In today’s B2B marketplace, it can feel like a never-ending battle trying to cut through the noise to reach a target audience. Buyers are increasingly time-poor and information-saturated. Accessible marketing helps make sure content stands out for all the right reasons and removes barriers to making those crucial sales. Barriers that you might not even realize are there in the first place.
Accessible marketing means creating content and campaigns that everyone can use, understand, and engage with. This includes people with disabilities, as well as those with cognitive differences, language barriers, limited time, restricted corporate devices, or even a poor internet connection.
It’s about ensuring your message reaches every potential customer, partner and stakeholder, regardless of how they access information. This isn’t just about doing the right thing or meeting your legal obligations; It’s about expanding your reach and improving your results.
What formats should we think about when considering accessibility?
When thinking about accessible marketing, you might picture larger fonts or providing descriptions and alt text for images.
While those elements matter, this goes much deeper. In practice, accessibility touches everything your customers would: your website, email campaigns, social media posts, white papers, webinars, reports, sales collateral and presentations.
Why B2B Marketers Should Care
The business case is compelling. According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. In B2B contexts, that includes decision-makers, influencers and end users.
Accessible marketing practices, like using plain language and clear formatting, help everyone process your message more quickly. When your white paper is easy to scan and understand, busy executives are more likely to read it. When your webinar includes captions, participants can follow along even in noisy offices or during their commute. And if your content has a good color contrast, the one in 12 men (and one in 200 women) who are colorblind will be able to better understand what you’re selling.
This is all underpinned by the legislative landscape. If you’re not making your information accessible, you could find yourself at the end of a costly lawsuit, which could have significant reputational repercussions.
Make Plain Language Your Priority
One of the most powerful tools in accessible marketing is plain language. This doesn’t mean oversimplifying your content. It means respecting your reader’s time and cognitive load, using the words they use with a clear structure.
Clarity is key. Rather than burying messages in jargon-heavy paragraphs, get to the point. Avoid unnecessary technical terms. When industry-specific language is important, explain it.
Here’s how to start:
- Replace complex words with simpler alternatives (“use” instead of “utilize”).
- Keep sentences short, aiming for 25 words or
- Use active voice (“We tested the software” instead of “The software was tested”).
- Break up long
- Add descriptive headings that tell readers what each section covers.
The results speak for themselves. Plain language is preferred by professionals as it improves comprehension, and that’s across all audiences, not just those with cognitive disabilities. It also improves your search engine optimization (SEO), as clear content tends to rank better.
Digital Accessibility Basics
When people make it to your website, making it accessible should be non-negotiable. Strong sites are navigable by keyboard alone, which matters for people who can’t use a mouse. Images include descriptive alt text. Color isn’t the only way information is conveyed. Icons, labels and text work together to communicate meaning. Videos include captions and transcripts.
These practices benefit everyone. Captions help people watching videos in sound-sensitive environments. Transcripts make your content searchable and allow people to engage with it in the format that works best for them.
Key technical considerations include:
- Ensuring sufficient color contrast between text and backgrounds
- Making all interactive elements keyboard-accessible
- Providing alt text for images, charts and infographics
- Captioning all video content
- Creating transcripts for podcasts and webinars
- Designing forms that work with screen readers
- Rethinking your content formats
Different audiences need different things. Offering multiple formats means your messaging can be received by more people. We’re seeing organizations use a combination of traditional PDF, an accessible Web version, and an executive summary in plain language. A technical buyer might want the detailed product specifications, while a C-suite executive might prefer a concise summary. Someone using assistive technology will have a better experience with the Web version.
Consider offering:
- Text alternatives to infographics
- Written summaries of video content
- Both detailed reports and executive summaries
- Email content that works without images (in case they don’t load)
- Remediated PDFs that mean your information is accessible to more people
Getting Your Team On Board
Making your marketing more accessible requires buy-in across your team. Start by making the business case: accessible marketing expands your reach, improves user experience for everyone, and reduces legal risk.
Provide training on plain language writing and basic accessibility principles. Build checks into your content review process. When briefing designers or developers, include accessibility requirements from the start. Retrofitting is always harder.
You might also consider conducting an accessibility audit of your current marketing materials. This helps you identify quick wins and prioritize improvements.
Taking the First Steps
Start with your highest-traffic content or most important campaigns. Learn as you go. Test your materials with real users, including those with disabilities.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s progress. Every step you take toward more accessible marketing means reaching more potential customers and delivering a better experience to all of them.
In B2B marketing, where relationship-building and clear communication drive success, accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a competitive advantage waiting to be claimed.
