several reasons. First, it is simply the right thing to do – ensuring that your target market can complete critical tasks on your website without difficulty and access your digital materials on their own terms. 

Inclusivity and accessibility aren’t simply ‘woke’ concerns: people want and expect to know that their needs are taken into account when accessing your content and that you value them as potential customers – so it simply makes good business sense to not lose customers due to poor businesses practice. It can be extremely off-putting for users if they find it difficult to access your content, regardless of how good a fit your business is for their pain points.

Investing in inclusivity and accessibility can also increase your customer base and brand reputation, establishing your authority as an ethical business and helping you reach a wider audience of potential customers.

The tools and features required to make your content more accessible don’t actually take much more time and don’t cost much money, but can provide a competitive advantage by making you the business of choice for users with accessibility requirements – over and above competing businesses who don’t make this effort in their content.

How To Attract New Customers: Content Creation And Development Services From JDR Group

At JDR Group, we help small businesses develop and publish a wide range of digital content assets to increase their online revenues and market share, with full attention to inclusivity and accessibility, and to personalise your content for specific ideal customers.

To find out more about how to attract new customers through your content, please book a call with one of our experts to discuss your marketing strategy.

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