Website Accessibility & the Law: Why Your Website Must Be Compliant

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 wrote into law the right of all persons to have access to public facilities, spaces, and resources regardless of visible or invisible disability. While this legislation has been very helpful in increasing physical accessibility through initiatives like ramp-building, TTY programs, designated parking areas, and more – the ADA was drafted before the internet became a mainstay of daily life, and does not provide clear guidance on how to adapt accessibility to the digital and virtual realms. Because general accessibility liabilities apply equally to your business’ physical store or office location and to your company website, it’s important to understand how the ADA applies to your digital presence. Learn more about accessibility law and how to be in compliance in this article.

Read the full article at: www.searchenginejournal.com

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!

The $242 Billion Business Of Corporate Gifting Pivoted From A Routine To A Priority In The Pandemic

Somewhere between the gratitude of Thanksgiving and the gift-giving of December traditions lies the industry of corporate gifting. Companies can deepen connections, build loyalty, and increase a sense of mutual value with both clients and employees through thoughtful, intentional tokens of appreciation. Here’s an inside look at this rapidly growing business as we head into the business gift giving season.

Read the full article at: www.forbes.com

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.

Don’t Overlook These Email Marketing Fundamentals

In a world where every marketing plan is competing for attention with thousands of other messages, email marketing is one of the best ways to get YOUR message directly into your audiences’ hands. While other digital marketing strategies rely on the audience to visit or view your content, emails land in their inboxes, and recent data shows people check their email an average of 15 times per day! Whether you’re already using email marketing, or are just starting to add this tactic to your overall strategy, make sure you’re building a solid foundation to maximize your reach and your impact.

Read the full article at: www.clickz.com

Marketers Are Taking Greater Ownership Over CX Initiatives: Survey

Until as recently as two years ago, customer experience, or CX, tended to fall under the purview of such diverse departments as IT, customer service, and operations but a new survey shows that that responsibility has made a clear shift into marketing departments.
Research company Gartner looked at four specific areas of CX — voice of customer, defining customer personas, customer journey mapping and user experience — and discovered that marketers are now more likely to take ownership in all four areas. In addition, 74% told researchers they expect CX investments to rise either slightly or significantly this year. That increase is evidence that CX initiatives are paying off and delivering measurable value and that companies are better able to connect the dots between positive customer experiences and increased revenue. Have you considered how you can improve your customers’ experience?

Busting the Myths That Keep Your Business From Reaching Millennial Customers

Millennials are often misunderstood from stereotypes that were developed quite a few years ago. They are no longer teens, but ar in their 20s and 30s and make up a large part of the workforce. Even though they’ve been around for a long time now, many businesses still aren’t sure how to reach them. It’s time to bust the myths and get to know the demographic. You may see that what you think is actually the opposite.

This Holiday Season, Be Thankful For A Great Customer Experience

Creating a positive experience for your customers is a powerful way to help them appreciate you and keep coming back. Make a good impression every time they interact with your business by mastering not just one area, like delivery, but by excelling in all of them from design and ordering, to service and sales. Customers will notice and return knowing that they can have an easy and trusted experience every time. Consider using these tips that will get your customers to say “Thank You.”

Secrets of the Trade(show): 9 Ways to Use Marketing Automation Before, During, and After Events

As you plan your 2020 tradeshow season, this article will prove helpful to ensure you are getting the most out of the tradeshow. Defining and executing on the right Marketing Automation, before, during, and after the show is critical to getting the most bang for your marketing dollar. This is a rock solid plan on letting your future customers know you are going to the event, capturing leads at the event, and targeted follow-up after the event.

6 Insanely Effective Tactics to Engage Email Subscribers

Marketing Automation is noted as a top marketing trend for 2019. But how to do it well? There are a few proven tips and tricks to increasing engagement and therefore customers via email marketing. It all comes down to list segmentation, telling the right story at the right time to each individual, and powerful design. While these may seem challenging, when you break each down and have a good plan, it really is achievable.