Why infographics could be your best content investment

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. They are designed to be consumed easily, often accompanying a 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 to help the reader grasp the points and detail more easily.

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 and can be used by business development teams as well as a sales aid.

Here are some different examples created for Sharp Thinking clients

What are the benefits?

Infographics have a number of benefits including:

• They help to simplify a process, a heavy topic, the conclusions from a statistical report or explain a long list of features and functions of a product or service more easily

• Greater 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

• More likelihood to be shared which will help to increase awareness of your business and grow your audience further

• They will improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) and may help you secure back links if they are of value

• Finally, they have longevity - they are more likely to saved and kept if they provide useful information

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 the most relevant, impactful stats and supporting copy. Aim to limit this to a maximum of 7 points or steps. An odd number of points often works better than an even set. Any more will make the infographic too busy.

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

Get all your information down first not worrying about creating perfect sentences or bullet points. Then once you have captured the key points, simplify using straight forward and direct language. Avoid descriptive, ambiguous and vague terms. Lastly, develop an engaging title. Those that are benefit-led or create intrigue with your target audience tend to work best.

Step 3 – Add a call to action

This should be brief and be located at the foot of the infographic. Minimise heavy sales talk as readers will switch off. You can also hyperlink to your website if you are creating a PDF.

Step 4 – Choose a visual style

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

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

It is important to spend time perfecting the brief and getting the content right. Ideally utilise the skills and expertise of a designer. Be warned, infographics are not easy to create. If possible, give your designer some freedom and creative license, not sticking too rigidly to your brand guidelines. You can even ask them to recommend styles. Above all, the style needs to support your brand, but be relevant to the information you’re sharing. If you can’t afford to use a designer then free templates are 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. Good luck!

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.