A blog post template showing how to use infographics on your company blog, in the way readers want most
One thing is always the same at Lantern—no matter what we do, we’re always looking for a way to do it better. This week, we’ve been looking at different blog templates and ideas to find out how we can get more traffic to our customers’ websites.
We also like to share this information, because, honestly, sharing the wealth is good for all of us. We’re kind of like scientists in that way – blog scientists, if you please. Experimenting, sharing, and making the blogosphere a better place for humanity.
You may already have a blog, or perhaps you’re starting a new one, so I want to share with you some ideas of how to use infographics to make that blog more awesome than it already is.
But wait, what’s an infographic? Here’s a brief spread of examples from infogr.am below. It’s a way to share data points in a visual way.
Why you should know how to use infographics
There are three dominant learning styles: visual, aural, and kinesthetic. Some people learn by seeing things, some learn by hearing things, and others learn through physical actions. However, the majority of learners fall into the visual learning category.
- Visual learners access information through graphs, charts, reading, or writing.
- Auditory learners tend to prefer hearing things to learn better.
- Kinesthetic learners take a hands-on approach to learning, and are in the rare category of people who actually enjoy working in groups.
While most of us are a blend of these three, for the purpose of this post, I will stick to visual learners because they make up 65% of the population. And if you know how to use infographics effectively, those people will find you to be a whopping 43% more persuasive!
That is a huge number of people in a digital age where it can be challenging to get anyone’s attention.
[Tweet “Experimenting, sharing, and making the blogosphere a better place for humanity.”]How to make your own infographics
Infographics can get expensive to make. Big organizations pay designers thousands of dollars to make them, because they drive a ton of traffic to company blogs. These infographics are meant to be shared, and companies often make it very easy for you to share their infographic from their blogs.
On Quicksprout.com, Neil Patel mentions that since 2012, their “infographics, on average, drove 21,582 visitors and 371 backlinks from 34 unique domains. As for social shares, each one generated 486 Tweets and 259 likes.”
Our own experience at Lantern tells us that for most social media outlets, image posts perform extremely well when compared to text posts. And Sprout Social says that Tweets with a photo are Retweeted 35% more often than Tweets with just text.
That’s why, even if you don’t have your own infographics, take those big fancy ones that cost some other business thousands of dollars, and report on it.
Or if you’re feeling bold, make your own. To do this, come up with a list of stats that your specific readers would be interested in.
For example, if you sell mattresses, maybe you want to make an infographic on The Sleep Schedules Of 27 Of History’s Greatest Minds. Or if you sell dog accessories, maybe you want to make an infographic about the World’s Best Dog Breeds. If that’s something you want to get into, here are a few tools.
The first infographic generator I tried was from Venngage. They have a nice tutorial on how to use infographics, and how to design your own. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I finished designing my own that I discovered I would need to upgrade if I wanted to download my creation.
Canva Infographics Tool (yes, they have that too!)
Canva has a slick website, with a mix of free and premium design elements. They also allow you to download a high-definition version of your creation for free. With enough time and a solid knowledge of how to make infographics, Canva would be a nice choice for the simple ones. I found it a little overwhelming for my needs, but there is potential for some skillful and smooth image creation.
I found Piktochart to be a nice blend of user-friendly and intuitive, while still offering enough flexibility for more advanced infographics. Piktochart has several pre-designed templates and images to fashion your infographic. Alternatively, you can upload your own images, or start with a blank slate. If you are using charts or graphs, Piktochart gives you the option of uploading the info in excel format, and it will automatically plot your points.
Your finished infographic can be downloaded in two different sizes, as a PNG or JPEG. If you “level up” you can download your infographic as a high-resolution PDF.
The Infographic Blog Post Template
If you have an infographic to share, the goal of your blog post is to take data and organize it, both visually and through text. The biggest mistake bloggers make when posting infographics is making their readers manually write down any important stats they want to remember or share. Make your infographic the centerfold of your article, but excerpt some stats into your own story by adding your own two cents.
Title Of Your [Insert Keyword Here] Article Goes Here
Subtitle of your [insert keyword here] article goes here
First opening paragraph about the topic at hand, including your [keyword here].
Second paragraph that highlights a fact from your featured infographic that you’re most thrilled/surprised/anxious about.
Significant Data Point Section Header Goes Here
Infographic goes here. Use one you found online, or design your own with piktochart or canva.
[insert infographic]
List of Best Data Points Section Header [Insert Keyword Phrase Here]
Use this paragraph to reflect on the content you just read, then pull out the most important take-aways so people can easily copy and paste them into a Tweet to promote your article!
- % of [somebody] is [doing something]: Explain how you feel about this.
- % of [something] is going to grow [%] in the next [#] years: Explain how you feel about this.
- # [somebody] will spent [$] by [year]: Explain how you feel about this.
Question that provokes a comment…
Call to action (buy this related product now / learn more)
So basically…
- Make (or find) an interesting infographic: Gather your data, find an infographic generator you like, choose a template, enter the data, and you are done. It really can be as simple as that; if you can copy and paste, drag and drop, then you can create an infographic.
- Promote your infographic blog post: Without your guidance and promotion, that stellar infographic blog post you wrote ain’t goin’ nowhere. We are proponents of social media storytelling, which will help your infographic post (or any other blog post) stay in the public eye for at least twelve months.
- If at first you don’t succeed: Remember way back at the beginning of this post, I mentioned that we like to experiment? Well, the only way to get better at something is to have some failures.
Does this all seem like a bit much? Get in touch. We’re here to focus on your blog, so you can focus on your job.
Do you use infographics in your blog? Have you found a template that works well? Let us know in the comments.
