Did you know that 15% of the world’s population experience some form of disability in their lifetime?
As the market for B2B selling becomes more treacherous, finding new ways to establish your brand amongst the mounting competition is crucial if you want to stay afloat. By embracing a target consumer group that consists of clients of all abilities, you quickly gain an opportunity to rise above your competitors.
“By designing your assets and campaigns with anyone in mind, you’re ensuring that accessibility includes everyone,” says Vikas Khorana, President, Co-Founder and CTO of Ntooitive Digital.
“However, while this requires more effort, using inclusive design will not only help you reach more potential customers and grow your business—it also demonstrates your brand’s pledge to serve the needs of as many people as possible.”
Testing your next campaign’s accessibility could be the difference between reaching a wider pool of potential leads and your strategy falling flat. Consumers in 2024 demand accessibility, hyper-personalisation, and branding that speaks directly to them. Ensuring that accessibility for all is at the forefront of your B2B branding strategy is crucial if you want to see success.
With this in mind, we’ve delved into the importance of accessibility-focused A/B testing your B2B campaigns to ensure that they are accessible.
Read on as we tell you more about A/B testing and teach you how to incorporate accessibility testing into your campaign strategy.
What is A/B Testing?
Defined by experts at Hubspot, “A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a marketing experiment wherein you split your audience to test variations on a campaign and determine which performs better. In other words, you can show version A of a piece of marketing content to one half of your audience and version B to another.”
A/B testing is a great strategy to use when predicting the success of a new campaign. It can be used to test a number of elements ranging from a webpage layout, to campaign content and even emails and social media posts.
If you are unsure about your campaign’s potential performance before it goes live, A/B testing is a great way to reduce any potential risks.
For B2B business owners in particular, here are some of the campaign elements you could optimize using A/B testing:
- Headers & Titles: Your headers and titles are extremely important as they are the first element your customer sees when interacting with your campaign. Testing different versions of these within an enclosed target group before going live is a great way to see which one will garner more initial engagement.
- Subject Lines: If you’re optimizing an email campaign, you can also A/B your subject lines so your email stands out in a busy inbox.
- Fonts and Colors: For businesses that want to prioritize accessibility, A/B testing your fonts and colors for a test group of all abilities could help determine which color contrasts are easiest to view, and which fonts are easiest to read.
- Navigation & UX Design: If your campaign is running on your website, you can A/B test two versions of your web page to gather information on which version is the easiest to navigate for an accessible user experience.
- Body Copy: You can also A/B test your body copy on-site, on social media, or within an email. Which one has the most engagement? Which one has the best call to action? Words matter in a campaign, A/B test them to ensure that your campaign speaks to your audience effectively.
There are plenty more campaign factors that you can A/B test. All you need is two versions of something and a test group willing to choose between them.
How Can A/B Testing Help Improve Accessibility?
A/B testing can enhance your campaign accessibility in several ways. A/B testing helps a business validate its assumptions on what makes for an accessible campaign.
For example, using this strategy, you can test whether changing colors, fonts, or button sizes has any impact on the readability and compliance with WCAG of your content before it goes live.
Better still, if you’re reaching out to a group of potential clients with a certain disability, A/B testing can be as narrow or as wide as needed, from changing a color shade to changing an entire campaign structure.
“Expanding A/B testing to be more accessible and inclusive broadens your audience, inviting a wider range of users to engage with your product. It is akin to opening your doors wider to welcome more guests into your home, enriching the diversity of experiences shared within,” says Yzobel Biron, Principal and lead Designer at Yzobel Creative Inc.
“This approach boosts user satisfaction and loyalty as people feel seen and valued, much like guests who leave a gathering feeling cherished and understood, eager to return and spread the word about their positive experience.”
While A/B testing does require effort and practice, it can make all the difference to your campaign outcome.
6 Ways To Optimise Your A/B Testing Strategy For Campaign Accessibility
With the benefits of A/B testing in mind, let’s have a closer look at how you can apply the method to your own B2B campaigns for an accessible future.
Define Your Goals First
A/B testing only works well when you define your goals first. Before you embark on a campaign testing journey, you need to be confident about what you’re hoping to achieve and have a clear idea of how you plan to measure that success.
For example, what area of accessibility or inclusivity do you want to optimize? What type of test group will you choose? Random or targeted?
Before you embark on an A/B testing journey, there are several questions to ask yourself.
We advise looking at other B2B competitor campaigns and completing a competitor analysis.
See what they have done well and note down where their content lacks. Using this as a guide, set up an A/B test on areas of your new campaign that may seem similar to theirs, and use this method to compare the engagement rates of both.
This is a great metric to use to monitor your A/B success. If one of your emails, blog posts, or UX designs are performing better than the other that is great, but is your best-performing piece beating the market average?
Think About Your Test Sample
Once you’ve decided what you want to A/B test, it’s time to choose who you’re testing it against.
There are plenty of ways to determine your test sample. You can either use an A/B test calculator to help randomize your sample or a handpicked group of people based upon specific factors. This all depends upon your test variants and the scale of the A/B test you’re completing.
In the case of accessibility, we suggest handpicking a localized group of people to conduct your A/B testing. If you’re simply testing an accessibility feature within your campaign, you must make sure that those testing it have accessibility needs.
For example, if you want to test a color contrast or a screen reading feature, you may A/B test your approach with a group of people with visual impairments.
However, even in a localized group, you should ensure that you use a diverse set of users, regardless of whether they share a particular disability. Ensure that you test A/B versions of your content on people from different backgrounds, cultures, locations, and languages to ensure that the test is fair and accurate.
A/B Test Content For Those With Cognitive or Learning Impairments
One of the largest driving factors for campaign success is the content. Whether this is on your website, in a social post, or via email, your written content is the element that hooks a client and keeps them wanting more.
For accessibility purposes, it’s crucial to ensure that your written content is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines outline the steps a brand should take to ensure that it is accessible to those of all needs.
With the guidelines in mind, create a few versions of your content that can be read by your test sample. They will then decide which piece of work ticks the most WCAG boxes for ultimate inclusion.
Some great content-based accessibility A/B tests to perform could be:
- Font readability
- Optimization for screen readers
- Text structure
- CTA use
- Text to color contrast
These should be tested against specific and random groups within your demographic for the most accurate results.
A/B Test Different Colors
While it may not seem too influential to a consumer with no accessibility needs, the colors you use within your campaigns and general branding have more impact on your accessibility success than you think.
“Understanding and measuring color contrast ratio is essential for creating accessible and user-friendly designs. Designers can use various online tools and browser extensions to calculate the color contrast ratio between text and background colors. By ensuring compliance with WCAG guidelines, designers can improve readability and accessibility for all users, regardless of their visual abilities,” says Arthur Katz, Lead UX/UI Designer at Twik.
You should A/B test your color contrast for users who suffer from conditions such as colorblindness, low vision, or cognitive impairment.
“In A/B testing for accessibility, test color contrast by comparing different color combinations. Use tools to ensure the contrast meets accessibility standards. Measure user engagement metrics, such as click-through rates and time spent, for each variant. The variant with improved color contrast leading to better user engagement is likely the more accessible and user-friendly design.” says Ishita Garg, freelance UX/UI & Visual Designer.
As one of the easiest elements to A/B test, it could dramatically change your digital PR success with minimal effort.
Ask For Feedback From Current Clients
A/B testing often follows a large amount of quantitive data, however, to test your campaigns, gathering qualitative data is still essential.
One way to do this is to reach out to your current clients for comment. Don’t rely solely on test samples, but instead consult those already interacting with your business. They will have much more to say.
For example, if you’re A/B testing a new website design for accessibility, send out an email poll to your current subscribers. Or better still, allow them to choose a design and then write feedback as to why they chose one over the other.
Combining your quantitive and qualitative feedback will give you a robust A/B test result that you can trust going forward.
Analyze Your Results
Last but not least, it’s time to analyze your results. Once you have run your A/B test, take a look at your data and compare the performance of each of your test variants.
Look for any trends of differences between your multiple A/B tests that could suggest which variant is most important when creating an accessible experience.
Once you’ve done this you can add any improvements or developments to your campaign based on the test feedback for a smooth yet inclusive launch.
What’s Next For Accessibility In The B2B Industry?
The B2B industry is ever-evolving. With more SaaS providers than ever before, the landscape continues to get more competitive.
As B2B brands aim to stand out from their competition, factors such as accessibility and personalization will play a huge role in lead generation.
Currently, 1.3 billion online users with disabilities struggle to interact with brands online, with a recent report from AudioEye suggesting that many websites in 2024 provide inadequate experiences for those with accessibility needs.
To stay ahead of the curve as a B2B brand, your campaigns must be accessible to all potential leads from all backgrounds, locations, or abilities. These are the companies likely to make it big as the industry continues to grow.
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