Riddle me this.
I use engagement to intrigue my audience. I’m usually short, colorful and use very little white space to express my message. I use percentages and statistics to help prove my point. Social media marketers seem to love me, especially those on LinkedIn. I hate being generic, and can be subject to misinterpretation. I like to think outside the box, love to go viral, and hate people that are in a hurry to make me. What am I?
An infographic.
In the realm of marketing, infographics are powerful tools that can take the most mundane concept—flip on its head—and make it fascinating, fun and imaginatively informative. And in today’s ‘time is money’ corporate culture—infographics do something no black and white blog article could ever achieve, and that is to convey a message within seconds.
Impartial to all industries and issues, infographics are commonly used to:
•Bring to life incredible findings and historical data.
•Use efficiency to capture and/or retain interest of target demographic.
•Go viral
•Increase brand web traffic via SEO backlinks, or organic/earned results.
•Raise awareness on sociopolitical and/or culturally relevant issues.
Although case studies, best practice guides, user manuals, white papers, emails, podcasts, books, blog articles, etc., are all examples of effective ways to distribute content—none is more compelling than the infographic.
Here are 3 Ways to Harness the Power of Coveted Infographics
1.) Take Advantage of Human Instinct
There is a reason why ‘Avatar’ grossed a staggering $2 billion worldwide and Director Michael Bay has Hollywood’s approval to produce four ‘Transformer’ movies.
It’s simple: visual content takes less effort.
The human mind is pre-engineered to release stimuli and dopamine (i.e., the brain’s reward and/or pleasure receptors), when engaged in visual experiences. The more visually arresting, the higher the reward.
Infographics simply exploit this cognitive instinct—and in doing so—achieve significantly higher responses in audience engagement/interaction versus “blander” strategies.
2.) Quality Outweighs Quantity, Always
This goes for all of content marketing, but especially infographics.
According to “Win At Business and Life In A Digital World,” 1.5 billion pieces of content are produced online each day; as a result, the competitive environment of content marketing is chaotic and overwhelmingly multifaceted. As a content marketer, you are always vulnerable to be ignored by the virtual community and ridiculed by your employer’s “incompetence” in you.
So, what do most content marketers do in response? They create, and publish. Create, and publish. Create, and publish—a strategy that not only adds fuel to your online irrelevance, and displays your naïveté in content marketing, but also the faith you have in infographics as a core component to your success.
Ultimately, pumping out as much content as possible without passion, patience or confidence in your own work will translate negatively. Brainstorm and/or research the topic carefully to gain a comprehensive blueprint of what you hope to convey. Beautiful content is wonderful, but if it doesn’t display fresh ideas, startling facts, fascinating concepts or brilliant information—it’s essentially useless.
3.) 5 Questions to Ask Before Producing the Perfect Infographic
Step 1: Slow down! Breath, drink some water, have some coffee, take a walk and relax.
Step 2: Think about your goal: What’s your brand’s bottom line? What do you want the call to action to be? What do you want your audience to walk away with after seeing your infographic?
Step 3: Put yourself in your audience’s shoes: What intrigues your curiosity? What graphical design do you find most appealing, or visually alluring?
Step 4: Relevance is key! Your ability to blend illustration and social context cohesively is no is easy feat—but imperative to an effective infographic
Step 5: Receive a second opinion. Even a third or fourth before you send it live. Email it to your friend, to your mom, to your co-workers and see if there is anything you could to make it truly stand out.
Exploit Your Marketing Weapons Today!
• Create, schedule and distribute content with seamless efficiency
• Develop co-branded campaigns
• Enhance consumer awareness
• Increase customer loyalty
• And more!
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