More and more companies are churning out infographics to share information in easily-digestible ways. But what exactly are infographics, and why do they matter? We asked experts in the field to weigh in on the form and function of these creations. Here’s what they had to say.
Jeremy Rose
Jeremy Rose is currently running CertaHosting, a service that explores the possibilities of web hosting, technology, and good management.
Table of Contents
Easy to understand
Infographics are a unique blend of important information presented in a way that’s easy to understand, takes less time than reading, and is highly attractive to readers and viewers.
It’s a compressed representation of some data that is shaped in a way most people are able to follow, and because of that, it’s an increasingly popular add-on to regular articles on the web, but also in newspapers and magazines as well.
Infographics can be visually impressive, and they’re certainly important for reaching wider audiences. As mentioned, they’re relatively simple to understand. Their format is very easy to share on social media. Of course, using infographics can help your ranking on search engines, and it can even make your brand or service recognizable and more prominent.
Three purposes
The power of infographics is that they transmit key points visually. This serves three purposes.
Reach
It reaches people who are lazy or pressed for time, and who isn’t? These people won’t make time to read a full text, so at least an infographic can reach them quickly and hopefully get across one key idea.
Readability
Infographics also reach people who might be ready to read your full article or report. The word is “might.” If they can quickly see something of interest, that can prompt them to read in more detail.
Hook
The infographic is then the hook to draw people into the full article. In the digital age, infographics serve a third purpose. They are easy for people to post on social media to help an organization spread the word about their article or report.
Given these three purposes, it makes sense to keep infographics simple. I try to stick to one main idea and present a few data points to support it. Better to create several infographics covering various aspects of an issue than to cram all aspects into one image.
David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt runs THGM writers, helping individuals and small business communicate more effectively.
Kelsey Davis
Kelsey Davis, Content Manager for Medicare Plan Finder. She specializes in writing and designing content for seniors and caregivers to educate them on the confusing world of Medicare. Her content is aimed to help Medicare-eligibles enroll in the best coverage for their unique needs and budget.
Credibility
It’s no secret that infographics are a perfect way to sum up content in a clean, visually-appealing way. However, they can serve a much larger purpose. They instantly grab the reader’s attention, make complicated statistics easy to understand, and boost your brand’s value.
As with everything you produce, the infographic needs to be of quality. Your brand continues through everything you make, and a clean, professional graphic maintains credibility. Don’t rush as you produce your content. Take your time and be conscious of fonts, colors, and use of text. If an infographic is visually overwhelming, users may continue to scroll or leave your page altogether.
Lastly, be sure to use infographics for SEO purposes as they can generate backlinks and be shared on social media. Remember that each piece of content you produce can be shared on several platforms.
Better engagement
Infographics, as the name suggests, are the combination of text-based “information” and “graphics,” so in a nutshell, it is textual information presented with proper graphical designs and graphical enhancements. There are two main purposes of the graphic elements: aesthetics—which is fairly obvious—so we can capture the reader’s engagement better, and to provide visual aids (pictures, charts, etc.) with the aim to provide clearer information.
Steve Kurniawan
Steve Kurniawan is an Indonesian-born serial entrepreneur and marketer. He has launched and runs tech and F&B companies and is responsible for the content marketing and growth strategy of Nine Peaks Media, a performance-based digital marketing agency. He is addicted to great stories and creating great content.
Dr. Sunny Garg
Dr. Sunny Garg is a medical oncologist and the founder of cancerbro, an innovative social media platform for people affected with cancer. He explains the hardest to explain concepts with illustrative infographics to impart cancer education across the globe in the most effective manner.
Conciseness
Infographics are a great way to communicate your message in the most creative and concise manner. Due to the short attention span [of users] and access to a huge amount of content, one has to stand apart from others to catch user attention.
So explaining the whole concept in a pictorial manner is a great way to connect with users. One can simplify a complicated concept or theory by explaining it with an infographic and it also establishes the authority of the person or a brand.
Plus, it can be very helpful for brand building as it may be circulated more effectively, as compared to text content, and catches user attention very quickly. Also, a brand logo may be used more effectively on an infographic.
In short, there is no doubt that if you are not using infographics, you are falling behind your competitors. And you should make use of this opportunity before it’s too late.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors are not necessarily affiliated with this website and their statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.