There’s no doubt about it—the digital community is a visually-driven one. You’re not visiting product and company websites to spend hours combing through boilerplate language and authenticating references. You’re on the site, making decisions and back off the site, as quickly as you can be. That’s why marketers around the world are realizing how valuable it is to leverage infographics, among other visual aids.
Marketing company Unbounce says that searches for infographics have more than tripled in the last few years alone. Another resource at Top Marketing Schools has found that a single infographic can reach as many as 15 million internet users. And what’s another name for an internet user? A potential customer. That’s why I’ve partnered with Internet Retailing to share three reasons why infographics may make sense for you.
They bring in more site visits
They do this in a couple of different ways, through both web searches and social media. Let’s say that you sell apples. You sell the best apples around, and you’ve created an infographic to show why. Not only will you receive all Web hits for anyone searching apples, you’ll be the only company to receive all hits for “infographic apple.” Make sense? In the social realm, this is even more valuable. A traditional post will get about 75 tweets, depending on the quality of content. This number skyrockets up to 600, when an infographic is involved.
They keep visitors on your site longer
Just because your content is verbose, does not mean that visitors will take the time to read it. In fact, it means quite the opposite. But visual markets love visuals, so when that exact same content is re-worked into an eye-grabbing picture, the time that prospective customers remain on your site, is vastly improved. This can also be a long-term tool. If customers can expect visual representations on a regular basis, they may spend longer on your site or come back the next time they’re looking for information in your industry.
You maximise your authority on your topic
Did you know that 70 percent of sensory receptors are located in the eyes? We can take in, AND comprehend a visual scene in less than 1/10th of a second? So visual learners are quick, and they’re impatient. People believe what they see, because it’s much easier to understand. Just make sure that when you’re putting together an infographic, you really are the expert on the topic. Cross-check different references and share it with an audience of internal stakeholders before publishing everything. We’ve all seen the PR nightmares that can happen when content is not properly vetted.
Patrick O’Doherty, Founder and Managing Director, Yarra Web
