Lynx effect tv advert still. man on beach with women running towards him

From the Lynx TV Advert. Courtesy of www.lynxeffect.com

 

Can you get your bikini clad target audience running down the beach to swarm your lynx effect infographic? Or is ‘infographics’ just a buzz word, punted about amongst web marketers to keep their graphic designers busy? Is there real marketing value in these ‘graphics with information’?

The answer is YES! But only if it is done right.

Does Google like infographics? – Google will like anything that adds value to a website in terms of what it offers to its visitors as useful content. Having different types of content on a website is beneficial, so a mixture of text, images, video is important for SEO.

Google will also like an infographic if it is shared socially or linked to from other websites. So, in a sense, aside from being good quality content onsite, the infographic can also be very effective link bait. Either way you look at it, it needs to be good quality to be successful online.

What makes a good infographic?

It needs to give the reader useful information that they want! This might sound very obvious but there is no point creating a beautiful infographic that no one will read, link to or share.

Research your target audience or demographic – what do they like? What do they need in terms of information? And how would they like it presented? What would impress them enough to share it or link to it?  Not sure where to start your research? Ask your friends and colleagues, email, phone or invite them over for coffee!

The following are really good sites/online tools to help you with your infographics research:

http://mashable.com/

http://www.google.com/trends/

http://alltop.com/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/

http://www.google.com/alerts

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=infographics

 Easy to read – A successful infographic is one that gives information in an easy to read format. It’s easy to scan an infographic and quickly see the information you are looking for. This style is perfectly suited to the flighty nature of today’s web user – they want the info fast and scan able. Use a large font to make it really easy to decipher.

Easy to share – If an infographic is done well and the sharing of it is seeded in the right places to the right people it has the potential to go ‘viral’. Add an html share code under your social media infographic to make it easy to share it on other blogs. Add social signals to the page too.

Brand it – be sure to add your logo to the design. It is an excellent opportunity for brand awareness particularly if it is shared a lot.

Good heading/title – a boring heading could just stop people looking at or sharing your infographic. Make it engaging, interesting or funny as well as correctly describing its contents of course.

Visual appeal – it has got to look good. Use complimentary colours and appealing graphics to draw your target audience in.

Quality information – by this I mean that the statistics, data or information you are using has to be correct. It must come from a trusted source or you could damage your brand.

How to make your “killer” infographic

Using a professional graphic designer may be a little out of reach financially for some businesses. In which case there a few really quite good free infographic tools online which can help you especially if you want a “killer” infographic that has the potential to go viral over the web:

http://www.easel.ly/ – has free templates to use with drag and drop capability. Or you can start from scratch if you prefer.

infographic template example

Infographic template example from www.easel.ly

 

https://infogr.am/ – gives you a choice of many types of charts which makes this a quick design process. There are full drag and drop options here too.

example infographics creation tool

Example of creating an infographic using www.infogr.am

 

Where to upload your infographic to get the maximum benefit your content marketing efforts!

 Some successful Infographics

1. 20 reasons to switch to Google+ I’ve included this one as an example of something that will appeal to marketers who embrace social media. This infographic was posted by mashable, created by Infographic Labs over 24k shares so far.

 

google+Infographic 20 reasons to switch to google+

 

2. The tale of two cows This one is amusing for the ABC1 demographic. It was posted by http://visual.ly/tale-two-cows and created by kylatomdesign – around 25k shares so far.

example of killer infographic

3. Should I Text Him? This is an example of one that will appeal to any female who is struggling with dating and affairs of the heart! Posted originally on http://visual.ly/should-i-text-him-flowchart created by http://beccaclason.com/ – nearly 27k shares so far.

flowchart with advise on whether to text someone in certain situations

Should I Text Him Flowchart

 

Conclusion

You need to research your sector fully. Look at what else is already out there. Be sure your facts are 100% correct if you are using statistics. Create a quality visual that will engage with the target audience. Make it easy to share. Promote it and seed it in the right places and monitor the success so that you learn from your efforts.