Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
by Edward Korcheg
Source: Template Monster
I’m sure that web community is grateful to all those people who have devoted plenty of their precious time to creating infographics, you really can’t find a better way to visualize a huge amount of data in a way more efficient and comprehensive. Without a doubt 2010 was a year of informational graphics and this design technique has become one of the main trends of the last year, creating both positive and negative factors in a further development of this practice within the bounds of web design industry.
Creating a really interesting, communicating and useful informational graphic is a really complicated task, which requires skills and tons and tons of patience. I have been a witness to when unwise usage of this design technique had caused a splash of negative reactions on giant social media networks such as Digg.com or Reddit.com – which is obviously not what the authors have designed these infographics for. There was a period when anyone thought he could design an infographic, promote it and gain certain benefits. But in fact there’s a lot to think about before actually starting to work on it. First thing whether a web community actually needs the information you’re about to provide. The second problem is about the visual appeal of your graphic. The right correlation between the quantity of information and visual techniques used to present it is an extremely important thing. So if you don’t want to confuse – or even irritate – your visitors please be careful while creating next informational graphic, otherwise it may harm the reputation of your website.
Types of Data
There are three basic types of what is best presented in a form of an infographic. Knowing all about your info will help you from the very outset of creating infographic. Of course you can mix these types/approaches but it would be better to use one of them, besides it easier for the audience to perceive. Believe me – in most cases infographics have enough “heavy” facts within just one type of info, don’t make it all even harder. So, here are the three types we’re talking about:
- Time – it is the most popular one because timeline perfectly illustrates dynamical changes of any process, and you shouldn’t worry about the structure – just choose whether it will be a horizontal or a vertical timeline. It is much easier to collect information simply by checking time period and looking for interesting, useful and significant data concerning the topic.
- Quantity – you can set this type as the directing vector of general data presenting in your project. Of course you have seen many examples containing various quantitative analysis, however you should never forget that mostly people can’t accept and remember many numbers so, don’t go too far with them.
- Space - this type describes physical relations between some objects or conceptual locations. To be more precise, infographics of this type describe some physical processes or they are geolocation-oriented.
What is also important is the communication approach in creating informational graphics. Our article is devoted to the static infographics which are the most widely spread ones around the web, basically when someone says “infographic” the static infographics are what you think of the first. In addition to this approach there are also two other major types used. Here’s more on each of them:
- Static – all information is placed on a single page and there are no dynamic elements on this page. Maps, product manuals and other are the best examples of static informational graphics (besides the ones you’ve seen on Digg or Reddit of course).
- Interactive – in this one the information is selectively presented according to the user’s opinion or actions, it is a very user-friendly approach which allows avoiding the informational oversaturation.
- Motion – this approach enlivens the visualized data with video or animation creating more conductive atmosphere for perceiving the information.
Visualizing Tools
Frankly speaking, there is nothing revolutionary about this part because I’m sure you all know that any infographic combines various data visualizing techniques. It is obvious that everything starts with creating the major vision of the layout so you have to pick the background color and texture wisely, make sure that the text will be visually appealing and absolutely comprehensible. So, at first you have to choose the textures, typography and colors. Actually these components are essential for any design project so obviously they play major part in creating infographics. The other important part is a smart usage of various clipart icons, charts, diagrams, maps etc. The main trick here is that you have to make your work look really simple and effective.
Marketing Boom
We have seen a number websites which have brought tons of useful and beautiful infographics to a mainstream media. For all young design studios and freelance designers producing a content of such type can be really helpful in terms of their brand recognition and overall marketing. Also you can gain some great SEO benefits just by embedding the links to infographic copyright info – infigraphics are great in link baiting strategy, so use them wisely. Without a doubt this is one of the most creative and profitable types of media promotion. Of course embedding the infographic to your website will engage your visitors by providing a large amount of information in a confined space. So, you can improve even a very boring article with excellent images and make the laziest visitors rush to check out this content.
2011 – A year of new trends for Infographics?
One of the fresh trends marked out by some trustworthy sources is a huge growth of the infographic influence during 2010 – so-called “infographic driven designs”. For example you can present Clients page on your website as geolocation infographic or simply desiging the background of the home page with some visualized data about your particular business sphere. Basically there are many opportunities to integrate informational graphics to the website design and we hope that this year will give us more excellent examples to follow. We strongly believe that this design technique is one of the most advanced ways to increase the website usability and you shouldn’t underestimate it.
It’s Not About the Technology, It’s About the Customers
When I started working with authors on their publicity campaigns, the landscape was reasonably simple. Arranging phone interviews on talk radio shows, appearances on TV and getting reviews in major newspapers and magazines drove consumer interest. Everyone bought their books in bookstores and the only people interested in the Internet were some computer geeks.
Boy, have things changed. Today 44 percent of ALL books sold in North America are sold online at Amazon.com. What’s more, e-books now account for nearly 30 percent of all of Amazon’s sales.
I want to underscore the importance of this information, because one of the most difficult things to do in the mass consumer marketplace is to figure out where your customers might be. For the book market, it’s no mystery – nearly half of your customers are researching and buying online. They live there, so that’s where you need to be.
Moreover, the e-book is growing in leaps and bounds, so fast that it’s difficult to keep track of the changing stats.
With all this online focus, and statistics changing as quickly as the industry can report them, it’s paramount for authors and publishers to focus on their online assets. It’s not enough to simply have an Amazon listing anymore. To compete, you need more:
Web Site – Every author should have their own Web site, whether they are marketing one book or twenty. If your book has garnered some positive reviews, feature them on the home page – get as much leverage from those reviews as possible. Make sure visitors to the site can easily purchase your book directly from the site. No need to invest in an expensive e-commerce web solution – PayPal is totally acceptable and trusted these days, and easy to implement on your site. Even though most of your online book sales will come from Amazon, it’s worthwhile selling on your site and will provide the opportunity to add these book buyers to your own mailing list. That way, when your next book is ready to be released, you can email everyone on your list and let them know. If your topic or area of expertise lends itself to a weekly or monthly newsletter, add a newsletter signup to the site, and make sure each edition of your newsletter contains links back to your site. You never know where your newsletter will eventually land.
Book Reviewers – The reality is that the top book review publications – Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times Book Review – are already very exclusive. They can’t possibly address all of the hundreds of thousands of new books published every year, so self-published books rarely make their lists. But the Internet has opened new doors for authors looking for reviews. Book bloggers – reviewers who post their reviews on their own blogs – have become as influential as book reviewers in traditional publications, so make sure you don’t overlook book bloggers when you are launching your new title. It’s even possible that some of the top book review publications may become obsolete one day, as their space and restrictions make it impossible for them to address the lion’s share of the books available to readers.
Press – Getting as much media coverage as possible is always desirable when marketing your book. But after the radio or TV interview has aired, or the review has appeared in various publications, are you done? Absolutely not! Getting press is a huge boost to your credibility and you want to squeeze out every last precious drop. You’ve got “bragging rights” now… so use them. Make sure to post your radio and TV clips, and links to your articles on your Web site. Email your newsletter subscribers and business associates to let them know when you’re on the air or featured in a news story – it’s marketing gold. Here are a couple of articles from our Web site on how to do this:
- How to Make the Most of Your On-Air Time
- The True ROI of Public Relations: What Do You REALLY Get From a PR Campaign
Over the years, I’ve found that the best way to market a book is to put yourself in a place populated by your customers and then provide them as much information as possible on what you’re selling. Today, the Internet is one of THE most important places to be so as not to miss out on those valuable opportunities to connect with potential buyers.
If you follow the steps I just outlined, you’ll be able to do just that.
If you want professional assistance getting your book covered by print publications, or arranging interviews on television or radio, please call or email us right away. My partner, Steve Friedman, and I, along with our staff of PR professionals, have been promoting authors for 20 years, and we can help you.
Plus, I think you’ll be interested to learn that our fees are performance-based, which, for example, simply means that if you pay us to book you on 30 radio interviews in top 100 markets, you get booked on 30 radio interviews in top 100 markets, with similar fee structures for TV and print. Media is guaranteed with our firm, which is very different from how traditional retainer-based PR firms operate.
Feel free to explore the possibilities with Steve; he can be reached by email at stevefriedman@emsincorporated.com, or call to speak with him at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. We’d love to hear from you!