What Print Can Learn From Infographics

July 23, 2014

Print design is starting to look more like infographics these days—and for good reason. Customers are busy, and when customers are busy, it’s often easier to absorb information in a graphic snapshot than in lengthy text. With an infographic, people can skim and absorb the main points in a matter of seconds. You can apply the same benefits to print communications too.

Three ideas to help turn your marketing message into a powerful visual:

Swap text for graphics.

Often, there are points that can be converted to conceptual images without sacrificing content. Look for data or concepts that are just as easily (or more powerfully) expressed in graphic form.

If you need help, tap your designer’s expertise. Even if you can’t see a picture in all of that marketing text, your designer most likely will!

Tell a story.

A great infographic tells a story. Let your print marketing graphics do the same. Even before reading the text, readers will absorb the main points simply by doing a visual scan of the page. When choosing the portions of your text to represent graphically, think about the story you want to tell.

People remember stories a lot more easily than they remember numbers.

Chunk it up!

Just as there are text elements that can be converted to graphics, text can often be converted into bulleted or numbered lists. Even if your content isn’t already in list form, breaking concepts into chunks can often be done fairly easily.

Are there three top points? Five steps to the goal? Chunking up your content gives the customer’s eye something to focus on, makes the content more memorable, and increases retention.

Learning from infographics does not mean that all of your print collateral should look like an infographic, however.

Print has the unique ability to convey detailed information that other channels cannot. People trust print, and they will sit down and absorb a marketing brochure, a sales letter, or a newsletter article in a way they will not interact with website content or a blog post. But the infographics style has tremendous power for certain types of marketing content too.

Think about when adopting an infographic technique will benefit your marketing message. Then mix and match your design styles to suit your marketing goals.

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