Infographics can be an incredibly powerful content marketing tool. Utilizing a visual is a great way to catch the eye of your audience, and social media platforms prioritize visual content over text. Additionally, when people hear information they typically only remember 10% of it, whereas when they see it they retain closer to 65%. We’re not suggesting you replace all of your content with visuals, but incorporating infographics along with video content and standard blog posts is a great way to vary your content strategy and engage your audience. Content marketing is a competitive field, so you should be trying anything you can to make yours stand out!

That being said, creating an infographic in itself isn’t enough. There are millions of them online, and they don’t all garner a high level of engagement. You need to start with a great idea and then execute it well; poorly planned graphics will confuse your audience and reflect badly on your business. Thankfully there are plenty of free tools available to help guide you in the creation process, and we’ve compiled a list and paired it with all the tips you need to make sure your infographics stand out amongst the rest.

1. Start with a good idea and don’t stray from it

Think to yourself: what are you trying to say? Just like every essay needs a solid thesis, every infographic needs a main idea. It’s easy to get off topic as you start to create your design, so consider making a short outline of all the points you want to address and then refer back to it during the creation process. It doesn’t matter how good your graphic looks at the end, if the content isn’t well organized you’re going to confuse, and then lose, your audience.

2. Think about the type of graphic you want to create

This goes hand in hand with your content idea; what kind of image will best tell your story? There are tons of different options out there, but they won’t all fit with what you’re trying to say. Are you telling a story that has a beginning, middle, and end? Consider a timeline graphic. Are you comparing topics? You might want to use a side-by-side graphic. Is there a lot of data associated with your idea? A pie chart or bar chart might be the best way to display it. Play around with a few different templates until you find the right one. Also consider where your graphic is going to be published; the kind of graphic that might do well on LinkedIn or Twitter is going to look different from one that would be more successful on Instagram. Your platform should fit your audience, and your graphic should fit your platform.

3. PROOFREAD your graphic before you publish

I understand that an infographic is a different type of content than a blog post, but it still needs to be checked and edited as though it were text-based. Typos and grammatical errors are extremely unprofessional, and no one is going to trust your business to provide them a quality service or product if it looks like you can’t even take the time to correct the spelling in your content. If you’re not comfortable checking it yourself, have someone else look at it for you. And definitely preview it in graph form; just because it looks ok in the creation stage doesn’t mean the formatting will be perfect once it’s finalized. Most websites will let you preview or download and preview your graphic before you publish it- don’t skip this step.

Speaking of, check out this list of awesome sites we’ve tried and recommend for all your infographic needs:

The 3 Best Infographic Creation Tools

Canva

image 1

Canva is our number one recommendation for anyone wanting to create an infographic. It’s free, it’s easy to use, and they have a ton of ready-made templates and photos you can use to make creating your graphic a breeze. And if you don’t like their library of photos, you can easily upload your own. They also give you several different formatting options so you can be sure your graphic will look great no matter where you decide to publish it.

Easel.ly

image 2

Easel.ly has both a free and a paid option. The free version gets you access to 10 pre-made templates, whereas the paid version has hundreds. You also have the option to insert photos, images, graphs and charts to ensure your content gets the best possible layout. The free version is definitely enough for anyone just starting out creating infographics, but if it’s something you see yourself incorporating into your content strategy regularly it might be worth it to pay the monthly fee.

Visme.co

image 3

Visme is a paid site, but they do have a free trial option so you can experiment before you decide to commit. They also offer discounts to students and teachers, and their premium plan is only $16 a month. They have a huge library full of templates, fonts, and images so you can be sure your graphic is customized to perfectly match your idea. You can include links and audio, and they make it super simple to publish your design and then share it across several different online platforms. You also have the option to download and keep it private for internal use.

There are many more great tools available, but these are 3 of the most popular. And if you’re trying to decide between Visme and Canva, check out this post on the differences between the 2! Do you have any experience creating infographics? Which tool(s) do you like the best? Comment in the section below!

feature image credit: Biteable.com

image 1: canva.com

image 2: easel.ly

image 3: visme.co