The world's population is changing and email needs to change with it. As an aging population requires more accessible emails, a younger generation demands marketing campaigns that take into account their preferences, feelings, complex cultural identities, and varying abilities. More than ever, email marketing campaigns need to be one thing: inclusive. But what does an inclusive email marketing program look like? Join Jason Rodriguez, Community and Product Evangelist at Litmus, as he breaks down inclusive email marketing. Learn how to plan, write, design, and build email campaigns for everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, politics, or abilities.

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Inclusive Email Marketing
Making Emails for Everybody, from Strategy to Design

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Jason Rodriguez
Community & Product
Evangelist, Litmus
Author of Modern HTML Email
and The Better Email

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1. What is accessibility?
2. What is inclusion?

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Accessibility
When a site (or email) is
accessible, we mean that the
site's content is available, and
its functionality can be
operated, by literally anyone.

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Inclusion
Design that considers the full
range of human diversity with
respect to ability, language,
culture, gender, age and other
forms of human difference.

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Accessibility
Tactics and functionality.

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Inclusion
Strategy and content.

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AccessibilityInclusion

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Why worry about either in
email marketing?

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285 Million Low Vision Users
39 million of which are blind

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8% Color Blindness in Men
0.5% in Women

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Hearing
Speech
Deaf Ear Infection Loud Noises
Non-Verbal Throat Infection Heavy Accent

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Touch
Sight
One Arm Broken Arm New Parent
Blind Cataracts Driving

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TAB
Temporarily Able Bodied

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1. How do we make accessible emails?
2. How do we make inclusive emails?

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Accessibility in Email

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Technical Accessibility

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Accessible Tables
Use ARIA attributes to hide
tables from screen readers.
role=“presentation”
<table border=“0” cellpadding=“0”
cellspacing=“0” role=“presentation”>
<tr>
<td>
CONTENT
</td>
</tr>
</table>

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Semantic Markup
Use proper markup to
provide additional context
for email content.
<h1>This is a level 1 heading</h1>
<h2>This is a level 2 heading</h2>
<h3>This is a level 3 heading</h3>
<p>This is a paragraph of text. It
has multiple sentences. As
paragraphs do.</p>
<em>This is emphasized text.</em>
<strong>This is bold text.</strong>

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Alternative Text
Context for missing images
and screen readers.
Use empty ALT attributes
for decorative images.
<img src=“sale.jpg” alt=“Save 20%
during our Spring Sale. Save today.”>
<img src=“icon.png” alt=“”>

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Technical Accessibility
1. Use the ARIA role attribute on tables
2. Use semantic markup
3. Use proper alternative text

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Accessible Design

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Type
The foundation of every
email campaign.

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True Text
Using live HTML text over
image-based text.

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True Text
Keeps email readable even
when images are missing.

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Contrast
The state of being strikingly
different from something else
in juxtaposition or close
association.

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Hierarchy
An arrangement of things
according to their relative
importance.

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Readability
• Font size and style
• Line length and spacing
• Alignment

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Links
• Make them look like links
• Avoid link clusters
• Use bulletproof buttons

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Layout
• Responsive emails!
• Simple layouts
• Easy to update

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Creating Inclusive
Email Experiences

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Content
• Simpler text
• Localization
• Diverse imagery

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50 Milliseconds
To Make an Impression

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11.1 Seconds
Average Email Attention Span

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- Tom Tate, AWeber
The average adult reader can read 250 to 300 words per
minute. If the average reading time for an email is 11
seconds, then the ideal length of an email is around 50 words.

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- The W3C Working Group
There are people with disabilities, including reading disabilities,
even among highly educated users with specialized knowledge
of the subject matter. It may be possible to accommodate these
users by making the text more readable.

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Simpler Text
Shorter and more readable,
with less jargon and a
human voice.

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Localization
Translate for specific
audiences, but localize to
include those audiences.

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Diversity
The world’s a big place and
you have a lot of different
subscribers. Your emails
should reflect that.

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Strategy
• Consent and Privacy
• Respect for Subscribers

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Consent
Explicitly ask for permission
to email people.
Use double opt-in when
needed.

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- GDPR
Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity
should not constitute consent.

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- GDPR
The data subject shall have the right to withdraw
his or her consent at any time. (…) It shall be as
easy to withdraw as to give consent.

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Respect
Think of subscribers as people
(because they are), not as just
another row in a database.

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3.6x Increase
In-Store Traffic Post-Campaign

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- Ad Age
The reality is that when brands operate with
empathy and use it to fuel every decision, action,
message, product, service and experience, they
are both more agile and more successful.

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$6.38 Billion
Increase in Company Value Post-Ad

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- Mischa Andrews
Some creators treat accessibility as a barrier to innovation because it
requires foresight and time and testing. That kind of thinking is an
excuse for avoiding good work.
Think about it this way: accessibility provides options, and options lead
to innovation. Accessibility isn’t a barrier — it’s what removes them.
It frees us from one path and gives us many.

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Thank You!
rodriguezcommaj.com/speaking/emailing2020