Infographics are an incredibly popular online resource. According to HubSpot, they are the fourth most popular type of content used by marketers.
The popularity of infographics comes from several factors:
They’re visual and textual, making them a powerful vehicle for education.
They’re easy to share and simple to skim, so they’re perfect for our instant-gratification digital world.
If you haven’t used an infographic in your marketing before, now is the perfect time to get started.
Today, we’re breaking down how to write great content for your infographics, so you can start developing custom visuals your readers will love to share.
What Is an Infographic?
Infographics are a visually appealing way to share interesting information. While their use has grown exponentially in recent years, it might surprise you to learn that infographics have been in use for hundreds of years. One of the earliest infographics appeared in 1626 and illustrated the movement of the sun.
Today, infographics are used as a marketing resource to generate leads and build site credibility with backlinks.
Consider this example below from a recent email we sent about Express Writers University
While it might seem like an infographic is just an alternative way to deliver information, imagine how this information would look if it were simple text. It would be dense and wordy, and people might skip reading it. The addition of images makes the information much more effective and accessible.
Researchers have found that about 65% of the population are visual learners. Beyond that, content with visuals is 40 times more likely to be shared than content without images.
With these statistics, it just makes sense to add infographics as a resource in your content marketing strategy.
Types of Infographics
As infographics have increased in popularity, so has their versatility. With a graphic layout, there are near-infinite ways to present your information.
Here are some of the most popular types of infographics:
Timeline: A timeline infographic shares key moments from your subject in chronological order.
List: This infographic shares important points about your topic. You should include some context to tie each point together.
Flowchart: In a flowchart infographic, each point leads directly to the next. These charts often use arrows or other types of images to show the flow of information.
Mixed Chart: A mixed chart infographic includes multiple types of charts like pie charts, bar graphs, and density maps. Your copy should concisely describe the data for each chart.
How-To: This type of infographic explains a process in detail with as few words as possible.
Hierarchical: A hierarchical infographic stacks information into defined categories. The information is commonly presented in a pyramid shape. If you use this type of infographic, make sure you organize your information correctly. 10 Steps to Writing Winning Content for Your InfographicsEven if you’re not a visual design expert, you can still write attention-grabbing text for your infographics. Here’s how:
Strike a Balance Between Text and Visuals
There are two parts to an infographic – data (information) and design (graphics). Both are important, so striking a balance between the two is imperative. If you have excellent text and boring design, or vice versa, your infographic won’t work.
Creating a cohesive experience gives your infographic the chance to perform as well as possible, so make sure your visuals and text work together.
Keep It Concise
While infographics can be long, the independent elements within them don’t offer a lot of room for text. As such, you need to be careful with your choice of language. Writing copy for Infographics is a great way to learn to say complicated things in simple terms. Aim for small sections of copy that are no more than 100 words. Anything longer and your readers might lose interest.
Be sure all the language you choose supports your main points and helps readers understand the “meat” of your infographic.
Improving your concision is easier said than done. Here are two ways you can try eliminating unnecessary words:
Rewrite your copy: Doing your work twice might seem unappealing but working through it again can offer impressive results. Once you finish your initial copy, walk away and come back later. Wait at least two hours or even overnight to give yourself a fresh perspective. You will likely notice small errors and make improvements in the clarity.
Check each sentence individually: Every sentence in an infographic carries a lot of weight. Read each sentence separately and look for any words you can eliminate without affecting the meaning. These will be fluff words, like ‘really,’ ‘in order to,’ ‘very,’ and ‘that.’
Create a Narrative Arc
Although an infographic might just look like random bits of information stuck together in a graphic, it’s anything but. In fact, all the best infographics have a narrative arc that helps the reader make their way through the information. This narrative arc may rely on sections, a series of chronological events, or a storyline. As you write, keep this narrative arc in mind.
Start with the Data
When creating an infographic, don’t overwhelm yourself with design and text at the same time. Instead, start by gathering data. Look for high-quality, reputable sources, and compile a high-quality list of statistics, attention-grabbing facts, and pointers.
Again, you don’t have much room for text, so be sure each piece of information you include is impactful and meaningful. Remember: your data is the foundation of your infographic. Build this strong foundation and your readers will love it. If it’s shaky and weak, the infographic won’t get the attention you wanted.
Look at Examples
If you’re new to infographics, it will help to look at examples of great content to get an idea of what you should be doing. For the best results, look at infographics from both your industry and outside of it. The more examples you gather, the better your understanding will be of what it takes to create a share-worthy infographic.
Keep It Relevant
Whatever topic you choose for your infographic, make sure it is relevant to your business and your customers.
If you continually produce infographics that are timely, informative, and relevant to your clients, they’ll start to regard you as an expert resource. They’ll also begin passing your valuable content along to others. This is one of the biggest benefits of infographics – they encourage sharing and lead to more traffic to your site.
Once you know what kind of content you want to put out there, it’s time to search for ideas. This research stage can be a significant portion of the infographic creation process. However, you cannot skip it if you want your infographic to be successful.
Searching for trending industry topics can be a great place to start. What are your customers and prospects currently talking about or interested in? What issues are likely to become popular soon?
Here are a few ways you can find this information:
Use tools like BuzzSumo and KWFinder to find trending keywords and topics
Do a Google search to look for keywords based on your topic
Look through the Design Portfolio on Visual.ly to view existing infographics in your area of interest
Use Quora, Digg, or Reddit to discover the most popular topics and stories that are being shared online
Keep It Cohesive
The best infographics look and feel consistent. While the look will depend largely on your designer, the feel comes down to the tone of the copy. Keep the language cohesive and predictable, rather than changing it from section to section.
If you start with a humorous tone, continue that tone throughout. This will help your readers understand what’s next and learn to recognize your infographics across the web.
Use Emotion
Great content must also be compelling and trigger viewers’ emotions. Choose a data set for your infographic that will create an emotional connection with your audience. This will help readers relate to your content.
You can also add sentiment with stronger words. Try replacing weak verbs with stronger verbs in addition to removing adverbs (words that end with ‘ly’). For example, instead of “grow rapidly,” replace it with “proliferate.” Not only does it use fewer words, but it conveys how rapidly something can expand.
Adding emotive words gives your readers something to be curious about and sparks conversation. This is what leads to content sharing, linking, and brand awareness.
Use Power Words
Infographics and headlines have a lot in common. Both headlines and infographics are short, impactful, and attention-grabbing. Optimizing both accordingly can make a significant difference. One of the best ways to improve your infographic copy is to use power words throughout.
Power words, which are short, punchy, and impactful, will help readers connect with your infographics. They’ll also make your infographics easier for people to share and interact with.
Remember: while some words sell, others make people feel bored and uninspired. Make sure your words fall in the first category.
Here is a quick list of some impactful power words:
Mistake
Trap
Audacious
Marvelous
Thrive
Unforgettable
Captivating
Shameless
Useless
Worst
Proven
Massive
Effective
Format the Infographic Clearly
The format can play a considerable role in the success of your infographic. Poorly formatted information will quickly confuse and lose your readers. The better formatted your infographic copy, the easier it will be for your designer to create an eye-catching image that follows the narrative arc you created.
Consider this basic format when creating your first infographic:
Infographic header
Introductory copy
Subheading
Fact 1
Fact 2
Fact 3
Subheading
Fact 1
Fact 2
Fact 3
[Repeat subheadings and bulleted facts as often as needed to flesh out your infographic.]
[H4] Sources
Including a list of sources for the information you share in your infographic is essential. Since you can’t incorporate live links in a graphic image, we recommend using a bit.ly link so your readers can easily type in the source URL.
Additional Infographic Tips
Those ten tips can help you build a strong foundation for a great infographic. Here are a few additional tips to take your infographic to the next level:
Consider Outsourcing Content
Infographics are brief and to the point, so you’d think they’d be a breeze to write. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Infographics take time and effort to develop and create. If you’ve discovered this yourself and struggle to produce an infographic, consider outsourcing to an expert copywriter who can devote the necessary time to research and produce your content.
Give the copywriter your topic selection and a basic outline or project brief to let them know your expectations.
Use a Knockout Headline and Subheadings
Headlines should be short, direct, and filled with keywords. More importantly, they should grab your readers’ attention immediately. Good headlines always have at least one strong word that adds an emotional hook. The goal is to create compelling headlines that pose intriguing questions or promise to share useful information.
Addressing the viewer directly in your headline through the use of the second person and numbers are other ways to draw attention. In addition to your main headline, use subheadings to highlight the sections of your infographic. Include relevant keywords and power words throughout your subheadings for greater impact.
Your headline offers a glimpse of what your infographic has to offer and why someone should read it. For example, if your infographic is about how to improve conversion rates on a website, your headline could be, “10 Ways You Can Increase Conversions with Paid Search.”
Branding is important when creating an infographic, but too much will kill it. Of course, you want to brand your infographic to let viewers know your company created it, but doing it subtly is best. Remember: an infographic isn’t explicitly promotional material.
Don’t be tempted to stuff your content with mentions of your brand name or product/service names. If you do, you’ll come off as “sales,” which is a big turnoff for viewers. If you have engaging, exciting content, people will be interested in learning more, so you don’t have to sell yourself constantly.
Avoid Repetition
With an emphasis on conciseness and clarity, you want to remove repetition in your infographic copy. Spotting repeated words may be easy for you, but you may not recognize redundancy when the words aren’t exactly the same. Use grammar-checking tools like Grammarly to filter out repetition.
Consider Negative Space
While this is more of a design element, be aware while writing the copy. Every infographic should have some negative space. This is the empty space around the words and other visual elements.
As you write each section, try imagining where the blank spaces will be. Consider where you should put line breaks and what font size would work well to leave the appropriate amount of space.
Use Accurate Information
Most of the value of an infographic is the information it contains. In fact, this is an infographic’s purpose. You want to develop content that people can use, so it must be accurate. Whether you’re supplying the data or gathering facts from another source, you need to do some serious fact-checking.
Check your data and check it again. Use only trustworthy sources and cross-reference them to verify facts. Including incorrect facts and statistics in your infographic makes your brand seem lazy and negates all the work you put in.
Don’t forget to include a list of sources at the bottom of the infographic to establish credibility. Additionally, going back to periodically update your existing infographics will ensure any statistics you included are still relevant and correct.
In addition to your data, you want grammatically correct sentences. With such a small amount of copy, any errors are loud and obvious. Proofread your copy multiple times, then check it again after it has been transformed into the visual infographic. There may be times when the designer accidentally added a mistake.
End With a Bang
Wrap up your infographic the same way you started it – with impact! Whether it’s a question or statement, end with something thought-provoking and exciting to the reader.
Bottom Line: More Compelling Infographics Start Here
A great infographic can substantially boost your traffic and organic web search rankings. For your infographic to succeed, you’ll need to choose an idea that matters to your audience – then make sure the actual content is informative, compelling, and concise. Follow this with a unique design and distribution strategy, and you’ll have a winner on your hands.
If the creation of content to match your infographic seems like more than your company can handle, Express Writers can help.
Ready to earn the recognition your brand needs with professional & customized content to match your infographic? Contact Express Writers today.
There’s a hot new player in the world of content creation, and it’s called a gifographic.
Gifographics are the next level to the amazing visual content piece known as an infographic. And gifographics are taking it to a whole ‘nother level. In addition to being more engaging and more interactive than infographics, gifographics are also ideal for mobile displays and primed to make a huge impression in content marketing as we know it.
Curious to find out about this innovative form of content?
Curious to learn how you can use them in your content marketing?
Let’s discuss.
What is a Gifographic?
In many ways, gifographics are the close cousin to an infographic. Infographics, of course, use images and text to provide an informative piece of content for users. GIF-ographics are an infographic… and just what the title suggests, with the parts of a moving GIF. See the differences in our two creations below.
Much like an infographic, a gifographic works by providing a platform for a lot of information in a small space. Gifographics, like infographics, also feature images but, decidedly unlike infographics, gifographics are animated. And “gifographic” is a term that Neil Patel coined back in 2014.
“GIF” is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. GIFs were one originally of the earliest forms of moving images on the web and they’re still massively popular. Sites like BuzzFeed use GIFS in their content all the time for high engagement, and Facebook just began allowing GIFs in its newsfeeds. Twitter allows direct GIF uploads, too. For example, here’s a GIF from a Twitter participant during one of our #ContentWritingChats:
While GIFs are short, sweet, and often hilarious, they lack one big component: they don’t often provide a ton of information for users. While they’re great for cat videos or images of people falling down, they haven’t dominated the “informative content” market until now. Combined with the traditional format of an infographic, gifographics have the potential to provide huge value for users and marketers alike. Published late 2015, our gifographic already has over 300 shares thanks to the fact that it illustrates the concepts while also providing a transcript and some helpful information for our readers. Effective, right? We think so, too. We even repurposed and cut the top of it as a GIF for an Instagram video:
While infographics are far from dead and are still effective in many ways, it goes without saying that they don’t work as well today as they used to. This is part of the reason gifographics are coming into popularity right now. One of the most important aspects of a gifographic is that it harnesses the power of video content, which is fantastic because an estimated 69% of all web traffic will be directed at video content by 2017. This means that the future of gifographics is bright and that you can benefit from incorporating them into your marketing strategy right now.
The Content Sea
We’ve talked before about the idea of the “content sea.” Today, the average social media user is confronted with MORE than 285 pieces of content each day. What’s more, people receive roughly 121 emails a day and the web at large shares over 27 million pieces of content on a daily basis. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that we’re suffering from content burnout. This may be one of the many reasons that people are on the lookout for concise, valuable, informative pieces of content now more than ever: we simply don’t have time to read 5,000 word articles or pick apart the meaning of long-form.
It would seem that we’re between a rock and a hard place. As the web continues to grow and as tech continues to develop, everyone needs content to make their businesses run, but more and more consumers are becoming burnt out on content.
So what’s the answer?
How do we create content that readers want to read? How do we create content that doesn’t immediately sink to the bottom of the content sea?
The answer is simple: make it more interesting.
This, my friends, is where the power of gifographics enters the picture.
How Gifographics Can Help Your Content Stand Out
Gifographics combine several of the things consumers love – information, visual interest, and conciseness – into one highly-shareable and highly-viral package. Gifographics are extra exciting right now because they’re just starting to break into the mainstream. While people beyond a select group of content marketers are starting to get familiar with this content form, they haven’t saturated the market yet, which means the grounds are ripe for marketers who want to jump on the bandwagon.
One of the reasons that gifographics are so effective is that people are 323% more successful at following directions that include illustrations than text-only directions. Additionally, we remember an average of 80% of what we see, compared to only 30% of what we read. These facts illustrate the importance of gifographics and prove that marketers who aren’t using them should be.
5 Key Benefits of a Gifographic
Aside from being immediately understandable and digestible by readers, gifographics offer a series of important benefits:
1) Gifographics boost SEO
According to Neil Patel, gifographics are one of the primary pieces of content that marketers can use to boost SEO rankings, help build authority, and gain readers.
2) Gifographics go viral
If you think infographics are the perfect vessel for “Going viral” you should check out what gifographics have the potential to do. A recent Buffer study found that when blog posts feature animated graphics, they grab more social shares than their un-animated counterparts.
3) Gifographics create engagement
If you were to take all of the information we used in our SEO content gifographic, it would read like a small novel. In gifographic format, though, it’s bite-sized, pared down to what’s important, and easy for readers to approach.
4) Gifographics accommodate the mobile revolution
2015 was the year that mobile search surpassed desktop search in 10 countries and there isn’t a content format that’s better for mobile devices than the gifographic. The value of vertical displays and immediately accessible information can’t be underestimated and marketers who put out gifographics are likely to see a boost in their mobile traffic.
5) Gifographics create diverse content
The average B2B marketer uses 12-14 different types of content in his/her marketing system. As new types of content continue to emerge, this number will continue to grow. High-performing types of content like the gifographic, however, have staying power that has the potential to add a great deal of value to a marketing plan.
10 Tips on How to Use Gifographics in Your Content Marketing
1) Use Gifographics to repurpose content
A gifographic is the ideal platform for repurposing content. Whether you’re looking to revive some old posts or produce a jump in your traffic, gifographics have the potential to come to the rescue. Use them to turn seldom-read blog posts into interactive visual content or to compile facts.
According to Content Marketing Institute, one of the biggest goals of B2B marketers going into 2016 is to “create visual content.” The gifographic provides a solid platform for doing that while also allowing you to get some extended use out of your old content.
2) Use Gifographics to diversify your content
One of the biggest secrets to effective content marketing is diversification. By using a variety of different types of content in your marketing strategy, you keep readers’ interest and ensure that you’re meeting your audience on their various platforms. Gifographics are a fantastic way to shake up your content creation schedule and provide your readers with content they’ll love. Although there aren’t statistics available for gifographics quite yet, we know that marketers who use infographics grow their web traffic an average of 12% compared to their counterparts. If this is true, just imagine what a gifographic can do!
3) Use Gifographics to add interactive content to your site
Interactive content yields 50% more engagement and twice as many conversions as non-interactive content. Sites such as KissMetrics have been proclaiming that the age of interactive content is upon us for months now and there’s no doubt that they’re right. Interactive gifographics use two-way quiz-like questions to promote interaction with the reader and promote bonding to your company. By combining the forces of interactive and visual content, you create a content supernova that’s bound to break the Internet.
4) Use Gifographics to showcase your brand’s personality
The days of stock photos and boring company websites are dead, or at least they should be, and one of the most sure-fire ways to stand out in the content sea is to create content that showcases your brand’s unique personality. A gifographic is a great way to do that. Because a gifographic allows you to have complete control over the imagery and text used, it’s a fantastic platform for helping your customers understand your culture and insights even more. This can help promote bonding and engagement from customers.
5) Use Gifographics to promote social sharing
Now that popular social media sites like Facebook are embracing GIFs, the gifographic has virtually unlimited potential. Create and distribute gifographics to increase social sharing or to expand your reach on social sites. This can spread the word about your brand and create increased sales and conversions over time. Since visual content creates about 94% more views than non-visual content and has the potential to increase your likelihood of being contacted by qualified leads by upwards of 60%, it makes sense to incorporate visual gifographics into your social media strategy.
6) Write clear titles for your Gifographics
In many ways, a gifographic needs to be treated like any other piece of visual content. Your readers need to understand immediately what it’s about and how it can/will benefit them. While gifographics can be hugely informative, they also possess so much information that they can be overwhelming if they’re not laid out correctly. For this reason, it’s important to write great headlines for your gifographics (just like it is everywhere else) and to ensure that your readers can immediately discern what the gifographic is about.
7) Make your Gifographics relevant
Just because gifographics are fun and exciting doesn’t mean you can make one about just anything and expect it to perform well. Instead, focus on making your gifographics relevant to your audience. For example, Express Writers is a content marketing agency, so I created a gifographic about SEO content. This is relevant to our clients and readers and provides value for both groups.
8) Make sure the information in your Gifographic is credible
This is a very important pointer – gifographics are content that is boiled down to nothing besides facts and statistics and, because of this, it pays to check and double check that all of your facts are accurate and your sources are reliable. This saves you from getting into hot water with competitors and ensures that you’re providing valuable content to your audiences.
9) Keep your Gifographics consistent
Just like everything else in content marketing, it’s important to maintain a level of consistency in your gifographics. This doesn’t mean that every one of them has to be exactly the same. Rather, it means that you should maintain a level of consistency in your voice, formatting, style, and information. This will help spread the word about your brand and ensure that you become a leader in the gifographic revolution.
10) Refresh Gifographics regularly
Even if you create a great gifographic, you can’t exactly expect to publish it and then ride the wave of its success forever. Not only is this unrealistic, but it’s also short-sighted. Great gifographics are valuable, yes, but they need to be backed up by the creation of other great gifographics. To ensure that your company is meeting this need, include gifographics in your editorial calendar and be sure to distribute them regularly alongside your other content. This will keep you on the cutting edge of gifographic creation and ensure that you’re staying atop the content sea.
Conclusion
As content marketing continues to change, it goes without saying that we’re going to see the emergency of new and exciting forms of content. Right now, the gifographic is the hot kid on the block… make that “sassy” kid, in fact!
So, tying it into your content strategy ensures that you’re providing value and information to your readers, which is the first and only way to truly win at content marketing. Thumbs up to you! We offer gifographic copy and creation services. Head on over to our infographic product and select Gifographics!
Alecs is the Client Accounts Manager at Express Writers. Content is a little bit like clothing.
We all know which types we like best and, after awhile, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut so to speak, recycling the same 4 items time and time again, leaving 90% of the vast closet untouched.
While you may not be literally reusing the same pieces of content over and over again, I’m willing to bet you probably reuse the same types of content – blogs, tweets, links, etc. While there’s nothing wrong with this content on its own, it can make your brand feel stale, boring and predictable if you don’t branch out – just like that dingy grey sweatshirt you love so much.
But what if you brought in fresh new infographics, ebooks and brochures into your content wardrobe?
It might make your brand feel a little like this…
3 Amazing Content Forms & How to Benefit From Them: Infographics, Ebooks, Brochures
In order to switch it up and give your brand new life, try experimenting with the following types of content.
1. How To Use Infographics
Infographics are the belle of the ball right now in content. Their most obvious winning factor is that they drive insane traffic to your site. Just how insane, you ask?
Infographic search volume has increased over 800% in the last 2 years.
The brain processes visual information at a rate 60,000 times faster than it does textual information.
65% of people classify themselves as “Visual learners”
People who use infographics on their site grow an average of 12% faster than those who don’t.
Infographics are shared on social media 3 times as often as all other types of content, which means they have a high potential to go viral.
Personally, our brand infographics, like this one, have garnered 3x the average shares one of our blog posts gets.
How’s that for content that is in-demand? In addition to being in-demand, though, infographics are also amazingly functional. This owes to the fact that infographics pack a ton of information into a small, easily digestible mechanism and can help your readers better understand your topic. Because of this, they’re shared more often, viewed more often and understood more comprehensively than text-based content.
In order to use infographics effectively in your content, there are several things you need to consider. First of all, the infographic should be strictly information-based. Don’t ever use an infographic to pitch your company’s many virtues. These infographics defeat the point (viral information sharing) and use the infographic’s power for evil rather than good. Instead, focus on taking an issue your industry faces, a hot topic that will encourage sharing or an interesting development and breaking it up to provide your audience with further information. If you need help coming up with an in-demand and genuinely interesting topic for your infographic, consider consulting resources like Google Trends or viral Twitter hashtags.
Once you’ve chosen a topic, you’ll need to gather information. When citing sources for your infographic, make sure they’re reputable sources comprised of industry experts and high-profile sites. Pulling information from obscure sites increases the likelihood that the information will be incorrect and decreases the likelihood that your infographic will receive a good reception (people don’t like sharing faulty information, after all). When gathering info, think about which statistics will make a good visual. Increase or decrease in revenue, for example, can be illustrated by a bar graph. Stick with great sources and highly visual statistics and you’ll have a great infographic in no time.
When it finally comes time to design your infographic, you can either pay a designer (don’t be surprised, though, if prices top out around $1,000) or you can do it yourself. Free web-based platforms like Easel.ly, Piktochart, Infogr.am get the job done with professional results and can help you stand out from the pack in an instant.
2. How to Benefit From Ebooks
Ah, eBooks – the quiet princesses overthrowing the palace one step at a time. Ebooks now top paperbacks in sales numbers and are set to completely overtake the paper dynasty any day now. As a marketer, though, it’s possible that you don’t want to sell your eBook and that you only want to use your eBook as an incentive. This is without a doubt how eBooks rose to prominence in marketing and is still one of the primary ways they are used within content strategy.
The reason for this is that bundling has long been a market strategy to help consumers make purchasing decisions and to help differentiate a company from its competition. For example, when a consumer purchases a piece of clothing from an online outfitter and finds a $100 voucher for a new online wine club (a sister company of the clothing retailer) enclosed, that consumer is much more likely to buy from that retailer in the future. Similarly, when a customer visits your site and finds that you’re offering samples of your content or (better yet) entire courses for free in eBook form, they’re very likely to stick around to see what else you have to offer. This approach also proves to consumers that a company is so confident in the quality of its product that it is happy to literally give some of it away.
Though compiling an eBook may sound complicated, it’s pretty simple. All you need to do is find a topic you want to write about (consider serialized topics you’ve blogged about in the past, consistent questions your customers ask, a problem many of your customers have or a new development you’re excited to debut) and write content (for more information about how to actually write an eBook, check out this HubSpot resource). In order to ensure that your content is as good as it possibly can be, ensure that it compliments your current brand, that it looks professional and that it is executed with precision. Enlist professional help to get your cover image on point and then give the eBook away as an incentive to subscribe to your company’s email list or as a promotional item bundled into more extensive courses or workshops.
3. Brochures Are Coming Back & How You Can Use Them
Did you think that brochures were an archaic form of marketing that nobody used anymore? Did you think that they were reserved for medical companies in doctor’s office waiting rooms and weight loss products? Think again. When done correctly, brochures can be a helpful piece of content that is ideal for spreading the message about your services and helping customers understand your mission. Alternately, brochures can be used to announce new products or services or to promote excitement surrounding sales.
Thanks to today’s technology, it’s completely possible to design web-based brochures that can be downloaded as a PDF or delivered directly to your customers’ inboxes. No matter what form you choose for your brochure, there are a few rules you should always abide by when creating brochures. The first is to be knowledgeable about your customer. Consider what the point of the brochure is – are you looking to promote information? Boost excitement? Introduce a new service? Now think about how the brochure needs to be laid out in order to communicate that – what kind of information does it need? Which questions should it answer? Once you’ve answered those questions, you can dedicate yourself to the writing process. In many ways a brochure is a small sales pitch and, as such, you should be writing great headlines and ensuring that your CTAs are on point. Even though a brochure is a somewhat rare form of content nowadays, it needs to fulfill all of the tasks of any other piece of content: provide information, intrigue audiences and tell them where to go next.
The Case for Content: How Infographics, Ebooks and Brochures Can Overhaul Your Brand
Today, everyone is online. That much is obvious. What people do online, though, is a bit more of a toss-up. While you may have a good audience for blog posts or podcasts, expanding out into other forms of content can help you reach new audiences and promote your message in a different way.
There are dozens of different types of content but for the brand that truly wants to overhaul its image and put forward a brave new face, there is no content so heavy-hitting and valuable as infographics, eBooks and brochures. Customizable, highly distributable and easy to create, these pieces of content are a fantastic way for you to spread information, drive people back to your site and ensure you’re casting your net as widely as possible.
Because, hey, while we all love that dingy grey sweater, it’s time for a change every now and then, don’t you agree? Who wouldn’t want their brand refreshed and dressed as well as a Marilyn Monroe? Check out our infographic service to get started!
As little as two years ago, some of us said the infographic got hammered and it just wasn’t worthwhile anymore when it came to content marketing strategies. Is this true? Are infographics on the down and out, incapable of spicing up and improving our content marketing plans? Is it possible to still create quality infographics, or should we forget about them entirely and try something else?
According to a recent article by CopyBlogger (and we’re talking end of September kind of recent), research suggests that publishers who leverage infographics tend to grow in traffic by about 12 percent more than those who don’t. In fact, they went so far as to present the information in…can you guess it? That’s right! An infographic:
Photo credit CopyBlogger
Wow! It makes you think twice about infographics, now doesn’t it? Maybe these little visual packets aren’t so bad after all?
The What’s What of Infographics
According to Wikipedia, infographics are information graphics. They have a pretty rich history, dating back as far as 1626 when Christoph Scheiner published the Rosa Ursina sive Sol. The very first infographic debuted in this publication and illustrated the Sun’s rotation patterns so that non-scientific minds could easily grasp the concept.
Today, infographics are still visual representations of data or information. They’re a prime means of turning complex information into something almost anyone can quickly understand. Unlike 1626, today they are social media friendly. It’s not uncommon for these tidy pieces of content to go viral. They appeal to our visual senses, which often make them initially more powerful than our standard text based content.
Yet, these handy marketing tools have flaws. You’d think that a content type dating back to the 1600s would be perfected by now! Then again, how many of us saw the Internet coming? And in all honesty, how many of us can accurately predict just how Google will react to the content types we choose?
The Downfall of Infographics
The biggest downfall to information graphics is the fact that Google can’t index the content contained within them. The same issue applies to any image we choose to use. Crawlers are not (yet) sophisticated enough to capture the words on images and index them.
As is the case with every type of content out there, it’s entirely possible to produce low quality. If you’re not careful, you can create awful infographics. According to CopyBlogger, Google’s Matt Cutts had some pointed observations about bad infographics:
When it comes to topics, they can get off topic.
It’s not uncommon for the facts contained within them to be of poor quality.
The link (or links) associated with infographics often go to sites that are completely unrelated.
The link (or links) embedded in the infographics are sometimes undetectable by viewers.
Cutts wrapped up his observations by concluding that in the future, infographic-type links just might be discounted or devalued by Google. So, the point is you have two outcomes when it comes to infographics:
Nail it! Produce a high quality, well researched, gorgeously presented, relevantly linked information graphic. It won’t be indexed by crawlers, but it will be a one hit wonder that can be repeated with new products that increase traffic and boom your business.
Fail It. Produce low quality infographics void of confirmed facts and relevant links that are eye catching but otherwise worthless. They won’t be indexed by crawlers, but they won’t be one hit wonders either. Low quality = get hammered (no, not with alcohol) and you’ll be in danger of infographic type links getting devalued.
But there’s something else to think about, too. Are you infecting the Web with an unwanted virus?
Second-Degree Duplication
Do you have a case of second-degree duplicate content? It’s a plague that just doesn’t seem to let up, as discussed by Eric Enge and Matt Cutts. What are we talking about? Second-degree duplicate content is when a user goes to pages that all contain the same information. Even though they aren’t identical and thus identified as duplicates, they’re so similar that the user frowns and clicks the back button because the information they’re after just isn’t there.
The problem with this scenario is that no additional value is being brought to the reader. No, the content isn’t duplicated, but it’s not bringing anything new to the table either! How does this relate to our discussion of infographics? Well, if you’re not careful, your infographics will simply rehash information and cause second-degree duplication, the kind that isn’t technically duplicated, but doesn’t offer anything of value either.
Repurposing Content Doesn’t Mean Rehash the Same Old Same Old
Infographics have taken off in the content industry as a means of repurposing older content into a new form of media capable of drawing a diverse (and fresh) audience. We’ve talked about turning long-winded copy into a handy infographic as a tactic for making your content go viral. But there’s an element that you have to consider if you expect infographics to be a worthwhile content marketing investment: Fresh perspective.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with repurposing content via an infographic, but you must offer somethingof value. This means you must offer something new. Otherwise, your repurposed content will be little more than a fancy case of second-degree duplication, and it could very well fail.
Infographics as an Asset
At the start of 2014, we ran a series of blogs tagged 2014 Success, and success number five was all about why you should create infographics. We even provided a brief how to that handed our readers 10 popular ways of using infographics. The truth is this content type is a worthwhile investment IF you do it right. So without further ado, here’s your short guide to creating assets in infographics:
Focus on Relevancy: It’s the key to every type of content. If it’s not relevant, don’t use it. It’s really that simple! Google is not a fan of irrelevant links or content. Period. (I want to add in an exclamation point because this point just cannot be over emphasized!) It doesn’t matter what we’re talking about content wise. If a link is irrelevant or a stretch, it’s just not going to do good things for your content or your website, and in the end, it contributes to low quality. So don’t go linking to irrelevant websites just for link value. You’re aiming a gun at your foot, and it’s only a matter of time before it goes off.
Fact Quality Matters: You can present facts within a layout that is to die for, but it will be for nothing if those facts are flimsy. Audiences know what infographics are, and they know that these content mediums are supposed to contain facts. If they realize the facts you’ve chosen are unverified and ultimately inaccurate, you’ll lose readership instantly. And what’s worse, you’ll lose credibility, authority, and trust. Ultimately, you will risk alienating your audience, which includes paying customers. Customer loyalty could quickly become a thing of the past. Fact quality really does matter, even when the text isn’t crawled and indexed.
Hunt for Sources: It’s easy to get so carried away with the visual aspect of an infographic that we forget to pay attention to our fact quality, but the same applies to hunting for sources. Before you even begin creating an infographic, you should be hunting for sources to reference or link to, and they must be relevant. If you’re repurposing content, it’s not a bad idea to build in a link to that original piece of copy. It’s also helpful to build links to sources that back up the claims your graphic is making. And don’t forget to make those links visible. If your audience doesn’t see them, they’ll never know to click.
Repurpose That High Value Content: So, it’s not going to happen overnight. Let’s just state that up front. Infographics are one of the most amazing ways of repurposing your high value content into an audience frenzy that contains a little something new. But you’re not going to create 10 of these overnight. They’re going to take time, just like that high value content takes time to create.
Infographics are an asset, but they’re also a workhorse. They have few limitations outside of staying away from thin or poorly prepared content. We thought the value of these assets was degrading, but the truth is it was a dip in quality that sent us reeling. Is it really surprising? Bad quality causes bad things! High quality causes good things.
Dedicate yourself to awesome quality. It’s the key to everything. I know, it almost sounds too good to be true, but don’t let this simple statement fool you. Awesome quality isn’t easy. You can’t snap your fingers and make it magically appear. It’s going to take work, hard work. But you can do it. And as a result, you’ll find that infographics are truly a worthwhile investment for content marketing.
2014 could be your most profitable year yet! How? Well, we’re loading you up with vital content and marketing information, all designed to increase your company’s exposure and profitability during the New Year. And one of the hottest tools is our topic today—infographics!
One of the marketing tools currently said to be marketing gold is the infographic.
Have you heard of them and wondered just why and how it might be of use to your company? We’ve dug into the infographic trenches and even tried using a couple of them ourselves.
Let’s take a look as just why you should do more than think about trying them out, and how you should implement infographics as a marketing tool.
What is an Infographic and Why It Matters for Your Marketing Efforts
You’re educated regarding information and graphic marketing. These two marketing types are practically the bread and butter of every successful marketing campaign launched by every successful business for decades. But what exactly is an infographic? It sounds like a combination of information and graphics, doesn’t it?
Wikipedia provides the simplest infographic definition. According to the online user-generated encyclopedia, infographics, also known as information graphics are graphic visual representations of data, knowledge or information, created with the purpose of presenting complex information in a quick and clear manner. A great example of an infographic is the weather report, which is a visual graphic depicting information about the weather. Graphs and charts presenting statistical data are another type of infographic. Think of an infographic as visual storytelling; it packs a strong and strongly memorable visual message.
Infographics took on a dramatically new meaning for the marketing world with the advent of social media sites. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, infographics can be seamless and rapidly shared from a single user or business to an audience—and potential customer pool—of millions, worldwide.
Why Use Infographics?
Forbes sums up the top reason for creating and using infographics using the headline, “Use Infographics to Boost Your Credibility and Traffic.” Business owners are always looking for proven ways to boost credibility and traffic, but just why do infographics get the job done? Let’s take a look:
Catering to short attention spans. Let’s be painfully honest, our attention spans are not what they used to be. We live in an information age. It’s streamed to us all the time; on the television, on the web, over our smartphones, on our tablets. We’re constantly bombarded with tons of useful information. How do we sort this information between our “must read” and “it can wait” lists? Simple! We look for the most captivating presentation. An infographic relays a complex message in a short, capturing format.
Visualization caters to the brain. Forbes points out an excellent fact. “Human beings are highly visual.” It’s a fact that we absorb visual information faster than written information. We also retain is more easily.
Ease of understanding. When infographics are properly created, they allow the audience to absorb and understand complex information in a fun and engaging format. When done right, this is why infographics can boost a company’s profile and website traffic.
Going viral. The goal of every serious business is to create a marketing tool that goes viral, meaning it explodes onto the web grabbing thousands of views, tons of new exposure and converts to sales. A good infographic can accomplish this goal effortlessly while simultaneously inspiring writers and bloggers to chatter, creating backlinks, and further company exposure.
Our highest converting email campaign of 2013 was our infographic campaign. It generated the most clicks and stirred up the highest amount of excitement and interest in our company to date. Why not tap into this proven marketing tool in 2014 and make it a year to remember as you gain record exposure?
10 Popular Ways to Use Infographics
Larger amounts of data and content are the latest trends in online content marketing. According to a TNW Blog article on top ways to use infographics “the biggest question surrounding [this trend] has been figuring out the best way to interpret it all.” Infographics have been like the superhero flying to the rescue. These super powered creations pack a punch. Let’s review the ten most common uses of these power packed creations:
A recruiting tool. Designers have used infographics on resumes for years as a way to visually simplify their careers by highlighting their specific skillsets with their own design style. Somewhere along the way, recruiters realized the genius of this strategy and started using infographics as a way to recruit for project management positions. Today infographics are used to effectively communicate the facts about a company and who they seek to hire.
A data presentation tool. Statistical and numerical data have long been a bear to present. They have the ability to put the audience on snooze or baffle them completely. Thanks to infographics, data is easier to present in the form of easily readable and understandable graphs and charts.
Simplifying the complex. As mentioned earlier, the primary goal of an infographic is to simplify a complex idea or complex information. Infographics are incredible educational tools, particularly when attempting to present an overview versus an in-depth analysis. The visual basis of the infographic helps students and audiences alike grasp complex topics through memorable and easily understandable visual collages.
Explaining operations. Not only can an infographic simplify the complex, but it can also reveal the mechanics behind an intricate object with precision simplicity. For example, skilled designers utilize infographics to pull apart and demonstrate how complex products like clocks, cameras, computer components and smartphone work. Such creations can be great additions to user manuals, showing consumers how their product is built and the mechanics at work on the inside.
Making startling comparisons. When we compare our business or product to something, we separate points into categories: likeness and uniqueness. Infographics provide an innovative way to display such a comparison in graphic form by creating visual parallels. Sometimes comparisons are difficult to express. Where words fall short, the visual aspect of the infographic comes through.
Displaying thought-provoking facts. Thousands of fascinating facts that apply to your business exist, but not all of them are fascinating to the reader. On the other hand, a graphic display of a thought-provoking fact can command attention and stir up interest the reader might otherwise lack. Infographics are a superb way to bring facts to life, engaging and attracting the reader.
A replacement for strained words. Let’s be honest, some topics are beyond words. Instead of spending hours straining our word choice, only to be disappointed and frustrated, turn to an infographic. They are perfect for visually explaining what words cannot. After all, a picture paints a thousand words—that’s why infographics are so powerful.
Raise awareness. A lot of organizations specialize in important information that is all too often unpleasant or dry. Many companies support such organizations and need audience-friendly ways to express their connection to the issue without unwanted displeasure. Infographics have provided the answer to displaying unpleasant and stigmatic material in a professional way to raise awareness. A few fantastic examples of raising awareness for stigmatic and unpleasant topics include depression, post-traumatic stress (PTS or PTSD) and public safety. A wealth of information can be conveyed in a single infographic using powerful graphics and well-chosen text.
Inform consumers. It’s a proven fact that consumers prefer to be educated. They want to make an informed and educated decision, not an impulsive one. They want to ensure their money is spent wisely on a product or service that fits their unique needs. Businesses have been working to instill confidence in their customers through numerous marketing tools, but infographics have provided a unique marketing opportunity. Through a single well-planned and well-executed infographic, a business can inform, engage, and motive a customer to make the informed decision to purchase their product. This nugget-sized marketing tool can then be redistributed throughout the web, reaching thousands upon thousands of new and eager consumers.
Leveraging the holiday season. The holidays are when businesses expect to pull in their largest sales and when marketing campaigns flood the public scene. Audiences don’t want to be bogged down by hefty reading material. They want to quickly determine whether a product or service from your business will make the perfect holiday gift or simplify their holiday experience. Infographics have quickly become a successful ways to produce pertinent festive content that remains original.
While these ten tips include the most common uses for infographics, reading through them has no doubt sparked your imagination. The beauty of the infographic is its versatility and diversity. They are a marketing tool limited only by your imagination, which makes them a must have for your marketing toolbox this year!
How to Create an Infographic
Now that you see the benefits of using infographics, it’s time to talk about creating one. Any topic can be transformed into an infographic with a little thought and preparation. Think of your project as a collage. It will entertain, engage, and educate the audience. It will give the audience a memorable yet informative reading and viewing experience.
Step 1: Choose a topic. The trick to a successful infographic is the audience’s ability to relate to it. When picking your topic, be open. You want something that revolves a little less around your business and a little more on a common interest. But the topic should connect to your business or background, thereby establishing your specific expertise.
Step 2:Design. This is the meat and potatoes of creating an infographic, and it is by far the most challenging step. Once you’re amassed your topic information, it’s time to create the most creative and logical visualization of it. You can do this by categorizing your material and determining the size of your layout. Do a quick search on Pinterest to see how others have visualized a similar topic, and draw inspiration. Be creative, but don’t go overboard and create an overly complex infographic. The beauty of these visual marketing gems is their ability to simplify understanding, not complicate it!
Step 3:Credit your work. Graphics have been ripped off long before the invention of the web. And you know graphics have grown even more vulnerable to pirating in today’s techno-age. So take full credit for your finished infographic! Include your company logo, artist’s signature, information sources, and even your domain in the design. Own your ownership! After all, you’re the mastermind behind your masterpiece.
You can create an infographic using any graphic design program you’re comfortable with; however, there are some great application options out there specifically for the creation of infographics:
EWC Presenteris a fantastic tool designed to help you build an amazing infographic. It can also help you create animations, presentations, product demos, and banner ads.
Visual.lyis one of the original infographic creation applications. It sports a huge library of designs and templates designed to spark your imagination and get you creating quickly.
Infogr.amis best suited for the creation of various charts and graphics. If you’re looking to turn statistical data into an infographic, this application can save you time.
Piktochartbrands itself as the “infographics and presentations tool for non-designers.” If you feel intimidated by the design process, this application can help you gain confidence. It uses a three-step process to create and launch your first infographic.
Infographics are a remarkable marketing tool. As we’ve seen, they have HUGE multi-use capabilities including email campaigns, print and publication, blog posts and use on guest blogs. They are leveraged by corporations seeking to communicate innovations and earnings to investors, designers, and professionals looking for projects in need of a unique skillset, organizations seeking to convey issues they care about and educators attempting to teach a challenging topic. Infographics can even be recirculated, provided they carry a unique description for every place they are posted.
It’s time you leveraged infographics to make 2014 your most successful year yet! And not only will this impressive tool benefit you in 2014, but it can be recirculated at any time by simply re-launching it with a unique description via your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ or any other social media account supporting graphics. Infographics are a highly cost- and time- effective marketing investment. Need infographics? Talk to our team!
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