How to Start Generating Leads with Infographics

06.12.2016 by Anete Ezera

Infographics are a powerful communication tool because they combine data with visuals – left and right brain – making it easier for people to digest, remember and share information.

This is why good infographics make for great content. Marketers love charts and infographics because they dramatically improve the performance of their marketing efforts. According to the Demand Gen Report, more marketers have adopted the use of infographics because buyers love short, visual, mobile friendly content.

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Today we will explain how to design an effective infographic. If you’d like to learn more about how infographics can increase customer engagement and lead conversion rates, download our free ebook: How to Start Generating Leads with Infographics.

 How to Create an Effective Infographic

Stories beat data

Data is everywhere, but it is generally difficult for us to comprehend and remember isolated numbers. When put into a story, data becomes much more relatable. This is due to the fact that the human brain processes images faster than words and numbers.

Structure your story using the Data-Audience-Message-Story method

The Data-Audience-Message-Story process is designed to help you turn data into meaningful, shareable stories. Simply follow the arrows illustrated below.

audience-message

Good data

Every good infographic starts with good data. There are several data sources you can browse online. You may also have access to behavioral data about your own customers which you can extract from your analytics software.

What story does your data tell? When analyzing data, there are a few things to look for:

  • Trends: describe something that is happening in the world or in an industry.
  • Contrast: compare two datasets to make your point – like male vs female salaries.
  • Outliers: a point of data that doesn’t follow the norm. Why is it so and what can the audience learn from that? Outliers can very well serve as a hook for your story.

infographic_elements

Audience + Message

Here’s where buyer personas come into play. Make sure your intended message is clear before starting to draw an outline and consider whether the target audience is interested in hearing that message.

In order to ensure that the message is relevant, a story must convince rationally, touch emotionally and generate conversations. There are multiple types of relevance:

  • Rational relevance comes from providing strong facts, preferably unknown to the viewer, and from structuring your argument in a logical way.
  • Emotional relevance is meant to touch the reader’s heart. According to Jonah Berger, stories that evoke emotion perform better than those that don’t, and stories that are positive or amusing are shared more frequently.
  • Social relevance means the message is important to the social environment of the viewer, spurring conversation among members of the community.

Story

Successful stories are sequential in nature: the reader is immersed in a relatable context, then lead into some kind of tension, which is finally eased in the form of a resolution. We all know the way stories inspire, evoke feelings of empathy and motivate us to take action. So what makes a good story? Simplicity.

Strive to write one sentence that communicates your entire message, then support it using as little data as necessary. A good guiding principle for this is ‘less is more.’ For examples of this and helpful storytelling tips – reference our eBook.

What Makes a Good Infographic

Include a call-to-action

Let’s go back to the beginning and revisit some of the reasons for making an infographic. These include generating traffic, capturing leads and influencing the purchase intent. An effective CTA is one key component of a successful infographic.

When crafting your CTA keep in mind the following best practices:

  • Choose only one. Decide on one action that you want the reader to take and don’t offer them any other choices. It’s tempting to ask the reader to do several things, like share your infographic and visit your site, but remember that in most cases they will only do one – so choose wisely.
  • Keep it short. Use five words at most and begin with a verb. Examples include Share, Download, Click, and Register.
  • Make it visible. Place the CTA after you’ve presented all supporting data as a logical conclusion to the story. Use colors and contrast to attract the reader’s attention.

 

Now that you know how to craft an engaging infographic, it’s time to learn how to promote your infographic and generate leads. Click here to view our free eBook library, and download our eBook – How to Start Generating Leads with Infographics.