Content is a necessary aspect of modern marketing. The creation, distribution and promotion of valuable content play a fundamental role in your ability to build a brand and attract more clients to your insurance agency. But, there is a problem. Consumers are already overwhelmed with information. Furthermore, they have severely short attention spans.
It seems that our increasingly digitalized lifestyles have diminished people’s ability to stay focused. In fact, according to a study by Microsoft Corp, the average person now has a worryingly low attention span of just eight seconds – one second less than the notoriously ill-focused goldfish.
That is not to say that the writing’s on the wall for content marketing. Far from it. What it does mean is that we must use increasingly creative ways to capture our audience’s attention. One way to ensure your content marketing efforts remain relevant in an easily distracted world is to utilize infographics.
Infographic-type content tick all the boxes for what a time-pressed yet information-hungry prospect would want to consume. This type of content is typically short, visually attractive, and impactful. They are a good alternative to video and long-form written content because you can give people data and knowledge quickly and succinctly.
But aside from winning attention spans, there are other good reasons to begin using infographics – at least five more.
They’re Good for SEO
When most marketers and business owners think of SEO, they primarily consider written content. It is true that the search algorithms rely heavily on text when gathering ranking data, but other types of content can help to tip the ranking scales in your favor.
Infographics, for example, are highly shareable and linkable assets. If done well, a good infographic is likely to get shared across the web more than written text. Content that is easy to share attracts lots of attention and backlinks – both of which are good for SEO.
Great for Brand-Building
One of the essential components of brand-building is memorability. Big brands such as Coca-Cola, Facebook, and Apple have spent billions of dollars creating memorability. It’s the reason that Coke is one of the first drinks to come to mind when we get the urge to drink soda; or why Facebook is now synonymous with social media as Apple is with smartphones.
But it is not all about spending huge sums on marketing. Sure, they have huge marketing budgets, but they utilize a medium which any company can leverage, that is visual media. Through visual content, you can impact people faster and more powerfully than text-based content.
That might have something to do with the fact that we have only become accustomed to text within the last 4,000 years, while communication has existed for over 30,000 years. It suggests that we are hard-wired for visual communication.
An infographic is a self-contained communication piece. Like a billboard or poster, infographics are designed to deliver information quickly. The mostly visual aspect of this type of content makes it ideal for creating brand memorability. You can incorporate your distinct agency colors, logo, text, and slogan so that people eventually start to associate great visual information with your brand.
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Perfect for Social Media Marketing
Infographics are the ideal type of content for social media marketing. In a world of fast information, fleeting “likes”, and instantaneous “retweets”, visual media takes precedence over text-heavy content. Social media is often mocked for its affinity with funny cat pictures and cute baby posts, but therein lies the key to successfully marketing your insurance agency.
The reasons that cat memes and pictures of newborn babies work so well on social media are the same reasons that infographics are ideal for content marketing campaigns; they are visual, easily absorbed, and shareable.
People like to share content with their peers, but few have the time to read lengthy social media posts. With infographics, you can give them the same amount of information but presented in an easily digested, visual way. An infographic can be humorous, data-heavy, or helpful – depending on your goals.
One of the most common uses for infographics is to share data and statistics – things which would bore many people. In infographic form, the information can be presented in a way that is appealing to most people. That means more readers, more shares, and more people interested in what your agency has to offer.
Engage and Drive Traffic
So, by now it should be clear that infographics can play an important role in your content marketing. They’re perfect for social media, useful for search engine optimization, and they fit people’s need for fast, visual information. But like all content, there should be one primary purpose behind your use of infographics; to encourage engagement and drive traffic back to your agency website or insurance offerings.
How you do that is not as straightforward as it is with text-based content, where you can simply create hyperlinks. Infographics are solid images, so it is not always easy to include hyperlinks in the content. That means you must utilize the space around the infographic.
For example, when posting to Facebook, there is a section where you can leave a comment. After adding your infographic, it is a good idea to use the comment section to write a simple call-to-action. You can also include a link back to your website or your contact details. Here also, you will need to get creative because the call-to-action can be the difference between someone following your brand or never paying attention to you again.
With a powerful call-to-action, however, the infographic could spark a positive chain reaction. People read the information; become intrigued; engage with the post in some way (i.e. comment, like, retweet), and then head to your website to find out more.
Good Return on Investment
Written content is still a vitally important factor in content marketing. But, success demands variety. Infographics are another option to add to the toolbox, and they serve to attract a different group of people who might otherwise not have engaged with your insurance agency.
One of the most interesting things about infographics is that they have the potential to get far more organic reach than, say, a blog post. That potentially means a better return on the time and money you invest. It’s about time you started leveraging the power of infographics for your insurance agency.
