Marketing for accessible offers – 10 tips

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Accessibility in the spotlight

Marketing for accessible offers is the order of the day, because demand is on the rise!

Our 10 tips reveal what is important here:

Tip 1: Seek and you shall find?

What good are the best accessible offers, if they are hard to find?

People with disabilities often have to spend days researching and making inquiries by phone. This is because accessible offers are often “hidden” under other menu items on websites. Or only mentioned in the text at different places.

We recommend: Set up the menu item “accessible offers” in your main navigation. There you present all offers and services that are relevant for people with different disabilities.

Tip 2: You can’t do without details

Flowery descriptions with the note “we have accessible rooms” are not enough.

Those traveling in wheelchairs need to know how wide the doors are, whether the tables in the restaurant can be moved underneath, and which grab bars are available in the shower.
For visually impaired people, information is helpful whether there are handrails in the corridors, orientation systems are recognizable to them and hotel offers and menus are available in audio format.
For walking trails, info on flooring, handrails, and slope is important.

We recommend: List all features down to the smallest detail, the more specific the better. This is the only way people can judge whether an offer is actually accessible and usable for them.

An accessible audio menu powered by SpeechCode is a convenience for young and old!

Tip 3: Honesty is a must

In marketing for accessible offers, it’s important to not only be detailed, but honest!

If the wellness area is not barrier-free, point that out. Or if there are only cobblestones in the old town.
If the event location is only accessible by wheelchair via the garage, but not via the main entrance.
If in the restaurant only the interior is accessible with wheelchair, but not the terrace, etc.
Then, for example, this restaurant visit takes place in the evening or during bad weather. The main thing is to avoid disappointment on the spot.

We recommend: Score points with honesty, this creates trust and helps to plan the stay – without nasty surprises!

Tip 4: The choice of words matters

Appreciative wording is particularly important in marketing for accessible offers.

For example, avoid expressions such as “handicapped room”, “the disabled” or “special needs”.
Because people with disabilities are just as individual as all other people.
And have the same needs and desires: enjoying culinary delights, culture and nature, making purchasing decisions, consuming products – and going to the toilet!

We recommend: Only describe the accessible features of your offers and not the limitations of the target group.

Tip 5: A picture is worth a thousand words

Since detailed information is very important in marketing for accessible offers, meaningful photos are always helpful.

Then you can see immediately, for example, where, how and which grab bars are installed in the shower. Or see the design of the balcony exit.

It is not at all necessary that wheelchairs or Rollator walkers are always in the picture. On the contrary, because other target groups also enjoy many barrier-free offers.

We recommend: Choose photos that show accessible features in a completely “neutral” way. But still provide the necessary information.

Even without a wheelchair in the picture, it’s clear: this threshold-free exit by Alumat is barrier-free. Photo@ Alumat.de multivisualart

Tip 6: Information is the key

Comprehensive information about all accessible offers of a travel destination is decisive for the purchase.

Even if you “only” want to market your own accessible offers, you should not do without the all-round information.
Because people with disabilities have to plan their stay very precisely. Which public transport, restaurants, stores, sights, cable cars, excursion boats or sports facilities are accessible for them?
The service of finding such information in one place is very much appreciated. In the end, your own business also benefits from it!

We recommend: Set links to the websites of other accessible offers in the area. Then visitors will find all the details and current information at the same time.

Tip 7: More than one target group

In marketing for accessible offers, it is important not to focus exclusively on people with disabilities.

After all, young families traveling with strollers also appreciate ramps, threshold-free entrances, and easily navigable paths.
The 50+ generation also enjoys the comfort of spacious, floor-level showers and easy-to-read signs.
And people with disabilities are more attracted to universal design thinking than to “special solutions” that are always somehow discriminatory.

We recommend: Turn marketing for accessible offers into marketing for universal design!

Tip 8: The right marketing channels

Basically it is good to mention accessible offers in all marketing channels, also in the description text, and to make them bookable online.

Accessible offers also have the advantage that their marketing can work very precisely and efficiently.
Because accessibility is the absolute must criterion for all those, who depend on it. And it is therefore absolutely in the foreground in the search and selection of a destination.
Therefore, there are very many media specialized in accessible offers, both online and offline.

We recommend: Cooperations with respective associations, entries on relevant travel portals, cooperation with travel magazines specialized in accessibility or even invitations to bloggers.

The magazine “Meine Reisewelt” reports on accessible travel destinations. And can be read or heard barrier-free using SpeechCode. Photo@ Meine Reisewelt

Tip 9: Certified quality labels make sense

Whether star categorization or eco-label, you can’t do it without a certification process!

And with good reason: a seal of approval guarantees the compliance with required standards.
That creates trust! And that is particularly important in the case of marketing for accessible offers.
In addition, certification has the advantage that possible deficiencies are discovered in good time.

We recommend: Only choose reputable, recognized seals of approval that apply nationwide if possible.

Tip 10:  Integrated marketing for accessible offers

An accessible offer is not a stand-alone activity that has nothing to do with all other marketing measures. And therefore also is not “taken along” in them.

Sure, you have all the information about your accessible offers nicely summarized in one place.
But what’s wrong with also pointing out in the general restaurant description that the tables are wheelchair accessible and the entrance is threshold-free?

We recommend: Actively add a reference to the accessible offers to all “general” information.