Visuals are always more compelling than words. They are able to hold the interest of the audience longer than only plain text. A TV commercial has more probability of being remembered than a radio advertisement. Similar is the case with infographics.
So, what is the meaning of Infographics?
The word infographics are formed by combining information and graphics. They are nothing but a means of conveying information by graphical means. They can include images, charts, graphs, and more along with the brief text. It is always easier for users to comprehend any information by looking at visuals than by just reading plain text.
Infographics are a popular way of presenting information both online and offline. They are very effective for your online marketing efforts. Many popular brands in the USA use infographics like USA Today, New York Times and Google.
How infographics benefit online marketing?
Infographics have many advantages and help to market your product/service better. Given below are ways in which infographics are useful for online marketing:
#1. Retain your audience
Fewer people are interested in reading lengthy content. On the other hand, if it is supported by compelling graphics it will be successful in holding the interest of the audience and preventing ennui. The attention span of the audience is very short and infographics are a means of attracting the users’ attention.
#2. Ease of sharing
As more and more users like and share your content you will be able to increase your customer base. You can use Google Analytics to examine how your blog is performing.
A well-designed infographic is complete in the sense that it presents complete information. That’s why it capable of being shared easily on its own without any accompanying content. Due to its ease of sharing, it is a great marketing tool.
#3. Increase users understanding of the subject
Apart from retaining the users, infographics are also helpful in explaining complicated processes in a simple manner. This will help in increasing the traffic to your site as the users will not be driven away on encountering complicated matter which is beyond their understanding.
#4. Increasing brand awareness
If the company logo is displayed along with well-designed infographics, then it helps in creating brand awareness. Attractive infographics will help in catching audiences’ imagination and stay in their minds. You can also use these graphics on company brochures. Well, the thought of infographics about your product or service acts as a great marketing tool.
#5. Provide powerful presentations
Using powerful graphics, when giving online presentations, will go a long way in holding the audiences’ interest. You can also depict some statistics through graphs and charts. Complex information can be presented in a simplified manner so it is very helpful in grabbing the clients’ attention. It will help you deliver an impressive pitch thus generating the much-wanted leads.
#6. The capability of going viral
A well-designed infographic can be shared immensely over the internet thus making it viral. People are inclined to read content with visual elements more than text-only content.
#7. Reach a wider audience
As infographics can reach a wider audience worldwide, they are instrumental in publicizing your business.
#8. Get ranked higher in search engines
As the infographic goes viral, people start linking to your website. These backlinks are a part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which help in ranking your site higher on search engine result pages. This will, in turn, attract more traffic to your website.
To optimize your infographic for SEO, the first thing is to use a single keyword on your infographics. Use alt text to explain your image. Your page should load quickly even with images.
Infographics must be simple and not use too much of colors or images which might make them complicated. You must try to present unique content.
#9. Enhance social media marketing
Attractively designed infographics increase the number of shares on social media. Also, they help to grow the number of followers on social media. Beautifully designed social media pages or campaigns can even boost your sales by building conversions.
#10. Exhibit subject matter expertise
Infographics depict your expertise in the subject matter for which they have been created. This enhances the reputation of your organization in the marketplace.
#11. Presenting new features
You can compare your previous and current product through visuals. Infographics can be used to display new features. This will help the users in knowing about the new features faster than just giving a written piece of information.
#12. Convey information
Infographics are not a mere play with lines, colours, and shapes but they convey useful information as well. That’s why they are really a help to your online marketing as they can be used to present all the important information about your products or services.
#13. Accessible to all
The information presented by infographics is accessible to all internet users making it a powerful marketing tool.
#14. Great convincing ability
Finely designed infographics are a great marketing aid as they can be used to convince the users about your products or services. Uniquely and attractively design infographics can easily catch the attention of the uses. Also, the storytelling ability of the infographics can be used to persuade the users to try your product or service.
#15. Lasting effect
Well-designed infographics have a lasting effect on a user’s mind. This is very useful especially in reference to marketing. A marketer’s aim is to market the products or services to users in such a way they have a lasting impression.
#16. Useful while promoting your product through other sites
When promoting your products or services through websites other than yours, infographics play an important role. While a site owner will probably not go through your entire content, he may still look at the infographics included to know about the content.
#17. Ease of designing
Many tools are available in the market that let you design infographics with least designing knowledge. So, it is a popular marketing tool as it is available in a cost-effective manner.
#18. Some tips for designing engaging infographics
There are certain things which must be kept in mind while creating infographics: –
- You should keep it as simple as possible. Even too complicated images can disinterest the users.
- Don’t try to include too much information in the infographic. Determine your scope before developing the images.
- Choose your colours wisely. Different colours convey a different meaning and proper use would be really helpful.
- Add company logo if the infographic is connected to company information.
- Experiment with different visual elements like typography, illustrations, charts and more.
- Infographic must be displayed along with the text content. The users must not be required to click on a link to view the associated visual.
- Always cite the data sources.
- Emphasizing cause and effect relationships in infographics is a good idea.
Tools for creating infographics
These days a number of tools are available to create impressive graphics:
- Canva – It is a free online tool for creating infographics. You can use the templates provided by the tool.
- Infogram–Best tool for data-centric
- Visually – Lets you hire a freelance designer for designing your infographics.
- Venngage – Provides beautiful templates which can be associated with other resources like charts, maps, icons and more.
- Piktochart- provides a number of templates. It also lets you link your data with built-in spreadsheet layout and some other services.
- Visme – lets you design interactive infographics using animations provided by Visme.
Top infographic firms of USA as of February 2018
- Digital Marketing Agency, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Column Five, New York, New York
- Bruce Clay, Simi Valley, California
Conclusion
Infographics are a great tool for designing amazing visuals for your content. They have many advantages from the point of view of online marketing. They can tell a story and have a lasting impression on people’s minds. They can convey useful information in an interesting manner. You can use infographics for inbound marketing by using them on several platforms like a social media search engine, branding and more. So, including infographics with your content is not a preferred option but an essential one.
Author Bio: Ashley Marsh is a Senior- Content Writer at Maan Softwares Inc. She has been with this company for past four years. She is specialized in the technical writing genre especially in mobile development, web design,and latest technologies. According to her, it has been a great exposure for her as each day the technology is updating itself resulting in new ideas that keep her fresh daily.
