Best tools to make infographics and is it still worth doing?

Did you know that 93% of all human communication is visual? We process and store visual references significantly quicker than spoken or written information. Which means for marketing purposes, all forms of imagery are important, including infographics! This article explains infographics and investigates if they’re still worth the effort.

It’s safe to say that nearly every business is promoting its products or services to the ‘show me’ generation.

Millennials and especially Generation Z have grown up with abundant amounts of visual reference material and a mobile phone to record everything. Heck, many can’t even eat a special meal without taking a photograph and sharing it on social media!

Imagery of all kinds is an important communications currency. Social media platforms are falling over each other to find new ways to encourage sharing of photos and videos.

For these reasons an infographic can be a very powerful and effective tool when trying to engage your audience and drive more traffic and shares.

What are infographics?

This term infographic refers to a visual representation of a set of data or a collection of knowledge. Using symbols and drawings, interspersed with snippets of text, it’s possible to convey points of interest quickly and often in a fun way.

One of the primary uses of infographics is to help people to visualise a concept, or a complex amount of information.

For example, if you’re trying to show how vast something is, a graphic of buses lined up can be more impressive than a set of measurements. Why are infographics still relevant?

Did you know, that adding a graphic, video or photograph makes internet users 80% more likely to read the text too?

That alone should have you scurrying to find a creative commercial photographer or graphic artist.

You are also more likely to stimulate empathy – and in some cases understanding – with a multi-faceted graphic rather than a lump of words or a single image.

Being able to see the relationship between facts, becomes easier; what’s bigger, better, more cost-effective etc.

Sometimes, the only alternative would be to generate a series of different images to punctuate text. We all know how short attention spans are these days, so manipulating data or facts into a single visual device can be quicker and more palatable.

Done well, infographics are highly creative and can include just about anything you want to say. From which UK region eats the most pizza, to the global investment in eradicating all diseases, infographic can get your message across succinctly and effectively.

Once created, they can be used on websites or printed materials, but also lend themselves to social media posts and online ads too.

You can even take cross-sections from an infographic to create a series of social media posts or blogs.

How do you create infographics?

Perhaps the question is not ‘are infographics’ outdated? Instead, it should be how can you do them well? They need to be a fresh, interactive visual reference point. Adding movement – a video infographic – can increase their appeal, hits and memorability too.

A picture paints a thousand words, but according to global advisory company Forrester Research “a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.”

You can use software to create an infographic for your website that is either static or incorporates action and movement.

Of course, the creative wizards at Factory Pattern can craft high impact infographics quickly.

However, if you want to do it yourself, there are various online tools that can be used.

One of the best infographic creation tools is Visme  – check out their infographic design guide – Speak Loudly. Speak Visually.

Adobe Spark is free to use and has over 10,000 templates to start you off.

Or, Easel.ly , BeFunky  and PiktoChart are easy to use design systems for infographics and other presentation material.

Video infographics can be created using Biteable.

The first step to an effective infographic

Even with the above free or paid for tools to create infographics, it can too easy to invest vast swathes of time trying to condense data or knowledge into polished visual representations.

It is often far more common sense to hand over the project to a team with proven creative and technological abilities, who take the time to get to know your aims and objectives.

Now imagine a graphic showing you with your head in your hands and a clock ticking away, while the very willing and able Factory Pattern team sit waiting to make quick work of your infographic brief!