Visual Contenting February 2016 | Page 43

TOOLS & APPS Have you ever wondered if you can create an infographic for your business? You might think it’s hard or time-consuming but all you need is a process or outline to get going on creating infographics. Just like a recipe to a cake, if you follow the steps you’ll find it easier than you thought it would be AND it’s even more satisfying! Infographics are in high-demand and entrepreneurs to large businesses would like to market with them. There are many free tools for infographics, you can check out this post to find out more options. The variety of infographic tools is amazing however one favorite is Canva. It’s free and really easy to work with. Don’t just choose your favorite colors! Make an informed decision. Use your brand colors so it can be easily recognized as YOURS. If you want to know what colors would be best, check out this resource from CoSchedule where they have an ultimate guide on colors for marketing. Once you have your colors in mind, you can use HEX codes in Canva to make it easier to find your colors. Create a Headline Make the headline absolutely clear as to what you want to display to your audience. Just like headlines for articles, it has to be strong to capture the reader’s attention. Sometimes that’s the Here’s the 6-Step Process to hardest part. If you need help Creating a Free Infographic in creating a headline for an infographic you can use headline [Using Canva] generator tools such as: Hubspot Blog Topic Generator Tool or Collect Data Portent Content Idea Generator. You can use data collected from These tools can get the creative a recent survey to your email juices flowing. list, statistics from your business research, or from a third-party Use Canva Layouts site. No matter where you get your data, make sure you cite it If you’re new to Canva, you’ll find on the infographic itself. Give that it’s an amazing free tool. credit where it’s due! If you do What’s so amazing about it is use a third-party site, be sure that it provides layouts to help it’s a credible and a reputable create designs. You don’t need to source. have graphic design experience! The layouts come in a variety to Choose Your Colors choose from and you can use the available icons they have on the layouts or delete them. Visual Contenting They do have a ton more icons to choose from to arrange the infographic to your liking. Add the Most Important Information in Blocks What makes an infographic work so well is the layout and having the information presented clearly. By having the information in blocks, it would provide bits of data to the reader where it can easily be read and retained. The objective is to keep the information simple and easy to read. Add Your Logo & URL The infographic must have the logo and URL of the business that has created it. This provides the reader who they can contact for further information or perhaps inquire for services. The inf