Are Infographics Still Relevant in Your Marketing Strategy?

Content marketing strategy has changed in the past decade. Visuals like graphics, photos, charts, and graphs are a great way to get your message out. But what about infographics?

Most people and companies adopt infographics into their marketing strategy as a way to convey complex information. They use concise visuals that are compelling, entertaining, and easy-to-understand. This adoption has helped many marketers to increase their site traffic via backlinks, searches, and viral shares. Over the course of the last few years, more people are publishing infographics at an increasing rate.



The downside is that this surge of infographics has saturated the market. There’s been a decline in potency, and some people say the power of infographics has lost its shine. Research by Neil Patel shows that the average power of his infographics decreased between 2012 and 2014. More people are using infographics, so the novelty and effectiveness is wearing off.

The gold rush of infographics has created another issue as well: poorly designed infographics are clouding the once-clear data visualization waters. You’d be hard-pressed to find true data viz designers working on infographics these days. There’s too much focus on the “visualization” and not nearly enough on the data (which is what should be guiding the design in the first place).

Infographic marketing has changed from what it was in 2011. But this change doesn’t mean they’ve completely lost their effectiveness. Still we ask — do infographics continue to have a place in a successful and effective marketing strategy?

Infographics in Your Marketing Strategy

Using infographics as the one-and-only cornerstone of your marketing strategy may be not be your best bet, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on them altogether. Here’s why.

Infographics grab the readers’ attention.

Studies show we have less than 10 seconds to clearly communicate a proposition if we want to capture someone’s attention. More than half of all users who view a web page spend less than 15 seconds looking at it.

Infographics makes that time count because while it takes 50 seconds to read 200–250 words, it takes only 1/10 of a second to process a visual scene. Infographics convey maximum information in as little time as possible.

Infographics drive traffic.

First of all, the trend for “infographic” searches has not dropped or leveled odd. It continues to rise:

In addition, infographics can still generate massive amounts of interest in a very short period of time. They have the potential to trigger significant engagement and capture the attention of hundreds of thousands of people. In 2014, 4 infographics were shared more than 100,000 times each. That’s shares, not unique views. Infographics can still be effective.

Infographics are social media’s best friend.

Posting micro-infographics on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can attract more followers. Infographics can help you stand out in a flood of information.

One social network that has benefited from (and, in turn, contributed to) the success of infographics is Pinterest. This platform, while originally made popular by crafters and brides-to-be, has been great for infographics because of its image-heavy nature. Pinterest has been great for sharing and discovering infographics, all while keeping the image format socially relevant.

Infographics are more likely to be shared compare to non-visual content.

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