How To Use Infographics To Get A 10X Return On Your Content Marketing Strategy
By: Richard K. Yu
Tags: Infographics, Marketing, Blogging, Learning, Education

After all, what about all the people that prefer reading the content of a text slowly and carefully while turning around and claiming that their comprehension is deeper? What about the auditory or kinesthetic learners, are they just chopped liver

As it turns out, there’s a body of reliable proof around this phenomenon of visual aids and their impact and role in mediating quick and comprehensive understanding for readers.

There is a wide body of research that suggests that the use of attractive and interesting visual aids has significant benefits towards our ability to retrieve information from our memory as well as to remember new information in the first place.

This partially has to do with the way that the brain allocates its resources. Which is to say that the brain’s sensory cortex is dedicated and optimized to interpret information around your environment using vision more than it utilizes or prioritizes information from other major senses.

Because of this, images are considered more concrete pieces of information while storing and comprehending words is a more abstract process when communicating those pieces of information to our brain.

Making Use of Infographics

Previously, we’ve just made some observations on the importance of visual aids and their supporting role in mediating comprehension for many people. The rationale behind utilizing infographics follows from the same logic above.

Because people are more likely to retain and remember information that they are shown visually, that implies that making an interesting infographic that summarizes the main points of the text will benefit the interests and retention of the reader significantly.

Further, it is doubly important because blocks of texts that are too long are discouraging if the reader is not a visual learner or if they lose attention easily if there is nothing to grab their visual attention or focus.

The loss of attention stems from the nature of the brain to favor concrete visual information rather than more abstract symbolic information such as words.

The use of infographics resolves this problem because it allows visitors to switch between concrete and abstract modes.

This means that visitors will ideally read content, have their attention drift, refocus on an infographic to guide their understanding, and then return to the content for more details.

The above rationale justifies a basic approach to have an infographic might be designed to improve customer retention and comprehension.

Brief Review of Methods to Create Infographics

Here’s the main point: people are wired as visual learners and infographics fulfill that end in how they help hold the attention of individuals spending time on a site.

So, given the benefits of infographics, how can we capitalize on this format and create successful infographics.

A good place to start is with the use of a number of free tools that are available through any simple Google search.

Entrepreneur has compiled three of the most intuitive (and free!) infographic softwares in order to really help you get a hang of it. These programs will offer you basic insight into the backstage work that’s put into the graphic design of many infographics you see online.