Infographics are an amazing tool to generate enormous traffic because they can relate to every type of reader. For example, people will visit your blog from all over the world and illustrations like infographics can get the point across to them quickly. Infographics are very efficient at the same time because they can compress thousands of words into a language that everyone understands. Another example of this can be seen from the growth of YouTube.com, which was amazing over the last couple of years. However, it’s important to know how to utilize infographics correctly because many bloggers make mediocre mistakes that are very costly. In the end, what good are infographics if they fail to get your main point across and don’t generate the type of buzz you planned for when publishing?
I conducted some research online and managed to come up with 4 tips that will help you avoid some of the common mistakes. Implement them into your marketing going forward, which will increase engagement and conversions. Let’s get started and look at how infographics go wrong and what you can do to correct the issue.
Too Much Text
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when publishing an infographic is having way too much text. Infographics are supposed to be easy to understand because they compress lengthy content into an illustration. Your main objective should be to get your point across through images, charts, and very little text. In other words, you should make sure your infographic is right to the point and the images do MOST of the work for you. However, I can’t believe how many people don’t take this advice and add too much text, making it cluttered. Having way too much text will decrease overall engagement, especially because people are probably on your page to find an easy way to absorb valuable content.
The trick is to keep text limited to ONLY getting the main point across. I recommend using bullet points for any type of text you’ll be adding to your infographic to illustrate a point. Keep in mind, too much text will destroy any infographic, no matter how attractive or optimized the design.
Inaccurate Data
Here’s something else you should keep in mind because this will destroy your infographic. A majority of times, these types of illustrations have been used to help illustrate a case study so will contain charts and numbers. One of the ways to destroy your infographic is to have numbers that don’t match with the corresponding charts or graphs. You have to remember, many people who visit your page are experienced so know when data does NOT make any sense, having made this mistake will destroy your credibility quickly and people will leave and might NOT even come back. You have to keep in mind, people are looking for a credible source of information to provide them with the knowledge they are looking for and inconsistent or inaccurate data is a quick way to destroy this.
Irrelevancy
The Internet is full of information and people need to find what they are looking for right away. This means getting right to the point on your infographics, but this also means to get rid of any data that doesn’t provide value. I can’t count the number of times I’ve skim over infographics and found some data to be completely irrelevant. If you want to increase engagement and build credibility, then pay attention to what you’re adding to your infographic. For example, write down and have your main purpose right in front of you when building your infographic because this will help guide you through the process. This will also make sure you stay relevant to your topic, providing information that answers the bottom line.
- Keep objective in mind
- Know your focus
- DO a review before publishing making sure information is relevant
The Design
The design of your infographic is very important because it will either increase engagement or push people away. For example, think about how design plays a crucial role on your website and what it does for your audience. Having the navigational menu makes it easy to find information and colors that are easy on the eyes will allow people to stay on the page WITHOUT experiencing eye strain. Anyway, keep these things in mind when designing our infographic, minus the navigational menu, of course. Here are a few key components to pay close attention to:
- Text size should be big enough to easily read
- Font style should be universally accepted on all browsers
- Font color should be clear to read
- Infographic colors should be easy on the eyes so people are relaxed when viewing
- Charts and graphs should be easy to read
- Not too much clutter so you have space around the text, charts, titles, etc.