Monday, December 9, 2013

Content Marketing: Infographs In 3 Easy Steps

We recently arranged this infograph through Fiverr.com
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The digital age has bought a deluge of data and given communicators another dimension to storytelling. The downside is all those numbers and details can quickly overwhelm our ability to make sense of the information we present.

Enter the infograph, a newly arrived social media and PR tool blending graphics and data into digestible imagery, and proving popular in content marketing.

In recent times I've become an infograph fan but only recently started using them in my campaigns.  If like me, you're new to commissioning infographs, here's three simple steps to get you started when someone hands you a pile of data and asks you to make sense of it for their audiences.

Design  Firstly check what capacity there is to design or commission an infograph. If you're lucky you may have in-house talent.  No. Then a quick Google search of free infograph software will bring nearly 6.8 million results.  Or sites like Fiverr offer cheap ways to tap into experts for minimal cost. Either way there's plenty of online help available.

Numbers Next settle on the numbers to highlight.  It's similar to crafting key messages.  Decide on the most important pieces of information you feel audiences to know. That's probably the single most important call in the production process.  Sometimes you get to make it but more often it means collaborating on what's considered essential.

Icons   Successful infographs are simple.  They use clear iconography to breathe life into data.  So it's important to choose symbols appropriate to your story and which will aid the understanding of your audience.

Finally bring together your numbers, icons and other visual elements into an educative but easy on the eye graphic.

So there you have it.  Producing them is straightforward but infographs can be highly effective particularly when you need to convey complex information. 

Good luck and let me know how you go.







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