5 tips for creating stronger infographics
It can be difficult to communicate complex ideas or hold a reader’s interest in number and/or text-heavy documents.
This is especially true when it comes to financial services marketing, where it’s important that we clearly communicate the hard facts that support our messages.
Infographics are a great solution. They can take complex concepts like financial market trends, demographic changes or asset class performances, and make them instantly understandable through the visual shorthand of colours and shapes.
Through the use of numbers and graphics, infographics are easy-to-understand tools that quickly relay important information to your audience. Here are five key ways to make your next infographic stronger:
Stay focused
It’s important to keep your infographic streamlined and focused on a single topic. It’s not an opportunity to pack in a collection of unrelated facts and figures. Instead, try to isolate the most important point you want to make – and drive that point home through your infographic. Other important topics can be covered in future infographics.
It’s important to keep your infographic streamlined and focused on a single topic.
Simplicity is key
Infographics are beneficial because they can visually represent advanced information in simple, understandable ways. But they can easily become a complex overload of icons, graphics and fonts, which muddy and distract your reader from key messages. Simple is better, so let your main point shine through by sticking to just a few visual elements.
Know your audience
Successful infographics adopt a style and address interests specific to their intended audience. You can miss the mark by focusing on irrelevant concerns or too wide an audience. Figure out who you’re speaking to – e.g., professionals, Millennials, retirees – and craft your infographic accordingly.
Figure out who you’re speaking to – e.g., professionals, Millennials or retirees – and craft your infographic accordingly.
Size matters
Infographics may be resized a lot before being finalized. For instance, they may be designed large but compressed later for the web, which can hurt readability in the process. Make sure viewers can easily see the smallest fonts and images, no matter the format.
Pick a solid headline
Just like great articles, great infographics have strong headlines that capture attention and draw readers in.
Some key elements to remember when creating a great infographic: use an active voice over passive one, keep it short enough to understand and include a benefit to your intended audience.
Next time you have an important concept you need to share that involves complex information, try an infographic to get your message out there loud and clear.
And remember to ask us how you can make your next infographic even stronger by making it animated.
Need help crafting an interesting and easy-to-read infographic? Contact us today at 416.925.1700, 844.243.1830 or info@ext-marketing.com.
Read more:
https://ext-marketing.com/marketing-articles/5-steps-custom-content-engagement/
Let’s explore the value of custom content
To connect with your existing clients – and to reinforce your brand, communicate your value as an investment management firm and create new opportunities – it’s high time that you craft tailored content specifically for them. We’re talking about custom content.
A lot of your custom content will focus on answers to your clients’ questions – that’s what makes it useful. Producing content like this sets your firm apart as a helpful, authoritative resource. Even better, custom content has a direct impact on fund sales and conversion rates. Let’s explore.
Your clients are looking for content
A study from AOL & Neilson captured how people spend their time on the web. It breaks down like this:
- 53% reading published content
- 23% on social media
- 7% checking email
But here’s the stat we really want to share: 23% of all social media messages included links to published content. How much does that add-up to? Well, people share 27 million pieces of content every day on social media.
People share 27 million pieces of content each day on social media.
Content levels
Your firm is probably sharing content in one form or another. So, where does custom content fit into your broader content initiatives? This is how we break down content:
- Curated, published content from reputable sources. For us financial services marketers, large North American news outlets, such as The Globe and Mail or The Wall Street Journal, are prime sources.
- Firm-based content. This often includes product information, campaigns (e.g., RRSPs and RESPs) and portfolio manager perspectives.
- Custom content. This is all about sharing your insights and expertise to a specific target audience (e.g., through infographics, videos, articles and blog posts).
When you put these three types of content together, you dramatically increase your chances of engaging your clients.
Custom content builds relationships
Why bother spending the extra time and money producing custom content? Because it provides a solid return on investment. Consider the following four data points when putting together your pitch for custom content:
- 68% of consumers like custom content because it’s tailored to their interests (Source: The Content Council)
- 55% of consumers said they would be more apt to buy another product from a company that provides them with custom content (Source: The Content Council)
- 70% of individuals want to learn about products through content rather than traditional advertising (Source: NewsCred)
- Clients invest and refer 2 times more often when they report feeling engaged by their advisor (Source: Vanguard)
Developing custom content
Knowing about custom content is one thing, producing it is another. Here are six ideas for launching a new custom content initiative at your firm:
- Blogs – e.g., write a series of posts helping millennials save and invest better
- Articles – e.g., create an advertorial highlighting the relevance of a new investment solution
- Videos – e.g., produce videos that show how investing can make life better
- Infographics – e.g., find an engaging way to share stats around retirement savings
- Whitepapers – e.g., write a whitepaper explaining the shifting role of the advisor
- Newsletters – e.g., craft print and digital newsletters focused on investor education
An interesting thing about these ideas is that they all cross-pollinate. That is, you can put videos in blogs, infographics in whitepapers, blogs in newsletters, and more. This exponentially improves your odds of engaging your clients.
Contact us at 416.925.1700, 844.243.1830 or info@ext-marketing.com to develop custom content and give your clients what they want.
https://ext-marketing.com/marketing-articles/five-techniques-for-more-effective-self-editing/