Reasons to Use Infographics in Your Marketing

Use infographics when you need people to understand data, a process or a comparison quickly. A good infographic makes the main point visible at a glance, is easier to remember than the same facts in plain text, and is easy to share in a deck, an email or a social post.

What is an infographic?

An infographic is a visual representation of information, data or knowledge, designed to present it quickly and clearly. It usually combines short text with charts, icons, timelines or diagrams. See infographic and data visualization in our glossary.

The idea is old. William Playfair published some of the first data graphs in 1786. Florence Nightingale used charts in the 1850s to show deaths by cause in the Crimean War and push for better military hospitals, and Charles Minard's 1869 graphic of Napoleon's march on Moscow packs several variables into one image. From the 1920s Otto Neurath's team developed Isotype, a method that uses simple pictures to represent data.

Why use infographics in your marketing?

1. They make complex information easier to grasp

A chart shows a trend faster than a paragraph describing it. A flow diagram shows the steps of a process and how they connect. For B2B topics, such as how an integration works or where a product fits in a workflow, that saves your reader effort.

2. People remember pictures better than words

Psychologists call this the picture superiority effect: items shown as pictures tend to be remembered better than the same items shown as words. Researchers still debate why. For marketers the practical point is simple: put your key message in a visual as well as in text.

3. They highlight the data that matters

Most reports contain far more numbers than a buyer needs. An infographic forces you to pick the three or four findings that support a decision and show them clearly. This works well for original research, survey results and benchmark reports.

4. They walk people through a process

Timelines, checklists and step-by-step diagrams help people follow a process from start to finish. Think of an onboarding plan, an implementation timeline or a buying checklist.

5. They are easy to share and reuse

One well-made graphic can work in a blog post, a LinkedIn post, a sales deck, a one-page PDF and a webinar slide. Sales teams can use a visual one-pager to explain a product or a business case to people who were not on the call.

6. They can earn links and mentions

A graphic based on original data gives journalists, bloggers and analysts a reason to cite and link to you. That link should be editorial and freely given. Google's spam policies list "keyword-rich, hidden, or low-quality links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites" as link spam, and infographic embed codes with keyword-rich links work the same way.

7. They build brand recognition

A consistent visual style, colour palette and layout make your content recognisable when it is shared without context. Put your brand name and website on the graphic so it travels with it.

What makes a good infographic?

• One clear message. Decide the single takeaway before you design anything.
• Credible, cited data. List the source and date of every number on the graphic itself.
• A logical flow. Top to bottom or left to right, in the order people should read it.
• Little text. Use short labels and headings. Detail belongs on the page around it.
• The right size for the channel. A tall graphic suits a blog post. Social feeds and slides need square or wide versions.

How do you make infographics accessible and searchable?

An infographic is an image, so screen readers and search engines can't read the text inside it on their own.

For accessibility, the W3C recommends a two-part text alternative for complex images. A short alt text identifies the image. A long description, on the same page or linked next to it, gives the essential data and trends in text. The W3C suggests making that long description available to everyone, not only to screen reader users.

For search, Google's image guidelines recommend:

• a standard HTML img element, because Google doesn't index CSS background images
• descriptive alt text written in context, without keyword stuffing
• a short, descriptive file name
• placing the image near relevant text on a page about the same subject

In practice, publish the infographic with a written summary of its key points. That serves readers, screen readers and search engines at once.

How to create an infographic

You don't need a design team to start. Template-based design tools let marketers build simple infographics. Compare options in the best websites for creating infographics or see Canva. For distribution, read about infographic submission sites, and for wider planning see how to improve content marketing.