Picture this: You’ve been told that infographics are a great way to engage your audience, so you find an online tool and spend a couple of hours designing what you believe to be an amazing infographic.
And then you publish it. And no one seems to care.
Finding ways to come up with engaging and memorable infographic ideas can be tricky. So what can you do?
Well, there are some principles that can help guide the way in which you come up with your ideas so that the infographics you create moving forward are more engaging for your audience overall.
1. Use Pinterest Infographic Best Practices
Pinterest is one of the dominant platforms for sharing visual content, along with Instagram (duh, right?). But did you know that there are actually best practices for creating the perfect Pinterest infographic?
Now, these best practices are predominantly design-focused and not so much content-focused. But part of creating a captivating infographic is a good eye for appearance.
For starters, let’s consider font usage in your infographic. Did you know that some of the most frequently pinned infographics used serif fonts more than sans serif fonts? This goes against the typical assumption that sans serif fonts are more captivating.
In addition to that, when it comes to identifying which colors stand out most on Pinterest, warmer color tones like red and yellow performed best.
And people also preferred infographics that were made up of only two dominant colors.
When working on your designs, try to keep these statistics in mind. But remember, the style is not the only thing that will result in your infographic’s memorability. You still need to provide your audience with great content.
2. Solve a Burning Problem
And what better way to give your audience what they want than by solving a problem they face? The next principle to keep in mind when coming up with content ideas is to find out what your audience is struggling with and provide an easy-to-digest solution to those issues.
The best way to do this is to actually ask them what they need help with. Start by emailing those who are subscribed to your blog and learn from them. You can do this by sending them a quick multiple choice survey or simply asking an open-ended query.
This method is a great way to gain insights and learn what your audience is actually looking for. Using that information, you can compile content that they have communicated they want and need.
Use their answers to discover new topics and stories to write about.
3. Reframe the Questions
The next strategy is to try and reframe the questions that you pose and present your data and your stories from a new angle.
Whatever you’re selling, or whatever you’re trying to teach your audience, how can you reframe the question to make it more accessible and not as blunt?
4. Use Mashups
Lastly, you can try using the mashup principles. This is the idea of taking two relatively unrelated themes or ideas and finding some type of commonality between them
In doing this, you connect a trending theme with an evergreen idea.
For instance, let’s assume you’re an SEO agency and trying to explain how Google search works in a more accessible manner. How can you take the topic of search functionality- an evergreen topic for you, and combine it with something trending that a wider audience knows and engages with?
Now personally, I like using Lord of the Rings when explaining search in general to my readers, many of whom are very new to the realm of SEO.
If you’re using black hat SEO tactics, it’s pretty much like Frodo putting on the ring. It draws the eye of Sauron (in this case, Google and the webspam team) right to you. It’s like you’re just trying to get them to notice your shady tactics.
But white hat SEO is like walking right into Mordor undetected. Google will never know and likely will never care.
Now I understand this comparison is not entirely spot on, but it helps people who are entirely uninterested or unaware of the subject to follow a bit better.
When using this principle to come up with ideas, try to think of ways in which you can combine aspects of your business with a popular subject.
Remember, sometimes it doesn’t matter how great your infographic looks. Whether you made it yourself or use a designer won’t matter. If the content isn’t engaging, people will leave, and you will have wasted your time. And if you don’t take the effort to promote your infographic, people may never even see it.
Promoting your infographic
- Re-package your infographic as social media posts using original captions for each social media platform:
- Pinterest: Create multiple vertical pins with different titles and descriptions. Use relevant keywords. Pinterest posts and boards rank well in Google, so keywords matter for Pinterest.
- Instagram: Share snippets in stories, create carousels, and use relevant hashtags.
- X: Use concise text and engaging visuals. Consider creating a thread to break down key points.
- LinkedIn: Share within relevant groups and tag industry professionals.
- Facebook: Consider paid promotion to targeted audiences.
- Reddit: Share the infographic in subreddits that welcome infographic submissions. I have a detailed tutorial on Reddit marketing on my personal site annsmarty.com
- Use social media scheduling tools to promote your infographic several times at different times on each platform.
- Add your infographic to your link-in-bio tools to help your followers discover it naturally. Link Lab offers a good tutorial on how to do it.
- Write SEO-optimized copy to publish an article on your site and embed the infographic, providing context and additional information. If your infographic ranks in Google search and Google image search tab, it will continue generating traffic and backlinks long-term. Use relevant keywords in the image alt text, file name, and surrounding text.
- Share the infographic with your email list.
- Create a short video summarizing the infographic.
- Turn key data points into social media captions.
- Create a presentation using the infographic’s data.
- Submit to infographic directories: Some websites specialize in hosting infographics. PixlParade is one example.
- If your infographic contains newsworthy data, reach out to journalists and bloggers.
Creating a compelling infographic goes beyond mere visual appeal. It needs a strategic approach, innovative content framing, and a keen eye for effective design. By using data-driven insights, addressing relevant and trending problems, and addressing your audience’s needs, you can turn your infographics into powerful content marketing tools. Ultimately, the success of your infographics relies on your ability to deliver meaningful information in a visually engaging way and then actively connect with your audience to share it.
About the Author
Ann Smarty is the co-founder of Smarty.Marketing. Ann has been into Internet Marketing for more than a decade, she is the former Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs including Small Biz Trends and Mashable. Ann is also the frequent speaker at Pubcon.
