Infographics help to communicate your information more easily in an attractive, effective and interesting way making it clearer and easier to understand.

Ideal for areas of business and industry, for processes, guidance, design, technique and technology.

An infographic is a graphic visual representation of information, data and knowledge intended to present to the reader/viewer quickly and clearly. It should be attractive, simple and quick to understand. Ideally suited for the short attention span accorded for online viewing.

An infographic will summarise and condense data and information into a form more easily understood and absorbed. The subject matter can then be expanded upon through page links to full reports or further reading and explanation.

Infographics have become very popular over the last few years. They are an ideal medium to attract all those busy people with little time and who only scan web content and articles for the information they require.

A successful infographic must capture the reader and communicate within a very few seconds, it must succeed in three ways,

1 – appeal, engage the reader
2 – comprehension, easy to understand
3 – retention, remember the data in the graphic 

However the ranking of these three requirements differs depending on the area in which the infographic is used. The above is accurate for communication and editorial, but the academics criteria will be comprehension, retention and appeal, while commercial requirements are appeal, retention and comprehension.

An infographic should contain three main elements to ensure it works as an effective visual,

1 – Visual representation – theme graphics, colours and images,
reference graphics/icons depicting data
2 – Content – statistics and facts
3 – Knowledge – offering insights into the data, results and conclusions

The addition of links within the infographic ensures more effective seo and attracts more potent customers therefore increasing content marketing results.

Out of all our senses we receive more information visually. In fact over 50% of the brain is dedicated to processing visual images. Text has to be processed in a different way so therefore it is slower, in fact 60,000 times slower! 90% of all information is transmitted to the brain visually. While it has also been proven that 40% of people respond better to visuals. Sadly still only 20% of all information is retained.

As illustrated, here are 9 reasons to use infographics

• compelling and attractive
• easily scanned and viewed
• viral capability
• worldwide coverage
• embeddable and portable
• brand awareness
• increases traffic
• benefits seo
• expert insight of subject

What for?

• proposals
• presentations
• lectures
• learning
• white papers
• reports
• blogs
• ebooks
• books
• marketing content
• social media
• instructions
• recruiting tool
• cv

…and Why?

• make large amounts of data coherent
• simplify complex concepts
• need to show data clearly
• broad overview of fine structure
• presenting survey data
• extract info easily
• comparisons
• educate – help to learn
• explain how something works
• when words don’t work – generic language
• interesting facts
• raising awareness
• inform consumers
• inform trends

Did you know…?

• In business terms there has been an 800% increase in searches for infographics between 2010 ands 2013.
• Businesses who are using infographics have grown their traffic at an average of 12% more than those who are not.

So… make your information more interesting to read, use effective visual elements to condense large information into a form more easily absorbed.

Also remember that with the visual appeal of an infographic, it becomes a shareable and reusable asset, especially when branded, going viral with your links, it will improve not only your SEO but build your brand and your reputation.

Try out the following freebies for creating your own infographics,

Take a look at Canva especially as they have an extensive library of templates which may be very useful.
https://www.canva.com/templates/infographics
https://developers.google.com/chart/
http://www.easel.ly/
http://piktochart.com/
https://infogr.am/
http://visual.ly/
https://venngage.com/

Or failing that, you would like a professional infographic created for you and have a great idea, chat to me and give me a call.

Written by Angie Phillips, Design Consultant - Helping you create business by creating IMPACT! Fabulous effective design that makes you say WOW! Using my expertise to promote yours. Fiercely committed to my clients and getting my hands on your assets! Always happy to offer help and advice. Promoting and helping you to grow through networking & introductions even after our work is done. #CreatingBusinessByDesign  #CreatingIMPACT  #LOVEwhatIdo

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