The Power & Persuasion of Infographics #SMX #14A

David Wallace is the founder and CEO of SearchRank. He’s going to present a mini session at SMX West 2015 on best practices for marketing with infographics.

Infographics are AWESOME! We’re overloaded with information today. We’re visually inclined and with infographics we can learn quickly and digest info.

The average person is subjected to 174 newspapers worth of info every day. 99% of sensory information is filtered out by the brain almost immediately. That means 1% of info actually gets to the brain. Publishers who use infographics in their content marketing strategy grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t.

Infographics aren’t new. They date back to the caveman days when stories were told on walls.

There are four styles of infographics:

1. Static: large image files
2. Animated: huge animated gifs
3. Video
4. Interactive

Infographic design mistakes:

• Ugly: no matter how great the idea or topic of the infographic, poor design will kill its overall effectiveness
• Display size: size matters. Allow for a larger version to be viewed.
• Grammar and spell check: Someone is going to call out any errors to spelling and grammar
• Citations: list sources! it adds credibility
• Actually an infographic! Some things that are passed by their creators as infographics actually aren’t.

Avoid common blunders. Always:

• Include social sharing buttons on the page so it’s easy for people to share
• Share it on your own social networks to bring awareness to your content

Social sharing right vs. wrong:

• Link back to original post
• Include short description
• Utilize hashtags
• Include images
• Call out influencers
• Retweet older infographics if a trend or current event makes it relevant again

On Pinterest:

• Link back to original post
• Post to topically relevant boards
• Include a short title and description of infographic

Takeaways:

• If you aren’t utilizing infographics you are missing out
• Don’t compromise on infographic design elements
• Make it easy for users to share and repost infographics
• Don’t forget to share on your own social network
• Measure for success, rinse and repeat

Ready to get started?
Read our Create an Inforgraphic for Free article!

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.