The consensus within the social media marketing community is clear: Use images in your content! You don't have to use images all the time, and you don't have to get out there with a camera to produce your own artwork. But adding a visual element to your content is a must in this age of social media. Of all the types of images you could use, an infographic is one of the best.

Infographics, which is a combined form of "information graphics," are simply graphic visual representations of data. The aim of today's infographic is to be informative, creative, entertaining, and even a little promotional. If you're looking for more leads for your website, infographics are a great
method to use.

5 Reasons to Use Infographics to Generate Leads

1. You Can Get Very Visually Creative

Infographics give you a fantastic opportunity to be very visually creative. Your best bet is to use some type of photo editing software, such as Photoshop or GIMP, as you'll undoubtedly need layers, captions, and other features that most simplistic programs don't offer.

From typical charts and graphs elements to using actual people, cartoons, and even inanimate objects, the sky is the limit when it comes to what you can do within your image. You can go wild with the colors. You can get very detailed about the scene you're creating, like a comic strip. If you want to stretch your wings visually, infographics provide the opportunity. Appealing images gain a lot of traffic.

2. Infographics Play Well in Almost Any Setting

Another reason to use infographics to attract leads is that they play well in a wide variety of post types. If you wanted to create a static page with an infographic representing your brand or offering deals to new signups, then you could easily tweet or post and link the image. Even if you're only using it to promote a certain aspect or a limited-time deal, it still plays very well in any type of backlink.

Blog posts are also a perfect place for an infographic. If you need material, an infographic can take up an entire post and can be used indefinitely for a sporadic link inside of a new blog post.

3. They Make Fantastic Landing Pages

Getting people to click-through and visit your landing page is a hard enough task as it is. Having a landing page that's just a bunch of words on a screen makes it even more difficult to convert those clickees into actual leads. With an infographic, you can display in a fun, clever way the reasons a person should sign up for your services, your newsletter, or whatever else you're using to garner email addresses.

Your infographic could also illustrate how easy the process is and what the person has to gain by taking a few moments to sign up with your brand.

4. Infographics are Multi-Purpose

If ever you have any information you want to get out to your audience, an infographic acts as the perfect vessel. They're truly multi-purpose pieces of material. Do you want a cool, engaging promoted post on your Facebook page? You can use your ad-management app and really get a lot of leverage out of an infographic. What about a simple graphic illustration of how your latest contest works and how people can enter? Infographics can make it interactive and fun.

Ads, regular posts, backlinks for tweets and status updates – you can even take each segment of the infographic as a standalone photo, put them in a slideshow format, put some music overtop, and create a short promo video. You can get tons of mileage out of this one idea.

They're also multi-purpose in what you can display on them. QR codes, coupons, affiliate links, etc.; the option is yours as to what you want to print.

5. People Are More Likely to Share Infographics 

P2P marketing is vital for your success in a social setting. To that end, people spreading your brand around to their friends is something you must strive for. A regular image or a funny meme gets a little traction, but a high-quality infographic pays off in a much larger way.

Not only do your fans get the appeal of a cool, fun image, but they're also receiving vital information. So when your infographic is shared, the people receiving and who ultimately choose to become leads are far more likely to end up as customers – and they're more likely to share that material with others.

Whatever you're doing to attract new leads, be it a contest, an ad, a newsletter or any other method, you should think about the power of visual representation and consider creating a unique, quality infographic as a more engaging way to spread your message.

Author Bio
Simon Campbell, a writer from a Facebook ad campaign tool – Qwaya. He loves to write different topics about social media and participates in some communities and forums. If you have more social media marketing questions, feel free to ask Simon on Twitter.