Information is valuable, and Graphics are tempting, combine both, and you have a winning marketing technique-Infographics. They pass on the data and details with quite a flavor. Good infographics tell stories in short, are easily shared, and bring business. While text can’t be completely replaced, you can supplement it in style with infographics. In short, when you create infographics, you cut boredom, improve engagement, and avoid people bouncing off your website.
What is an Infographic?
Everything is great with examples, so let’s take one. If I start telling you about Geekflare, this website you’re on right now, it’ll take a good 20-30 mins. Cutting it short, I’ve made this: Since this topic has a minor overlap with our interactive content article, it’s the same infographic I’ve shared there. Is this plain simple creativity? No, it isn’t. This was just a bare-bones example of infographics, but they can be pretty complex and way more informational than this. For instance: Do you know The Beatles, the famous English rock band, best sellers of all time? Well, you will, after this: If you’re even slightly amazed by this, I bet you’ll be blown away by the original interactive infographic. That is some serious creativity and skills. What do the above two infographics have in common? They both tried to convey otherwise descriptive (or boring) information interestingly. The second visual (the Beatles one) was nothing less than a short version of the band’s biography in an interactive way. That’s the main purpose. Inform while keeping things interesting. But remember, don’t put truckloads of information into one visual. That’ll have a repelling effect on readers. So finally, Infographics are simple and attractive visuals with crisp information.
Why should you use infographics?
Internet is huge. But what that has to do with infographics, let’s check out: a) No online business can take off without search engine optimization (SEO). So if you’re restricted to just your website, you might lose out to the competition. Infographics, the good ones, will earn you precious backlinks to boost your SEO. b) Infographics enhance user engagement with your content. A greater user footprint makes your website search-engine friendly, pushing you higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). A plus one for SEO. c) Infographics are easily linkable and shareable–text isn’t. Your infographic can make you visible in social media timelines. Free marketing, better coverage, and more business. d) Since it takes time and skill to make one, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. This makes you easily memorable, and you look way ahead of the competition. e) Because infographics are relatively brief, you can comfortably update to keep them relevant in times to come.
Things To Consider When Creating An Infographic
Creativity is fascinating. But it’s easy to get lost in countless ideas only to lose productivity. So it’s better to know what to do and things to avoid when starting with your infographic.
Focus
Well, you can’t target everyone with one infographic, can you? So keep yourself focussed on a narrower audience base. It’ll reduce the clutter and generalization of information.
Great Design
Create infographics while using a reputed tool with the pre-set color pallets and fonts. This includes font combinations, colors, shapes, and other appealing visuals. Tool creators know what they are doing, so better avoid a custom combination if you aren’t a designer or the like.
Avoid Overload
Infographics can do many things, but they aren’t articles–so don’t try to mold them into one. Keep minimum text with attractive visuals. An infographic screaming vast chunks of text will scare the people off.
Negative Space
It is the free space between elements. This can be white or any other color. It lets the reader easily spot different elements and make sense of everything. In short, it’s the real estate of an infographic that is free from any design or text. Keep plenty of negative space.
Branding
After all, you’re doing this to get recognized. So, the best would be to use a color scheme similar to your website. If not, then at least put your logo, website URL in the infographic. But remember, don’t overdo it. Now let’s move on to the list of some of the best tools to create infographics. Notably, this list is in no particular order.
Canva
Pardon me if I sound a little biased towards Canva. It’s a powerful graphic design application with a great infographic maker that I’ve used many times. Using Canva is simple. It has plenty of beautiful templates for just about every purpose. You can use its drag-and-drop interface to build your first infographics in minutes. All you have to do is take any of its templates and start editing the text. With its vast library of elements, you can edit the visuals as per the requirement. In addition, there are countless app integrations that keep boosting your productivity. Canva is free. It has a pro version that gives access to the complete template and element library to a 5 member team with a USD 119.99 yearly payment. You can also apply as a student or non-profit to use all its features for free.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is similar to Canva. You’ll find free and premium elements in its infographic maker. There are enough free templates to start with. Similarly, they have a huge collection of assets for eventful customization. As I already told you, you’ll hardly break a sweat if you have used Canva. You can also import photos from Dropbox, Google Drive, and Google photos. It’s free with limited features and an Adobe Spark watermark at the bottom. The paid plans start from USD 99.99 yearly per person and USD 239.88 yearly for teams.
Infogram
Adding to the list, you have Infogram. Coming from the above options, you may find its free tier somewhat limiting. Nevertheless, you can use Infogram for creating infographics with its collection of free templates. Infogram directly sources its free elements from royalty-free avenues like Unsplash (for images), Giphy (for gifs), etc. Infograpm also lets you connect with various applications like YouTube, Dropbox for the added functionality. Coming to the limitations, you can’t download the projects with their free plan. And there is a huge Made with Infogram strip at the bottom that you can’t remove without paying. Finally, the free tier restricts you to 10 projects with a maximum of 5 pages per project. However, it has four other paid plans starting from USD 19 a month.
Venngage
One good thing about Venngage is–it’s focused on infographics. That’s a good thing. It’s not a generalist like Adobe. Venngage keeps you engaged with its never-ending list of free infographic templates. And it has a separate premium catalog for professionals. Click download, and you’ll notice it’s a free infographic maker, not a free infographic downloader. So you can’t download your designs. However, it permits you to share your visuals with Venngage branding at the bottom. This infographic maker is integrated with some features like you can easily add videos, take a short survey, and collect emails with an inbuilt form. You can create 5 designs with its free plan. The paid versions start at USD 16 a month per user.
Visme
Visme is an all-around visual design utility much like Canva. Its infographics maker has an excellent user interface and tons of customization (free+paid). Again, you’ll feel at home if you’re coming from Canva. It has a good number of default elements to choose from. It’s feature-rich with a generous free plan. You can download your visuals in JPEG for free without its own branding. Visme also has a list of useful integrations to enhance your infographic. It has segregated those into various categories like video, marketing, productivity, etc. Visme has created a video explaining the 13 types of infographics and when to use them. You may find this interesting. 😎 Visme paid plans start from USD 15 per month. But you can realize its full potential only after paying a minimum of USD 29 per month billing yearly. They’ve also got discounted plans for academicians and non-profits.
Piktochart
Piktochart has an excellent user interface. It’s slick, fast, and powerful, clearly one of the top choices. This is a complete package for anyone venturing into visual design. It has a vast repository of elements that come with unrestricted access for every user, even those with a free plan. But the catch is, the free plan allows only 5 active visuals with just 2 downloads. While Piktochart has limited integrations, you can still import videos (YouTube & Vimeo) and basic versions of countries’ maps. And it has a great in-built chart maker. Its paid plans start from USD 84 per member yearly. This is discounted to USD 39.99 a member per year for students and non-profits.
Picmonkey
Picmonkey is from the Shutterstock team. Though this tool will take some time to get used to, you should try this as a medium to advanced user. You can still use this as a first-timer, but the application has a learning curve, and straightway it’s not the easiest one out there. Having said that, there is no reason a designer mind shouldn’t enjoy using this. But the options are indeed limited–especially for the people in search of a free tier. In a nutshell, you can’t download or get a link to your creation in the free plan. Some editing options (animate, smart resize, etc.) are absent in its introductory paid plan, starting from USD 7.99 a month. Conclusively, there are better (and free) options for you to try. But if you’re among the professionals, Picmonkey is worthy of your attention.
Easelly
This is the most bare-bones and economical option on this list. Easelly has some basic templates for non-paying users. While the user interface seems like from the Windows XP era, a few templates are pretty good. You can give it a try and see if you develop a taste for it. But outrightly, this is the most limited option–mainly if you’ve got no budget for your design department. But quite generously, this tool lets you download (though not the best quality) your visuals without charging you anything and free from its own branding. Paid plans start from USD 48 per year, and student plans are priced half of that.
Befunky
Befunky was originally a photo editor that I’ve used quite many times. But now, it’s trying to evolve into a graphic design application. It has some great free templates to set you on track. Besides, you can download projects without any Befunky branding. Additionally, you can directly use royalty-free images from Pexels and Pixabay. The user interface is not the most intuitive. And the premium design tools such as the AI enhancements are reserved for the paid subscriptions. Nevertheless, it’s a good option for people who aren’t investing in creating infographics. Paid plans start from USD 4.99 a month if paid annually.
Biteable
Biteable is to create infographics videos. With this app, you can create videos similar to this:
Sign with your Google account (or email), and you can get access to its video library. You can edit the backgrounds, text, etc., with its own video clips, texts, and images. You do have the choice to upload yours as well. Biteable also gives you options to pick from various screen resolutions to fit any purpose. Notably, the free plan will include a Biteable watermark. And the paid plans are a minimum of USD 228 per year for 3 users.
Final Thoughts 👈
The best free option to create infographics remains in the people’s champion–Canva. Its free tier is a wholesome package, and for the most time, you won’t even be thinking about paying for any premium option. Paying for Canva, Adobe Spark, and Visme can be worth every penny for the elite community. And if you ever think of stepping up to infographic videos–you have Biteable.
