Infographics are great for summing up a lot of data into a single image that can easily be shared with others. However, going from a blank canvas to a work of art that can potentially go viral and bring a flood of traffic and business back to your site isn’t so easy.
While there are many self-serve infographic and image design platforms that anyone can use, infographic design isn’t as simple as throwing a few images and data points into one graphic. This is especially true if you don’t know how to compile the right data and make an engaging design. Also, without a professional look, feel and flow to your infographic, there are limitations on how much viral success you might have.
To help with this process, today we are going to break down the steps needs to find infographic success — before the design process even starts. While reading through the guide below, we highly recommend you take notes and plan out your infographic design, data points and sources in the process. This will make for an easier design process and to also get an idea of your data flow within the design.
What is Your Infographic About
Before sitting back and dreaming about all of the traffic and social shares you are going to be getting to your sites, you need to start thinking about why you are creating an infographic, how you are going to compile the data and then who might be your potential audience and partner sites that may share it with their audiences. These are all very important components to creating a winning infographic.
The most popular infographics are ones that provide details and data one something people or businesses are generally interested. A good example of this for consumers would be “Holiday Spending” or entertainment based infographics such as stats on individuals professional athletes. Stuff like this goes viral on the internet for quite a while! On the flip side, infographics for business and marketing are also in very high demand. This is especially true since data and reports are heavily shared within vast markets and business social networking groups.
With these examples in mind, try to come up with a good reason for creating an infographic that your audience will get value out of, but also to potentially increase additional traffic and business back to your site.
As an extra added resource, take some time to look through Google Trends to see what people are currently talking about and sharing online. If you create an infographic around any of these angles, there is a good chance you can go viral or have some major news and media outlets pick it up.
Who are Your Reliable Data Sources
The most important part of any infographic design process is the actual data within it. In most cases, you don’t want to have a lot of text. Most infographics focus on statistics and data points, along with a sentence or two afterward to explain or back them up.
So where can you start finding data for your next infographic? Easy… Google is your best friend for this.
Since we are going to be citing all of our sources at the bottom of the infographic, it’s fine to use research and data reports from other sites. However, when doing this, make sure that the data is current and somewhat recent. The last thing you want to do is come out with an infographic and have it being shared all over the place, only to have your audience call you out for having wrong or outdated information.
As mentioned earlier, Google is a great place to start when looking for content to use within your infographic. You can also use Google News to find the most recent information as well. In most cases, anything found in Google News is often more likely to be updated and correct, versus other random sites you might come across.
For a wide range of other data resources, be sure to check out this list from FlowingData.
Having a Call-to-Action within Your Infographic
For the most part, when you see an infographic and take the time to look through it, you are usually just being entertained and learning some new stuff in the process. However, infographics should be created for much more than that — especially if you are investing your own time and money to have one created!
While most infographics aren’t monetized and are usually just for branding and getting people to click back to a site or see a brand name, there are still some ways to get more out of an infographic.
A great way to do this is to end your infographic with a question or call-to-action. A good example of this would be if you created an infographic on credit scores and how much debt the average person is in. Through such an infographic, your audience would see all of these great data points and possibly start thinking about their own personal finances as well.
Instead of just slapping your logo on the bottom of the infographic and calling it a day, increase engagement by adding a call-to-action area that says something like “Find Out Your Credit Score Now at YourSiteName.com”. Your audience is already so engaged with all of your data at this point, a good majority of them would potentially head over to your site and maybe even become paying customers.
Worried you don’t have a premium service or something you can sell? No problem! Simply create something that you can give away for free, and add a call-to-action like the one below into your infographic design.
Best of all, this method works in nearly all niche markets. It’s just a matter of being able to create engaging content, while also converting your audiences into high-quality leads.
Outreach After the Infographic Goes Live
Another important thing to consider when creating an infographic is having an idea on how you are going to promote it once it’s completed. Sure, you will likely be posting the infographic to your own site and sharing it through social media, but what about further outreach and getting massive exposure for it?
One of the best ways to make your infographic go viral is to get it in front of other people on high traffic websites and blogs. If you create a high-quality infographic that has really useful data points and is relevant to what’s going on in the world today, you can definitely get featured on sites like HuffingtonPost, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Mashable and more. If you approached these sites with an advertising budget, you would have to spend thousands of dollars for just one mention. However, if you have a great infographic that they can use and provide value to their audience, this can all be done at no additional cost — all it takes is time and outreach.
Now It’s Time To Create Your Brand New Infographic
There you have it. We’ve laid out the whole pre-planning process for you… and yes, it’s quite in-depth, but we have you covered!
Having designed thousands of custom infographics and designs for numerous clients around the world, we not only know how to design amazing infographics, we also know how to find the best data to include, while also doing all of the research for you.
To get started with your infographic design, head over to our design services page and see which package is best for you. Once your infographic is live, you can also explore more marketing opportunities such as turning your infographic into an animated video.
No matter what industry or niche market you are in, all customer are sure to love their infographic when it’s designed through InfographicDesignTeam.
