In 2020, research showed that 67% of B2B marketers use infographics in their marketing strategy, and almost a third of marketers claim that it’s their most important marketing collateral asset. Since B2B infographics are an integral part of sales enablement, it’s essential to design and use them to their full potential.
In this blog, we’ll highlight the following topics:
What Is an Infographic?
An infographic is a type of content marketing collateral that represents concepts and data in a visually appealing way. Many B2B marketers take advantage of infographics because they’re easier to understand for people who may not know much about the product, service, or industry.
Infographics are great sales enablement assets for data-heavy industries like MSPs because B2B marketers can use these assets to share statistics that demonstrate why their IT product or service is vital to a business’s success.
Overall, infographics have one goal: to convey as much information as possible in a single graphic that’s easy for the viewer to digest. An infographic should appeal to people that want crucial information quickly. Ideally, a person should be able to look at an infographic and understand what it’s trying to say by reading minimal text.
Benefits of Infographics for Sales Enablement
With all the different sales enablement assets to choose from, some are more effective than others. However, the choice depends on your target market’s buyer persona and where a lead is in the buyer’s journey.
Before you start creating infographics for sales enablement, it’s essential to understand the benefits they bring to viewers. B2B infographics are great sales enablement assets because they:
Catch the Creative Eye
As mentioned previously, infographics should convey a message before the viewer even starts reading the text on the graphic. When someone looks at an infographic, it should catch their creative eye and they should gain something from it at first glance. If it contains too much text, you risk turning a viewer away from the get-go. As you design your B2B infographics, remember to have more visual elements than text, encouraging the viewer to follow the content.
Pique Viewer Curiosity
An infographic should encourage readers to learn more about your company. B2B infographics should spark their curiosity and leave them wanting more. Additionally, an infographic should align with the wants and needs of potential buyers in your target market.
For example, let’s say you’re an HVAC company that’s looking for more preventative maintenance business before the weather spikes up for the summer. In an infographic for your company, you could present the benefits of scheduling preventive maintenance in the spring and explain how much money it could save if something goes wrong with an HVAC unit in the summer. This encourages readers to think about their current preventive maintenance solution and consider investing in your services before their bottom line is negatively impacted.
Establish Brand Awareness
Infographics help B2B companies establish brand awareness for potential buyers in the target market. These significant outbound and inbound marketing assets allow your sales reps to introduce themselves to new prospects in the sales pipeline and re-introduce themselves to leads that may not have been interested in the past.
How To Create a Professional Infographic Design
B2B infographics are designed to draw in viewers immediately. To create a professional infographic design, it’s essential that your designers:
Focus on Data
Like any sales and marketing strategy, data helps drive business growth. During the infographic design process, you need to develop content centered around the data. This shows viewers the impact your company or industry makes on the community and businesses like theirs.
Say you’re an LED company that wants to highlight the impact of LED lighting solutions on the environment. In this case, you can present readers with industry information about how much energy is conserved by switching to LED lighting.
Use Visual Elements to Your Advantage
Since visual elements are the core of engaging infographics, you need to use them in a way that resonates with potential buyers in your target market. For example, a marketer’s design elements for an infographic about hair care products would be different from the design elements for an infographic about commercial roofing. As you create your infographics, it’s essential that you have a firm grasp of who your key decision-makers are, what they’re interested in, and what they’d engage with. Without a complete understanding of your target market, you risk your ROI.
Make It Easy To Digest
Above all else, infographics should be easy to understand by everyone in your target market without using too much text on the graphic.
The statistics in your infographics should be relevant to the wants and needs of your audience. If you present statistics that don’t mean much to your audience, you waste valuable time and marketing efforts designing an asset with little to no value.
Additionally, it’s important that you refrain from including too many statistics on an infographic because you risk overwhelming the viewer. When you pick the data you want to highlight, narrow down your choices and make sure they align with the overall intent of the infographic.
Best Ways To Use Infographics in Marketing
Now that you’ve made the perfect infographic, how do you plan on sharing it? Here are some of the best ways you can use infographics in your marketing strategy:
Email Marketing
Infographics are excellent email marketing assets because they can be sent to new leads in the sales pipeline or older leads that you haven’t followed up with in a while. Many B2B marketers like to send infographics to leads in the nurturing stage of the sales pipeline so they can reintroduce their company and reopen the conversation.
Social Media
If you’re not using social media for your lead generation efforts, you may be missing out on significant business opportunities. By sharing infographics on social media, you can catch new prospects and connect with key decision-makers that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Website Content
Infographics can make great website content for web pages and blog posts alike. When optimized for search engines, infographics can maximize the SEO value of your website, making your content easier to find.
Trade Shows and Networking Events
While infographics can be integrated into your digital marketing efforts, they can also be used for in-person events, such as trade shows and networking events. They can be printed out as a single-sheet handout or professionally printed on a foam board to attract potential buyers to your booth.
Sales Appointments
Lastly, infographics are great sales enablement assets to present during sales appointments. Whether you’re holding your sales presentation in-person or virtually, they can be shared with leads to express the impact your company has on the community and businesses that are similar to theirs. This piece of marketing collateral could be what convinces them to convert from a lead into a loyal client.
Key Takeaways
Infographics are ideal sales enablement assets for the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey and can be implemented through a variety of inbound marketing tactics. While there are many B2B infographic best practices you can follow, it takes a team of experienced graphic designers to create marketing collateral that converts leads into customers.
As you create your B2B infographics, remember to have:
- Clear messaging
- Engaging visual elements
- Brand consistency
If you need a hand creating infographics that guide leads through every stage of the buyer’s journey, contact the graphic design and marketing specialists at Abstrakt Marketing Group!
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