How to get infographics created for your business

So should you use infographics in your business? Infographics have become extremely popular, no doubt because all of us seem to need pictures to process anything these days instead of the written word. So Al Gore invented infographics (purely conjecture) to help us tell our stories. And help they do! According to research from 3M (maker of Post-its, among other things), visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. It’s no real surprise, then, that businesses have quickly adopted these visually pleasing illustrations as marketing tools. Here’s a good example of how one online marketer is using infographics to grow his business.

There are many great reasons why you should think about using infographics in your business. Here’s a few:

• They are visually impactful and easily scannable, both aspects that match up with today’s web browser
• They are terrific vehicles for showing facts easily and in a neat, focused fashion.
• They lend authority to your expertise on the given subject
• They can go viral, which could result in traffic and search engine ranking rewards
• As an image, they're easily shared, and can make the rounds at many image sharing sites (as per social media expert Dan Zarrella, images get more shares and likes on Facebook than every other post type—even video)

And as an example of some of the power of infographics, what better way than—you guessed it—check out this infographic from WebmarketingGroup.co.uk.

Want to produce your own infographics?

If you would like to construct your own infographics, there are sites and tools that allow you to jump in and create breathtaking infographics. At the basic level you could make them in PowerPoint, which is not as challenging as you might assume. If you’re wanting a bit more advanced or polished option, you might check into a tool like Visually, where you could customize existing templates to your needs, or possibly use a service like PiktoChart or Infogram.

What if you can’t design a whit?

Outsource it! Sometimes we don’t have the time, inclination or skills to get this type of work done, especially if you’ve never done any work with images before. No worries, as there are great designers on the web just dying to create your infographics. Some of the places you can find that can assist you in this regard, and in most cases for a reasonable fee, include 99Designs, Elance, Odesk, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com. You should definitely see samples, set parameters and expectations, and are equipped to communicate your vision clearly with your freelancer, so there are no surprises!