Infographics get more popular every day. Why? Are they worth the effort? How do get them created on the cheap?

1. infographics.
The most important thing
you need to know about

2. f eldmancreat ive.com
http://feldmancreative.com/2013/08/infographics-the-most-important-thing/?
utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=barry+feldman
The Most Important Thing You Need to Know about Infographics
Barry Feldman: August 26, 2013 | Content marketing |
The volume of inf ographics goes up more than 1% each day. I
must conf ess: I never saw the attraction. It’s not like I didn’t
realize inf ographics had become raging hot. I just didn’t get
what the big deal was.
I mean, you take a subject worthy of content creation, sprinkle
in some icons, graphs and such and what do you have? A little
picture show? A decorated article? A busy page?
What’s so great about these things?
People love them.
There you go. Again, people love them. That’s all you need to
know.
They devour them. They rave about them. They save them.
They actually collect them. Most importantly, they share them.
We could get into the psychology of it all, but why complicate the issue? And why question it?
Create an interesting inf ographic and you draw a crowd. You build authority. You accomplish precisely what we
strive f or as content marketers.
So, since people love them, you should create them. Case closed.

3. They may not be the juiciest burgers you can buy, but they are being consumed in the billions.
You don’t have to like them to understand it’s a good idea to make them.
I’m in now.
And here’s what I’ve learned about the power of inf ographics. I got some of these points f rom an inf ographic
by Zabsico and others f rom a post by digital marketing expert Jef f Bullas.
Inf ographics:
Demonstrate expertise on your topic
Stand out amongst less visually interesting f ormats
Take advantage of the f act that 90% of inf ormation enters your brain visually
Help visualize statistics f or easy understanding
Of ten go viral—or at the very least—are readily shared
Get increased mileage when you provide the code to embed them
Encourage links back to your site to generate higher traf f ic
Help heighten brand awareness
What’s stopping you?
If you’ve never created an inf ographic and made it a part of your content marketing mix, I’m going to assume
you were thinking along same line as I was until about six months ago. They’re a big pain to do.
I learned otherwise.

4. The truth is, I’ve never even explicitly set out to create one. By that, what I really mean is, I never made the
inf ographic my first expression of a content idea.
How I got engaged with infographics.
In late 2012, I read a well-researched article called “The Science of Engagement” created by Canvas8 and
Weber Shandwick. With that—and some additional online research—I was inspired to create a f airly simple slide
deck I titled, Engagement: How to create a love af f air between your brand and your buyers.
I published my piece on SlideShare and it did well (3K+ views). It reached a good size audience on SlideShare,
but it was also embedded in a post on my blog, shared across social media, and also embedded on a f ew other
sites.
Some time around the f irst of 2013 I read a post about the best web services of f ering f ree premade templates
and tools f or creating inf ographics. I tinkered a bit with a f ew and decided Piktochart was the one I liked most.
But don’t you need graphic design skills? Yes and no, mostly no. I’ve been in advertising and marketing f or
a long time and have been a creative director long enough to say with some conf idence I have a good eye f or
design and pick up the skills to decorate a page reasonably well. But I’m not a graphic designer.
Judge f or yourself . Here’s a glimpse of the f ree template I chose.
And here’s a part of the inf ographic I created f rom it.
Granted, there was a learning curve. Also, I had to make a lot of decisions about
images, colors, f onts, and layout. I don’t want to juke you into thinking the
inf ographic designs itself . But I when I was done, I was convinced I’m perf ectly
capable of creating inf ographics.
The next question became: was it worth the ef f ort? I believe it was. My inf ographic,
“Elements of Engagement” has been viewed close to 4K times, embedded on 8 sites,
pinned of ten on Pinterest, and downloaded 93 times to date. Given its theme,
engagement, I introduced it just bef ore Valentine’s Day. I might give it a second spin
next February. There’s no rule against re-using content, especially your own.
My next infographic was less effort and a bigger hit.
Frugal inf ographic creation, Part II…
My next inf ographic was also inspired by an article. This time, I decided “11 Reasons
Why Prospects Don’t Convert Into Customers” would be a strong choice. The article
f eatured a insect repellent bottle as its main visual, which I conceived with an assist
f rom the Convince and Convert editor, Jess Ostrof f .
I thought I’d recruit, or at least try, an inf ographic designer who’d consider partnering with me f or the exposure
instead of a paycheck. I made my plea via a LinkedIn Group. I got a pretty good response and chose a talented
designer.
This inf ographic has been viewed 20K

5. Click the image or here to view the entire infographic.
This inf ographic has been viewed 20K
times on SlideShare alone. Do a search
f or its title “11 Website Conversion
Killers” and you’ll see it was
republished and shared like mad.
A third approach to getting an
infographic made.
Once again, a popular article of mine,
“Meet the World’s Greatest Social
Media Social Media Marketer,” begged
to be “inf ographicked.” The article’s
publisher, MarketingProf s, put me in
touch with a partner of theirs,
Placester, and we created this one.
I could give you the SlideShare count,
but it wouldn’t mean much because this
inf ographic has gone viral. In f act, it’s
being shared and posted in new places
every day (which I guess you could say
is the def inition of “viral.”)
Here I go again.
I just created this inf ographic, once
again, based on a popular article. I
went back to Piktochart to do this one
and kept it very simple.
25 Brain Lubricants for Generating
Ideas f rom Barry Feldman
What do you need to create and
publish an infographic?

7. infographics?
What do you need to
create and publish

8. Click the image or here to view the entire infographic.
publish an infographic?
An idea—As you gathered here, your
inf ographic idea could easily come
f rom a report, article, slide deck or any
type of concept you f eel lends itself
to an inf ographic treatment. If you’re
already creating content regularly, but
haven’t yet done an inf ographic, I
strongly suggest get started by mining
your current content.
Copywriting—Your copy should be
adopted to the short caption style
appropriate f or quick reading. You’ll
want to emphasize key points with
typographic treatments.
Design—Depending on your skill set
and available resources you’ll want to
make a call about using a DIY service,
working with a graphics partner who
you’re willing to share the credit with,
or hiring out.
Platforms for publishing—Inf ographics
will work well on your blog, as a guest
post, and available on content
networks such as SlideShare. Visual.ly
is a popular outpost f or publishing
inf ographics and can give you access
to a large and growing audience.
Examine your resources and decide
how to capitalize on your inf ographic. You might supply the concept, copy, design or any combination and
invest in the talent you need. Depending on what you do and don’t outsource, the f ees you can expect to pay
may vary f rom as little as a f ew hundred dollars to one-thousand and up. Of course, like any f orm of content,
you’re likely to get what you pay f or.
But remember the most important thing: people love them. I think I might have mentioned that.
Filed under: Content marketing by Barry Feldman
|