Why infographics could be your best content investment

Examples of infographics Sharp Thinking have developed

The effectiveness of infographics in marketing

As content marketing continues to be a staple ingredient in any business marketing recipe, an infographic is an ideal way to engage your target audience. They are a great addition to a report or blog to bring to life the points you’re making and visualise information in a creative way to make your brand stand out. Did you know that infographics are liked and shared 3x more on social media than any other type of content and 30x more likely to be read than text articles according to SMA Marketing.

What they are?

Infographics are creative, visual representations of information, usually statistics or informative steps in a process that are designed to be consumed easily, usually accompanying a detailed report or blog with a lot of data or written information.

How they can be used?

They can be used to demonstrate the findings of a report or summarise the steps in a production process or service delivery for anyone reading it online to quickly grasp the points and detail what you’re trying to get across. You can use the infographic throughout all your online digital channels, like your website, social media and email. It can be a good asset to develop to secure press coverage too.

What are the benefits?

• It helps simplify a process, a heavy topic, the conclusions from a statistical report or explain a long list of features and functions of a product more easily

• Increases chances of engagement with your target audience considering 65% of people are visual learners – so play to peoples strengths and display information in a format that is more digestible

• Easily sharable to increase awareness of your business and grow your audience

• It will have longevity, especially online, helping Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your business and is likely to secure backlinks

5 steps to creating an infographic

Step 1 – Identify all the relevant stats and steps

Whatever information you’re considering to visualise, you’ll need to choose all the relevant, most impactful stats and explanations. Always aim to limit yourself to 5 or 7 points or steps. An odd number of points always seems to work better than an even set. Any more will make the final infographic busy and complex in itself.

Step 2 – Write all the copy/words to explain each stat or step

Get all the right information down first and then try and simplify the words so they are understandable and direct. Be sure to think about an engaging title, ideally benefit-led to create intrigue with your target audience.

Step 3 – Add a call to action

This should be very brief and be placed at the foot of the infographic. Minimise heavy sales talk as readers will switch off. Simply link to a specific area of your website relevant to the content. This can be hyperlinked when a portable document format (PDF) is produced.

Step 4 – Choose a style

Try and find a style that isn't too corporate. Infographics need to tell a story so the more creative the better. Check your brand identity references, particularly colours and fonts, so they’re integrated into the design.

Step 5 – Brief a designer with your stats, copy and style guide

Providing all this as a brief gives you the best chance of the first draft being close to what you want. If possible, give the designer some freedom to express their skills too. You can even ask them to recommend styles. Above all, the style needs to support your business brand and also be relevant to the information you’re sharing. If you can’t afford to use a designer then templates are also available using tools like Canva.

Infographic developed by Sharp Thinking

A sound business investment

There is no question an infographic is a good investment. When you've created it you can update it every 6 months or so to ensure it is relevant. It may initially take some some to create, but you will get full value from it across your marketing.

Find out more from our blogs on 5 colours that help you sell more , the different ways to promote your business in print media and marketing tips for small businesses in 2021.