Should you use infographics in your marketing strategy?

A while back when I was surfing one day, I found a blog post that I liked. It explained why infographics are great marketing tools, and the stats were presented in an infographic (go figure).

Before I get into why infographics are so great, I should probably give a definition, in case you aren’t familiar with them. Infographic (as defined by Google) is a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data.

It is an older infographic (data ended in 2012 when it was written), but I still think that the information is interesting and relevant.

The Why Do Infographics Make Great Marketing Tool’s infographic teaches us that we are exposed to 174 newspapers worth of information on a daily basis and that 99% of sensory information is filtered out by the brain immediately. That only leaves us with 1%, and infographics are in that 1%.

Here are the reasons why:

• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual
• ½ of the brain is dedicated to visual functions
• the eyes are a physical extension of the brain
• 65% of the population are visual learners
• images are processed simultaneously, while the text is processed separately
• most people only remember 20% of what they read
• images are processed 60,000 times faster than text

Knowing that it’s no wonder that infographics are so popular – and as a visual learner, I am obviously a huge fan. When I take a second to think about it, I can honestly say that I remember almost all of the infographics I’ve seen, but don’t remember everything I have ever read – that is for sure.

Okay, so we now know the science behind why infographics work – but why are they an important marketing tool?

1. They are attractive! What’s not to love? Infographics take facts and statistics – our favourite pieces of information – and add imagery.
2. They help increase brand awareness! All you have to do when you create an infographic is include your logo and voila. Anyone who shares, saves, pins or tweets that infographic will be helping increase awareness for your business.
3. They increase website traffic! With the overwhelming amount of searches specifically for infographics, it’s only natural that companies who have them on their website will get more traffic.
4. They help with SEO optimization! Due to the viral nature of the infographic, more people will link to your site, and Google will index your website higher (due to Google’s “Page Rank” algorithm).
5. They read easy – as discussed above.
6. They establish credibility! Due to the amount of time and research that goes into making an infographic you give you instant credibility.

So all there is to do now is get started making your first infographic, right? The only real trouble with infographics is that – unless you have a graphic designer on staff – they are difficult to make. That’s why I thought I would end by sharing some tools that make it easier for anyone to make their infographics.