By Forbes Councils Members Edited by Tom Levers, Infographic by SmartBOL
As content marketing continues to rise in popularity, more and more businesses create original content to engage and educate their audiences.
Infographics are a trendy way for people to consume content because they are visually appealing and make complex information easy to read and digest. However, an infographic will only be compelling if its content and context are aligned to reach the target audience and deliver the knowledge they need and want.
What is the best way to ensure the success of infographic content? Below, the members of Forbes Agency Council explore specific marketing purposes that infographics serve particularly well, along with tips for creating the most impactful infographic content.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss practical ways to use infographics for marketing.
INFOGRAPHIC COURTESY OF SmartBOL
1. Keep It Simple And To The Point Simple, to-the-point infographics are a type of content that we constantly utilize with most of our social media clients. They are best used for sharing information about a service, facts about a business, or product highlights. Essentially, they allow viewers to access critical information without the fluff. Infographics can still be fun and animated. Get creative!
2. Amplify True Customer Stories Focus on great storytelling while amplifying true customer stories. Video infographic case studies focused on the customer journey and real stories about their positive experience with your brand, product, or services will generate indispensable brand recognition and value. 3. Explain Complex Concepts Infographics are great for explaining complex business concepts or processes. Creators are forced to compartmentalize each concept into distinct units or steps, and the ability to visualize it enables the reader to gain a better understanding of the concept or process.
4. Showcase The Strength Behind Numbers Numbers are how we measure value, and the magnitude of their meaning is often underrated. Infographics are powerful tools for showcasing the strength behind these numbers for visual audiences. We see that infographics are particularly effective on equity crowdfunding pages, as reflected by a stronger conversion rate from a retail investor audience with no offline connection to the brand. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies.
5. Start From Scratch Don’t start with an infographic template and retrofit your information. Start with a blank screen. Be original and creative with your infographic. Use a visual hierarchy. Your most important idea should jump out as an obvious takeaway when you’re staring at the infographic; the rest of the ideas build toward it. Try creating small and simple infographics instead of making one, big, complex composition.
6. Focus On Transmitting Intelligence Infographics are one of the most powerful tools marketers have to rapidly and clearly convey complex data sets. Two of the biggest mistakes made with infographics are cramming too much information into a single visual and confusing the key point. When a laser-focused, simple, eye-catching infographic accurately transmits intelligence, its impact on engagement and memorability is extremely high.
7. Make Complicated Topics More Digestible Infographics have a variety of uses, but we find they work best when accompanying a complicated topic. When something has many steps, components or facets to it, an infographic can be a great way to break it down into digestible chunks. We made one recently where we could visually organize, explain and break down each of the “eight key components of a sales page.”
8. Include Precise Messaging Business impact, client solutions, research, case studies—the opportunities to use an infographic as a marketing tool are endless, but it must tell a story visually. Infographics with precise messaging with a clean, intriguing look will best serve your company. Don’t make an infographic to have one; put the energy into creating a piece that can do some heavy lifting.
9. Visually Represent Trends Images work better when it’s challenging to show specific trends or results through text. Therefore, infographics are better for comparative charts or graphs, such as those showing growth over the year or month or anything where visual elements make it easier to illustrate a trend or comparison.
10. Weave Smaller Ones Into Blog Posts Infographics are a great way to present complex ideas, charts, and processes, among other things, and they can be precious to the consumer in that type of application. As the marketer, to provide value to you, use smaller infographics that are interwoven into your blog posts to improve engagement metrics and boost SEO value. Additionally, use your graphics in social media and ads to stretch the impact.
11. Turn Data Into A Visual Story I find that infographics work best for a piece of content with a lot of data and research By. Visually breaking the data points into sections and telling a story this way, it makes it easy for the reader to digest. Data's infographic stories can be easily said as a trend pie, and our readers love trends!
12. Optimize Your Image Data For Search Engines Infographics allow both search engines and users to see a piece of your website as unique, which helps your content stand out in a sea of available information. It’s essential to allow this amazing content to shine by ensuring it is optimized with alt tags and an image filename and not so dense as to slow down the page. Ensure that the page it lives on is optimized and primed for visibility and that other channels promote it.
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