Email Marketing Accessibility
Buncombe County has been pushing the envelope on email marketing and in doing a little research on accessibility here are a few things I learned along the way.
This is a great website for learning about the history of Email Marketing.
History
- Email has not only changed the way we communicate, but as marketers it is key to reaching customers, generating loyalty, and furthering the company brand and message.
- A recent report states that email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an incredible 4,200% ROI.
- The global e-mail marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021).
- 77% of marketers say email accessibility is a priority for their brand—but only 8% rigidly follow accessibility best practices.
- The numbers show that when it comes to email accessibility, there’s a disconnect between intention and action.
Email Copy for Accessibility
- Keep it at 7th grade reading level
- use headers
- min font of 14px
- no special characters in subject as it might report spam
- use a san-serif font.
- keep it clean. Average email scan time is less that 20 seconds.
Email Design for Accessibility
- #1 problem = image only
- Some email clients disable images for security reasons.
- Be sure to use alt=
- images with text cannot be translated
- load time issues
- no searchability
- HTML emails need to be optimized
- HTML tables work best for structure
- add role=presentation to any tapes so screen readers can content instead of row and column headers
- ARIA is future
- Specify language code in HTML
- Use relative font sizes to avoid conflicts with Dynamic Type settings on cell phones
- Test in several email clients
- Also offer plain text email with html email
- Use effective color choices with good contrast ratios 4.7
- Images should be compressed with descriptive alt text added.
- Videos are acceptable but also provide links to video
- Don’t forget about negative space AKA Whitespace
- Double check your call to actions. Make sure they are easy to click
- Dark Mode-lower vision users perform better
- For dark mode practices, use transparent images.
- Avoid high contracts
Testing and Sending Accessible Emails
- Add alt text
- Customize Plain Text; Sync from HTML
- Conduct testing
- Don’t forget the CAN-SPAM Act
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