• by Dan Roche , May 7, 2013

Mention statistics and data to most people, and they will quickly lose interest. Present this information as an infographic and suddenly those “boring” figures become eye-catching, interesting and a way to stimulate client conversation. While many people may poke fun at USA Today’s highly visual presentation of the news, it was ahead of the infographic curve with its “Snapshots” that provide easy-to-read statistical graphics. 

So, why are infographics becoming increasingly popular to share data with customers? The simple answer is that statistics are much more fun when they appear as a picture, but also that consumers want research/data to support a product or service. Here are the top four reasons you should provide data with a visual component so your customers can easily read, understand and remember:

• Break Down Complex Information – Extensive reports and spreadsheets can be extremely overwhelming. Plus, who has the time to read these reports from a variety of brands and published in an array of media outlets?  Infographics allow you to showcase key data points to your clients in an easy-to-digest way. As a result, your clients can better relate to your statistics and your company, building a stronger customer relationship.  
  
  
• Go Viral – How likely are you to share a PDF report with friends or colleagues? Are you tweeting or posting these research documents on Twitter and Facebook?  It’s not likely. However, an attractive infographic is something customers will want to forward and share through social media channels versus plain text content. It’s a great tool to engage your customers in social media conversation and pose and answer questions that could lead to helpful client feedback. Also, if you link your infographic to your company’s website, you’re likely to drive traffic to the site, and hopefully increase sales. Our company recently got some great traction with our survey results infographic (e.g. tweets, full survey results downloaded, contact forms submitted), so I know firsthand that it works! 

• Expert Source – Research and the subsequent data presentation all take time. By creating an infographic, you show your clients that you have invested additional time to highlight the primary statistics that would be valuable to them and their business. Offering your clients an additional data representation of your research shows your customers that you are well-versed on the results and can provide the most useful information to serve their needs.
  
  
• Revitalize materials – Do you have really interesting data that could be better represented through visual storytelling? In most cases, I’m sure this answer is “yes.” Infographics are a great way to complement text and give new life to sales, marketing and communication collateral. Just ensure the infographic isn’t too sales-y or promotional. While some industry promotion is permitted, the primary focus of the infographic should be to illustrate statistics that engage your customers and benefit them or their business, not encourage them to tune out because it feels like a sales pitch. Data presented in a new way can help foster client relationships, as all clients respond to different presentation formats. 

As visual storytelling continues to grow with businesses using sites like Pinterest, Instagram and Vine to build brand awareness, the use of infographics will increase too. They help your customers get right to the point of your data (infographics shouldn’t require an introduction or explanation) and can help prevent the misreading of important facts and figures, or worse, customers overlooking this material altogether. Most importantly, it will help you better connect with your customers by offering them another way of looking at your company and the product or service it provides (outside of the usual phone calls, emails and meetings).

Take the time to create an infographic that simplifies complex information, but still provides unique research stats that are fun and interesting to read and, perhaps most importantly, share with others.