Infographic will help you engage better and earn more links; this will in turn enhance brand recognition and boost Google rankings.
Visual storytelling is hard, yet is highly in-demand by the best creative online marketing agencies.
This guide is meant for content marketers who wish to share content that is meaningful and useful. The steps involved are pretty straightforward. At the end of the guide you will find a bunch of online tools that will help you quickly design stunning infographics.
Step 1: Identify Your Objective and Develop a Killer Topic
The first step is to outline why you are creating infographics in the first place. The online marketer must have a clear idea and a target in place; there must be a solid reason behind your efforts. And you obviously need to narrow down the exact topic of the infographics (use a website such as BuzzSumo if you are at a loss for ideas or want to try a new niche).
This is almost the same process that is followed when deciding what kind of textual content to write, but here you need to have a definite story and message linked with the topic. The story is easier to build if the type of business you are working with already has a web presence with a high amount of visual content. Also, this largely depends on the nature of business as well.
Step 2: Research and Data Gathering
A great topic needs a better story, so the next step is research; there are a few things you should keep in mind when it comes to information and data:
- Try to include information that can be easily organized
- The information must be visually presentable
- Focus on information that incites an emotional response
- Get definite numbers instead of just increase/decrease relationships
- Statistics should be verifiable, include citations
- Make statements that are short and can work as individual tweets
Step 3: Design and Creation
Once the research is complete, sketch your idea and get a feel of how the finished product will look. Use a color palette tools such as Pictaculous to find the perfect color palette. You can use any of the freely available tools online to customize and build your chart. Some of our favorite tools are discussed later in the article.
Step 4: Share and Promote the Infographic
Now that you have a great image, publish it to the web and social media accounts.
- Use social media and get the word out
- Write supporting articles and include your infographics as a visual aid
- Partner with bloggers and let them share your creation with wider audiences
Recommended Tools
Visualization and infographics are a breeze with any of these freely available online tools. They are very user-friendly; you do not need to be an expert in graphic design in order to use them effectively. In fact, some of them are quite fun to play around with. However, some of these you might have to download but most are web-based.
- Easel.ly—This is great for simple conceptual visualization and story-telling, make maps, relationships/comparison graphs, flowcharts etc. The tool has a pre-loaded selection of common icons, images but also allows you to upload your own images.
- Infogr.am— This is a great tool that includes a lot of pre-set themes you can customize and 31 different charting options. You can add your own images and even videos. Use real data files for creating charts (bubble graphs, scatter charts, radial bar graphs, etc.)
- Piktochart—This has great free themes that work with any kind of content you want. It provides options for building simple line charts, pie charts, and bar graphs. This tool also allows you to import CSV data, which comes in handy
Visual content is engaging and draws more shares, it is a great way to increase your user engagement levels and give a boost to your brand.
Resources: business.net