What Makes Infographics Compelling

In today’s world, most of the people we want to deliver our messages to are overwhelmed by content and often using mobile devices to get their news, information and entertainment. How do you attract their attention with a clear message they will understand and remember? Many marketers are using infographics.

The web is a visual medium and we know that provocative imagery captures and sustains attention. Infographics provide a way to visually convey a story and a marketing message in a manner that is quick, entertaining and eminently shareable. According to Webmarketing’s 2015 State of Digital Marketing Survey[i], infographics are in the content marketing toolkits of 54% of B2B marketing respondents.

As the Internet becomes more social, consumers want an approach that engages them and shows the personality behind the brand, says Kelly Meeneghan, writing for Business 2 Community[ii]. What catches their attention is riveting eye-catching images in text-rich content and once you have caught their attention you increase the likelihood they will read the blog post, email blast or tweet.

This approach is just as relevant for B2B marketers trying to catch and hold the attention of decision-makers and purchase influencers. Now that virtually everyone has caught on to the value of content marketing, targets are being bombarded with more and more.

“We are in the midst of a marketing arms race, and content is the ammunition of choice,” says TrackMaven. As a result, it says, across 2013 and 2014, output of content surged, but content engagement declined steeply[iii]. “Digital platforms have made it easy — perhaps too easy — for marketers to broadly distribute content at scale,” TrackMaven observes. That means it’s tougher to gain and hold somebody’s attention. Plus, as the Pew Research Center recently reported[iv], 39 of the top 50 digital news web sites experience more traffic from mobile devices than desktops and laptops, and those mobile visitors tend to spend less time engaged with content.

But infographics are perfect for simplifying complex or technical content to engage the target. A statistic widely cited[v] says that humans process visual images 60,000 times faster than text. Check out this infographics-based video if you’re not convinced.

Infographics are one of the most sharable forms of content. Michael Brenner writes at B2B Marketing Insiders that Google searches for the term “infographics” have increased over 800 percent in the last two years. He offers 10 best infographics to inspire your content marketing.[vi].

“Infographics can make your marketing and advertising stand out in the crowded world of visual content[vii],” says Randy Krum, who also cautions that as computing devices and screen sizes continue to evolve and change, infographics need to evolve as well. He cites five examples of different types of infographics that move beyond static images to make products or services more memorable. Nonetheless, when it comes to sales enablement techniques, nothing works better than numbers to draw in a decision maker. There are plenty of data points floating around the Internet to provide sources for an infographic, but you have to go the extra mile to create a compelling storyline that appeals to your specific targets.

We’ve found that prospect surveying is an ideal vehicle for developing data points on your targets that can be used to engage more targets. Check out SimplyDIRECT’s Trends in Target Account Marketing to see how we weave the results of our prospect surveying data into a compelling infographic.

[i] http://go.webmarketing123.com/2015-State-of-Digital-Marketing-HP.html

[ii] http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/content-marketing-beyond-written-word-01225082

[iii] http://pages.trackmaven.com/rs/trackmaven/images/Content-Marketing-Paradox.pdf

[iv] http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/state-of-the-news-media-2015/

[v] http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33423/19-Reasons-You-Should-Include-Visual-Content-in-Your-Marketing-Data.aspx

[vi] http://www.b2bmarketinginsider.com/content-marketing/10-best-infographics-inspire-content-marketing

[vii] http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2015/6/15/infographics-are-evolving-into-many-formats.html