By John Sisson
Infographics currently drive traffic, and as a vehicle within content marketing, they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
There are a variety of reasons for this, but to illustrate the point, refer to the graph below showcasing search engine traffic for the terms “Infographic” and “Infographics”. Clearly, the trend just for the words themselves continues to be positive.
With that said, the actual infographics themselves are in an even better position to drive traffic, based on some basic principles of content strategy and behavioral economics.
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1. The first is that we are all “visual”: Vision and processing visual information make up a large portion of our brain activity. Our mind deals mainly with pictorial, not textual data. Reading and writing are skills learned later in life, whereas we deal with pictures from birth. There are many studies by noted behavioral economists to indicate that we also believe text to be more true if it’s accompanied by graphs. Infographics are a key to showing information graphically. This is all part of cognitive fluency. The easier something is to understand, the less likely there is to be something unpleasant hidden in the information.
2. The second is storytelling: In a world of short attention spans, with multiple messages and channels, it’s hard for people to take the time to read the complete story. Infographics bring together and distill a longer story into an easy to digest pictoral story that can keep the reader’s attention and and has been shown to be retained longer.
3. Maybe the most compelling reason for using infographics is their easy “sharability”. Again, attention span and time play a role. People are reluctant to share long articles, particularly if they haven’t read them completely. The infographic is the perfect vehicle for compressing considerable information into an easy to read, short picture that can be shared.
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Is there is a downside to infographics it’s in the proliferation of infographics for the sake of infographics. Some content really does not lend itself to be converted into an infographic. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop some marketers from doing it anyway. If there’s no value in creating the graphic in the first place, having it posted dilutes the form and potentially the use for legitimate purposes.
From a content strategy perspective, we use infographics to convey specific value added content we produce. We have a deep understanding of marketing best practices and the application of behavioral science in marketing, both of which are well represented through the use of specific branded infographic content. An infographic allows us to show statistics in the same place where we’re explaining the principles and tell the story of how these principles will positively impact results for our clients. It’s an ideal, visual and quick way to convey our message.
The post 3 Reasons You Should Be Using Infographics, Supported By Behavioral Economics appeared first on Wilde Agency.
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