Table of contents

1. Accessibility in marketing: A challenge with many facets
2. Greenwashing 2.0? What businesses need to consider
3. 5 ways to more accessibility in marketing
4. Conclusion

The most important in a nutshell

• Methods to increase accessibility facilitate the interaction between businesses and people with disabilities or handicap
• Inclusion must not be promoted under the same guise as other societal challenges (e. g. sustainability)
• Changes in communication and advertising increase accessibility in marketing

Accessibility in marketing: A challenge with many facets

Inclusion belongs to the biggest challenges of our society. Our economy as its engine accordingly plays an important role. But many businesses fail to face challenges in accessibility. The main problem is not the comfort zone but rather the fact that accessibility requires an optimization and restructuring of existing business processes. 

In this article we will further talk about accessibility in marketing and which opportunities are given to improve communication between businesses and humans with handicaps. Limitations mostly affect human senses, especially listening and seeing. But often there are linguistic hurdles – many people have a reading and spelling disability for instance which is why they don’t understand complex content.

Some businesses already succeed in executing accessibility but there is still potential left. Digital transformation ensures a precise optimization of existing business processes but many companies fail to establish methods to increase accessibility.

→ Just ask yourself at this point if you have ever seen static facebook advertisements with audio display? Or how many websites do you know which provide functions to support accessibility? You will probably realize that there are no pioneers in this area. 

Countries like Germany even agreed to execute a law to increase accessibility. The law will be executed in 2025 and that comes with some pressure because yet, too many businesses fail to improve accessibility.

Greenwashing 2.0? What businesses need to consider

Accessibility in marketing should not become some kind of guise to purposely seek out advantages in competition. This development can be seen in sustainability – many businesses, even big ones like Aldi, promote their supposed sustainable products and advertise with sustainability-seals to position themselves as pioneers in this area. But often these products aren’t sustainable and those eco-seals can be attained under the easiest requirements. This is called “Greenwashing”.

Inclusion shouldn’t reach this dimension. It would be too much to ask that companies no longer see their own advantage in restructuring existing processes, but that is not the point. Furthermore, businesses shouldn’t place themselves as pioneers when they don’t meet their responsibilities fully. Who considered accessibility in marketing, but won’t execute it in other business areas, isn’t any different from companies which claim to be sustainable but still produce tons of CO2.

But back to the topic of accessibility: Don’t use inclusion as an advertising medium. Good service will pay off sooner or later because businesses which consider accessibility will have advantages over their competitors in the long term.

5 ways to more accessibility in marketing

To push accessibility in marketing further, innovative improvements are required in the first step. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to ensure that. Simple rethinking will help you to try out new ideas or to execute existing approaches in a way to meet requirements of accessibility.

Overview of the five ways:

• Plugins for your website
• Focus on new marketing methods
• Content distribution
• Make interaction easier
• Creative elements

Plugins for your website

In times of digitization more and more businesses take advantage of a blog to expand brand awareness and to generate more website visitors. These visitors are turned into leads to interact with the business in the long term. That results in advantages regarding customer acquisition and loyalty as well as businesses selling more goods and products.

Because of the mentioned reasons, the focus is more on improving the user experience of a website. The goal is to provide better interaction possibilities for users in order to strengthen the brand image. Hereby businesses especially focus on improving the mobile version of a website.
But in the field of accessibility there is not a lot happening and there are barely websites which take on these challenges. Thereby there are many ways to integrate accessible functions on your website. WordPress users can easily expand their website with accessible functions by using plugins.

You can use the following plugins to ensure more accessibility in your marketing:

• One Click Accessibility
• Accessibility for WP
• Text Zoom
• Accessibility by UserWay
• Screen Reader Accessibility

When implementing these plugins, make sure they are compatible with your website. Additional plugins possibly have a negative impact on PageSpeed which will also worsen the user experience on your website.

Focus on new marketing methods

Businesses which don’t recognize digital marketing trends will struggle a lot against their competitors in the next few years. Those who follow marketing trends will establish new ways of communication with their target group and will therefore position themselves in the field of accessible applications.

Let’s go back to mobile versions of a website once again. An optimized responsive web design belongs to search engine optimization criteria and will therefore improve your Google ranking. That’s why you will barely find a web designer who will not optimize the mobile version of your website anymore. Although the criteria of search engine optimization plays a much bigger role for businesses, it will still have a positive impact on accessibility in marketing.

-> So while you are trying to improve the position of your business by executing digital marketing methods, you will improve user experience and therefore accessibility as well. Win-win.

Content distribution ensures more accessibility in marketing

All forms of marketing reach different groups of persons and their preferences in processing information. For instance, blog articles are great for providing in-depth and very informational content. Podcasts on the other hand are convincing with practical examples and more flexibility.

→ Both marketing methods have one thing in common: They guarantee accessibility.

Blog articles communicate information in writing which is why they are a good alternative for people with a hearing disability which therefore don’t find any access to podcasts. But podcasts on the other hand are an auditive source of knowledge which is a great alternative for people with a reading and spelling disability.

Combine different content channels to ensure a barrier free interaction with your target audience. To be fair, a broad content distribution requires temporal as well as financial resources but a good content strategy will improve accessibility even when you only use a few different content marketing channels.

Creative elements

Creative elements support accessibility in marketing. Videos, for instance, work perfectly to communicate visual content and the subtitle function even ensures access for people with a hearing disability.

Emojis help to communicate messages better and give clues to the content for people with a reading disability. This approach works especially well for social media posts.

Using creative elements also means to make the right choice regarding the corporate identity. Avoid hard to read colors (e. g. yellow) and hard to read color combinations (e. g. dark gray font on black elements).

Conclusion: Focus on user experience

The trend in marketing clearly goes in the direction of user experience. Technical aspects and for search engines generated content will not lose relevance but in the foreground are human beings and their interests. Accessibility in marketing is part of user experience because businesses are responsible for reaching out to all users equally. With plugins / apps for your website, changes in design and content distribution you will reach this goal.

Bilder: © Canva.com

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In this article:

1. User Experience: How to improve it in 2023
2. What is User Experience?
3. Why is User Experience important?
4. How to improve User Experience: Tips and tricks
5. User Experience and how to improve it on mobile devices
6. How to measure User Experience?
7. Conclusion
8. FAQ

User Experience: How to improve it in 2023

Growing competition requires innovation and outside the box thinking. Only about 15 years ago companies with a website had a strong and tight position on the market. In 2023, this belongs to the past. Customers are given more possibilities and in every niche there is lots of competition. Search engine optimization and social media are the first steps, but one aspect is often overlooked: Getting the target group to not leave the website and interact with call to action buttons and / or contact fields. In this article we’ll give you valuable information on how to improve your User Experience and which opportunities you have.

UX Design: An important factor in terms of mobility | © Amélie Mourichon

What is User Experience?

Most people have heard of User Experience (UX), especially regarding websites and their usability. That answers the question about the definition: User Experience sums up all aspects of user interaction and usability with a product or service. That doesn’t only include the experience with apps or websites but how users interact with a product or service as a whole. User Experience is measured by communication between business and customer, possibilities in mobility, how easy it is to interact with a website and how short the ways are to call to actions (e. g. contact form, newsletter button etc.).

Why is User Experience important?

It is no secret that user experience was an important topic even before digitization, but the focus was on other aspects. User experience was taken for granted because analog applications were considered easy to use and on-site contact with companies meant there was appropriate help from staff. In the digital age, however, the focus is on automated processes and it is precisely this that causes difficulties for many users / customers.

Such difficulties are particularly apparent with websites: The dwell time of visitors is shortening due to growing competition. Consumers know that they are only a few clicks away from a comparable provider and accordingly look for uncomplicated solutions. Companies often find themselves in the situation where their website generates a lot of visitors, but the bounce rate is relatively high. The solution is obvious: no focus on user experience. And since user experience is also a competitive criterion, there are additional disadvantages compared to competitors.

So the need for user experience exists because otherwise your competitors will have advantages over you and at the same time customer satisfaction will also drop. Google is also increasingly shifting the focus of content marketing to usability – for years, search engine optimized content was considered the most important aspect of good content, but core updates from 2023 (e.g. helpful content) aim to prioritize user-oriented texts and content.

How to improve User Experience: Tips and tricks

The high bounce rate of websites requires the right and especially solution oriented behavior. With our following tips you’ll reduce the Google Analytics bounce rate of your website as well as you will improve your company’s image.

Communicate your USP and VP as direct and understandable as possible

Your unique selling proposition (USP) and value proposition (VP) make you stand out in comparison to your competitors. When searching for the right product or service, the number one question of potential customers is: Why?
There are many competitors on the market which all offer similar solutions – constantly improving your offer won’t make things better, what matters is the way to communicate the value to your target group.

Every business has a unique selling proposition (What makes me stand out in comparison to my competitors?) and a value proposition (Which value / advantages can I provide to my target group?) with which you reach your potential customers. Ask yourself if it’s clear for customers to recognize both the USP and VP the moment they visit your website.

Technical terms? Please not!

As important as it is to represent your company as a serious business, too pragmatic texts won’t reach your audience. Technical terms, very long texts and boring content won’t reach your target group. Many businesses fall for the so-called “SEO trap”. That means companies optimize their texts based on SEO relevant criteria but forget to take a closer look at their target group. Sure, texts which are too “salesy” aren’t appealing either and especially technical products require less salesy texts than beauty products for example. But still, good texts awake emotions and needs in potential customers.

Easy usage of the website

A big sitemap, sub pages with too much content and an user unfriendly design – these aspects of User Experience is what website visitors notice first. In case a website appears too full, some visitors don’t know where to start or how to interact with it. Therefore, they will leave the website.

Barrier free usage: Access for everyone

Another positive aspect of digital progress is that everyone takes advantage of it, even human beings with handicaps. Specific apps and plugins for websites give access to functions for barrier free usage. These include functions such as reading texts, changing size of letters and optical changes.

Responsive web design: Mobility is more important than ever before

More than 70 per cent of website visits come from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Even though a responsive web design isn’t as appealing as the desktop version, optimizing a website’s design and content for mobile devices is crucial in 2023.

Ask yourself the right questions

In the first step, good User Experience is defined by a target group friendly website. The process goes beyond that because the product or service itself shouldn’t make the lives of consumers harder. But: To reach this step in the first place, interest of the target group is required and in 2023 the first contact of potential customers with a business is mostly through the website or other marketing methods such as paid ads or social media channels.

Ask yourself the following questions to improve the User Experience:

• How can I effectively communicate my product / services to potential customers?
• How does the value of my products / services appear to my audience right away when they visit my website and how can I use, for instance, use cases to communicate advantages?
• Do I consider important aspects such as mobility or barrier free experience?
• Is it clear for my target group what to expect on my website?
• Are the ways to the call to action button (contact form, newsletter subscription etc.) too long?
• Does the content of paid ads and social media fit with the content on my website?
• Can we use methods to improve communication (e. g. through chatbots)?

The last question is important for the complete online performance: Even when using social media or paid ads, User Experience shouldn’t be a secondary thing. Bad written texts and hard to understand descriptions of products and services belong to the most common reasons why users don’t click on a website.

Mobility: Don’t underestimate the impact on User Experience | © Taras Shypka

User Experience and how to improve it on mobile devices

Relevance of responsive web designs increases especially with the given possibilities in app design in comparison to just a few years ago. But more possibilities in IT and programming also means that products become more complex and that on the other hand requires a better focus on User Experience.

But not only do the possibilities in app design expand because in the area of mobile devices there is also lots of progress. A good example is digital signage software.

Digital-visual screens which display content through software – many know them as information terminals. Possibilities for users have developed in the past years and that offers more opportunities in general. Goal of digital screens is the compact display of easy to understand content and simple usage. But to improve User Experience even more there are smartphone integrations. FRAMR offers an uncomplicated as well as a very fast connection with the smartphone through QR code and a great User Experience thanks to cross platform design. Our team sets a good example for User Experience and makes an important move to use digital signage software independently.

This is how you combine user experience and innovation

The relevance of responsive web design continues to grow, especially because the possibilities in app design are more extensive than they were a few years ago. However, more possibilities in IT and software development also mean that products have more complex features, which in turn requires a closer look at the user experience.

A good example of this is digital signage solutions. These are digital-visual screens that play out content thanks to software. The goal of digital signage is the compact reproduction of easy-to-understand content and good usability to promote interaction between the company and the user. To improve the interaction with users, digital signage combines other innovative methods from marketing, for example gamification.

FRAMR enables a straightforward as well as split-second connection with various hardware devices and provides a simple-interactive user experience through cross platform design. Our team leads by example in user experience and moves away from the location-based use of a terminal, we also offer a wide variety of different functions.

How to measure User Experience?

Measurement of results provides important information on how successful the chosen (marketing) methods are and that creates new possibilities to save more money. To measure User Experience, the bounce rate of websites is a factor to take a closer look at. In case users find your website, you can be sure your marketing does well. However, if the interaction rate is low / or the Google Analytics bounce rate is more than 60 per cent in comparison then you should improve the User Experience.

But don’t only take a look at User Experience when you analyze the results because other factors have an impact as well. It’s possible that someone finds your website through keywords that don’t really represent your offer. Here it gets clear to figure out which causes lead to the given numbers or which reasons speak for an either good or bad execution of User Experience.

Article → Hardware and software: Differences and connections

Conclusion

User Experience: More than just a word in 2023. It dominates the competition between companies. Thanks to digitalization we are given the possibility to create more complex products and market them in many different ways which requires further explanation of their usage. Most businesses are aware of that and use qualified UX designers who build up your marketing step by step.

FAQ

Still some things unclear about User Experience? Following we will answer the most frequently asked questions regarding the topic of this article.

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