What is Digital Accessibility?

You’re probably familiar with the concept of accessibility – adding wheelchair ramps, reserving disability-friendly parking, including Braille on signage, providing automatic doors, and many other initiatives and adaptations that allow equal access to stores, facilities, and resources. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has enforced the right of all people to have equal opportunity regardless of ability status. This legislation has made sweeping improvements in physical accessibility, but did you realize that the ADA applies to the digital world as well?

Website accessibility is often overlooked, in part because the ADA legislation was drafted in 1990 – before the internet boom created a new set of virtual and digital accessibility issues. From a legal perspective, the gray area in the ADA regarding internet accessibility isn’t an excuse to forego the same standards on a company website or application. And of course, you could be missing out on customers if your website isn’t adaptable to different needs and accommodations – that’s about 25% of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control!
Consider some of these situations:

• Can someone with a visual impairment still learn about your business from your website, or is all of your content directed at someone who can read your words and see your images? For instance, does your site design incorporate high contrast and legible font size?
• Can someone with limited physical mobility interact with your website? Is your site navigable without the ability to use a keyboard? Is it navigable without the use of a mouse?
• Can a screen reader access your site to properly translate it as needed? Are your pages dependent on a style sheet that might confuse a screen reader? Do you use an HTML table that cannot be parsed properly by a screen reader? Do your images have alt-text screen readers use to speak text aloud?
• Do your videos or other content negatively affect groups of users? Are there flashing elements on your site that might cause seizures? Are you using a color scheme that may be difficult to parse with color blindness?

If you’re not sure about any of these questions, you’re not alone – many businesses aren’t well acquainted with website accessibility yet. It also used to be much more expensive and difficult to implement accessibility features, often requiring highly specialized (and high-cost) consultancies to create a program, and though the ADA laws apply equally to all companies, many small businesses simply couldn’t afford the price tag.
Unfortunately, a lack of understanding or a smaller budget have not been shield enough against legal action, and the number of ADA claims are on the rise. The Wall Street Journal reported a 23% increase in web, app, and video accessibility lawsuits from 2019 to 2020, possibly linked to COVID shutdowns forcing greater scrutiny of virtual and digital accessibility for work-related purposes.

The first step towards making your digital content more accessible and meeting compliance guidelines is learning about web accessibility and how to apply it to your company’s sites, applications, and content. We recommend checking USAbility.gov’s Accessibility Basics for a quick snapshot of website accessibility. If you’re looking for a deeper dive, deque’s Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility offers a more robust set of discussions about different facets of accessibility.
Additionally, we at Sales Renewal offer accessibility packages to bring your business’ website into compliance, then continue to monitor and fix any issues that arise as your site evolves over time. If you’re interested in seeing how an accessibility solution can help ALL of your website visitors, not just the ones with disabilities, try clicking the universal accessibility icon at the bottom right part of your screen, available on any Sales Renewal webpage!
Let us know how we can bring accessibility to your business. Contact us today!

5 Tips for Effective Marketing Communication

When building your business, having a great product or service is just the beginning. Communicating your company’s offerings, solutions, and advantages is crucial for turning a good product into a wildly successful one. But in the age of digital communication, traditional advertising is no longer the only way to tell people about what you offer. Connecting with your target audience through digital media can be an incredibly powerful asset to your brand and business – as long as you can optimize your message and create effective, ongoing communications with your customers.
Here are our top five tips to more effective marketing communication.
1. Articulate your marketing goal(s) and message
It’s difficult to be effective if you’re unsure what your goals are. Without defining a clear message and a way to measure the success of your communications, you’ll end up with a less cohesive and less engaging strategy that uses up time and resources without generating returns. Instead, practice making SMART goals that center around a clear, direct message.
2. Define and understand your audience
Knowing what you want to say is one thing, but knowing what your ideal customer wants to hear is another! Research your audience and identify what types of conversations or solutions are important to them. Learn where they go to find information that helps them make decisions. Craft your messages around your researched data to ensure you’re investing your marketing time and budget into communications that will get attention, rather than falling flat amid the rest of the market noise.
3. Tell a story
If the movie and television industry gives any indication, people love a great story – especially when they can identify with the characters and conflicts. Craft your messaging into relatable narratives that put your ideal customer at the center of the story. Creating recognizable situations and offering the best-fit solution to a known problem will help your brand establish a more intimate connection with your audience than traditional advertising.
4. Focus your message
Keep your eyes – and your communications – on the prize. Once you’ve identified a key concept and message, stick to it. Creating too many individual messages can become overwhelming to the consumer. If you have multiple messages that you’d like to work with, consider separating them into independent campaigns that build consistency around each message, rather than trying to work multiple discussions or points into the same campaign strategy.
5. Create a dialogue
One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing over older methods of advertising is the ability to have a conversation with your audience. A billboard or TV commercial is a one-way communication, but social media platforms, email marketing, and other digital media forms allow the customers to engage with the material and messaging. Open your campaign to dialogue by asking your audience questions, encouraging them to share their experiences with your brand, or by creating an approachable persona on your accounts. When your customers feel connected to your brand on a personal level, they are more likely to not only listen to what you have to say, but to act on your offerings as long-term clients.

The Power of Empathic Storytelling: How to Make Your Customer the Hero of Your Story

Modern consumers have evolved beyond the scope of traditional “buy this product” advertising; these days, your customers and clients are as interested in the why and how of products and services as they are in the what.  Creating purposeful narratives that connect with your target audiences on a deeper personal or emotional level will help you stand out amongst your competitors and build a lasting bond that keeps your clients coming back.  Discover how to focus your storytelling content on your customer in this article from Entrepreneur.

Read the full article at: www.entrepreneur.com

Home Grown vs. Professional Video – Each Has a Role to Play in Small Business Marketing

Guest Poster: Peter Stassa of Davideo Company, corporate video production specialists.
You probably don’t have an unlimited budget. We get that, neither do we. We understand that while you value the use of video content to build brand awareness and credibility, you still need to stay within your means. So, ask yourself this:

Where is your content going to be seen?

If you’re posting short videos to consumer-driven social media (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc.) to promote live events or short-term special offers, go right ahead and shoot those yourself. The audience on those platforms is used to seeing a more impromptu, “selfie” style and is less critical of production quality.
But what about the important video content that lives on your website or is being embedded in email campaigns and newsletters? The “about us” videos that explain what your organization does and why you do it? The testimonial stories that are intended to build trust?
You may think: “My phone has a really good camera, I can save money by producing marketing videos in-house instead of hiring an outside company to do it!”
Yes, you can – you can also save money by doing your own dental work with a mirror and a pair of pliers, but it will cost you more in the long run.
For one thing, it takes more than just a good camera. Do you have the other necessary tools and skills to properly record and edit the raw footage so that the end product is worth watching? Do you have the time?

You have to be careful when cutting corners on the production process because home-grown video can backfire on you.

For example, a Brightcove survey of more than 1,200 consumers revealed that the quality of a video has the potential to change the perception viewers have of your brand:
“When consumers are confronted with poor-quality video, they are 62 percent more likely to have a negative perception of the brand that published the video.”
“23 percent of consumers who have been presented with a poor-quality video experience would hesitate to purchase from the brand.”
Sure, the world of B2B and B2C communication has become relatively casual in recent years, and some marketing pundits have been saying that consumers prefer video that is more “spontaneous”, less “flashy”, and thus more “authentic”. But if your camera work is shaky and your image is dark and your audio is hard to hear, your viewer will not stick with it long enough to absorb any of your “authentic” content.

Poor production values are a turn-off. They distract from your message.

Today’s buyers are doing most of their initial research online before they ever get to the point of reaching out for a proposal, which means your odds of getting onto their shortlist depend largely on the quality of the content you post online.
As the saying goes, “you get only one chance to make a first impression” and if the video content on your website, on business-oriented platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, and in your newsletters and email campaigns looks amateurish, it will pale in comparison with the content offered by your competitors… and you won’t be getting those calls.
Effective and engaging video does not have to look like the opening to the Super Bowl, but sticking to the basic best practices of clean production will allow the viewer to focus on your content. For this reason, you should stay away from a “homegrown” video for critical applications and consider working with a professional when your target audience is made up of your core prospects and potential partners and supporters.
 

How to Make Direct Mail Work for Your Business

Many businesses only pay attention to reaching their customers via emails. While email marketing can be a great way to generate engagement and keep customers updated, it’s not the only way. Direct mail offers an option to reach your customers in a more personal way – through their mailbox. And if you think snail mail is outdated, think again: research has found that direct mail typically has a 4.4% return rate, while the rate for email is just 0.12%.
To help make a direct mail campaign successful, it’s important to know who you want to reach and make sure they are actually the ones receiving the mailing. As we know, our physical mailboxes can be as cluttered as our digital ones, but what do most people do when they get their mail? They quickly leaf through each piece and decide whether or not they are going to open it or trash it. Make sure your piece is enticing enough to avoid the recycling bin! An attractive design and a special offer, like exclusive coupons, exciting news or personalization, will make your customers take a second look.
Now that it’s the holiday season, consider using a direct mail campaign to reach your customers in a personal way to wish them a happy holiday season and let them know you’re thinking of them and appreciate their business. Don't forget to include a special offer!

Key SEO Elements to Have in Place Before You Hit “Publish”

When creating online content, be it a webpage, blog post or video, you’ve likely set high expectations for performance in search engine rankings. To that end, it’s important to consider how you can optimize your content for SEO before you even begin. Doing so can boost your ranking in search results and also allow possible leads to find you organically. Many people know that using relevant keywords can help you rank well, but that isn’t all there is to it. Knowing how to use keywords correctly to avoid appearing as spam, optimizing images, and employing strong meta descriptions are just a few elements to consider when creating your content. Don’t wait until the next time you create some content to use these tips – start applying them to the pages and articles you’ve already created and help send them to the top of the search results page, too.

Why Do B2B Content Marketing Strategies Fail?

The author puts forth the argument that content marketing has changed the way professional services are both bought and sold. Prospective clients have learned to turn to digital channels first when looking for someone to help solve their problem since these channels give open, unobstructed access to what buyers of these services prioritize most when judging your fit for their needs – your expertise. The more often a firm produces relevant content, the more engagement it creates, and the more trusted it becomes. Interestingly, research has shown that up to 24% of prospective clients rule out firms simply because of poor quality content. Make sure you’re not one of them by avoiding some simple traps, such as irrelevance, inconsistency, keeping your content to yourself, and more.

Differentiate Your B2B Copy With This One “Weird” Trick

This one “weird” trick in copywriting can help you distinguish your brand from your competitors. All businesses want to stand out and differentiate themselves to their prospects, so go ahead and be different, write copy so you’ll start to distinguish your brand.