Infographics are great, but it’s tricky to create them. You need to work smart to strike a balance between creativity and the value it brings about. The internet is getting overwhelming over the years, and it’s important to share information with the audience in a smart way. And, that’s when businesses try to focus on tools like infographics which allow you to share information with eye-catching and appealing visuals.
An infographic lets you convey complex information in a concise and simple way. Infographics have become quite popular due to the fact that people prefer content that is short, yet informative. Infographics also offer a number of benefits from a digital marketing point of view. The visual element of the infographics allows the readers to remember the information for a longer period of time, which is great for brand awareness.
If you want your digital marketing strategy to stand out, you must invest time in creating attention-grabbing infographics. The information infographics convey is often complex, the process of making an infographic doesn’t have to be.
Let us now explain how to create an effective infographic in 5 steps. These steps will make the overall process easier.
How to Create an Effective Infographic in 5 Easy Steps
Although making an infographic is not a very difficult process, creating a balance between the information and the visuals can be a bit tricky. If you don’t choose the right graphics and charts or add too much information, it could overwhelm the audience.
An effective infographic requires you to choose every element of it wisely. The colors, the visuals, the information, the font, and the themes you choose should be relevant to your brand. Follow the steps below to create effective infographics that speak your brand voice.
1. Identify Your Goals
Goal setting comes first. Identify your goals if you don’t want your infographic to look unfocused. It is worth remembering that your infographic can have several goals. The primary purpose of an infographic is sharing information but why you wish to share that information is where your goals come in.
Here are a few goals your infographic can have:
- To visualize the steps in a project plan.
- To present a new idea or concept.
- To explain the benefits of a product.
- To display survey data.
- To summarize a lengthy blog post.
- Showing the new employee onboarding process.
It is important to make sure that your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Once you have outlined your goals, you can move on to the next step.
2. Identify Your Audience
There are multiple reasons to focus on your audience when making an infographic. If you know who your audience is, you can make sure that the data you are presenting is something of interest to them.
Knowing your audience can also help you figure out what kind of content to add to your infographic. For instance, a novice audience might need data whose meaning is obvious straightaway, whereas an expert audience would be more interested in the numbers and making theories about them.
3. Organize Your Content
The most crucial step of making an infographic is gathering information. It is the step where many people get stuck because they can’t figure out where to obtain data from. The simplest solution to this problem is to use your company’s data. The content also includes the text and the images you’d be using. Make sure anything you choose is relevant to your brand.
If you want to visualize the process of a project plan or explain how to use one of your products, you can easily get data from your company’s documents. The benefit of using your own data is that you can add a backlink to your website on the infographic.
In order to create an infographic, you will have to organize your content. Simplify the data before moving on to the next step to make your life easier. If you obtain statistics from an external source to back the data you are presenting, be sure to cite it at the bottom of your infographic.
4. Choose Your Infographic Template
This is the step where you must choose a tool for making an infographic. You can make your infographic from scratch, but that will require a lot of time and effort. Instead, you can choose a good infographic maker and make your job easier.
One of the many benefits of an infographic generator is that they come with hundreds of pre-made templates. You can go through the templates and decide on an infographic type that best matches your content and your company’s goals.
The infographic design will depend on the story you are trying to tell with the help of your data. The most common types of infographics are:
- Informational: An informational infographic is best suited for social media platforms. It is usually a collection of information blocks accompanied by striking visuals.
- Statistical: As the name suggests, these infographics are used for sharing numerical data. They often include pie charts or data widgets.
- List: These infographics are the best companions for listicles. People who don’t like long posts can check out the accompanying infographic instead of going through the whole listicle.
- Comparison: If you want to compare two products or two sets of data, this is the best type of infographic for you.
Once you have decided the type of infographic you wish to make, you can find a template and move on to the next step.
5. Customize the Template
Your customization options will vary depending on the infographic creator you are using. But you will have the freedom to add color schemes that match your brand kit. You can also add your company’s logo to the infographic.
Apart from adding your data to the template, you will also have to choose the font and add statistics, if needed. If you are working on the infographic with a team, you can get help from them regarding the customization process.
A text-only infographic will look quite boring, so don’t forget to add some images and icons to it. The images you choose must match the theme of the text or what you are trying to say with the help of your infographic.
One thing to avoid when adding images is choosing the overused stock images. Those images that get used in memes nowadays are not fit for infographics. You will have to spend some time to find the right images, but it will be worth it if you can create a good infographic with their help.
Once the customization is complete, you can download the infographic and share it on social media or on your blog. The way it is received by the audience will tell you whether or not you were successful in creating an effective infographic.
Conclusion
An infographic can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly. But in order to make an effective infographic, you will have to put in some effort. Don’t be hasty while going through the steps mentioned above if you want your infographic to impress your audience. If you go through every step in the right way, you will end up getting the results you want.
