3 Infographic Myths You Need to Debunk

The infographic has become the B2B marketer’s go-to visual asset. “Humans are visual creatures”, the mantra goes. “Show, don’t tell – and it’ll take off.”

And it will – usually. But there may come a time when you drive your campaign with it, and don’t get the results you expected. And you may wonder why.

The point of infographics is to make things simple for readers. So why isn’t simple working?

Because simplifying isn’t that simple. We tend to attach too much importance to the ‘graphic’ part of ‘infographic’, forgetting that it’s more than pictures and a story. These are some common misconceptions about infographics that need to be corrected.

1. It’s the best way to express data-dense content.

Turning a truckload of technobabble or eye-crossing concepts into an infographic is a good way to translate and market it – but if you think that’s the only way, you’re short-changing yourself.

Infographics were never meant to be silver bullets. You have other rounds in your magazine – white papers, blog posts, even videos. One (or more) of these might do better.

Don’t force the infographic onto the content – that’s like building from the top down. Before you start off, examine the content, and decide:

• Which format suits it best.
• Which format suits the target audience best.

Then find the balance between the two. For instance, technical decision makers might find a concisely written white paper more useful and compelling than storified pictures. Never take an infographic for the easy or efficient way out.

2. It should use as much information as possible.

Now that you’re sure an infographic is the best thing to do to your content, it’s time to examine the data on hand.

Too often, we see the ‘info’ part of ‘infographic’ as a license to let our inner data scientist off the chain. An infographic is supposed to make information easily digestible, so why not give the reader more to digest, right?

Not really. Zipping compresses files, but zip too many and your thumb drive runs out of space. Similarly, an information overload, no matter how streamlined and artful the vehicle, is still an information overload.

The essence of the infographic is a quick read – cram in too many details, and readers may just shake their heads and move on.

Whittle down the data you’ve got. Identify key takeaways, and some vital supporting points, and make pictures out of those – and leave the rest for making into other content.

3. It serves to condense a whole campaign.

In the same vein, no campaign can work as a one-trick pony. An infographic is never enough; other assets are necessary to tell a complete story.

Take a cook-book page from the the Eurasians of Singapore and Malaysia. They took Christmas dinner leftovers and turned them into the classic dish called devil’s curry; likewise, what data doesn’t make the cut in your infographic can easily be repurposed for supporting content.

Maybe you covered the key concepts in your infographic, but can delve into the specifics in a short video. And then you can roll both out on blogs and social media as Parts One and Two. It’s not called a content mix for no reason – mix and match.

When you approach your campaign with multiple content pieces in mind, it helps in assigning content. You’ll know from the start which layer of messaging goes with which piece.

That’s three myths busted: ensure the infographic is the right choice in the first place, use only as much information as really necessary, and don’t put all your money on it to drive a campaign alone. We’ll touch on more next time – any of your own to share?

Have a look-see at the infographics and other content marketing solutions GetIT Comms has done up.