Digital marketing consultant M. Smiciklas states the following in his book, The Power of Infographics: “the planning and publishing of relevant content is turning into a very important part of any company’s communications strategy”. Companies used to rely on written press and other traditional means, but over the last ten years, communication has become so important that companies all around the world are devoting entire departments to this activity, meant to make their message sink deep by using social networks, blogs, e-mail and internal communication.
Another conclusion drawn by Smiciklas is that: “The fact of the matter is, infographics are easy to consume and share, making them an effective marketing tool.” It should also be noted that infographics are an excellent means of communication between members of a company.sa.
Infographic: Driving Business Performance in The New Work Enviroment See infographic here
Marketing companies and professionals are progressively picking up on the value of infographics hold on effective content communication in businesses. Both internally and externally, infographics are an incredibly powerful tool for communication, capable of delivering almost any message in a very effective way. “But, why? What makes them so effective?” you may ask, and we’re here to answer just what infographics are about:
• Make comprehension and assimilation easy: by communicating with images, we use the language of the mind. The human brain understands the information much faster when it’s presented graphically. By creating cartoons and explanatory drawings, Kronos, Workforce Innovation That Works got an amazing response and brand recognition from their target demographics. Viamedia, too, found the perfect example to make their activities known to the public by using an attractive and original design campaign.
• Synthesize complex data: infographics are an excellent way to consume information of any nature, from simple domestic explanations to complex procedural data and dazzling statistics. Such an example is Ernesto Olivares Visual Information’s work of brilliantly synthesizing an explanation of the OVO-04 Flight Simulator.
Infographic: OVO-04 Flight Simulator See infographic here
• The most popular. “Infographics are Twitter’s fuel and get over 832% retweets when compared to images and text” . It is estimated that around 200 million infographics are shared using Twitter and around 40 million are shared using Google Plus .
• Generate commitment: Eloqua started using infographics as a part of a larger visual communication strategy for raising awareness and helping differentiate their brand and make it stand out in the marketing automation market. By doing this, the company did not mean to generate potential customers: “in Eloqua, we’re really trying to make infographics that work all levels of commitment with our users”.
• Claim for attention: latest research on unconscious mental processing show that a human receives over 40.000.000.000 sensory inputs per second but is only aware of 40 of these, most of which are visual. Infographics make their way into these privileged stimuli by using their best and most graphically alluring tools.
• We are 90% visual beings: As mentioned in a previous article, bats are guided by their hearing, dogs are guided by smell and human beings are mainly visual. That is, our thinking process is mostly done using images. Such is the extent of this, that 90% of all the information managed by our brain is visual. This is why when we hear someone’s name, say, Mary, the image of the person associated to that name immediately comes to mind.
• Attractively memorable: composition and aesthetics are two important features for getting our target’s attention. Infographics simplify our thinking process by working from appeal, selecting significant elements and storing them in our mind with amazing ease.
Infographics condense a company’s message –be it internal of for its target audience– in an exquisite way. Here in Ernesto Olivares Visual Information we work with the intention of getting the most out of the features that visual information has to offer and putting this knowledge at your company’s service.
[1] Smiciklas, M. (2012). The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences, page 139.
[2 Infographics are Twitter’s fuel and get over 832% retweets when compared to images and text - (n. d.). Gotten from Marketingdirecto.com: https://www.marketingdirecto.com/actualidad/social-media-marketing/las-infografias-son-la-gasolina-de-twitter-y-logran-un-832-mas-de-retuits-que-las-imagenes-y-los-textos/
[3] The Age of Shared Information - (n.d.) Gotten from Cristian Monroy’s website: https://www.cristianmonroy.com/2012/01/la-era-de-la-informacion-compartida.html
[4] Interview dome to Joe Chernov, VP of Eloqua, February 2012.
[5] Weinschenk, S (2011). 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know, New Riders, Berkeley, page 122.
