Wondering how to create an infographic?
Does making infographics seem complex and intimidating?
Check out these infographics that outline your steps to infographic success!
We’ll cover:
- Why your visual marketing needs infographics.
- How to make your own infographics with an easy design tool.
- How to use visual storytelling with infographics.
- The best infographic about infographics.
- 7 steps to create an infographic.
Includes 3 infographics!
Why Use Infographics?
If you market a business, you’ve heard a lot of buzz around infographics.
Infographics have been steadily gaining popularity over recent years, and marketers continue to rave about their effectiveness.
Creating your own infographics and promoting them yourself might seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. By choosing an informative topic and combining it with eye-catching visuals, you can get ideas out to your desired audience and gain a larger following.
Infographics are able to take complex ideas and put them into an easy to understand, visual narrative. Viewers are more inclined to stop and read an infographic than a standard article.
Due to the fact that our brains process visuals a full 60,000 times faster than traditional text, our brains crave infographics.
It makes sense! Consider having to choose between reading a multi-paragraph article or a short and sweet visual story. Infographics win!
To create your own infographic, you need to start with a compelling topic. Choose something that readers will gain value from, and then move on to to your design.
While it might seem like the graphics are the most important part of the infographic, they’re useless without worthwhile copy. It’s important to remember that infographics should be told in a narrative, so readers follow along and stay engaged.
We’ll talk more about visual storytelling a little further along, so keep reading.
When sharing your infographic, you want to make sure you are sharing on as many social media sites, blogs, and directories as possible. When you first put an infographic out on the web, its early momentum is reliant on your efforts to promote it. More visibility means more traffic, which will help give your brand a larger following.
Here’s a great idea from Neil Patel on how to grab a concept and stats for your infographic, then use it to get backlinks to your blog. More backlinks = Google sees you as an authority = you get more blog traffic!
Find the infographic from Copypress at the end of this article.
Want more details on how to create an amazing infographic? Check out the free whitepaper from CopyPress.
How to Make Impressive Infographics Easily
Note: I’ve tested the following design tools for non-designers so I can make these suggestions. If you decide to pay for a plan, I may receive a referral fee.
If you already use a design tool like Canva, Snappa, or PicMonkey, start there! They have a selection of infographics templates.
If you’ve worked with the tool before, it’s your easiest way to get started. Check out their designs to see if something suits your brand and your concept.
Most tools like the ones mentioned above are fine for “infographics” that don’t have a lot of information. But what if you need to share lots of stats on your infographic?
Here’s one that makes it easy with direct data import from your spreadsheets!
To access an wide range of infographics templates, check out Venngage. They have hundreds of templates, AND hundreds of charts, maps, and icons you can drag-and-drop into your design.
- Import data directly from your spreadsheets into the following chart styles:
- Line Chart
- Smooth Line Chart
- Area Line Chart
- Pie Chart
- Bar Chart
- Multi-Column Bar Chart
- Stacked Bar Chart
- Scatter Plot Chart
- Bubble Chart
- Stacked Bubble Chart
- Multi-Series Chart
- Summary Stats
- Thousands of icons, pictograms and illustrations.
- Upload your own images from your computer or the web.
Add those elements into your chosen infographic template – or create your own infographic from scratch!
So many options that you can customize as little or as much as you like.
There are so many types of infographics, you may wonder which to use to tell your story! Watch this fun video from Venngage to learn 9 types of infographics and when to use them.
Try it out at no charge. If you like it, the Premium plan is only $19 paid monthly, and the Business plan offers even more features for $49 paid monthly.
• • • Click here to try Venngage infographic designer FREE• • •
Save even more! I’ve negotiated a one-time-use 20% off code for my readers. Use LOUISE20 when you purchase. Pay for a year in advance to maximize your savings!
How to Use Visual Storytelling with Infographics
Including the element of visual storytelling in your infographic will really help it take off!
Storytelling lies at the heart of social connections. A good story pushes you to the edge of your seat, while you hold your breath in anticipation.
How stories are told matters, especially if there’s complex information or data to convey. The more complex a story – chock full of numbers and data – the more difficult it is to capture.
The infographic was born to simplify this process, and it has a story of its own.
A brief history of infographics
Cave paintings and maps show an early form of data visualization of information, followed by scientific representations like 16th century mathematician Christoph Scheiner’s brilliant mapping of sunspots.
But in the 18th century academics dismissed anything that resembled an illustration as “trifles,” only useful for working through concepts and not presenting them. It took Scottish inventor and economist William Playfair, who had very little regard for tradition, to push limits and invent graphical charts like the line graph, bar chart, and pie chart.
Playfair specialized in combining sources of data to form a story and under his artistry, data came alive. At the time he theorized that the brain processed images faster than words.
He was right! We now know that humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, and information coupled with illustrations increases information recall by a whopping 82%.
Why your marketing plan needs infographics
For savvy marketers, learning how to incorporate infographics offers a chance to stay ahead of information overload. It certainly helps that visuals are 40 times more likely to be shared on social media, according to the visual below by Daily Infographic.
I’m crazy for infographics because they go viral on Pinterest. They stand out visually in the feed, and people love to save them for the great information.
7 of my top 10 posts for organic Pinterest traffic are infographics!
If you’re past the novice stage of making your own graphics, I strongly encourage you to try making infographics.
Even without a design background, marketers can take advantage of design tools that help to share data in an engaging and visually striking way. Creating a powerful visual story leaves a lasting impression, quickly absorbed.
Ready to make your own infographic to tell a story your audience will love?
Check out Venngage’s infographic templates here.
Best Infographic About Infographics
Looking for the best infographic about infographics?
Here’s a colorful rainbow of an infographic that will answer your questions:
- What is an infographic?
- Why are infographics popular?
- Why use infographics?
Plus, it outlines 7 steps to creating an infographic.
How do I create an infographic?
- Think of ideas. Make a list of the best options.
- Create a skeleton and flowchart as a first draft.
- Choose an eye-friendly color scheme like pastels or brights.
- Choose eye-catching graphics and icons.
- Research from several authoritative sources.
- Provide facts and conclusions in simple illustrations.
- Edit everything to be sure you have a narrative.
Now here’s the infographic, courtesy of InfographicLabs.
Conclusion
If you have complex data to share, infographics are the best way to capture your audience’s interest, and communicate your points clearly and memorably.
According to Hubspot:
- 37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, just after blogging (38%).
- When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later.
- However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.
Clearly, visuals grab the attention that you want for your brand!
To easily make infographics, try Venngage here.
Save these tips! Don’t forget to pin this infographic about how to create an infographic.
Erika Toni says
Great Article Louise. It was an immense pleasure reading through the step by step procedure to create an infographic. I love the quality of content you provide. Recently, I also found an article with the similar topic for creating a data driven infographic. We readers are always going to be happy when such information is being provided to us. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Silvia Gerber says
Hello Louise! I truly enjoy reading your site. So much information, lots of interesting, informative, creative and more….Very inspiring. I just need more time to devote to my site.
I had to drop a few words to you and congratulate you for your work. I met you via Blab sometime ago. I subscribe to your newsletters and I always look forward to receiving them. Enjoy the rest of the summer. Silvia Gerber, New York Hoje.
Louise Myers says
Thanks Silvia! I appreciate your kind comment 🙂
Emmanuel says
I am going to use this, lets see how it will works for me. Thanks for this awesome stuff
Louise Myers says
Best of luck!
I had to change your handle because I don’t allow keywords to be used as names.