Unlocking the benefits of email accessibility: why inclusion is key for business growth

Accessibility is becoming an increasingly important consideration for brands as they look to create inclusive digital experiences for all of their customers. Email is a particularly important area to focus on when it comes to accessibility, as many people rely on email as a primary means of communication and access to information. Adopting best practices for creating accessibility-friendly emails can seriously help with an organization’s bottom line, while ensuring that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can easily access and understand the information contained in these messages.

In this post, we’ll look at 7 such best practices that every business should systematically adopt, in order to be more inclusive of all of their audience, including those who have different disabilities. We’ll also explore how each one contributes to bettering relationships with all of the business’ audience. As we go through the seven ways in which brands can benefit from more accessible emails and newsletters, you’ll discover some of the many ways in which these same brands can build trust and loyalty along the way, and ultimately drive business growth.

Best practices for email and newsletter accessibility

01. Using clear and concise language

The first best practice is to use clear and concise language is particularly beneficial when it comes to more accessible emails as it helps ensure that the information contained therein is easily understood by everyone, including those who have cognitive or learning disabilities and have difficulty understanding complex or technical language. By using plain language techniques like shorter sentences and more common words, you make it easier for everyone to access and understand the information. But it’s not just something that helps your audience that has disabilities; clear and concise language in emails ultimately benefits everyone, regardless of their abilities.

02. Using headings and subheadings

The second inclusive email best practice is to take advantage of clear and meaningful headings and subheadings, which is particularly beneficial for audience members who have learning disabilities and those who depend on screen readers to navigate and understand the content of a newsletter. Structuring headings in such a way helps everyone wrap their head around the information with more ease, and makes the content that much easier to scan and follow for just about everyone. Leveraging headings in this way will also help break up large blocks of text into smaller, more manageable chunks, ultimately resulting in less daunting emails that are more likely to be read and engaging for the entire audience.

03. Using proper formatting

The third best practice for more inclusive emails is to pay attention to the use of text formatting in order to minimize barriers in comprehension for the audience. Making proper use of text formatting like bold, italics, or bullet points in emails, and avoiding the use of all caps, fully justified text, or underlines will be particularly beneficial for those who have visual impairments or learning disabilities, and could struggle with distinguishing between different types of text formatting to highlight important information. By paying attention to formatting, you can help make your emails and newsletter more easily accessible and easier to read for everyone.

04. Using descriptive alt text for images

Coming in fourth position is the use of relevant alternative text for email or newsletter images and visuals that are used to convey meaningful information or data points. This one is particularly important when it comes to audience members who are blind or have low vision, and depend on assistive technologies like screen readers and braille displays to ensure that the information conveyed through visual assets is also available in text. By capturing the description of relevant images and other graphs in descriptive alt text, you can make sure that the information that is both meaningful and important contained in these visual assets will be accessible and understandable by those who otherwise could not perceive them.

05. Using strong colour contrasts

The fifth best practice for more inclusive emails relates to the use of strong colour contrasts. Individuals with colourblindness or even some audience members who deal with low vision issues will struggle with distinguishing between text and background colours when the contrast between foreground text and its background is too weak or low. By combining sufficiently contrasted colours, you can ensure that the information contained in your email or newsletter will be more easily readable for everyone. Not only can that make the content more visually appealing and easy to read for everyone, but it will also help reduce eye strain and fatigue.These benefits, in turn, will increase productivity and readability, on top of helping make that text more legible on different devices and screens.

06. Using descriptive link text

The sixth accessible email best practice relates to the use of descriptive and meaningful link text. Links that are ambiguous or don’t make much sense when taken out of their immediate context will cause challenges for audience members who depend on assistive technologies to consume information. For example, individuals who use screen readers will rely on link text to understand the purpose of a link and where it leads. Using generic link text like “click here” or “read more” will often make it difficult for these individuals to understand the exact purpose of the link and consequently, make it harder for them to navigate the email or newsletter. By using descriptive text that clearly explains what the link is for, you help ensure that the information contained is easily accessible and understandable for everyone.

07. Using tables sparingly

The seventh and final best practice that we’ll cover relates to using data tables sparingly in emails and newsletters. This is because information presented in table format is an excessively visual representation of data that can prove hard to process for some individuals who have cognitive impairments as well as those who are blind. Non-sighted audience members using screen readers will often struggle with navigating tables when information is presented in a linear format, and their screen readers may not always interpret the table structure correctly, especially when it comes to interpreting data when it’s presented bidirectionally. Avoiding the use of tables whenever possible helps ensure that the information contained in the email or newsletter is easily accessible and understandable for these individuals as well.

Unlocking benefits for business growth

Adopting these best practices not only is it the right thing to do from a social responsibility perspective, but it also makes perfect business sense! By making the effort to create more accessible and inclusive digital experiences, businesses cannot only benefit their customers, but also their bottom line.

By being more inclusive, businesses attract a more diverse customer base, which opens up new markets and opportunities. By ensuring that all customers have an equal opportunity to engage with and benefit from a brand’s products and services, businesses can build trust and loyalty with their customers. By creating inclusive digital experiences for all customers, brands can reach a wider audience and increase their conversion rates. This leads to more sales, repeat business, and positive word-of-mouth recommendations, which are all invaluable for a business’s growth.

In short, implementing accessibility best practices for email and newsletters is a win-win situation for businesses. To learn more about any of these techniques, or discover other ways in which accessibility and inclusive communication principles can help your business, be sure to reach out for a free 20-minute discovery call.