Infographics hold a very unique place in communication strategies. By now, just about every industry has produced an infographic of some sort. A quick Google search will confirm that. I came across an article written in 2011 that said infographics are a dying trend. Now in 2018, I would say they are as strong as ever and are getting more and more sophisticated in design and dissemination.
Love or hate infographics, when it comes to communicating information, they work! Not every occasion is right for this type of communication strategy, but in various instances, it’s your best shot at getting people to listen to your message. What are the benefits of using infographics? Take a look!
Reach Audiences with a Short Attention Span
With absolutely every piece of your communications strategy, you need to know your target audience. In doing so, you’ll also uncover how they like to receive their information. For audiences who are busy or inundated with various communications on a daily basis, they likely have a short attention span, especially when it comes to understanding data and numbers. Giving these people a white paper, brochure, article or press release will not yield the best results for you. They are likely to lose interest and move on to the next tasks before they are even a faction of the way through your content.
With an infographic, you can quickly convey your message by boiling down this content into 10 (or fewer) main points. Concise content combined with a slick design that moves the reader through the main points is far more likely to result in comprehension. When you want to reach audiences with a short attention span, an infographic is a strong strategy for this.
Make Data and Numbers More Visually Interesting
Let’s face it, only a very small percentage of people get excited and inspired by sifting through data. In order to effectively reach those who do not, you need to do the sifting for them. With an infographic, you have the ability to make data and numbers more visually interesting. Highlighting some of your most compelling numbers and explaining their importance with a concise statement is a highly valuable way to get people to digest data like a delightful snack, not a bogged down Thanksgiving dinner.
Break the Ice for a Deeper Discussion
Many people stress about the fact that a single infographic won’t hold all the information they feel is important. Nor should it. An infographic is meant to be simple, visually appealing and really just a conversation starter. If a deeper discussion needs to happen, use an infographic to break the ice and get people interested in the topic. For example, a client used the following infographic to send to state legislators to get them to care about a particularly issue. This alone isn’t enough to change their mindsets, but it was a great lead into follow-up meetings where this deeper discussion could occur and questions could be answered. Best of all, the legislators had a foundation of knowledge on this topic, thanks to the infographic, so that the conversation could immediately begin at a deeper level.
Be Memorable
Any content that combines words and images is more likely to be absorbed and remembered. The visual element helps people to quickly understand the data. What’s better yet, is incorporating an audio elements as well. This boosts your memory even further! Though this takes some more time and resources, I’ve seen interactive infographics that people can click on a fact to learn more and even hear an audio clip that offers additional information beyond the written content. Depending upon the topic and amount of information you need to get across, this could be a worthy investment to maximize the effectiveness of your infographic.
Make It Easy to Share
Finally and most importantly, infographics package the content in such a way that’s very easy to share, whether in print, by email or on social media. And if you’re putting in the time to create an infographic, you want to be sharing this everywhere! Infographics provide great content for your website or email newsletter, they offer strong SEO (if done right) and give you content you can trickle out, piece by piece, on your social media. This is not true of other forms of communication, which is why infographics offer some really unique benefits!
How do you feel about infographics? Have you incorporated them into your communication strategy? Do you enjoy receiving information this way? Join in the conversation by leaving a comment below!
