Many people believe that the only benefit to using infographics is to build engagement on their blogs.
And although this is true, there are actually a lot more benefits to creating and marketing infographics and other forms of visual content that go unnoticed and unattempted.
In fact, infographics are a great way to build relationships, boost organic traffic, and take advantage of cross-platform sharing.
Better Relationships
One of the main strategies we’ve used in the past to build better relationships with influencers is the creation of guestographics. Guestographics essentially means “guest infographic”. It has similar benefits to contributing guest posts to various blogs and sites within your industry.
Here’s how it works:
- First, you need to compile a list of the influencers you may not have relationships with but would like to build. You can use tools like Buzzsumo, Ahrefs, and Mention to identify who these individuals are. Once you find them, export the list of contacts and filter out anyone who might not be an ideal fit.
- Second, find a virtual assistant using a site like Upwork who can help you fill in the contact information for these people. This can be their email address or Twitter handles.
- Third, once you’ve got your list prepared, use an outreach tool like Mailshake to get in touch with the different influencers and ask them if they would like to collaborate on an infographic with you. By providing a compelling offer like a piece of content, not only do you get an opportunity to work with the influencer, but the ongoing communication helps them get a better sense of what kind of marketer you are. If they’re happy with the results of this collaboration, they’ll definitely keep you in mind as someone to keep in touch with.
We’ve managed to build up our network of relationships by creating guestographics on Venngage’s infographic maker. This gives us an ever-growing database of contacts with large followings to reach out to when we have questions or need help with promotion.
Link Building/PR
As you may have guessed, on top of building these relationships, there is also the opportunity for link-building. When an influencer agrees to work with you and publishes the infographic you collaborated on, there’s a chance to get a link as credit.
As a result, your site’s domain authority will increase, plus you can harness referral traffic from the influencer’s audience.
In terms of PR, you can create infographics on trending topics. These types of graphics are considered “Editorial” content, or “News-bait” content. One example I can share with you is a recent infographic our team created, mapping out all the betrayals that occurred throughout the Game of Thrones television series.
Leading up to the release of the latest season, we launched an article on Venngage with the infographic embedded.
Then we pitched reporters who had covered Game of Thrones within the past few months asking if they would like to write about the infographic we made. We managed to get over 40 press mentions on sites like Mashable, PopSugar, Distractify, and even The Wall Street Journal.
What happened next was a spike in our organic rankings. As well as a whole wave of new sign-ups from referrals and searches.
Cross-Platform Sharing
Finally, infographics are formatted to fit on every social media platform. Unlike blog content, which is harder to share on visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, infographics can be promoted excessively across social media.
But on top of that, there are plenty of infographic directories that exist, to which you can submit your infographics. This will give you access to larger audiences that are interested in your content. Which means more referral traffic back to your site.
Some of these sites include:
- Visually
- Visualistan
- Daily Infographic
- Slideshare
Each of these sites has its own organic traffic and audiences, be sure to take advantage of the free traffic. Fast Company and Mashable also publish infographics. These sites require a more well-thought-out pitch. If you manage to get featured there, it can be a big win for your site. Make sure to set up a link-in-bio to feature your infographics.
Conclusion
Infographics make great forms of content for engaging your existing audience. But don’t forget that they are also excellent tools for acquiring new visitors, leads, and users. The potentials are endless, just be consistent and keep executing!
