Why is nobody sharing my infographic?

Marketing agencies love infographics. They’re an opportunity to bring together the disciplines of web design, branding, search engine optimisation, social media management and PR in a creative and shareable format. The best infographics can travel all over the internet, picking up media attention, social shares and natural links – the gold standard of a successful marketing and outreach campaign.

However, for every infographic that successfully goes viral, there are dozens that are doomed to languish unshared and unloved, a disappointing waste of time and resources for all involved. So how can you ensure this fate doesn’t befall your project? There’s no failsafe solution, but you can significantly improve your chances by avoiding these common pitfalls.

Boring subject matter

The first question you should ask when brainstorming an infographic is “who cares?” Because no matter how quirky, creative or innovative your design might be, if the headline doesn’t tell a compelling story, there’s no reason for anybody to share it. The format is great for transcribing potentially dry stats into a digestible visual medium, but it can’t turn an essentially boring piece of data into a fascinating hook on its own.

Underwhelming design

An infographic is an excellent opportunity to let your web designers really stretch their creative wings – so let them! Very few viral infographics succeeded by playing safe. Generic, overused images like pie charts and percentages are going to be a tough sell in a crowded market. Use them sparingly, and look at other visual methods of telling your story.

Badly-written copy

Just because the infographic is an essentially visual medium doesn’t mean you can skimp on copy writing. Turning your findings into a compelling headline is the first step to getting people interested – and if your copy is flat, boring or riddled with spelling and grammar errors, you’re going to undermine all the hard work you’ve done in other areas. Think of your infographic as a collaborative project, and an opportunity for all of your creative employees to showcase their best work.

Lack of focus

In the heat of creativity, it can be all too easy to let your ideas run away with you. In order to add maximum value, an infographic still needs to come back to something related to your business objectives – whether it’s talking about a product or service you provide or telling a story that’s relevant to your industry. Even if your infographic does go viral, the benefits will be fairly minimal if nobody remembers who created it and why.

Bad timing

Sometimes, even the most well-realised infographic will fail to take off simply because it was released at the wrong time. You may be unfortunate enough to be scooped by a similar story, or the landscape may change in between conception and delivery. In many cases, they simply miss their window of opportunity. If you’re working with multiple stakeholders, getting sign-off from every party can be slow, so allow yourself plenty of time to get your project ready for launch, especially if the subject is likely to have a very specific period of relevance – such as a seasonal campaign or something relating to the new school year, a general election or annual budget announcements. If you’re going to invest time and resources into getting a project off the ground, it makes sense to give it the best possible opportunity to succeed.