If you're not taking advantage of infographics in your marketing strategy, you could well be missing out. Infographics are incredibly effective marketing tools. Even the simplest infographic could drive a thousand potential leads to your website.
This article will explain...
- How to prepare high-quality, attractive, useful infographics in several simple steps
- The benefits of harnessing infographics as a helpful marketing tool in your marketing strategy
- The difference between useful and bad infographics, and how to avoid making bad ones
- Infographic trends for the foreseeable future
Infographic Advantages
Infographics offer a wide range of benefits that you might not have thought of. Among the most important benefits of using infographics are the following:
- They're compelling, visually pleasing, and attractive.
- They're easy to study, understand, and remember.
- They generate traffic.
- They can be great for SEO.
- They simplify complex ideas and concepts.
- They can easily align with your brand image and so create brand awareness.
How to Prepare an Infographic
Creating an infographic that's both effective and attractive may seem like a difficult task. But it doesn't have to be. The following steps walk you through the entire process, from planning to publishing:
1. Outline the goals of your infographic
Before going crazy thinking about the design, layout, and aesthetics of your infographic, you need to focus on the goal of your infographic. You need to know why you are making it and why it's essential. By answering those two questions, you'll avoid getting lost, or creating something that serves no purpose. Determining a goal for your infographic will also help shape your design process.
2. Collect and gather relevant data
This step is critical. You need to invest a significant amount of time into research. You can either collect data from third-party sources or use original data. All data obtained from third-party sources needs to be appropriately cited. Don't rush through this step. Ensure that only accurate information gets used.
3. Choose the right design template
Now that you have collected all the data and information you need, it's time to decide how you're going to present that visually. It's crucial you choose a template that works explicitly for the type of data or content that you want to display. It's best to create wireframes that can guide where and how your graphics and text are presented before actually designing the infographic. Doing that will save you a ton of frustration later on.
4. Design your infographic
Now it's time to design your infographic. Plug in all your content and data into the infographic and format it according to your preferences. If you're not up to it, you can outsource the work and resources to a great designer who can match your design specifications and brand.
5. Review
Once you have finalized designing your infographic, go through the copy carefully and check for errors. Also, take the time to get some constructive feedback from peers and friends. There is always something that needs correction or modification. Don't skip this step.
6. Publish and share
The final steps are to publish and promote your infographic. If your main concern is to reap the benefits of SEO, post it on your blog with an accompanying article, then share it on social media. You can easily pin the infographic on Pinterest, for example, along with an embed code for visitors to share on their sites and their own blog posts. When sharing on social media, include a link to the original post on your blog.
You can also conduct outreach to influencers and ask them to post your infographic with an article (that you or they can write) and a link to your blog post. You can also create a guest post or article on sites related to the topic of the infographic. The key here is value exchange: You're providing (hopefully) valuable content for their audience, and you're getting your name out there, together with (hopefully) a dofollow link back to your blog.
Good versus Bad Infographics
Pretty much anyone can create an infographic. However, not everyone can create a high-quality and useful infographic.
Among the qualities of a good infographic are these:
- It has a simple design.
- It establishes a clear sense of order and balance that's easy on the eyes.
- It has a logical and reasonable flow that's easy to follow.
- It has a clean and legible font size for text.
- It addresses the needs of the target audience.
- It doesn't bombard or overwhelm readers with unnecessary or useless data or information.
Among the signs of a lousy infographic are these:
- It isn't geared toward a specific target audience.
- It lacks sufficient and reliable data.
- Its design is unoriginal and relies on templates and graphics readily available online for free.
- It lacks a clear marketing plan or strategy.
- It clumps random elements together, into one area of the infographic.
- It uses a tiny font size that's too hard to read.
- It uses unbalanced graphical elements that are distracting and don't establish a visual flow or hierarchy.
Infographic Trends
Interactive Infographics
Infographics have always been interactive to some extent. However, modern-day infographics are much more interactive than before. Today's interactive infographics change their overall presentation as you scroll, to match your current position and speed. They make for a richer and more fulfilling experience than traditional infographics.
Dynamic Infographics
These types of infographics incorporate a mixture of GIFs and other moving elements. For that reason, they're more challenging to create than static infographics. However, this type of infographics is gaining more popularity among readers; the dynamic elements capture reader attention and interest and so help them understand the rest of the information quickly.
3D Illustrations
A growing number of modern infographics are featuring 3D illustrations, which tend to stand out more than conventional, 2D illustrations. They tend to add depth to infographics and make the design look more realistic, appealing, and engaging.
Other Infographic Trends
- Micro-infographics
- Animated infographics
- Infographic-style websites
- Hand-drawn-style infographics
- Integrated third-party content and real-time information
Conclusion
Considering the effectiveness and popularity of visual content in marketing today, infographics are more than fancy pieces of content. Designed carefully, they can be effective marketing tools that can drive traffic, help build your brand, and establish your authority in your industry.
Also check out this article's companion infographic: "How to Use Infographics as Effective Marketing Tools [Infographic]."
