The past few months content marketers and SEOs have been going back and forth about the effectiveness of infographics. We are a visual generation and infographics are visual so why shouldn’t they work. Perhaps the reason marketers question infographics is because they’re doing it wrong. Whether you’re creating infographics for branding, link building, or to boost traffic and sales, here are five reasons your infographic flopped.
5 Things You’re Doing Wrong with Infographics
1) Run of the Mill
If you’re going to create an infographic on a common topic like the world’s tallest building, at least add an interesting angle or some type of interactive aspect. Moving infographics or web graphics that allow the user to interact with the content has a much better rate to getting picked up and shared. The reason why infographics first took off was because they were a unique and easy way to consume information.
2) Looks Questionable to Me
Especially when pitching to bigger sites, share the link to your research with each fact’s source using Google Docs. When infographics don’t have detailed sources, people will question it (and should!) Even video infographics should include a link in the description that people can find all the sources.
3) The Key is in the Keywords
You can have an awesome infographic but if you don’t optimize it for the web no one will find it. Creative names are great for on the infographic but be sure optimize the headline, URL, and meta description with words that people will be actually searching. To figure out the best keywords to use, type into Google Trends the various keywords you have in mind, choose the one that shows the highest amount of traffic.
4) What’s Your Story
While infographics are based on statistics, the best ones tell a story as well. Check out this infographic about retirement to get a good idea of what that looks like. Not all infographics will be that thick with a storyline but many should show traces of a plot. For example, check out this video infographic about which jobs lead to substance abuse. The video starts off with the problem of 60% of illegal drugs are consumed by Americans. Then it zooms into how it affects the workplace and why adults do drugs. It ends with a solution of how to address substance abuse in the workplace.
5) Pitch it Before You Create
Get a list together of the core journalists you would like to pitch your infographic to. Then send them an email asking what they think of your idea and if they would be willing to share it with their readers. This is a great way to get feedback on how successful it will be before doing on the work. It’s also a great way to build relationships with journalist and to know what readers are looking for content wise.
See also: Social Media Amplification (Infographic)
