For awhile, it seemed like you couldn’t go anywhere online without coming across an infographic. And that was for good reason. People are three times more likely to share infographics than other types of content. In 2016, 58 percent of B2B marketers ranked infographics as effective, up from 50 percent the year before. Posts with infographics are likely to increase traffic by 12 percent more than posts without infographics. But how does one create infographics?
Despite their worth and popularity, maybe you still haven’t taken a crack at creating your own infographics. If you usually specialize in text-based content, making the leap towards something that is so visual can seem challenging.
But it’s not that difficult to create infographics. Just follow a few tips and best practices and you’ll be well on your way towards creating content that engages and informs.
Create Infographics: Layout 101
The type of layout you choose for an infographic really depends on the type of information you’re sharing through the content. A timeline makes sense when you’ve got a lot of history to cover, while charts and graphs are handy for a detailed and stats-heavy infographic.
A few of the more popular infographic layout types include:
Timeline
Useful for sharing events and information that occurred chronologically (like your company’s history).
Flowchart
Useful for walking a person step-by-step through a process (such as giving instructions) or through a decision-making process.
Side-by-side comparison
Useful when you’re comparing apples to oranges or one product to another product.
Data driven
Useful when you have a lot of charts, graphs, and other numbers to share with your audience.
5 Best Practices for Creating Infographics
In many cases, the best practices you’d use for creating any other type of content apply when creating infographics. That is, the infographic should be useful and tell the audience something it needs or wants to know. It shouldn’t be a rehash of an infographic created by one of your competitors. You should have an understanding of who your audience is, and tailor the content and appearance of the infographic to the audience.
There are also a few best practices that apply specifically to infographics.
Best Practices for Creating Infographics
Use white space.
You don’t want to fill up the entire infographic with stuff. Including white space gives people’s eyes a chance to rest, and will help them absorb the important details on your infographic better.
Focus on the visual.
Blocks of text with a few pictures don’t make an infographic. The entire point of an infographic is that it is information presented graphically. If you’re basically writing a blog post with an image attached, you’re not making an infographic.
Pay attention to size.
You don’t want to create an infographic that’s so small that it barely contains any info or is difficult to read without zooming in. On the other hand, you don’t want your infographic to be so long that people lose interest or need to keep on scrolling to get to the point. Keep in mind that the larger your infographic is, the slower it will load, which can annoy some people.
Create a logical flow.
Some infographics can be difficult to comprehend, because they look as if someone just threw a bunch of numbers and stats down on a page and called it a day. Make sure your infographic makes sense and flows. You might want to use a form of the inverted pyramid when figuring out what to put there.
Use accurate data and include sources.
In a time when it seems like everyone’s accusing everyone else of being or distributing “fake news,” it’s essential that you create infographics that are accurate, and that most importantly, have the sources to prove it.
What to Include When Creating Infographics
When creating infographics, the most important question you can ask yourself is “Is this information that’s best presented visually?” Comparisons, instructions, and data sets are all easier to understand when presented in a graphical form, for example.
Along with including info that fits a visual format, it’s essential that you organize that information logically. Make sure the infographic walks a user from point A to point B, and that they aren’t left to figure out how on earth they got there.
If you’re citing sources or using hard numbers in your infographic, be sure to include a link or reference explaining where that data came from. You don’t have to make your source list part of the graphic itself, but should include it at the bottom or along the side.
Finally, your infographic should have a call to action on it. What do you want people to do after taking a look at it? Make the call to action compelling and clear. Don’t just give people a reason to contact you — spell out exactly how to do it.
Tools to Help You Create Infographics
Compared to creating blog posts and other types of content, making infographics can seem challenging, especially if you’re not a visual person or are doubtful of your graphic design abilities.
Luckily, there are plenty of tools and resources out there to help you create infographics. Some, such as Canva, are free drag-and-drop editors that let you build custom infographics from scratch.
Another option for getting help making infographics is to use a content marketing platform to find a graphic designer who can help transform your data and information into a visually stunning and helpful infographic.
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