Studies show that we often grasp new concepts when the information is presented to us in colorful visuals. More specifically, we learn 80% from what we see compared to 20% from what we read versus just 10% from what we hear.
This insight on visual learning isn’t useful just for early education. It reveals how effectively visuals can enhance understanding for audiences of all ages.
And that’s why infographics are one of the best tools in a brand’s arsenal. Infographics tap into our innate ability to process and retain information visually.
Take NASA’s infographics, for example. They simplify complex space missions into engaging visuals for both space geeks and the general public alike.
In this post, I’ll tell you about the importance of including infographics in your communication strategy, how to use them to educate and engage your customers, and tips to create captivating infographics.
Let’s get into it.
- The Power of Infographics in Customer Experience
- Using Infographics to Educate Customers
- Fostering Customer Retention through Infographics
- Best Practices for Creating Effective Infographics
The power of infographics in customer experience
The Internet is flooded with content, and grabbing customer attention in such a noisy space is no easy feat. Infographics cut through the noise to deliver clear, high-signal, and digestible information.
For brands, infographics go beyond dressing up data aesthetically. They help you create a seamless customer experience (CX) where information flows easily and sticks.
Here’s a challenge: imagine explaining your entire product or service to a new customer in just one sentence. Difficult, right? Now picture condensing that same information into a single, engaging visual.
Which one do you think can pack more information? That’s the power of infographics. It’s like a nutrient-rich supplement for your content strategy.
Here are three ways infographics can help you offer a delightful CX in your brand communications:
1. Simplify complex information
Infographics excel at transforming complex ideas into clear, snackable visuals. Think of industries like finance, healthcare, or space-tech — domains that juggle with numbers and hard facts. Infographics can help brands in these niches to strip down tough data, making the knowledge easy to understand even for fifth-graders.
Take, for example, Mint — the personal finance app. The brand uses infographics to help users understand budgeting, taxes, and financial planning — topics that can be “mind-numbing” to grasp.
Mint’s (former) Founding Designer, Jason Putorti, credits a lot of the company’s early success to the strategic marketing campaigns that included infographics.
We focused on building out a unique personal finance blog that spoke to a young professional crowd that we felt was being neglected. Our app didn’t have a high viral coefficient but we had content that was. Our infographics and popular articles became regular hits on Digg, Reddit, etc. – Jason Putorti
Other companies like IBM use infographics and charts to explain complex business concepts. By simplifying information, infographics help brands reduce friction and guide users toward quicker and more confident decision-making.
2. Enhance user engagement
Infographics naturally draw the eye, and once a user is hooked, they often stay longer on the page to explore the content.
Websites with infographics don’t just get 12% more traffic than text-heavy pages, they also improve dwell time.
Infographics capture people’s attention with colorful visuals and intuitive layouts. It’s almost irresistible for users to interact with visually rich websites and absorb the information.
Take the example of Visual Capitalist, a platform that’s built entirely on the foundation of data visualization. Their infographics cover everything from geopolitics to technology and healthcare to maps. Their designs are visually stunning, inherently shareable, and designed for longer dwell time.
For brands, using infographics is a way to keep visitors engaged and increase the chances of them returning. By leveraging infographics’ visual appeal, your brand can create impactful content, offer memorable customer experiences, and enhance user engagement.
3. Build brand trust and authority
A well-crafted infographic significantly enhances your brand’s credibility.
Research shows that 40% of marketers believe infographics are their most effective form of content. And infographics are particularly good at building trust and shaping positive brand perception.
Salesforce, the #1 leader in SaaS cloud solutions, exemplifies this in its content marketing.
Their data-driven infographics not only share insights into the future of sales and customer relations but also position the company as an industry leader.
Infographics are also a big part of Salesforce’s lead generation funnel. Whether it’s the State of Marketing report or the State of Connected Customer report, Salesforce doesn’t miss a chance to leverage infographics to convert its brand authority into getting more sales.
This works because visual storytelling boosts brand trust and improves authority. When customers see a brand effectively communicate its value through engaging visuals, it reinforces their trust and encourages sustained engagement.
Using infographics to educate customers
Infographics are handy when you have to explain your product’s features, simplify new user onboarding, or answer common questions. They help customers overcome steep learning curves, get started quickly, and get expected results.
Here are three top uses of infographics to educate customers.
1. Create guides for a product or service
We know that infographics are great. But can they improve conversions, drive product adoption, and increase revenue? Absolutely!
Here are few statistics that support this claim:
- According to a finding by Social Science Research Network, using visuals in sales presentations increased persuasion by up to 43%.
- Early on in their buying journey, 72% prefer infographics compared to other media formats.
- Pages with infographics get 12% more web traffic as compared to ordinary posts.
This is why infographics are great at showcasing product features, benefits, and use cases.
For example, ServiceNow uses infographics to illustrate how their platform scales order management in telecommunications, providing a clear guide to an otherwise complex process.
Similarly, Trello uses infographics to share tips and tricks to make the most of its platform. It shares the information in a fun and engaging way to help users improve their productivity and add delight to their CX.
These brands show how infographics can help customers learn how to use their products and achieve their goals quickly.
2. Onboard new customers
Infographics can make onboarding and tutorials much easier to follow. Asana uses infographics in their onboarding videos and help center to guide new users through setup and task management.
Here’s an example of a use guide infographic template in Venngage:
These visual aids streamline the learning process, reduce confusion, and minimize the need for support inquiries.
Here’s what Ravi Chaubey, Founder & CEO of Zon CollabHub, has to say about using infographics for communication purposes:
Visual communication breaks down complexities, accelerates understanding, and cultivates a cohesive and informed team, especially when we’re dealing with diverse artisanal processes and market insights. – Ravi Chaubey
3. Answer frequently asked questions
Infographics are a great way to answer customer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and drastically reduce the need for support calls or emails. Rather than reading through long paragraphs, customers can quickly grasp key details at a glance, saving time for both them and your support team.
For example, an e-commerce brand can use an infographic to visually explain its return and refund process. A SaaS company might create an FAQ infographic that breaks down how to troubleshoot common login issues and helps users to fix minor bugs on their own.
Here’s an example from AWS. The brand uses infographic-style flow charts to help its users understand its new service. When done right, FAQ infographics can bridge knowledge gaps, improve customer experience, and cut down on repetitive queries.
These visuals improve user satisfaction and free up time for customer service teams to focus on more complex issues.
Fostering customer retention through infographics
Integrating infographics into your retention strategies can help you create an emotional connection with your existing customers. You can use visuals to personalize customer communication and encourage users to share their positive experiences with others. Platforms like WhatsApp, with their bulk messaging features, also make it easier to share these visuals. Integrating tools like WANotifier can further streamline this, allowing for direct, personalized distribution to enhance customer engagement.
This can play a key role in improving loyalty and customer lifetime value. Here’s how your brand can use infographics to foster stronger connections with their customers.
1. Build an emotional connection
Infographics are an excellent way to tell your brand’s story in a fun and engaging way. A lot of companies share infographics with their customers about reaching an important milestone or taking an unexpected pivot.
Their unique story can evoke positive emotions that resonate with customers. Emotion is a powerful driver of loyalty — buyers are more likely to stick with a brand they feel personally connected to.
For instance, Lego uses infographics to showcase their brand’s journey and impact, appealing to customers’ sense of purpose and community.
At Venngage, we have our own brand journey map that lets our customers learn about our humble beginnings, global expansion, viral growth, and future plans outlined in a simple infographic.
Why this works
When customers see a brand as more than just a business, they feel like they are part of a meaningful journey. It impacts their willingness to stick around and advocate for your brand.
How to do it
Create infographics that highlight milestones, values, or impactful moments in your brand’s journey. Use engaging visuals and concise storytelling to convey your message and foster a personal connection with your audience.
When to do this
Use them to celebrate milestones, product launches, or major announcements (like a big funding round or an acquisition). This is particularly effective for re-engaging customers and reinforcing their emotional connect to your brand.
2. Nurture customer relationships
Personalized infographics allow brands to engage customers on a deeper, more individual level. Sending a personalized infographic as a birthday greeting or as part of a loyalty program update shows customers that you value and recognize them as individuals.
Spotify’s Wrapped campaign is the best example of this. It’s a personalized feature that Spotify rolls out every year, summarizing your year of music listening.
Fitbit is another brand that excels in nurturing user relationships by sending personalized weekly progress reports. The email report summarizes key metrics like steps taken, sleep quality, and calorie burn.
By celebrating your users’ milestones through visually engaging insights, Fitbit keeps users motivated and encourages continuous interaction with the app.
Personalized infographics aren’t just transactional — they’re a strategic tool for creating long-term customer loyalty. They make customers feel seen, understood, and deeply engaged with your brand.
Why this works
Personalized infographics make brand interactions feel more…well, personal. They show that you value each customer’s unique experience and improve engagement.
How to do it
Design infographics tailored to specific customer achievements, such as how much time they saved through your product or the tentative return on investment on their purchase. Incorporate data and visuals to make the communication relevant, similar to Spotify’s Wrapped or Fitbit’s progress reports.
When to do this
Implement personalized infographics for key moments like yearly recap since their purchase, product usage thresholds, or if they spend beyond a certain amount. Regularly share these insights with your customers to nurture relationships and improve their brand engagement.
3. Encourage social sharing
With their visual appeal and easy-to-digest format, infographics are the most share-worthy content on social media platforms.
The by-product of Spotify and Fitbit creating personalized infographics to improve user relationships is that they are also wildly shareable. It’s why similar other campaigns like Reddit Recap and YouTube’s Year In Review always come with a share option.
If you want to create a similar recap infographic to drive virality on social media, Venngage has plenty of templates to choose from:
This shareability improves your brand’s visibility and reach. Infographics that focus on interesting data, fun facts, or even inspirational content have a high chance of going viral.
Using infographics in your retention strategy can also help you earn organic social proof for your brand. For instance, more customers sharing their Wrapped infographics on X.com means giving Spotify more credibility and brand recognition among other non-Spotify users.
Why this works
Infographics, like any other zero-click content, is more shareable because it provides immediate value without requiring people to do anything extra — like clicking on a link to go to a website. They offer an interesting piece of information quickly that naturally fits into people’s browsing habits.
How to do it
Design infographics that make boring data fun and entertaining. Include options to make it easy for readers to share the content with their social media network.
When to do this
This approach is especially useful when you are sharing original research data or giving existing information a new spin to make it interesting for readers. Venngage’s 2019 viral infographic about the Game of Thrones series is a great example of it.
Best practices for creating effective infographics
Creating effective infographics involves more than just great design. It requires a strategic approach to ensure that they meet your business goals.
Here are our five best practices recommendations to help you craft infographics that are clear, compelling, and suitable for all channels.
1. Start with a clear objective
Before diving into design, define what you want to achieve and who you are targeting. Are you aiming to inform, persuade, or entertain? Identify your goals and audience needs to make sure your infographic meets the desired objective.
For example, if you want to help small business owners struggling with customer churn, create an infographic that outlines actionable tips for improving customer service and increasing loyalty.
The key benefit (of using infographics in marketing) has been the noticeable improvement in decision-making speed and accuracy. Visual communication aids in quickly identifying trends, patterns, and outliers, which, in turn, enhances strategic planning and response times.
– Nick Drewe, Founder, Wethrift.com
2. Choose the right data and visuals
Your visuals should enhance the data, not distract from it.
If you’re presenting customer satisfaction scores, for instance, use clear charts or graphs to make trends easily understandable. Venngage has plenty of templates that let you present clean, precise data visuals that support your messaging.
3. Tell a compelling story
A strong narrative makes your infographic engaging and memorable. Build a narrative that starts with a powerful hook, follows with key points, and ends with a clear takeaway.
Let’s say you are illustrating a customer journey through an infographic. To make it useful for your customers, structure the infographic to show each stage of the process clearly with actionable insights. A well-told story helps maintain viewer interest and ensures your message is memorable.
Here’s an example template from Venngage:
4. Keep it simple and concise
Avoid clutter by focusing on essential information. Use minimal text and a clean design to emphasize key messages. Infographics that are overloaded with details can overwhelm viewers.
Google’s infographics are effective because they distill complex concepts into straightforward visuals, which makes the data easy to process and remember.
5. Optimize for different platforms
Repurposing visuals for different platforms is like having a different suit to fit different occasions. It’s a suit — but a dinner jacket is best for formal events while a blazer is more suited for casual gatherings.
Make your infographic adaptable for various formats and platforms. Social media, websites, and email newsletters each have different size requirements. Plus, you also have to keep the size constraints of mobile screens in mind when designing information-rich infographics.
As an example, create a version of your infographic with smaller text and bolder visuals for social media shares. Tailoring your design ensures your infographic remains effective and engaging across all channels.
Use infographics to drive deeper customer engagements
There’s a reason why globally-renowned brands like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Google use infographics as an integral part of their marketing. Infographics slice through digital noise and can help your brand be more memorable in your audience’s minds.
Do you want your brand to be unforgettable? Start using infographics to improve CX and enhance retention. And don’t just create eye-catching visuals — give your audience insights that will make them think and interact more with your brand.
Your next viral marketing campaign might just be an infographic away.
