Unlocking $500 Billion in Consumer Spending Through Accessible Advertising

21 Nov 2020

How many companies today are offering truly accessible experiences through their advertising and on their digital platforms?

While there are more companies today that are starting to understand the importance of creating accessible sites and advertising, there is a woeful number of businesses that are not yet on board. Not only does this mean that many individuals will not be able to utilize and experience those ads and websites, but it would also mean that the companies could be losing out on a substantial amount of money.

It could be $500 billion or more that is being missed because businesses are not utilizing accessibility tools.

When companies start to see just how much money they could be losing by not offering website accessibility and ad accessibility, it becomes clear that they need to make changes. Of course, accessibility is not merely about the amount of increased profit that could be made, but it is about ensuring the company is serving the widest range of customers possible.

Advertisers Need to Consider a Range of Disability Areas

One of the mistakes that some companies make is not understanding the scope of disabilities that affect people. For example, they might make their sites easier to read for those who have trouble seeing small fonts, but they might not make the site readable for those who are blind. They might not think about the difficulty that some people might have typing passwords or clicking on a touchscreen with their mobile site.

It is important for businesses who want to improve their website accessibility and ad accessibility to consider several broad categories of disability. These include visual disabilities, hearing disabilities, motor disabilities, and cognitive disabilities.

Within these categories is a spectrum of disabilities and impairments. Some of them might be temporary while others might be permanent. Creating ads and sites that can meet the needs of everyone is essential to cast the widest net possible, and to ensure that a large number of people can see your brand.

By getting a better understanding of various types of disabilities, it can help businesses to determine the best ways to meet the needs of all of their potential consumers. Removing biases and looking for solutions will help companies to advertise smarter and more effectively. Marketing with accessibility in mind will help not only those who are living with disabilities but also those customers that do not have a disability.

What is Consumer Spending?

To help understand the importance of accessibility, it is essential to understand the basics of consumer spending. The motivation for economic activity is the sale and consummation of final goods or services. The customers spend money on the goods and services they want and need. Consumers decide how to spend their money and what they want to buy.

When a large portion of the population is unable to find the ads a company offers or they are not able to visit and navigate the website, they will spend their money elsewhere. Naturally, they have no motivation, reason, or way to buy a product or a service that they can’t find. Getting around this issue takes some work, but it is doable. The sooner a company starts making accessibility a priority, the better off they will be.

How Can Advertisers Make a Difference?

Advertisers should incorporate accessible technology and principles into the advertisements that they are creating. While it might seem like a daunting task at first, it is not so difficult. Making changes to the size of the text and the type of font that is used, considering the color scheme to ensure it is readable to everyone, and offering ads that can be read aloud by the computer will help immensely.

It is important for companies to remember that the accessibility has to go beyond just the ads they are putting out. They want disabled customers to have the full experience of the brand and the company. This means ensuring website accessibility, creating accessible emails, text readable photos, accessible newsletters, etc. All of the content that is produced by the company needs to be made with accessibility in mind.

Making improvements to website accessibility can also help to improve the SEO of the site. Often, there will be text used with photos, for example, which can help to improve the SEO ranking. Additionally, the crawlers that scour websites are looking for sites that are easy to use and that have quality content. Accessible websites can stand out and could get a boost in their SEO rankings. This means that not only will the company be improving accessibility, but it could also be improving the “findability” of their website.

With more people finding the website, it means more business.

The same is true with ads. When they are accessible, more people can experience them and that means more profit.

It is as simple as that.

Make the Needed Changes to Improve Accessibility Starting Today

No business wants to leave money on the table. However, until those companies are making the choice to improve their website accessibility and creating accessible ads, they are doing just that. With so much money at stake, as well as the reputation of the company, it is now the time to start making those changes.

Most companies who enter this endeavor will find that it may seem to require a different way of thinking about many aspects of their business. Yet, running a business is always about providing what the customers need and this is not any different. Departments will start to understand how making accessibility improvements will help not only their disabled customers but their overall customer base.

Because it is a large task, many businesses will find it helpful to work with companies and to use tools that can help to incorporate these changes. Whether they are trying to improve website accessibility, make ads accessible, or get on board with digital ADA compliance, there are options available. The sooner companies start to make these changes the better it will be for their customers and for their profit.

Consult with TruAbilities today and discover our tools that can make your website accessible and open up your content to all users. Get in touch now to learn more.

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