An infographic is a visual representation of information or data. Having visual content to accompany your social media posts or email blasts is incredibly important. Research shows that 90% of all the information transmitted to the brain is visual and 40% of people respond better to visuals. This means that infographics have huge potential to influence our marketing and online presence. They’re also simple to make, especially with the help of free online platforms like Canva and Piktochart.
Here’s why you should be using infographics in your club’s marketing and the power they have.
They capture and hold attention
When people are scrolling social media online, they’re looking for something engaging. It’s important that your content has the capacity to capture and hold the attention of your audience, whether they’re just scrolling through their Facebook feed or have come to your page for specific information.
If your written content has an image with it, it’s four times more likely to be viewed by your audience. Having a visually engaging and interesting infographic is a great way to capture your audience’s attention and lets them know that you have something important to say. Things to consider when making eye capturing infographics include making sure it’s not too full of information, the colours make sense and the text is a readable size. It’s also important to choose the correct format so it’s easy to read on that platform - for example, you’d use a different template, layout and size for an Instagram post as you would a long email.
You can even get creative with infographics and expand them to include more than just text. Think graphs, pie charts, emojis, cartoons and photos... there is no limit! Canva has also recently released a new feature that enables you to incorporate animations in your graphics, adding a new dimension and transforming it into more than just an image.
They relay information in a simple way
Infographics are a great way to synthesise complex information. In the world’s current situation with COVID-19, your club has probably had to postpone a lot of events and your team would have a lot of information you want to relay to your members. Adding these key messages to an infographic is a great way to make this information visual.
During these times, you can also use infographics to promote your club. Combining information like your total number of members, number of people on the executive team and a tally of the number of events you run in a year are all pieces of information that you could make visual to relay to your audience. You can also make infographics on tips for your members while studying from home in isolation - things like self-care while in isolation and how to navigate online classes.
When this is all over, infographics can also play a role in helping you synthesise information about your upcoming events. There’s nothing worse than having to read a lengthy paragraph of information just so you can find out the start time and location of an upcoming event. Accompanying this text with an infographic that includes information like when the event is on and where it’s happening is a quick and simple way to make sure your members know the important specifics of what you’re trying to say. If members can easily find out key information in a quick and synthesised way, they’re also more likely to trust you and will appreciate you getting to the point.
They help your club stand out
When people get trapped in an endless scroll on social media, having engaging visuals is a great way to be noticed among the crowd. Not only does it help to capture attention, using infographics is a way to set yourself apart from other clubs. Using infographics makes you come across as organised, clear and concise. This is so important for a university society - while your club is run by students and your members are also students, you’re also a “business” in a sense and want to come across professionally. Infographics will help you stand out among other clubs and increase engagement among members. You can even include a call to action in your infographics, asking members to comment on the infographic or to message your society. As we know, the more clubs stand out and the more engagement societies have with their members, the stronger the club.
