Infographics are a stellar content marketing tool — if you do them right. According to one study, folks who view a combination of text and images follow directions 323% better than those who read text alone. That’s one of the reasons why 65% of B2B marketers used infographics in the last four years.
Here’s how to make the most of your infographics and garner more reach than ever.
Creating infographics the right way
Infographics have the potential to go far, but only when rooted in value—value for your readers and viewers, regardless of how you distribute the content. In order to create a meaningful, valuable infographic, there are a few key tactics you’ll want to keep in mind:
1. Build your infographic off an industry study.
The last thing you want your infographic to consist of is fluff. Instead, base it off of an industry study, preferably a unique one full of data that you’re bringing into the world. There are a lot of services out there that can help you develop an industry study quickly (many of them are called market research analysts). Basically, don’t make your infographic for no reason. This is your chance to become a thought leader in your industry — so take it.
2. Create a blog post with the information found in your infographic.
Because of their basis in text and keywords, blog posts are better for SEO. That’s why you should create a blog post with all of the relevant information developed for your infographic. You can then add the infographic to your blog for both the benefit of SEO and the perk of heightened information absorption that stems from infographics. How’s that for a double header?
3. Give people the chance to embed your content.
One often overlooked piece of infographic creation is making sure people can easily and succinctly embed your content elsewhere. An easy way to do this is by breaking up your infographic into segments, each with minimal embed coding. People are more likely to embed the more relevant chunks than they are the entire infographic (after all, it’s a lengthy piece of content that may not work well in an external article), so this is a useful trick to get more people sharing and embedding your work. Just be sure to watermark each segment.
4. Offer the full study as a download.
Since your infographic is based off of research, you can offer the full study as a download for others to use as a resource. This is the perfect opportunity for you to capture their email address, as well. With all these components working seamlessly together, this is lead acquisition at its finest.
Distributing infographics with reach in mind
Distributing your creations sounds as simple as the click of a share button, but that couldn’t be more wrong. The process of marketing your infographic is just that — a process. The web of distribution may seem tangled to you, so here are some steps you can take to streamline your approach without sacrificing effectiveness.
1.Send your data through a press release and share it with the media.
That data you acquired from your custom-made industry study is valuable, and you don’t have to limit it to your infographic’s URL. Take the most industry-disrupting data from the study and share it as a press release with media professionals. They may be interested in writing a story on your findings, potentially even interviewing someone from your business as an expert in the field. Here, you have the chance for some serious credibility.
2.Chop up your infographic into multiple social media posts.
You already segmented your infographic into smaller sections (with minimal embed codes for each). Because of this, you can easily take pieces of your infographic and share them as separate social media posts. Voila! You now have a ton of content ready to roll out on all your platforms. What’s best is that it’s share-worthy content that goes beyond boring fluff. Use this content for your LinkedIn and Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (stories included) and more.
3. Use your content in digital PR outreach.
Be prepared to get your hands dirty on this one. Search for old articles that cover a similar topic as your infographic. Reach out to the website or author with mini images from your infographic (so, not the full infographic, but a segment or two). Have them add the images to their article. For them, it’s added value in the form of imagery — for free. For you, it’s the chance for a backlink.
4. Use your media pitches to send mini and master infographics.
View your media pitches as an opportunity to spur a ripple effect. Include mini and master infographic images in your documents. Fresh data goes a long way, so this helps prove that you’re an expert in the field. It also helps you get noticed by the media, which could lead to you being quoted in the news.
5. Turn your data into mailers.
Mailers are still relevant, even going into 2021 (heck, stay-at-home orders and flooding digital inboxes are giving emails a run for their money, and an increased vested interest in the USPS from the general public only adds fuel to the fire). Use your data and images for mailers like postcards, direct mail letters, self mailers, catalogs or booklets, circulars or inserts, wraps and parcels.
6. Create banners with the content.
You can actually use your infographic content to boost your in-house appeal, too. Create a banner for your storefront or office to boost customer sentiment and employee morale. At the same time, your data (in its most concise format) sure would look great on a billboard in your local region.
7. Use the content for mid- and upper-funnel ads.
While infographic content is not especially suited for lower-funnel or conversion-focused ads, they do well in mid- and upper-funnel advertisements. This is because the data helps you stay top-of-mind for your audience on social platforms. As a result, you can — and should — repurpose your content for Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, Bing ads and more.
8. Use the info to put on a webinar or live event.
This is thought leadership times 10. Craft a webinar or live event based off of the data you collected for your infographic. This is a perfect way to promote engagement from the community, and it also helps to boost your credibility. You never know who you might reach while boosting or hosting your event.
9. Implement data on your landing pages for utmost credibility.
Last but not least, build that data right onto your landing pages. It increases your legitimacy from first glance and really helps to keep the funnel rolling. After all, if someone lands on your landing page from an ad that contained your data, you can then retarget ads to them based on their browsing history with more data on future ads. Get it? Good.
Building a successful infographic is more than just grab & go
You’re not just plopping data on a page here and sending it off into the internet abyss. Quality infographics are born of a need for real meaning and value. When your business provides that and appropriately distributes the content to the folks who want to see it, you’re bound to score 10 times (or more).
