Infographics

Infographics are information wrapped in illustrations. They are ideal for explaining complex issues in a clear and concise way. Infographics are perfectly suited for products that need to be explained, fact-heavy topics and number-heavy content.

Useful infographics tend to get shared. People like to embed them in blogs or link to them as a source. By preparing them in a way that is tailored to the target group, the creator of the infographic presents himself as an expert on the topic.

Good Infographics

• are original in their choice of topics and visualization.
• are based on well researched facts, which in their compilation convey a unique message.
• have solid sources that hold up to editorial scrutiny and are credited.
• tell a story: especially in social media, an infographic should communicate positive emotions through humor, surprise, or pride, or active negative emotions such as anger or fear (not consternation and sadness).

What’s the point?

Good infographics are reasonably time-consuming and costly, but they offer unbeatable marketing advantages:

1. Infographics are great for off-page SEO, especially when used with a customized embed code. Even without an embed code, the source of the infographic is often linked to within the context.
2. By proactively sharing them on websites and social media channels, your infographics are a traffic booster for your website and/or blog.
3. You can use them more than once, for example on the website, on flyers, press releases or for seeding on other portals.

The important things

To ensure the success of an infographic, the implementation must be done in the best possible way – it is all about putting the content and the message into an appealing form. The message only gets to the point when the content addresses the topic in a professional way with the infographic:

• Content first: The topic and the statement of the graphic must be relevant, current and “relatable”, i.e. trigger involvement in the readers. A good infographic gets to the heart of the matter, simplifies the complex or creates context by showing connections.
• In depth: Data visualizations must make the reader want to take a closer look at the topic. Interactive infographics with sliders, dynamic values or detailed information that you are allowed to explore are a good way to do this.
• More than just numbers: Infographics are not just meant to present numbers and data in a clear way. They are also a good communication tool to get readers thinking. It is important to depict unexpected, surprising or even humorous contexts. It is crucial that infographics always offer added value compared to pure text or image contributions.
• Easy to grasp: Experienced content specialists pay attention to a clear and logical graphical implementation and reduce themselves to a certain style, a color scheme and a few fonts when creating the infographic. The company’s own corporate design can also be incorporated.
• Self-explanatory: the more often it is shared on the web, the more it is taken out of its original context. That is why it’ s of no use if complementary text is necessary to understand what the graphic is saying.
• Dimensions and format: infographics are viewed from different devices. Therefore, the dimensions should be right and adapted for mobile devices as well.

Getting ideas

A few ideas for finding good topics:

• What needs to be explained over and over again about your product or service?
• Does your product have a feature that your competitors’ products don’t have? How is this reflected? Can this be presented visually?
• Has data been collected internally or externally on a topic that not everyone has and that interests the masses? This could be anything from market shares, top lists of the most popular items by interest group to forecasts for the future of the industry.
• Is it possible that the general public does not realize that there are a lot of influences for a certain issue? Would an elaboration help the company to be perceived as experts?
• Are there questions related to the product or service that keep coming up? Perhaps such issues are even already documented, for example, in service, product consultation, or keyword analysis for SEO.
• Is there data broken down to specific demographics (age, location, income, …) that offers interesting insights?

Types of Infographics

Statistical Inflographics: If you want to illustrate survey results, present data from multiple sources, or reinforce a discussion with relevant data, statistical infographics work well for this purpose. A statistical infographic puts the main focus on your data. The display and visuals help tell the story behind your data. Your narrative can include charts, icons, images, and eye-catching fonts.

Informative Infographic: An informative infographic is perfect for clearly communicating a novel or subject-related concept or providing an overview of a topic. Usually, an informative infographic is divided into sections with descriptive headings. Numbering each section makes your infographic design flow easier. Also, we’ve found that people like infographics with numbers in the headline better.

Timeline Infographic: Timeline infographics are an effective way to visualize the history of something, highlight important dates, or give an overview of events. Because people tend to imagine periods of time spatially, an illustration such as a timeline infographic can help you create a clear picture about a time period. Visual aids such as lines, icons, photos, and labels help highlight and explain moments in time periods.

Geographic Infographic: Want to illustrate location-based data, demographic data, or large data sets? In these cases, why not try our geographic infographic templates? Geographic infographics make use of map graphics as their main focus. Different types of map graphics are better suited for displaying different types of data.

Comparison Infographic: Whether you want to compare options in an unbiased way, or you want to present one option as the better choice, comparison infographics are perfect for this. Hierarchy Infographic Templates: a hierarchy infographic is great for organizing information from “important” to “minor”. Hierarchies Infographic: A hierarchy infographic is great for ranking information from “important” to “minor”. You can use a similar pyramid chart for a variety of hierarchical information. To illustrate a chain of command or to show how something is broken down into its component parts, make use of an outline flowchart.

List Infographic: If you want to share a collection of advice or a list of resources or a list of examples, why not create a list infographic! List infographic templates are usually straightforward – the goal is to make them more eye-catching than a regular list. Visuals like icons can be used instead of bullet points, and creative fonts and color schemes can make each bullet point stand out.

Entertaining or factual?

So far, it’s been all about content. But clearly, the form of the infographic can also be key. They range from simple diagrams to comic-like elements or infographics that almost resemble hidden objects.

Comic elements often increase the entertainment value, but can appear unserious in extreme cases. Conversely, overly factual graphics might not attract enough attention.

Tools for Creating Infographics

For creating high-quality infographics to be used on company websites, these tools, software solutions and programs have proven themselves in many tests:

• infofr.am: Simple infographic browser tool that provides over 30 templates in the free version. Paid subscription models with more features are available starting at 19 US dollars.
• Visme: The free account offers a large number of templates – both in terms of diagrams and maps and formats. Up to three projects can be worked on at the same time. Those with an account starting at 15 US dollars per month get more storage space, projects and download options.
• Canva: Canva offers everything that companies need in terms of graphics – from Facebook headers to infographics. Numerous templates are available in the free version. But Canva is only really fun if you invest around 12 US dollars per month for a subscription. Then you can access all templates and work in a team.
• Piktochart: In contrast to Canva, which could almost pass for an egg-laying pillow, Piktochart concentrates on creating infographics. Without a lot of training, you can get along here according to the principle “Quick & Dirty” and conjure up functional infographics without being too fancy.
• PowerPoint: Yes, PowerPoint can also be used to create decent infographics. And most marketers already have this tool on their computers by default anyway.