Think about the articles you like to read. Are those with boxed text pieces, tables, and images “easier reads” for you? Do color graphics catch your eye and pull you deeper into the content? Now think about your online reading. As you scroll through social media feeds or read online journals, how much more likely are you to engage with something that has a visual component?

As authors, our goals are to reach our audience and share our content, with the hopes that we will educate, inform, and spread our messages. Shouldn’t we take advantage of all opportunities and formats to meet these goals? An infographic, sometimes referred to as a data graphic or content visualization, is a way to showcase your article content, appeal to your current readers, and reach new audiences.

Why should I spend time creating an infographic?

Infographics are a visual version of content often used to tell a story. Rather than requiring a reader to go through pages and pages of content, an infographic can engage the audience with the highlights and important data, sending them to your article to learn more.

Most how-to articles focus on infographics as marketing tools, which they certainly are, but it’s up to authors and content experts to visually present content accurately and appropriately. Research reports can be difficult to digest for some not to mention time consuming to read. And with the extensive and always increasing number of articles published, it is essential that strategies are employed to quickly convey important research and reach the widest audience possible. After three days, readers are likely to remember up to 6.5 times more through learning from an infographic than by reading text alone.¹

Getting your important information to an audience that may not be familiar with your journal or content is an important strategy for branding and marketing. Nearly half of all marketers who leverage content marketing are investing in infographics.² An infographic is a tickler to spark interest, convey concise information, and lead the audience to a next step or further information seeking.³ They can also be used as decision-aids and to make complex topics more easily understood.¹

Getting Started

Often the first step is the hardest: coming up with the topic. Good news–you’ve already done that!

Next, it’s time to collect your message and data and organize it:⁴

• Define your message, goal, and audience.
• What key points or insights does your article present?

Now it’s time to present it in a visually appealing way. To create an effective infographic: ⁴

• Focus on your message and key points.
• Be sure your message is presented clearly and specifically, and keep in mind your audience.
• Avoid extraneous and irrelevant details.
• It’s a good idea to use charts, diagrams, or graphs to visually display your data, but be sure whatever is presented is clear and explained as needed.
• Different colors, fonts, and images should match your brand and tone.

Creating an infographic can be overwhelming, especially to those without a background in design. It doesn’t have to be stressful, though, as there are many tools and templates out there to help. Some Wolters Kluwer journals have partnered with Mind the Graph offering branded templates for the low price of $29. Other resources can be found at the end of this article.

Sharing and promoting your infographic

After you’ve created your infographic, it’s important to seek out every opportunity to share it. Showcase your infographic on your own blog or website if you have one. Also, share it via your social media channels, and ask your friends and colleagues to like/retweet/repost/etc.

While you want to ensure that your infographic gets shared and viewed by as many people as possible, you also want to make sure that you are credited with the content, and drive traffic back to your article or blog. Create a vanity URL for easy sharing and be sure to include a reference to your article right on the infographic. Ask that anyone who uses or shares your infographic include the vanity URL back to your site or article. You can also include an embed code with your infographic, which then automatically creates a backlink to your site when the infographic is shared on another blog or web page.

Summary

Infographics appeal to the modern attention span. In this day and age, time is of the essence and infographics solve that problem. We are competing with and constantly being inundated with a variety of media. We need to capture readers’ attention while also providing them with quality content. An infographic should complement a complex article. With an infographic, the reader will be able to better retain the information and hopefully be inspired to read more.

Other Resources

Canva (www.canva.com) offers templates (free and paid versions), tools and advice, layout and image suggestions, and other features and functionality that make it easy for anyone to create an infographic. Piktochart (www.piktochart.com), Easel.ly (https://www.easel.ly/), and Venngage (www.venngage.com) are additional easy-to-use infographic makers with libraries of professionally designed templates. HubSpot (www.hubspot.com/infographic-templates) offers free infographic templates for use with PowerPoint and Illustrator. There are also companies, such as Visual.ly (https://visual.ly/), that will work with you to develop your infographic.

References

1. Scott H, Fawkner S, Oliver C, Murray A. Why healthcare professionals should know a little about infographics. Br J Sports Med 2016;50(18):1104-5. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096133
2. The Top Marketing Trends of 2023 & How They've Changed Since 2022 [Data from 1000+ Global Marketers]. Hubspot. Accessed October 3, 2023. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-trends
3. Bradshaw M, Porter S. Infographics: A New Tool For the Nursing Classroom. Nurse Educ 2017;42(2):57-9. doi: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000000316
4. Best practices and tips for infographics and data visualization. LinkedIn. Accessed October 3, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-you-improve-your-content-marketing-infographics

Updated from Using infographics to drive traffic to your journal articles, by Lisa Bonsall, MSN, RN, CRNP, and Kim Fryling-Resare, https://wkauthorservices.editage.com/resources/author-resource-review/2018/feb-2018.html

Image credits

Infographic title image: Image by BiZkettE1 on Freepik

6 tips when creating infographics: Using infographics to drive traffic to your journal articles, by Lisa Bonsall, MSN, RN, CRNP, and Kim Fryling-Resare,* https://wkauthorservices.editage.com/resources/author-resource-review/2018/feb-2018.html

Go Viral! Using infographics to drive traffic to your journal articles, by Lisa Bonsall, MSN, RN, CRNP, and Kim Fryling-Resare,* https://wkauthorservices.editage.com/resources/author-resource-review/2018/feb-2018.html

*These designs were made on Canva, using a selection of their free templates. Always be careful to make these templates your own; the free designs tend to permeate social media and can be overdone, and therefore may interfere with your message or intent.