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Infographics Are Powerful Things: 5 Tips for an effective infographic strategy

By Drew Goettemoeller

As internet marketers, we are constantly on the lookout for rising trends and finding ways to integrate them into our digital marketing efforts. Over the last few years we have seen the return of informative graphics and data visualization. No longer confined to the boardroom, today the presence of these visual representations of information, better known as "infographics", is nearly ubiquitous.

Over the last few years, the popularity of infographics has accelerated considerably. By the end of 2011, it reached almost complete market saturation. However, without the right planning, design, and implementation many infographics will fall flat. At Blind Acre, we hate to see this happen, so to help you avoid the common pitfalls here are a few go-to tips for getting started.

1. Begin With Interesting Data

Making a successful infographic begins with interesting and compelling data. Wikipedia is out, and you will have to ditch the dialogue. After all, you're trying to showcase (in a visually interesting way, of course) information that people may or may not already be aware of. If you have a good idea, or data that might be better shown and explained in graphical form, then you're off to a good start.

2. Provoke Thought

The same rules that apply to writing good content also apply to infographics and data visualizations. Put simply, the purpose of your big idea should be to provoke thought, provide knowledge, and then get people to take action (share). Ask yourself, would you want to share this information with a friend? If the answer is yes, then you are on your way to creating some high-quality, relevant, and engaging content.

Steps 1 and 2 both take a significant amount of time, research, and understanding to complete. This information is going to be the bedrock of your infographic. Accordingly, you'll want to use the information that you've gathered to capture the attention of visitors and provoke both thought and action.

3. Leverage Design as a Hook

One of the best things about infographics, and most data visualization tactics, is that it can tell a better story than plain information ever could. When building an infographic, make sure to illustrate patterns and connections that might be overlooked by just glancing at the raw data. An example: use and manipulate topic-relevant images or graphics to represent data points you're trying to communicate. This means that more needs to be done than simply laying out a bunch of standard charts and graphs on a page.

David McCandless's blog, Information is Beautiful, is a great example of data visualization done right. His TED talk is also a great start to understanding the possibilities of this medium.

4. Make It Shareable

When done properly, people will want to share your infographic, marketers will praise you, the stars will align, and all will be right in the world. Ok, perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but you definitely want to make sure that sharing is as simple as possible. Getting down to brass tacks, marketers want to use this piece of content to help spread the word (and generate both links and digital chatter) about your innovative ideas. In order to get the best traffic and success from your infographic it needs to be simple for people to link back to your website while sharing. The most successful way to do this is to include embed code, as well as social sharing links. This will make sure you get the maximum link juice possible.

5. Mix It Up

Whether you plan on using your infographic to build awareness, generate links, or just disseminate useful content, it is important to remember not to let your work live in a silo. The more you can do to integrate your other marketing tactics into your infographic and vice versa, the more successful all of your strategies can be. So put infographics into your marketing mix, and show us what you can do!

Do you have any thoughts or questions? What tips do you have on the creation and implementation of infographics? Let us know on our Facebook page.

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Infographics Are Powerful Things: 5 Tips for an effective infographic strategy

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