7 Ways to Keep Your Infographics On Brand

7 Ways to Keep Your Infographics On Brand
Robert Katai

Written by:
Robert Katai

Jan 23, 2018
branding infographic 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

There are many ways in which marketers can work on a branding campaign for a company, small business or website. Nevertheless, everyone agrees that valuable content is probably the most important part of a marketing campaign.

The types of content you are going to share depends mostly on your target audience and goals, but we can all agree that in today’s environment, visual content sells better. One of the main reasons for this comes from the fact that the brain processes images faster.

We are bombarded daily with tons of data, most of which will pass through as if it never existed. Visuals are catchy. They make data more readable and, as a consequence, more shareable.

average shares by content type branding infographic 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

In fact, according to an interesting study conducted by OkDork and BuzzSumo which analyzed more than 100 million articles, online readers are more likely to share infographics than any other type of content.

This is why knowing how to maintain a delicate balance between providing interesting and relevant infographics to your readers and keeping your brand top-of-mind are essential to your marketing campaigns. Let's take a look at seven essential points you should consider...

You can view the visual summary of this post below or click here to read a detailed explanation of each infographic branding element.

Branding Infographics: 7 Essential Ingredients

branding infographic 7 Tips to Keep Your Infographics on Brand Infographic
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What Makes Infographics Effective Marketing Tools?

When it comes to branding in particular and marketing in general, everything you do is important. Effectiveness, however, comes from a combination of several factors such as:

branding infographic 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

A Clear Vision

Know what you want, how you want to implement it and how to deliver your message. Know your audience and your brand.

A Valuable Message

Give your audience something they want even if they do not know yet they want it. A valuable message comes from a valuable piece of information, a guide, an informative piece, an educational article or infographic.

Informative Graphics or Catchy Images

Back up your texts with strong visuals. Create your own charts and graphs. Insert beautiful stock photos. Make your articles and infographics look stunning.

A Clean and Professional Look

Choose appropriate fonts, break down texts into small paragraphs, use white spaces around images and between chunks of text. Look at your content first and imagine how you would react if it would have been posted by someone else. Would you read it?

Let’s narrow this list down to infographics. What do you need in order to make them effective? What are the key elements necessary for a successful branding or marketing campaign?

branding infographic 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

The first thing you should consider when designing an infographic is that the value of the content shared and the readability of your message comes first, before your branding elements. However, you should also consider your choice of colors, images and graphics, the tone of voice and, of course, placing your logo in a visible spot.

Now, let’s talk about each of the most important branding elements and see some real-life examples for a better understanding of why each of them matters.

 

1 The Color Palette

branding infographic color palette 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

Everything has color in our outside world. We see colors every day and associate them with different things, thoughts and feelings. When it comes to infographics and other visual materials, all these emotions matter. It is not an easy task to mix colors and make them speak to your audience, but if you want to trigger the right emotions, you have to at least try.

Colors help you relay your message by drawing attention and setting the tone of your infographic. They make texts easier to recognize and draw attention to specific lines, graphs or images. In other words, they help you guide your readers' eyes toward important focal points in your visual.

I recently stumbled across an interesting and educational guide on colors for designers by Smashing Magazine.

According to the author, something as "simple as changing the exact hue or saturation of a color can evoke a completely different feeling. Cultural differences can compound those effects so that a hue that’s interpreted as happy and uplifting in one country can be seen as depressing in another."

branding infographic color scheme 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand
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Working with colors is easy when you just want to highlight a message and the only thing you need to do is mix complementary palettes. However, if you want to communicate emotions, you need to know your audience first and their cultural background as well.

Let’s take a look at the following three examples of infographics that also communicate through color:

branding infographic 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

Here, we have three infographics; each of them communicates a different emotion and a different message. The first comes from informative material on “mindful living.” Notice how the beige background conveys sensations of calm and balance, paired with warm nuances of blue and purple.

The second infographic teaches us about the benefits of having indoor plants. The greens and browns are predominant as they are the two most important colors our minds associate with nature.

Finally, the third example comes from an infographic that contains some important facts and stats about happiness. Observe the blue, cold tones. They are exactly the opposite of the feeling described in this material and a good example of how you can use emotional contrasts in your visuals. Also, an infographic on happiness is probably more appealing to people who are still looking for it. These types of readers are more attracted to cold colors and nuances.

RELATED: How to Make an Infographic: A Visual Guide for Beginners

 

2 The Fonts

branding infographic fonts 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

Typography is also important in your branding. However, its importance is even bigger when you want to transmit a message through an infographic. Things you need to consider here:

  • Your texts should be readable. Choose serif or sans serif fonts for your texts, ignore Script and Monospace typefaces. Here is a great article that explains all types of fonts and gives you enough visual examples to better understand the differences.
  • Use Display fonts for titles and lines of text you want to render more visible.
  • Do not use Display fonts that are almost unreadable such as the Gothic types or similar designs. You want to relay a clear and straightforward message, not stress your readers' eyes with barely readable text.

Keep in mind, however, that fonts are subjective, just as colors are. This is why, whatever you might choose, your choice can or cannot be inspired. Therefore, instead of looking for a beautiful font, look for the ones that are readable and suitable for your texts. Don’t forget to choose a font that is complementary to your logo or other branded texts.

The above infographic shows us how a readable message looks like. We have modern looking sans serif fonts, combined with highlighted titles and conclusions and a good use of white space.

 

3 Placement of the Logo

branding infographic placement of logo 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand
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In marketing and advertising, you should always think about your audience first. Your goals should come in second because if you manage to satisfy your clients and pique their interest, they will get involved in your campaign and maybe even become brand ambassadors.

This is why in most infographics, the content comes first and the logo, sources, and links are placed at the bottom. But don’t worry—as long as your content is valuable and interesting to your audience, they will scroll all the way to the bottom to see who made it and maybe even follow up and visit your website.

 

4 High-Quality Images

branding infographic images 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

Another important set of elements which can make or break your infographic are your images. Always use high-quality images that are free for commercial use, and make sure the atmosphere, tint and mood match your brand image.

For example, if the values associated with your brand include adjectives like "irreverent," "innovative," and "youthful," then you probably don't want to use overused stock images or low-quality images with poor lighting.

 

5 Vector Icons

branding infographic icons 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

Just as important as your images are the types of vector icons that you use in your infographic. There are several different styles of icons, including flat, glyph, outline and filled outline.

Make sure to use icons that match the style of your infographic. Be consistent and stick to one style. You can find high-quality vector icons on sites like Flaticon or you can also use free, all-in-one content tool like Visme that offers a built-in icon library.

RELATED: How to Select and Use the Right Icons for Your Infographics

 

6 Graphs and Charts

branding infographic graphs and charts 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand

Infographics are based on visual representations. We’ve already discussed the importance of this type of content. You know, therefore, that texts should be backed up with graphs, charts and other visualizations of statistics and figures.

This is an important part of your branding because it will give your infographic a clean and professional look. Also, it will make it eye-catching to your audience, which is one of the most important things when it comes to marketing.

Check out the following example to better understand how all these elements combined look like in a perfectly balanced infographic:

 

7 Tone of Voice

branding infographic tone of voice 7 tips to keep your infographics on brand
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At this point, you should start by asking yourself a few questions, such as:

“How is my content different from that of other brands?”

“Does my brand have an authentic tone of voice?”

“Is it the right one for present and future campaigns?”

I will not kid you. This is probably one of the hardest parts of creating an infographic and maybe of your entire marketing campaign. Finding the right tone is essential to your mission and in order to be successful, you will need to do some research.

First, study your favorite brands. See how they interact with their audience, what they publish and how. Then, study your own audience. It’s one thing to address teenagers and something entirely different to address seniors. There is a huge difference at the same time between the audiences of a B2C marketing campaign and a B2B marketing campaign.

Finally, since we are talking about infographics, Contently.com gives us an interesting example that deals with exactly the same issue we’ve discussed here.

RELATED: 3 Easy Steps to Finding Your Unique Brand Voice

 

To sum up…

As a marketer, your job is to reach out to your targeted audience. We know that people are visual creatures and that they are also curious. Great and valuable content is one of the best ways to catch their attention, and if you combine practical information with visual imagery, success awaits you just around the corner.

And if you want to learn all our secrets on how to create an effective infographic (from how to write content for your visual to the design process), grab our free e-book below.

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    About the Author

    Visual marketer, blogger and content strategist at Bannersnack, a professional banner creation app for designers & marketers. Passionate about visual marketing, Instagram, content marketing, and always up-to-date with the latest trends.