How to Write Great Content for Your Infographics | Express Writers (2023)

In recent years, infographics have become a huge deal in online marketing. HubSpot reports that not only are infographics liked and shared on social media three times as often as any other type of content, but they’re one of the content marketing tactics with the most dramatic rise in adoption in recent years.

The popularity of infographics has to do with several things: for one, they’re visual and textual, which makes them a powerful vehicle for education. Secondly, they’re easy to share and simple to skim, which makes them perfect for our instant-gratification digital world.

With all that in mind, there’s never been a better time to dive into infographics and start using them in your online marketing.

But how?

Today, we’re going to break down how to write great content for your infographics, so you can start developing custom visuals your readers will go wild for.

What is an Infographic?

If you’re not familiar with infographics, your first question will be “what is an infographic?” Whether you know it or not, though, you’ve seen infographics. Infographics use visually appealing graphics and informative text in a way that’s engaging to read and easy to understand. For an example, check out this Express Writers infographic on the history of SEO:

Like this infographic? Get more tips from Express Writers.

While it might just seem like this infographic is another way to deliver the same information, think, for a moment, about how this post would look in straight text format. Most people wouldn’t dive into a textual timeline because it promises to be dense. Put that information in an infographic, though, and it’s much easier to access. This is the ultimate value of infographics!

How to Write Winning Content for Your Infographics: 10 Steps

Now that you know what infographics are let’s talk about how to create them. Even if you’re not a visual design expert, you can still write award-winning text for your infographics. Here’s how:

1. Strike A Balance Between Text and Visuals

First things first, let’s talk about balance. There are two parts to an infographic – data (info) and design (graphics). Of course, both are important, so it’s critical to strike a balance between the two. If you have excellent text and blah design, your infographic won’t work.

For your infographic to function as well as possible, the visuals and text need to work together to create a cohesive experience. With this in mind, consider how your visuals and text will work together as you write your infographic copy.

2. Keep It Concise

While infographics can be lengthy, the independent elements within them don’t offer a ton of room for text. As such, you need to be careful with your choice of language. Infographics are great places to learn to say complicated things in simple ways. Be sure that all the language you are choosing supports your main points and helps readers understand the “meat” of your infographic.

3. Create A Narrative Arc

Although an infographic might just look like random bits of information stuck together in a graphic, it’s anything but. In fact, all the best infographics have a narrative arc that helps readers make their way through the process. This narrative arc could rely on sections, a series of chronological events (in the case of our History of SEO infographic, for example), or a story line. As you write, keep this narrative arc in mind.

4. Start With The Data

When creating an infographic, don’t overwhelm yourself with design and text at the same time. Instead, start by gathering data. Look for high-quality, reputable sources (with high Trust Flow and Alexa rankings), and compile a high-quality list of statistics, attention-grabbing facts, and pointers.

Again, you don’t have much room for text, so be sure that you’re keeping everything you do include impactful and meaningful. Remember: your data is the foundation of your infographic. Build it stable and strong, and your readers will love you for it. Make it shaky and weak, and the whole house will fall in.

5. Look at Examples

If you’re new to infographics, it will help to look at examples of great content to get an idea of what you should be doing. For best results, look at infographics both in your industry and outside of it. The more examples you can gather, the deeper your understanding will be about what it takes to create award-winning content.

6. Keep It Relevant

Today, it’s not enough to keep your infographic text short. It also needs to be relevant. The value of infographics is in the simple delivery of helpful information, so the more relevant your infographic is, the better it will perform with your readers.

If you continually produce infographics that are timely, informative and relevant to your clients, they’ll start to regard you as an expert resource. They’ll also start to pass your valuable content along to other readers This can lead to your content being passed through social networks and creating more traffic to your website.

Once you know what kind of content you want to put out there, it’s time to dig for actual ideas so you can zero in on one brilliant topic. Even if you already have an idea of what your content is going to be about, you still need to do some research on it to ensure it’s as relevant as possible for your audience. This is the stage that eats up a lot of time in content creation, but you just cannot bypass it and expect to end up with great content.

Simply put, what you need to do is determine what topics are popular in your niche. What are your customers and prospects currently talking about or interested in? What are the most relevant and trending topics? What issues are likely to become popular soon? Here are some smart ways to find this information:

• Start with a basic Google Search for infographics on your keyword.
• Turn toVisual.ly to view existing infographics in your area of interest.
• Use a tool like KWFinder or BuzzSumo to find trending keywords and topics.
• Use Quora, Digg, or Reddit to discover the most popular topics and stories that are being shared the most online.

7. Keep it Cohesive

The best infographics look and feel consistent. While the look will depend in large part on your designer, the feel comes down to the voice of the infographic. Keep it cohesive and predictable, rather than changing it from section to section. This will help your readers understand what’s about to come and learn to recognize your infographics across the web.

8. Use Emotion

Great content must also be compelling and capture viewers’ emotions. Include a data set in your infographic that will strike an emotional connection with your audience. Make viewers relate to your content.

Make them stop and think. Give them something to be curious about. You want a part of the infographic to connect to people emotionally to spark conversation, which will lead to content sharing, linking, and brand awareness.

9. Use Power Words

Infographics and headlines have a lot in common. While headlines are short, impactful, and attention-grabbing, infographics are, as well, and optimizing them accordingly can make a significant difference. One of the best ways to overhaul your infographic copy is to use power words throughout.

These power words, designed to be short, punchy, and impactful, will help readers connect with your infographics and act in the needed places. They’ll also make your infographics easier for people to share and interact with.

Remember: while some words sell, others make people feel bored and uninspired. Shoot for the former.

10. Format The Infographic Correctly

When you format your infographic, you’ll want to follow this format:
Infographic header
Introductory copy
Subheader

• Fact 1
• Fact 2
• Fact 3
• Etc.

Subheader

• Fact 1
• Fact 2
• Fact 3
• Etc.

[Repeat subheaders and bulleted facts as often as needed to flesh out your infographic]

Sources

Links to sources (bit.ly links)

The closer you can follow this infographic formatting outline, the easier it will be for your designer to create a beautiful infographic that follows the flow you had in mind.

Additional Tips

Those ten tips will help you build the foundation for a great infographic. Now, here are a few additional tips to help you make it shine:

Consider Outsourcing Content

Infographics are brief and direct to the point, so they should be a breeze to write, right? Unfortunately, it’s not always the case. Infographics take time and effort to develop and create. If you’re finding this out for yourself as you struggle to produce an infographic, consider outsourcing to a competent copywriter who can devote time to research your topic and create your content. Just provide the copywriter the subject of the infographic and a simple outline or project brief to let them know your expectations.

Use A Knockout Headline And Sub-Headlines

Headlines should be short, direct and filled with keywords. More importantly, they should grab attention instantly. Good headlines always have one strong word that creates an emotional hook to attract viewers. At the end of the day, the goal is to create compelling headlines that pose intriguing questions or a promise to share useful information.

Addressing the viewer directly in your headline (use the word “you”) and using numbers are other great tricks to draw attention! In addition to your main headline, use subheaders to highlight the sections of your infographic. Include relevant keywords and power words throughout your subheaders for greater impact.

Avoid Over-Branding

Branding is important when it comes to creating an infographic, but too much will kill it. Of course, you want to brand your infographic to let viewers know your company created it, but you want to do it in a subtle way. Remember: an infographic isn’t explicitly promotional material.

Don’t be tempted to stuff your content with mentions of your brand name or product/service names. If you do, you’ll come off as “salesy, which is a big turnoff for viewers. Remember, if you have engaging and exciting content, people will be interested in learning more, so you don’t have to sell yourself constantly.

Use Accurate Information

Half of the value of an infographic is the information it contains. The very purpose of an infographic is to relay information. You want to develop content that people can use, so it must be accurate. Whether you’re the one supplying the data or presenting facts from another source, make sure they’re accurate.

Check your data and check it again. Use only trustworthy sources and cross-reference them to verify facts. Including incorrect facts and stats in your infographic makes your brand seem lazy and sloppy. Of course, don’t forget to list your sources at the bottom of the infographic to establish credibility. You should also go back and periodically update your existing infographics to ensure any statistics you included are still relevant and correct.

End With a Bang

Wrap up your infographic the same way you started it – with impact! Whether it’s a question or a statement, end with something thought-provoking and exciting to the reader.

Bottom Line: More Compelling Infographics Start Here

A great infographic can substantially boost your traffic and organic web search ranking. To succeed with your infographic, you’ll need to choose the right idea to begin with – one that matters to your audience – then make sure the actual content is informative, compelling and tight. Follow this with effective design and distribution strategy, and you’ll have a winner on your hands.

Looking for award-winning infographics from a reputable company? Contact Express Writers about our infographic services today.