Infographics also get shared three times more than any other type of content, so incorporating infographics into your content marketing plan will make your efforts three times more effective. After you’ve completed your article, how should you turn it into an infographic? We made a list of various content types and made recommendations on which infographic type you should match them with.
Statistical Research
If you’ve recently completed a study or survey and gathered brand new statistics, then creating a statistical infographic with a mix of pie charts, numbers, percentages and graphs is ideal for spreading your research findings as quickly as possible. Be sure to bold all numbers and keep the text to a minimum. Try to use icons such as pie charts to back up any percentage numbers in the infographic as eye-tracking studies proved that readers pay more attention to information-carrying images.
Guides
Guides are powerful marketing tools as they can rank for a lot of keywords and drive traffic. If you have an ultimate guide, amplify your marketing and drive both backlinks and traffic by creating a highly sharable how-to infographic. As people following illustration-dense content perform processes 323 percent better than those with text-based content (such as a long ultimate guide), adding in an infographic will provide a much better user experience. So what do how-to infographics look like? They consist of a labeled step number and an accompanying image/icon and explaining sentence. For example, if you just completed a guide on how to fix a lawnmower, you might label Step 1. “Spark Plug” and include an explaining sentence and image of the spark plug. Some how-to infographics are laid out like roadmaps with curved arrows connecting each step. Others are designed with two columns; the left column has the step number and the body of text while the right column has the icon or image.
Timeline
If you’ve recently completed a timeline for a historical event, readers will appreciate a visualization that allows them to clearly understand the gist of the timeline at a glance. This is where the timeline infographic comes in. These can be created either horizontally or vertically, though the most important thing is that you make the years themselves the focal point. If your time spans are not even (for example, it skips several years and then has two years in a row), show that visually by spacing them further apart on the timeline.
Geographical Research
If you’ve recently done research that analyzed differences in various regions, consider using a Geographic Infographic. These infographics are essentially a map of a country/city/state and each geographic region has an icon with a statistic/fact. With the recent activity tracking the coronavirus (COVID-19), many geographic infographics are being used to show the number of cases in each region. If you choose not to use a number, you can also shade the regions with different colors and include a legend indicating the color that represents the corresponding range of numbers.
Comparison
The review/comparison post is one of the most successful forms of content marketing and creating an infographic of that content will help multiply its reach. These infographics are usually designed with one solution on the right and one solution on the left and a list of comparisons under each solution’s title. If the two solutions have some overlap, you may structure it as a Venn diagram to demonstrate the overlap. An example of a comparison infographic is comparing a car to a truck. If you’re comparing more than two solutions, you can also set it up a checkerboard-like chart: The top should be a row listing characteristics (under $5, 10” tall, under 10 pounds) and the side column should have the various names of the products. For example, if you have a product, Product Z, and it is under $5, you would check off the corresponding box.
Anatomy
If you’re trying to explain parts of an object, you might be more successful with a visual representation, such as an Anatomy Infographic. This could be anything from explaining the body parts of an animal to the functions of a physical product. These infographics are usually presented with the object in the middle and arrows connecting each part to an explainer bubble describing the part’s function or benefit.
List
List infographics are some of the most popular forms of content because they are useful and straightforward. Examples of content that would convert well into a list infographic are 10 Tips to Trim a Hedge, 7 Ways to Clean a Bathroom, or The 5 Best Gardening Tools of 2020. List infographics are typically more text-heavy with 1-3 sentences or bullet points and an accompanying icon explaining each tip, way or tool. Stinson Design has great advice when it comes to using bullet points, “Do not limit yourself to using default bullet styles! Customization can be as simple as changing the colour of the bullet points, or more complex like having an icon accompany each point. By switching up how you style your bullet points, you avoid visual monotony.”
Getting the Maximum Amount of Impact From Your Infographic
One of the reasons we use infographics is to gather the maximum amount of attention possible. Numerous studies have shown how effective infographics are at driving traffic, such as the Kissmetrics blog that generated 2.5 million visits from infographics alone. So how can you generate the maximum impact from your infographic? Consider adding an embed code at the bottom of the post and also include your logo on the infographic. Then, when people share your infographic, even if they don’t share the link (as they are supposed to) the viewers will be able to see where the infographic came from. While most internet users are responsible and link to the source of the infographic, consider doing a Google search every couple of months to see if there are any websites using your infographic that haven’t linked back to it. If there are, send them a kind email thanking them for spreading your infographic and ask them to link back to your website. © 2020 Ljana Vimont
