Numerous websites send emails to their clients telling them of the most recent promotions or new product designs. Let’s examine an instance to help you comprehend why email accessibility is so vital for your organization:
You get an email from your preferred company informing you of new products arriving on their website with an initial discount of 40%. However, when you click the link, you are sent to a webpage that does not have the products shown in the email. You attempt to manually locate the product on their website, but the photos in your email are incorrectly labeled, hence it is difficult to find the product. You lose interest in the commodity as a result.
Imagine the frustration that would cause. You are interested in purchasing a product on sale but don’t have the necessary information. Not only does the company lose the transaction, but you will likely also unsubscribe.
This case is a clear example of one of the problems a screen reader user experiences if the email is not accessible.
Now that the situation is obvious, let’s go further into the matter.
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Does accessibility significantly impact my business?
It is believed that about one billion individuals have some kind of impairment. This represents around 15% of the global population. Let us break it down a little further:
- About 2.2 billion individuals, or about 16% of the world’s population, have low eyesight. On an average, 217 million people have severe to moderate impairments in their eyesight.
- Although hearing loss is the third most commonly reported chronic health issue among the elderly, 65 percent of patients with hearing loss are younger than 65.
- One in every twelve males and one in two hundred women are colorblind worldwide.
- Dyslexia affects anywhere between 5% and 10% of people worldwide.
Thus, if your emails can’t be read, you’re failing to provide a satisfactory service to a substantial portion of your readership.
7 benefits to companies from making email more accessible.
1. Accessibility and usability go hand in hand
If you want your website to be used by as many people as possible, including those with disabilities, you need to make sure that they can do so without difficulty. Better usability for everyone is a byproduct of adhering to accessibility standards.
2. Wider Market Reach
Making your website more accessible to people with disabilities is just smart business. Just some simple adjustments make a big difference for people with disabilities. Along with users with disabilities, everyone else will also benefit from accessibility features like transcripts and closed captions, mobile device compatibility, and an easy-to-navigate layout.
3. More engagement and improved retention
The term “customer retention rate” refers to the proportion of an organization’s current clientele that continues to do business with the organization at the end of a certain month, year, or any other period of time. This measure is very important for online business. When your customers can’t access your email content, they can’t interact with your calls to action (CTAs) therefore may not respond to your emails. It is more likely that the customer will opt out of your email list if they can’t access it.
4. It minimizes your legal risk
According to law firm Seyfarth Shaw In 2020, nearly 11,000 accessibility-related lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2020 and that’s a whopping 320% increase in just 8 years. These are just the ones that have been disclosed; what about those that have been resolved out of court? If you disregard accessibility, you might find yourself in major legal trouble. Domino’s Pizza is the best example of neglecting accessibility since they pushed the issue to the Supreme Court and lost.
A lawsuit’s effects go well beyond the financial losses. Customers’ confidence is damaged even if the claims are without basis. How much more are you letting it slip through if you can’t even be responsible with accessibility?
Your agency’s reputation may be at risk if a client lawsuit results in negative press for any of the brands you represent. Companies are understandably wary of associating with a firm that has a history of legal troubles since this might damage their brand.
All of this emphasizes the need of having all of your content accessible in advance of any potential negative press or legal disputes.
5. Competitive Edge
Which of these two emails promoting a clothes deal do you think a person is most likely to click on? If your competitor’s offering is more user-friendly and informative, customers will select it over yours even if they love your product.
6. Improved Brand Image
It’s a sign of respect for your consumers and subscribers that you treat them like actual people rather than simply a number in their database.
7. Better understanding of your audience
A successful marketing campaign begins and ends with knowing your target audience. Making your emails available to everyone is a great way to demonstrate that you understand their problems and are trying to help. Best of all, you won’t have to worry about anybody forming the opinion, however subconsciously, that your business doesn’t do a good job of representing them.
To prevent complaints and unsubscribes, you should make your emails as accessible as possible right away. You’ll have a far more receptive, appreciative, and invested audience if you follow these guidelines from the get-go. And, ultimately, satisfied members are more active, make more purchases, and return more often.
Do you feel prepared to initiate change? Get a headstart on Email Accessibility with AEL Data
