The Power of Infographics - blog post

The Power of Infographics—9 Formats to Visualise your Data


In order to cope with the flood of information we are exposed to every day, we’ve become content grazers—skimming headlines and post descriptions to extract bite-sized nuggets of information. As a result, infographics have become very popular tools to present information in a simplified and visually engaging way that attracts and inform a large audience.

The term infographic—which is a blend of the words ‘information’ and ‘graphic’ —it is used to describe the visual representation of information to make the data easily understandable at first glance.

It's fair to say that infographics have become one of the most effective conversion tools in every organisation’s marketing toolkit—easily shareable and fun to consume.

Here's some key statistics that underline the importance of using infographics in your marketing mix:

Research shows that approximately 65% of people are visual learners and the human brain processes visual information about 60,000 times faster than text.

Readers retain way more information with visual content than text alone—80% of what they see compared to 20% of what they read.

Infographics are three times more liked and shared than other content on social media

Why are infographics so popular?

Since infographics make minimal use of text, they are valuable business tool to:

  • explain and simplify a complex process or concept using visuals;
  • enhance printed literature with visually-enticing content;
  • provide bite-sized nuggets of information that summarise the content of your long-form documents to make your prospects want to learn more—e.g. download a report or visit your website to read the full article.

Types of Infographics

Infographics come in all shapes and sizes. To help you decide on the formats that best suit your content we’ve grouped them into nine categories. Most infographics will combine elements of multiple types to convey the data you need to share with your audience.

  1. Data Visualization–As its name implies, this type of infographic incorporates different chart and graph formats—the best option if you have many statistics, facts and figures to communicate to your audience.

  2. Flow Charts (or decision-tree)–Help describe processes. Organisations can use these to explain complex business procedures, workflows, service offerings, etc. These type of information visuals can also provide an answer to a question via the reader's choices.

  3. Informational–Composed mostly of text, the list-based visual is the perfect reference tool. Its information is usually enhanced with icons and attractive layouts. Organisations often use informational infographics to create industry guides, cheat sheets, etc.

  4. Timeline—Great at telling a story through a chronological flow, this type of infographic can be used for everything from brand stories to resumes to the historical development of a trend, person or product.

  5. Instructional or Useful Bait—This type of infographic format is excellent for providing the description of a procedure with instructions to follow or answering a question by showing 'How to' do it. Instructional infographics usually take the viewer through a step-by-step process.

  6. Comparison—They are a side to side comparison of two things, i.e. products,  people, ideas, things, or places. Versus infographics can be used to visually contrast and compare seemingly opposing things to reveal similarities, differences and relative advantages.

  7. Geographical—Usually in the form of a map with icons and a colour-coded legend, this type of visual is ideal for showcasing data trends or comparing statistics based on location. 

  8. Photo-graphic—As the name suggests, is what results from the combination of a background image and graphic elements such as line charts, icons or text. 

  9. Numerical—Also referred to as ‘Number Porn’, the key function of these type of infographics is to add visual interest to individual units of information. Various stats and figures are visualised using large numbers, icons or other graphic elements.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful.
We have, of course, produced an infographic that summarises this article's key points (download here). Feel free to share it with your followers and within your network.

Check out our article here if you’re looking for guidance on how to plan your next infographic project.

Reference Sources & Recommended Books
The Business of Infographics
13 Types of Infographics: Which One Works For You?
What is an Infographic: Types, Examples, Tips
The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect With Your Audiences
The Power of Infographics - intersectionconsulting.com

Tips to create effective copy for infographic format

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