Infographics: 10 things you should know before you start one

Knowing exactly what you want in an infographic before you contact a designer will help you get a quote rather than an estimate, and it will help maximize the efficiency of your project as a whole. Here are 10 things you should know before you start your infographic project.

Think about the infographic in the context of your goals.

• What's is the intent? To inform, educate, convince or sell?
• Who are you trying to reach? Current customers, prospects, influencers, stakeholders, general public?
• What's the best way to express your story?

This will help create a logical strategy and approach to the development of the infographic, and it will help you answer some of the questions that need to be asked by your designer.

Be sure to give your designer plenty of advanced project notice. This will guarantee on-time deadline delivery and maximized creativity at a fair price.

By letting your designer know what your budget is you ensure that a proposed design style and solution will work for both you and your designer.

Understanding your audience will help you reach them at the same level of mentality they think in. for example: If they are technical, they may expect a technical approach. If they are young they may expect something fun. Define your audience in terms of: Technical expertise, laymen, youthful, gender and age.

Think about how you would like to tell your story. Although the goal is to convey your story through pictures, pictures by themselves rarely tell the complete story. So it’s important to pick an approach that will best engage the viewer and get your story across.

Even an infographic can present too much information. If you really need to present a lot of information you may want to consider an alternative infographic technique to present your material. These alternatives include infographic videos or interactive micro websites. It may sometimes also, be more practical to present your information as a static graphic (trade show)

An infographic is all about images, so it's essential that the images resonate with your target audience. If you have an established style of image that you've been using in your branding be sure to tell the designer what you are looking for and make them aware of any style samples you may have so that they can replicate it.

An infographic can say a lot about a brand without even saying a word. It’s essential that your message and identity remain consistent. Think about how you want to express your brand and how to make sure your infographic is speaking from the heart of it. Talk to your designer about:

• Identity standards - font styles, colours, use of company logo.
• Match the voice of the brand formal, informal, fun or serious.
• Make sure messaging is consistent with what you have used in other marketing materials.

If you need to present data, make sure your designer knows what you are looking for: Graphs? Tables? Bulleted points. If you have spreadsheets or rough graphs, be sure to send to your designer. Remember the more detail you provide your designer with, the closer they will get to what you are looking for.

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Think of the infographic in terms of each separate point that you wish to make along with details and a suggested image to support it. Type out your points and details and arrange them in a preferred progressive order. PowerPoint or Keynote are great ways to create your initial storyboard.

Before you talk to a designer about your project send them your points along with any support materials you have. This will allow them time to think about and address your requirements more effectively.

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