What are free infographic templates, and why do they matter?
Most businesses understand infographics are an effective method of expanding their reach. Infographics make it easier to process information and are highly shareable. This can help with brand awareness and SEO via natural backlinks.
Even with the importance of infographics, they can be incredibly daunting to make. You have to figure out how to display the information. You also need to understand which formats are the most appealing or the easiest to follow. All of this makes them challenging to create.
Using free infographic templates makes this process much easier. You don’t have to worry about designing the infographic or determining the right amount of empty space. You just have to put your information in the template. This saves a significant amount of time with similar results.
What is the significance of an infographic? — What is a free infographic template?
As mentioned, infographics will expand your reach and make your information easier to process.
The following images are portions of an infographic from Visme on the importance of infographics, featuring some useful statistics on how this type of visual representation can help your business.
Some of the key takeaways from these statistics and a compilation on HubSpot include:
- Adding visuals to instructions increases productivity by 15%.
- 40% of content creators indicate original visuals maximize engagement.
- 32% of marketers feel visuals are their most important content type.
- 65% of brands include infographics in their marketing.
- Visuals increase readership by 80%.
- Using infographics or other types of colorful imagery can boost sales by 80%.
- Infographics can increase web traffic by 12%.
- Consistently creating visual content is a major challenge for 43% of content marketers.
- 44% of marketers say creating an infographic is at least a 7/10 on the difficulty scale.
By using free infographic templates, you can take advantage of all these benefits without having to worry about creating the graphic from scratch.
Companies very commonly use infographics as part of their marketing strategies. In this use, they can increase visual engagement, improve online content, drive interest, and summarize key points from another document. Get creative and include reviews in your infographics to deliver social proof.
Infographics aren’t just limited to marketing, though. Some companies use them internally for training. Scientists sometimes use them in research articles or to share data. Organizations can use them to raise awareness about a cause. Include them in your emails or messages to improve engagement. The possibilities are endless.
How do I make an infographic for free? Major trends influencing free infographic templates
If you want to make an infographic for free, one option is to start from scratch. You can open a visual program, such as Adobe Illustrator, and start to create the graphic—this is relatively complicated, though.
The most common method of creating one for free is to use one of the many free infographic templates available online. There are many options, but we included some great templates, so you don’t have to search high and low.
What is the best free infographic maker? The individual pieces of free infographic templates
When looking for the best free infographic maker or template, you will want to consider a few factors, such as:
- Size and ability to adjust dimensions.
- Level of customization, including text, colors, images, and more.
- Format and compatibility.
- Whether it can fit the information you need to display.
- Whether you have enough information to make use of it.
The following are some of the free infographic makers you can find online.
Keep in mind that many of the above infographic templates include both free and paid options. As such, pay close attention to pricing.
How do I make an infographic template? Making your template vs. Using a free infographic template
If you don’t want to use one of the many free infographic templates available here or online, you could always make an infographic from scratch. However, this tends to be a time-consuming and complicated process.
To start, you will typically want to be comfortable using something like Adobe Illustrator or a similar program. Otherwise, you will struggle to make an infographic that looks professional.
While creating an infographic from scratch is possible, beginners will typically want to stick to our free infographic templates or other infographic makers. As you gain more infographic experience, you can increase your level of customization. Maybe you will eventually feel comfortable making one from scratch.
How to make an infographic — from scratch vs. Templates
Whether you choose to use an infographic template, you will still have some planning to do. You need to determine the audience and goals of your infographic. From there, you can come up with a topic and start gathering and organizing information. Be sure to fact-check all your data and know where to cite the sources.
From scratch
If you are making the infographic from scratch, you will then have to think about how you want to visualize the information or data. You will have to plan everything, including the wireframe. This part will include a quick sketch and trying various organizational methods. You may want to grab flashcards or something similar, so you can visually reorganize it.
From a template
If you are using a free template, the process is much easier. Just choose a template and organize your data into it. It will take a fraction of the time. Ideally, you’ll still adjust the style somewhat, as this helps your infographic stand out.
Pros and cons of making your infographic from scratch
Creating an infographic from scratch delivers more control and a higher level of customization. You can include anything and everything you want.
Custom infographics also have a higher chance of being shared, thanks to their uniqueness. This gives you the chance to watermark the infographic and drive web traffic.
At the same time, making an infographic without a template takes a lot more time. You will have to figure out how to organize the information, choose your colors, find and choose images, and complete everything yourself.
Pros and cons of using an infographic template
As with a template for anything else, using an infographic template will make your job much easier. You still get some level of customization, as you can choose colors and graphics. But you don’t have to start from scratch.
This makes templates much easier for those who are new to creating infographics and anyone who wants to produce the content quickly. Using a template takes advantage of the idea that you shouldn’t reinvent the wheel. Why put in more work when perfectly fine templates already exist?
There are a few downsides to templates. The first is that your infographic will not be unique or stand out from the crowd as much. This may make it less memorable and can decrease its shareability.
Templates are also not ideal for every situation. If you have a hard-to-communicate concept, it will typically be better to customize an infographic. Forcing a hard-to-understand concept into a template can lead to people not understanding the information you present.
How do I make an infographic in Word?
While programs like Adobe Illustrator have more features to create unique infographics, not everyone has that program or is familiar with using it. The good news is that you can use Word to make an infographic.
To do this, you will want to use the SmartArt feature under the Illustrations section in the Insert tab.
Once there, you will have your choice of graphics that you can insert into Word. Choose one that works for your planned infographic.
Once you choose your diagram, you can adjust the text and colors. Go back to the previous steps if you want to add more graphics to your infographic.
This makes it possible to create your infographic in Word. However, it is still typically easier to use an infographic template or a program like Adobe Illustrator.
Conclusion: why you should care about free infographic templates
Every company should be using infographics as part of its marketing strategy. Creating highly shareable content in an infographic can expand your presence on social media and your overall brand awareness.
You can also use infographics internally to clarify ideas to team members or present relevant data in meetings. Infographics can also help your employees absorb more information during training.
While you could create an infographic from scratch, there is no need to do so, thanks to our free infographic templates. They save you time while still offering a high level of customization. Use that time on other tasks or to better plan the information you’ll include in the infographic.
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