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Infographic Marketing Tips: 11 Ways to Promote

infographic marketingMarketing with infographics is a hit with online marketers this year and as more companies hire designers to artfully represent data in creative and engaging ways, many fall short when it comes to infographic promotion. It’s the old “great content will attract it’s own audience” scenario. As I’ve always said, “Content isn’t great until someone shares it.”

While there are many other smart posts about creating compelling infographics to attract attention, links and traffic, the information on promoting that type of content seems a bit light. If you’ve invested in creating great infographic content and need advice on how to promote, here are a few ideas:

1. Involve credible sources in the data collection and then encourage those sources to help you promote the resulting graphic.

2. Create a blog post for the infographic and support promotion through the blog’s social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Email, social news & bookmarking sites)

3. Segment the infographic into screen shots which can be used in blog posts and shared on image hosting sites like Flickr or Pinterest with links back to the main page hosting the full infographic. A week or two after publishing and promoting the infographic, upload the full image and unique description to Flickr with a link back to the original web page.

4. Schedule tweets of specific data points mentioned in the infographic over time with a link back to the full infographic. 10 data points/statistics = 10 tweets. A similar, but more conservative approach can work with Facebook as well.

5. Submit the infographic to aggregators and directories. Here is a short list:

6. Promote the infographic with an article/news release that includes a link to the full infographic and distribute through a news distribution service.

7. Highlight the infographic in an email promotion to your in-house prospect and/or customer list. Include a segment of the graphic and a link for readers to see the full image on your website or blog.

8. Pitch relevant industry bloggers and media on the story behind the data included in the infographic. Focus on relevant, personalized emails and offer previews or pre-release opportunities for more influential sources.

9. Share the infographic with influential users of social news & bookmarking sites: StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit, or Digg. Or enlist a connected social media marketing service to do it for you.

10. Create a screencast video version of the infographic and promote through YouTube and other video hosting services.

11. Deconstruct the infographic into a document or individual images and share on Slideshare, Scribd, Docstoc and other document hosting services. Images can be shared on Flickr, Pinterest, Picassa or

Additional tips that can help promotion include: Make sure the file name includes relevant keywords as well as the text on the web page used to describe the infographic. Social sharing buttons on the page that hosts the infographic should be easy to see and use. Include a text area form element with code that users can copy to embed the infographic (with link back to your site) on their own website or blog.

Obviously there are many other ways to promote and re-purpose great content. I have to say, at TopRank Marketing, we’ve had many opportunities to develop our content marketing and promotion skills as well as content re-purposing. It’s an essential part of an efficient marketing program.

If you’ve been successful at marketing content through infographics, what promotion tactics worked best? What additional ways do you think infographics could be useful on their own or as part of a coordinated content marketing effort?

Profile of a twitter user Infographic courtesy by GDS Infographics, on Flickr

About Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of TopRank's B2B Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he's the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on B2B marketing topics including content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he's likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Comments

  1. David Polykoff says

    Great article Lee! Infographs are a wonderful visual tool.  They get the reader involved in the information and they’re much more attractive at times than putting all that data in a long paragraph.

    A great example of using infographs is “100 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts, & Graphs” on hubspot.com

    http://www.hubspot.com/charts/?source=email-100-awesome-marketing-charts-p-l-20110518

    As you say  “Content isn’t great until someone shares it.” Having those Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, etc plugins under your infograph makes it effortless for your content to get shared.

  2. Tamara Gruber says

     Thanks Lee for the list of places to submit infographics.  These also make a great resource for thinking of new ways to present data by looking at other examples.  

    • leeodden says

      Thanks Tamara, a lot of it is thinking about how to deconstruct media and re-appropriate or customize for different channels. The same tips apply to video, powerpoints, etc.

  3. Mher says

     Thanks for the post, i was just about to have a brainstorm session on how to promote our new info graphics.

  4. Steve says

    Thanks Lee for sharing this great of quality information with us. You said and I quote “If you are interested in creating great infographic content and need advice on how to promote, here are a few ideas:’ I would love to add the following; ‘hire an expert link building service provider to do it for.’ There are many ways to build back links and infographic is amongst the top ones.

  6. Bo Kauffmann says

    Very nice post.  It made me go out and search for a graphic designer who can create these infographics for me.  You’ve given me a whole new set of ideas on how to promote my business

  7. Raylene Wall says

    I appreciate these tips very much!  Seems like many of them can be applied to other types of posts, as well, and I am glad to have some new ideas.  Thanks for sharing!

  8. Boknowshomes says

    Hi Lee. Can you suggest a “reasonably priced” info graphic creator?

    • leeodden says

      That’s a great question. There are many do it yourself guides out there, just search Google for them. Otherwise, I think a nice list of infographic-savvy designers is a great idea. If/when we compile that, we’ll post it here.

      In the meantime, look at some of the infographic sites I’ve listed above and note those infographics that stand out to you. Many designers include their name in the graphic. Find those designers who have done great work and check in with them for rates.

  9. Jodi Bakken says

    Thanks for the tips! We are rolling out a pretty cool infographic and looking for ways to get the word out! Happy New Year!

  10. Simon says

    I would add that when emailing submissions to an infographics site, spare them the long-winded explanation of your back story or campaign, and let the infographic speak for itself inside a short and sweet message.

  11. Anonymous says

    Some sites allow you to submit infographics yourself, directly onto the site (i.e. no need to write an email). Visually does this, which is listed above. Loveinfographics.com is not in the list above but also offers this service for free.

    • Emily Watson says

      This is for infographics that stick to the topic of SEO / Websites only 🙂

  13. Alexandrea Day says

    ProxyLead offers wider distribution through technology. You simply insert a thumbnail of your Infographic into the InfoSharing Widget and it will rotate across publisher sites that are related to your keyword selection. Sharing buttons included – contact us to get started – http://www.proxylead.com