As an email developer it’s your responsibility to deliver a perfect reading experience to your subscribers. A lot has been written and read on making your email design look more attractive and packing it with jaw-dropping features through tech innovations like email-API integration. But, when it comes to ensuring that your emails are accessible to all your subscribers and inclusive in nature, there’s a lack of oversight. However, it only takes a few small steps to make your email more accessible and inclusive for all of your recipients. This article will walk you through six tips of what those steps are and how they can make email much better for everyone. Let’s get started:
#1 Put Up Alternative Text For Images
The ALT attribute has been an email best design best practice since the dawn of email templates owing to email clients and subscribers blocking images by default. The ALT text embedded in an image is displayed when it doesn’t load. So, all the informative images must have a suitable text alternative that conveys the purpose of the image. This helps the recipients “perceive” the email if they have images off by default in this email subscriber or using a screen-reader to read the email. To use the ALT attribute in a correct way, the context of the image must be fully understood in relation to the content surrounding it. Also, using conversational, contextual, and descriptive content is a must.
#2 Use Color Palettes Aptly
Subscribers with moderately low vision or with color-blindness may not be able to differentiate between some colors in your email. So, you should ensure that color isn’t the only way information is conveyed. As per the UK study, almost 5% of people were reported to have some form of color blindness, which basically shows the importance of ensuring you choose colors for aesthetic and accessibility reasons. Color contrast also poses issues to subscribers with visual difficulties. You should use a high color contrast between different elements in your email, especially between the background colors and copy.
One way you can try to do this is you can use apps like Color Oracle. Don’t over-rely on colors alone to deliver your messages online. Instead, try combining colors with other design fundamentals such as typography, grids, shapes and allocate more weight to important elements. You are often advised as designers to have accessibility in mind and test web pages in grayscale format mostly. You can also achieve this by using design element weight, white space, and proper use of tags like <h1>, <h2>, <table>, and <br>.
#3 Stick To An Ideal Text To Image Ratio
This is particularly important to keep in mind when you are creating responsive email layouts, especially where images and content are repositioned to allow for a convenient reading experience on mobile devices. While watchful subscribers can visually skip over non-relevant content, blind subscribers, on the other hand, must listen to the content of the email, one email at a time.
So, you should try to tailor the content in your email to deliver the main message. And also, try to consider how compatible your design is with popular screen readers such as window-eyes. I also recommend using semantic markup tags like <h>, <o>, <u>, and <p> to make the important portions recognizable.
#4 Use Proper Font Sizes
One of the striking concerns in email marketing is the process of choosing the right font. Yes, it does matter, but the most crucial thing is to choose the font which is most legible; all other font parameters are minor. Choosing the correct web font makes a huge difference in how consumers perceive your brand. Try to make your font size large enough so that the reader doesn’t have to squint to consume the message, but keep in mind not so large that the reader has to scroll endlessly. Make it a point to at least use 13-14 ppt font size to ensure that your messages render correctly on small screens.
Stick to the classics. It is recommended for you to use familiar fonts like Arial, Georgia and Helvetica. Avoid using fancy fonts that look like handwriting or scripted fonts. You may find it attractive, but the subscriber may find it unprofessional and unreadable. At last, no matter which font size you choose, just try to be consistent throughout your messages in both style and size. Switching between Arial and Georgia or among types of sizes is jarring for readers. Also, avoid using center alignment for your email copy.
#5 Move On From The Click Here Buttons
Avoid using the “click here” buttons. Screen reader subscribers often tab through content by skipping through it as a way of scanning an email. Giving the content of your links will help those subscribers to decide if they want to click through or not. Moving on from click here buttons will also move your email content to be more device-independent. As “click here” may make sense for a user using a laptop or desktop, but not for someone using a mobile device where tapping is an action required.
#6 For Inclusivity, Take Local Help As Required Throughout The Design Process
Generally, you won’t find it tough to make your messages inclusive when sending emails to subscribers from a known culture. But when dealing with stakeholders hailing from a different background, it is in your best interest to hire a local culture expert or at least seek their opinion. For instance, white is a color of mourning in the Asian culture, so it may be considered disrespectful to use it in festive messages. There can be a huge number of user cases like this and you need to keep such guidelines in mind as an email developer. This will help reduce reworks and safeguard your reputation.
Wrap Up
As a seasoned HTML email developer myself, I have found that both accessibility and inclusivity are essential to building a credible brand image. While accessibility leans towards technical features and inclusivity is driven by our humane values, both of them need to be interweaved in our brand language. This way, you can effortlessly make your email designs both accessible and inclusive.
Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing full service email marketing agency, that specializes in professional email template creation and PSD to HTML email conversion; they are Marketo certified experts. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.
