Infographics – A Must-Have Tool for Effective Marketing Campaigns and Blogs

In today’s data driven world, statistics and performance figures are key to promoting confidence in your products.

More and more companies are coming to realise that there is a correlation between how this data is displayed and the measure of how a viewer reacts to the information once digested.

To put it simply, clear and engaging visual displays of data ultimately leads to a higher conversion rates. Let’s face it raw data is nothing more than a very boring array of tables. Who in their right mind would sit and take the time of day to not only look at it, but to then realise the message behind the data.

This is where Infographics come into there own, especially when most potential viewers will assign very little time to view your content amongst a maelstrom of LinkedIn requests, Tweets, Emails, Funny videos and Memes on their Facebook feed.

Infographic Example – Complex Data displayed in a clear visual manner

What exactly are Infographics?

Infographics simplify information in a visually engaging way in order to attract and inform a large audience. The best infographic designers use basic principles of design to support the information presented and to make it more easily accessible to a larger audience or to target one particular audience over another.

Visual perception and data visualisation

A human can distinguish differences in line length, shape, orientation, and colour (hue) readily without significant processing effort. So, these are referred to as “pre-attentive attributes.” For example, it may require significant time and effort (“attentive processing”) to identify the number of times the digit “5” appears in a series of numbers. However, if that digit is different in size, orientation or colour, instances of the digit can be noted quickly through pre-attentive processing.

Effective graphics take advantage of pre-attentive processing and attributes and the relative strength of these attributes. For example, humans can more easily process differences in line length than surface area. So, it may be more effective to use a bar chart (which takes advantage of line length to show comparison) rather than pie charts (which use surface area to show comparison).

Human perception/cognition and data visualisation

Almost all data visualisations are created for human consumption. Knowledge of human perception and cognition is necessary when designing intuitive visualiszations.  Cognition refers to processes in human beings like perception, attention, learning, memory, thought, concept formation, reading, and problem solving. Human visual processing is efficient in detecting changes and making comparisons between quantities, sizes, shapes and variations in lightness. When properties of symbolic data are mapped to visual properties, humans can browse through large amounts of data efficiently. It is estimated that 2/3 of the brain’s neurons can be involved in visual processing. Proper visualisation provides a different approach to show potential connections, relationships, etc. The aren’t as obvious in non-visualised quantitative data. Visualisation can become a means of data exploration.

Simpler Information Delivery – How we can use Infographics to convey complex messaging in the financial sector

Below are a few examples of how Form Advertising have created highly effective infographics for clients in the financial sector. We have effectively driven engagement levels by over 200% in some instances when compared to data visualisation methods used prior to our graphics. Infographics don’t just display a set of data. For instance, they’re a delivery mechanism to explain processes, stories, positions and sector information. Most importantly, creating bespoke infographics, are an effective representation of you brand:

1. Infographics for displaying complex data sets in a glance.

2. Delivering brands effectively through Infographics.

In the below examples we highlight the importance of still delivering the corporate identity of a company through a series of infographics, which display completely separate data and stories. By creating infographics in this manner we quickly deliver brand values and encourage viewers to read content as they have an immediate correlation to something that they’ve seen before.

3. Infographics for emails and direct marketing – engaging and highly effective.

Infographics can make a fantastic medium for engaging emails. Below are two EDM campaigns that we created for a data analytics and consumer credit reporting company Experian. By providing customers with clear facts about their own position we are able to encourage readers to discover more.

4. Infographics for timelines and company information.

Infographics are the perfect medium for displaying corporate information and product timelines. They provide a much more engaging representation than a simple bulleted list. We find that by using infographics in this manner we can then translate information into exhibition boards, interior design features and animations for corporate video.

5. User Interface design with integrated Infographic content.

Infographics and graphing can provide a modern look and feel to User Interface designs. Their simplicity lends themselves to effective design and navigation without causing undue clutter. Animated SVGs and Javascript can make the infographics come alive and drive customer engagement.

Underestimate the power of infographics at your peril!

Infographics have proven to be one of the most effective marketing tools that a company can have. They provide a quick and memorable snap shot of the message which you need to convey. The main challenge is to deliver them over the right media, and target at individual audiences. You can use them as informative blogs, a mechanism to show your processes. And all that within videos or even as advertising campaigns! So, infographics deliver style and information in a format that viewers appreciate and understand.

If you are curious in how your company can use infographics as part of a marketing project, please do not hesitate to contact our studio.