Let’s face it: the online community has a love-hate relationship with infographics. Some people adore them for their punchy mix of appealing visuals and easily-digestible info. Some people on the other hand absolutely hate the marketing gimmicks. However, one thing is for certain: infographics are here to stay.
Back in the days as early as the 80’s, there was what we called graphs. Then came the charts in the 90’s. Often, they were corny, boring and ineffective in delivering the message. At last the whole shebang was renamed data visualisation in the mid-00’s which finally became Infographics
Today, the success of infographics cannot be denied. They have their way of catching our attention, making us stay on a web page, look around and read. Not only that, they also make us click that Share button and spread the message to our community. Compared to graphs and charts, infographics have a more influential lifespan—they can create a buzz, go viral and be a great visual support for establishing a brand.
How Infographics Work
They work on the concept that people are more likely to pay attention to a message if it’s delivered in a visually interesting way and if the message has been stripped down to its very basic ideas for easy understanding. A lengthy article about the dangers of climate change, for instance, can be tiresome to read. An infographic easily summarises the issue’s main points, Helping us to get and remember the core message thanks to our visual memory.
Through a combination of diagrams, flow charts, pie charts, bar chart along with a great layout, icons, and typography, complex topics and statistics easily become understandable. One look and you already have an idea what it is all about.
Visually Yours
We (human beings) are visual creatures. We make sense of the world mainly through our sense of sight, which is part of the appeal of infographics. Just ask yourself: are you more willing to share an interesting image, an infographics, a GIF, or a video than a wordy article?
Now that the 90’s generation is more design-conscious than ever, infographics have to be as elegant as possible. If you’ll, some of the best infographics have an almost art-like quality in them. You can actually enlarge and print it out, frame it, and hang it on your wall.
And because almost every website have quite a collection of social media share buttons, they can easily spread the message around. Your audience automatically does the work for you, distributing your message without you having to worry about it.
Despite being simple and hassle-free, infographics aren’t meant to underestimate the audience’s intelligence. Infographics recognise the fact that today’s audience—especially the young tablet-wielding generation—has a shorter attention span compared to their parents’.
People are sensible but they’re also busy, impatient and distracted. They want to know everything and be everywhere. If you’re trying to deliver a message, you have to do it in your audience’s terms. In short, your message must accommodate the targeted audience, not the other way around.
What is an infographic @ Qunb
Just Make Sure your Infographic Campaign is Share-Worthy
Make sure it is relevant to your audience needs and that they will find something useful in it. That way, people will take pride in becoming the ambassador of your message and will be more likely to share it within their community and beyond. Everything we share across the social networks reflects back on our personality. So it makes sense to create infographics that achieve the balance between being educational and cool, pretty and practical, authoritative and friendly.
In a nutshell, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of infographics for your online business campaign:
Pros
- When done professionally, they present a topic in a clear, concise and easily understandable manner.
- The eye-catching visuals and typography grab viewers’ attention.
- Social media networks’ share function make it easy to share infographics, which if successful can become viral.
- Audience response is quicker when infographics are share-worthy.
- The 90’s generation has an instant mentality, where we always expect things to be fast, automatic and hassle-free. Infographics—with their quick info, perfectly satisfy that mentality.
- Compared to other formats, infographics tend to be more effective in bringing links back to your site.
Cons
- Infographics oversimplify a topic or an issue, compared to an article that gives in-depth details.
- Some infographics can distort facts when little research is done and when statistics are not based on real-life data.
- It can be expensive and time-consuming to create an infographic, especially if you want quality work from a design company.
- Even if you have a great infographics, it’s not always 100% sure that the campaign will spread out successfully.
- Some infographics are just propaganda of companies, manipulating info towards their favour.
- Infographics can lose their edge after being passed around for so long.
- Some people can be turned off by obvious marketing gimmicks of some infographics.
- Infographics can become so focused on the design philosophy (the art and graphics, layout and typefaces) instead of the message.
So whether you love or hate infographics, they are the new trend so you should make the best of it. Infographics, if using wisely, can be a great way to communicate toward your target audience, which will in return spread the “good word” hence boost your website visibility, authority and business.