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Not every consumer or business professional enjoys reading. Many people find it difficult to take a wordy report and distill it down into the important highlights. When the goal of a report, study, information packet, or advertisement is to share numbered data and percentages, why cloud your readers’ comprehension with reams of dull, eye-glazing statistics when a far better option exists? Marketing infographics are the answer for brands that need a quicker, more effective way of communicating high-level concepts to convert sales.
Why Should Brands Use Marketing Infographics?
To distill a large amount of data into one visual element
Infographics allow you to take whole surveys and studies and condense them into a single visual element.
For example, you can show how sales increased in a particular demographic over the past year after the implementation of infographics in advertisements. You can also display the results of a poll where you asked consumers if infographics helped them make a purchase decision.
The beauty of infographics is they are applicable to any industry. Whether it’s applied to a complicated profession like engineering or a retail clothing store, infographics distill enormous amounts of data and make them more accessible to marketers, executives, and consumers. With this data in hand, decisions such as whether to purchase a specific product or service, or larger business plans are now actionable.
To make it easy to visualize conceptual ideas
Infographics make it easier to visualize conceptual ideas, such as the progress of a marketing campaign or product, a company’s growth, or a projection of a company’s potential success if they implement a new promotional strategy.
To get the message across fast
Let’s say you want to show consumers how the use of your software will help them increase their productivity by 60 percent. Using those exact words can be boring and unclear. They’re just meaningless words. Consumers want to know what a 60 percent increase looks like, and they want to know fast. You only have a couple of seconds to grab their attention.
You can show them what that looks like with an infographic. For example, you could show ten circles in white, and then add another 6 circles next to the first set in blue to indicate a 60 percent increase. It’s a simple visual trick, but it does the job of showing the progress a customer may make.
And it does it quickly. It only takes one glance for the consumer to understand the point of the infographic. You’re communicating a complex message in an instant, which in turn increases the likelihood of a sales conversion.
It’s simple enough for professionals and consumers alike to comprehend
Even industry professionals may find it difficult to comprehend data that’s communicated in words, whether they’re written on paper or spoken. But just about everyone can understand a picture. Marketers can make infographics simple enough, both in design and execution, that even someone who has never worked in a particular industry – such as a consumer – can understand an infographic from it.
Benefits of Marketing Infographics
Just as marketing infographics can take high-level concepts and confusing data and make them simple to understand, they produce huge benefits that are surprising considering the simplicity of this visual element.
Increases your sales conversion rates
Infographics cause a trickle-down process that increases sales conversion rates with little effort.
The process begins with the infographic grabbing a consumer’s attention. 65 percent of people are visual learners, making an infographic immediately more effective at attracting a larger pool of potential customers.
In the blink of an eye, the infographic communicates the benefits of a product or service. The consumer is interested and responds, either with a purchase or a form of social media engagement such as a share or a like.
The result is more sales, which makes infographics an easy marketing investment.
Boosts engagement with customers
Engagement with customers is important for gaining and retaining repeat sales. You need your customers to trust you, and what better way to establish that bond than by making your company accessible? Infographics are easy to share on social media. And because they communicate information so well, they are also great conversation starters.
Increases traffic to your website and socials
The shareability of infographics is a boon to companies who need to funnel more traffic to their website and socials. As an infographic makes its rounds on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, more people will want more information on the data and how it can benefit them. They will go to the source of the data, which will be your website or social media accounts.
Makes your brand more recognizable
A well-designed infographic is like a calling card for your brand. It’s the perfect opportunity to communicate your professionalism and design aesthetic with a cohesive color palette. The shapes you choose can also become hallmarks of your brand’s visual persona. With careful, tasteful choices, an infographic or series of infographics will make your brand more recognizable to the public.
Increases your brand’s reputation
There is something about an infographic that denotes professionalism and authority. The brand or business that takes the time to create a visual representation of their data is most likely a company that takes time and effort in other areas, as well. Areas like customer service and product quality. It also signifies that you’re confident in your data, and that consumers and peers should take your brand seriously as a voice of authority.
Creates backlinks
Backlinks are important for increasing brand websites’ expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). Other websites will share your well-designed and informative infographic, and they will credit your original webpage as a source, thus creating a backlink.
Tips For Planning A Marketing Infographic
There are many considerations to take into account when planning a marketing infographic. Not only do you need data, but the visual aspect needs a lot of care. The difference in sales results between an aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-understand infographic and a confusing mishmash of shapes and colors is stark.
Tip #1: Make it flow
Flow is extremely important for an infographic. A consumer’s eye should be able to follow the progression of information naturally. If they have to stare at it for several seconds to figure out where the flow of data starts and what order it’s in, you’re doing it wrong.
One trick to create instant flow is to use either a top to bottom format or a left to right format. You can also use both. They feel natural because this is the way that most humans read text.
Tip #2: Choose fonts with your audience in mind
When choosing a font (or more than one font), keep in mind readability based on how small or large the text is, how important the text is to communicate information, and how far away the consumer will be when they view the infographic. Will your audience be able to read the text? Is it important that they do, or is the text itself negligible?
For example, if the text is extremely important, you should use a clear, easy-to-read font with simple lines of medium thickness. You don’t want big blocky text that runs together so that the viewer can distinguish the letters, or text that is so small and dainty that your consumer can barely perceive it.
Always keep your audience at the forefront of your mind when choosing fonts. Remember that they are the ones you’re trying to convert into customers. Every element of the infographic, especially the font, must be accessible and easy to visualize.
Tip #3: Be mindful with colors
When choosing colors, you need to keep several factors in mind.
- Cohesion. Do the colors you chose compliment each other, or are they garishly opposed? It’s important to make the colors cohesive so that they won’t distract from the infographic itself.
- Appeal. Do the colors grab the consumer’s attention? Is the color nice to look at, or is it typically associated with an object or theme that is less pleasant? For example, some consumers may associate a primarily black color scheme with morbidity. If this is not the vibe you want to get across, then you should change the scheme to fit the appeal.
- Branding. Does the color scheme match the brand? Remember that infographics promote your brand as well as your products or services. Choose colors that match up with your branding. For example, if you typically use warm tones in your branding, you may want to include shades of red, orange, and brown in your infographics.
Tip #4: Remember to give credit where it’s due
You’re not exempt from citing your sources just because an infographic is largely a visual medium. Remember to always give credit where credit is due. References are not the focus of your infographic, so you don’t have to include them in the same line as the rest of your text. Instead, insert footnotes or endnotes to push the sources down to the bottom of the infographic. Make the text tiny to ensure that you still have plenty of room for your graphs and other data above.
Tip #5: Play with design to eliminate distracting blank spaces
Typically, you will have a lot of blank space when you’re designing your infographic. Play with the template to eliminate distracting blank spaces. Try to make sure that any blank areas are located at the periphery of the infographic rather than smack in the middle. If they’re in the middle, consumers may think you just don’t have enough data to fill it and they will lose trust in you as a subject authority.
There are countless templates and design options to make the most of all the space on your infographic. Don’t settle for just one.
Marketing Infographics Help Brands Visualize Their Success
Marketing infographics help brands visualize their success – both literally and figuratively. They are useful on the backend in marketing meetings to communicate complex concepts and define goals. At the same time, marketers can turn them into advertisements or information packets and convert consumers into paying customers.
Ready to add infographics to your marketing strategy? To learn more about how infographics can help your business thrive, contact us here.