We get it: you probably got into the world of publishing because, on some level, you have an appreciation for full sentences and the nuances of traditional story telling. Therefore, communicating an idea through infographics may not quite cut it for you. But, you also know that online reading styles have changed and the attention span of your average reader is remorsefully short.

What’s a publisher to do?

Let's face it:  traditional ad models and print publishing need your help to stay relevant and effectively grab your readers' attention. It’s up to you, more than ever, to publish great content that helps build awareness of your organization, products and services. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to start playing around with infographics to boost that effort. Because, according to Anson Alex, publishers who use infographics experience 12% more traffic growth than those who don’t.

What is an Infographic? 

You probably already know what an infographic is, but it’s okay if you don’t! Simply put, it’s a visual chart, diagram or image used to convey data and information. Usually, an infographic makes it easier for a reader to understand information that may be difficult to digest, either because the concept is complicated or there are many moving parts, numbers or ideas involved.

A Few Benefits of Using Infographics

• Connect with target audiences and build your brand: Infographics can create awareness, inspire engagement, demonstrate your expertise and reveal your personality. In fact, according to The Power of Infographics, “ . . . well-designed visualizations actually prompt audiences to invest more time than they would with other content.”
• Use across multiple channels: website, social media platforms, on your blogs and even in print.
• Distill Ideas: a perfect tool for clearly expressing one powerful idea that leads to more information for those who seek it.
• Reach a mass audience: the digestibility of infographics makes them easily consumed by many.
• Easily targeted: while they are easily consumed by many, they can also target very specific segments of your audience.
• Works for the 2-second drive by or the 10-minute park and ride. With infographics, readers can go as deep as they have time for.
• Easy to share. Readers love to share great visual and useful content.
• Grow business relationships: The cool thing about infographics is that in the act of researching them, you have the opportunity to connect with other business people in your industry and begin to build relationships.

  4 Tips for Using Infographics

1. Make it part of your strategy. As with any content, it’s important to identify the goals for your infographic and tie it to your larger content strategy.
2. Measure it. Identify metrics for success, so that you can easily measure its effectiveness.
3. Don’t gate it. Infographics should be a gateway to your content, not gate people from it. Asking for registration info just to view it ensures that no one sees it (or any of the content you want it to lead to).
4. Make it mobile.  Use a template, or make sure to size your infographics with viewing on a phone or tablet in mind. 

Want to see an example?  Kronos (a workforce management software company) has seen great success with their Time Well Spent cartoons. Their cartoons have become syndicated in numerous human resources management publications, their sales team uses them for client presentations, website traffic and search engine performance has improved and a caption contest brought 500 entries along with greater brand awareness.

Now, that would make a great infographic!