September 9, 2026 · 44 min · Episode 777
The Overlooked Growth Lever: Mike Barton on the Power of Digital Accessibility
About this episode
Anika sat down with Mike Barton to explore why digital accessibility is frequently overlooked by marketers and why treating it as a core growth lever can transform a brand. The conversation revealed a counterintuitive truth: digital accessibility is not just a compliance checkbox or a legal defense against lawsuits, but a powerful driver of customer retention, SEO performance, and overall user clarity. Mike’s diverse journey—shaping executive messaging at Adobe, building a customer marketing function from scratch at Zenoti, and leading corporate communications and content marketing at AudioEye—offered a practical look at how treating enterprise buyers as humans first changes the way brands tell stories.
In This Episode
- The Northwestern IMC Roots: Merging data-driven decisions with creative marketing to treat the end user as a human.
- Building from Scratch at Zenoti: Why executive buy-in, measurable outcomes, and diverse team skills matter more than theoretical strategies.
- The Accessibility Aha Moment: Discovering how common digital content excludes the 1 in 4 Americans living with a disability.
- Compliance vs. Growth: Shifting enterprise conversations away from fear-driven legal defense toward marketing tech stack investments.
- Rising Tides and SEO: How clear image descriptions, precise code structures, and accessible design naturally boost search rankings and LLM visibility.
- The Loyalty Multiplier: Why consumers with disabilities and their tight-knit communities represent an exceptionally loyal customer base.
- Decoding Content Slop: Balancing the power of AI amplification with authentic human storytelling to avoid the sea of digital sameness.
Timestamps
- 00:03 Introduction: Digital accessibility as an overlooked growth lever
- 01:07 The Northwestern background: Marrying data-driven decisions with creative storytelling
- 04:43 Building customer marketing from scratch at Zenoti and the importance of measurable outcomes
- 10:28 Discovering digital accessibility: Breaking down misperceptions and the 1 in 4 statistic
- 14:29 The push-pull of compliance: Moving from reactive fear of lawsuits to proactive marketing investments
- 17:59 Travel industry case study: How making websites accessible increased traffic and SEO performance
- 23:03 Clarity for all: Why accessibility best practices simplify messaging for human users and LLM crawlers alike
- 25:29 Common marketer misconceptions: The false belief that people with disabilities do not use or spend on products
- 30:43 The content creator's dilemma: Using AI to amplify work without falling into "AI slop"
- 39:46 What AudioEye actually delivers: Combining scalable automation with expert human auditing
- 42:57 The future of content strategy: Simplifying messages in a digital world inundated with noise
- 45:58 Final thoughts: Embracing life's detours as the true path you are supposed to be on
Key Insights & Takeaways
Insight 1: Enterprise Buyers Are People First
Whether marketing to consumers or enterprise buyers, the underlying audience consists of humans who go home and watch Netflix to unwind. Powerful marketing must combine logic and emotion to reframe how people think and build genuine brand loyalty.
Insight 2: Accessibility Lifts All Marketing Boats
Investing a small percentage of a marketing tech stack budget into accessibility does more than maintain compliance. It improves SEO performance, enhances LLM crawler comprehension, and clarifies copy for every user, making it a true rising tide for all digital channels.
Insight 3: The Untapped Power of an Overlooked Audience
Marketers frequently make the self-fulfilling assumption that people with disabilities do not engage with their products or possess spending power. In reality, addressing the needs of this community unlocks massive market potential and builds unmatched customer loyalty.
Insight 4: Simplicity Is the Hardest Part of Writing
As digital noise increases and AI generates vast amounts of generic content, the winning strategy belongs to writers who can simplify complex ideas. Succinct, clear messaging cuts through the clutter faster than over-engineered corporate jargon.
Insight 5: Embrace the Career Detour
Professional setbacks, whether a failed campaign, a missed strategy, or a layoff, are rarely true detours. Shifting perspective to view unexpected changes as the intended path helps professionals seize new opportunities sooner.
Resources & Links Mentioned
- AudioEye (audioeye.com)
- Max Ivy (The Blind Blogger)
- Sprout Social (survey research on social media demographics)
- "Assume That I Can" (global awareness campaign on Down syndrome)
About Mike Barton
Mike Barton is the Vice President of Corporate Communication and Content Marketing at AudioEye. With a career spanning executive messaging at Adobe, building customer marketing from scratch at Zenoti, and shaping content strategy at enterprise software giants, Mike specializes in human-centric storytelling and digital accessibility. He holds a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.
Connect with Mike
- Website: www.audioeye.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omnibarton/
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Article
Mike Barton on Digital Accessibility as a Marketing Growth Strategy
Mike Barton is Vice President of Corporate Communication and Content Marketing at AudioEye, with earlier roles shaping executive messaging at Adobe and building a customer marketing function from scratch at Zenoti. On Your Brand Amplified, he tells Anika Jackson why digital accessibility is more than a compliance checkbox: it drives customer loyalty, SEO performance, visibility in AI tools and clearer communication for everyone. His point: 1 in 4 Americans live with a disability, and most digital content still excludes them.
Why should marketers remember that enterprise buyers are people?
Because good marketing combines logic and emotion, whatever the audience. Mike Barton holds a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University, where he learned to pair data-driven decisions with creative work without losing sight of the end user as a person. Even enterprise buyers, he says, go home and watch Netflix to unwind.
Building customer marketing at Zenoti taught him something else: executive buy-in, measurable outcomes and a team with diverse skills mattered more than any theoretical strategy.
Why is digital accessibility a marketing opportunity?
Because people with disabilities are a large, loyal and often ignored market. Mike Barton describes realizing how much everyday digital content excludes the 1 in 4 Americans living with a disability. Marketers often assume, in a self-fulfilling way, that people with disabilities do not engage with their products or lack spending power. In reality, consumers with disabilities and their close-knit communities are an exceptionally loyal customer base.
He also wants companies to change how they talk about it internally. Instead of fear-driven conversations about legal defense, he frames accessibility as a smart investment in the marketing tech stack.
How does accessibility improve SEO and AI visibility?
The practices that make content accessible also make it easier for machines to read. According to Mike Barton, putting a small share of the marketing tech budget toward accessibility pays off well beyond compliance:
- Clear image descriptions and precise code structure help search rankings.
- The same clarity helps LLM crawlers understand content, improving visibility in AI tools.
- Accessible design and plain copy make messages easier for all users to grasp.
The episode also references AudioEye, Max Ivy (The Blind Blogger), Sprout Social survey research on social media demographics, and "Assume That I Can," a global awareness campaign on Down syndrome.
As AI floods the internet with generic content, Mike warns against a sea of digital sameness. AI can amplify good work but should not replace human storytelling. The hardest and most valuable writing skill, he says, is simplifying complex ideas; clear, short messaging cuts through faster than corporate jargon. His career advice: a failed campaign, a missed strategy or a layoff is rarely a true detour, and treating it as part of the path helps you see new opportunities sooner.
Key takeaways
- 1 in 4 Americans live with a disability, and they and their communities are a loyal customer base.
- Frame accessibility as a marketing tech stack investment, not only legal defense.
- Image descriptions and clean code structure help both search rankings and LLM crawlers.
- Simplifying complex ideas is the most valuable writing skill in a flood of AI content.
- Enterprise buyers are people; effective marketing combines logic and emotion.
Listen to Anika Jackson's full conversation with Mike Barton on Your Brand Amplified.
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