Truth be told, I had never even heard of full meal and snackable infographics concept before I actually read an article published in the August 2012 issue of CCO (Content Chief Officer) magazine.
Based on the interview of Leslie Bradshaw, the co-founder of JESS3, a company that produces exceptionally creative data visualizations (infographics). [Here is Search for nominee infographic created by them using Google search results for insights into political pulse of the internet.] and Eloqua’s Blog Tree, the author Clare McDermott threw light on the concept. Here are a few excerpts from that.
Nowadays, it seems as if you’re not contributing anything substantial or coming up with something creative and exceptional if you’re not publishing infographics as a part of your content marketing campaign. Of course, it’s a high level technique but online marketers are expected to provide something unique to their audience that can be consumed quickly, without putting much effort.
Elaborate Meal vs. Snackable Bites
Leslie says that you can’t feed everyone with the same meal. Different people have different understanding levels and some want to have full meals (complex infographics) while most are interested in snackable information (simple infographics). She makes it clear that high-level infographics are for educated audience and are not good for the consumer audiences. By educated audience, she means to point out at that segment of people who is deeply involved in the matter and knows in and out of it and wants to have detailed info. On the other hand, consumer audiences are those who are only interested in the crux of the matter or end result. What attracts them the most is the simple infographics along with short and bold statements.
According to her, the infographics with just one or two data points are called data graphics. They are a collection of not more than two points or are a snapshot of a complex and big content, which are digestible in just few seconds. When producing data graphics, marketers focus on producing many small meals instead of one full meal to feed the masses on regular basis through their social media channels. The aim is to apply the same budget to produce many small chunks of quickly consumable meals instead of providing them with an elaborate meal.
What Works Better – Complex or Simple Infographics (Full Meal or Snacks)?
Well, it is difficult to say what works better or which of these has the supremacy over the other. However, it purely depends on who you serve or who your target audience is. If you solely deal with end consumers that data graphics (simple infographics) with one or two data points at a time work best. The reason being, they are easily digestible and the readers do not have to put much effort in drawing the conclusion. A good example of this type is Pinterest. With the help of pictures, the platform helps businesses or marketers provide short and quickly consumable information to their customers. Twitter and Facebook are other such platforms where most people are interested in small bites of content or information.
On the other hand, if you deal with educated audience who are interested in consuming each and every detail in just a few minutes, then certainly full meals or complex infographics should be your take. LinkedIn is one such platform. However, there are companies such as American Express and Google, who have both educated and consumer audiences. So, they need to smartly divide their content marketing budget for feeding both types of customers.
Organizations need to develop their content marketing strategy keeping in mind the needs of their consumers. There is nothing one-size-that-fits-all.