We’ve all heard the cliché: A picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe that saying is reserved for professional creative pieces, but it’s also a great way to describe what an infographic is and what it does: it tells a compelling story while using little text.
In this week’s SPT, we explore what makes infographics so effective for marketing (and beyond) and share a few of our favorite examples.
To understand why the popularity of infographics has grown, let’s start with why visuals in general are so engaging. Here are a few facts:
In the context of marketing, the most significant factor is that, because visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, telling a story with pictures rather than words is much more effective.
This is why platforms like Instagram and YouTube -- as well as memes and gifs -- are commonplace in each household and across all age groups. The content is easy to digest, engaging, and easy to share.
People want custom content that is useful, which is why infographics are increasingly popular among content marketers. A well done infographic can both drive traffic and showcase your brand.
One way your company can benefit from creating and using infographics is to educate your audience about your business. You can explain how your product or service works in a concise way and show the value to your customer without paragraphs of text.
If your company has customer survey data, statistics from sales reports, or information about industry trends, those can easily be turned into an infographic that provides useful insights to your customers.
Another way to use infographics is by repurposing content from blog posts, webinars, and white papers -- summarizing key points from a longer piece of content. This way the reader gets the main takeaways even if they don’t make time to read the entire piece.
Infographics can also prove helpful within your company. Visuals increase learning and information comprehension by 78%. Use infographics to summarize steps in a process, provide tips, helpful reminders, or checklists for your employees.
By now you are hopefully convinced that infographics are an effective marketing tool. Here are some tips to get you started.
1/ Here’s a clip of an infographic about digital marketing trends. The stats it provides are handy in honing your marketing campaigns and deciding where to focus your efforts.
2/ Here is an infographic that showcases 36 companies that are paving the way to solve the world’s biggest problems. What’s unusual about this graphic is that it provides all the information in a landscape layout so everything can be viewed at a glance without scrolling.
3/ This infographic is helpful when creating (or re-designing) your brand colors, but it’s also fascinating to know how important choosing the right colors can be and how it can influence a customer’s purchasing decision.
4/ This example from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions provides valuable tips to marketers in a clever way – visualizing them as food groups!
5/ Finally, here is a graphic that puts a humorous and creative spin on the potentially dull topic of money management...