An infographic serves as a condensed version of an article, blog post, or web page. Effective infographics are both eye-grabbing and easy to skim. While the graphic may include text, it’s largely composed of images and charts so that it serves as an easy-to-understand piece of content.

An infographic needs to be visually striking. However, it’s just as important for it to serve a purpose. Generally speaking, an infographic should achieve one or more of the following goals:

• Summarizing the information in a blog post or article
• Displaying data results from a survey
• Explaining a complex topic
• Comparing two contrasting ideas
• Raising awareness about an issue

Of course, the best way to achieve your marketing goals is through a multi-front attack. You can explore a topic in a blog post, draw up a related infographic, share that information via social media, and so on. Consider your infographic as just one tool in your marketing arsenal.

How Do Infographics Benefit My Overall Marketing Strategy?

Speaking of multi-piece strategies, how do infographics fit in? And are they really worth the hassle?

The facts are in…and we can safely say yes, infographics are worth the effort. Here are a few figures from Search Logistics that point to their usefulness:

• When infographics are included in an article, readers experience an 80% increase in their drive to read.
• Websites that use infographics regularly receive 12% more traffic than websites that don’t.
• 45% of internet users are more likely to click on a link when they know it includes an infographic.

These are just a few of the compelling benefits of using charts and other visual graphics to portray information. What’s better, infographics are easy to incorporate into existing marketing strategies.

Give this type of content a try if you are interested in:

Helping Consumers Make Quick Decisions

Infographics are especially helpful for businesses in information-driven industries. The technology, health, social justice, and travel industries are among the top producers of infographics for this very reason.

That said, one could argue that all industries are information-driven. Being an informed consumer is more than just a passing trend. And putting in the work to inform your consumers shows your dedication to becoming an ethical leader in your industry.

Of course, at the end of the day, the primary goal is for those informed consumers to purchase a good or service from your business. Infographics are the perfect way to portray needed information that can be processed quickly. As a result, you’re more likely to reach the end goal quickly.

Enhancing Your Business’s Storytelling

Marketing is all about engaging with your audience. The best way to do that is through meaningful storytelling—which is part of why we recommend establishing brand guidelines to determine what your story is in the first place. The best infographics are ones that are easily distinguishable as belonging to your business.

In other words, infographics are another way to feed into the storytelling aspect of your marketing strategy. Some would argue that infographics are even more effective at captivating an audience than blog posts or articles are. Either way, they can serve as another means of reaching your target demographic and drawing them in with compelling content.

Producing Shareable Content

We’ve talked before about how marketing is a tapestry of different threads that serve a driving purpose. One of the best aspects of an infographic is that it’s a natural and easy thread to interweave with whatever else you have going on. Include it in a blog post, share it on social media, and send it to your email list. The possibilities are countless!

Driving More Traffic to Your Site

Remember when we said that people are more likely to click on links that they know lead to infographics? Well, this figure alone is a pretty big deal. The more traffic you bring to your website, the more favorable Google is to your website. This in turn drives even more traffic to your website (via a little process called SEO), which of course increases your opportunities to make a sale.

Pro Tip: to make your infographic even more effective in the SEO department, add alt text, a title, and a description for the image.