How to Create a Popular Infographic

Web content creation is more prevalent and important than ever before.  This new type of media offers unique opportunities for Internet marketers to clearly convey ideas, increase share-ability, and connect with target audiences in a more meaningful way.  With rising popularity often comes increased competition.  Some infographics can boost marketing efforts significantly, whereas others can be visually over stimulating at best or appear as spam at worst.  Creating compelling infographics that pop requires vision, a solid understanding of design, and excellent communication skills.

How to know that your infographic design is working

It is always important to go back to basic data analytics.  Look at how many emails sent with infographics have led to sales, look at the bounce rate of pages with large infographics, and look at the overall correlation between the usage of infographics and sales.  There is marked difference between infographics that make viewers want to look closer and infographics that make users want to look away.  These Wpromote infographics are great examples of optimal text to image ratio. They’re educational, memorable and most importantly newsworthy.

Always assess your own infographics by asking yourself or your colleagues what point the infographic illustrates.  Try a quick test to see if your infographic makes sense by showing it to someone that has not seen it before and is somewhat unfamiliar with the message you want your infographic to convey.

Are your infographics interesting or over stimulating?

One of the biggest problems people face when creating infographics is simply over doing it.  The beauty of infographics is that they are easy to understand at first glance.  Within a few seconds, the right infographic should convey statistical data and the meaning behind it to the average viewer.  However, some infographics are visually overstimulating.  When an infographic has too much information in a small space such as ample text, confusing colors, and too many visuals in a single block, a natural reaction for most viewers is to click the back button or otherwise ignore the infographic.  There are many different ways to have an infographic make a powerful statement without making it appear overwhelming.  A few tips to reduce the chances of making an unsuccessful infographic include:

  • Keep text to a minimum and avoid lengthy prose
  • Use different types of visual representations for different types of statistical data (e.g. pie charts, numerical data, bar graphs, histograms, relevant images, etc.)
  • Minimize typography and focus on visual representations

Infographics are meant to display visual representations of data or concepts in a meaningful way.  Using text is fine.  However, text and infographics are often most effectively used in different ways.

The two most important takeaway points for infographic design

In summary, infographics should be engaging but not overstimulating.  They should quickly and easily convey a message or concept by providing viewers with a visual representation that is easy to understand. Remember the following two aspects of infographic design:

  • Infographics should easily illustrate a concept and engage the viewer
  • Infographics should NOT be confusing or visually overstimulating

Keep text to a minimum, work on a few preliminary designs, and assess the efficacy of infographics before and after posting them.  Like creating written web content, designing quality infographics is a learned skill.  Stay abreast of the best Internet marketing media by embracing quality infographic design.

image: Wpromote

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