The Secret Strategies to Successful Infographics

So you want to create an infographic?

Here's the inside track on how the top dogs in the field make amazing, viral infographics.

I always say that the future of brand marketing is content, not ads. At Sharethrough, we're the first ad technology company built exclusively for content, not traditional ads, focused primarily on the distribution of social video content.

Looking beyond just video at other "content not ads" mediums, infographics are compelling, easily-produced, and often highly impactful. If you're a startup, a brand marketer, or a media company, infographics are an amazingly effective way to communicate new information in a quick, visual, and potentially-viral way.

So how do you make an amazing infographic?

In this post you'll find:

• The 3 Best Companies to Hire for Infographic Design

• The 5 Best Startups that Use Infographics for Marketing

• The 10 Places to Get Inspired by Infographics

WHO TO HIRE TO MAKE AN AMAZING INFOGRAPHIC

Tell any of these companies that I sent you and they'll treat you well. :)

1. JESS3™

Jess3 is a creative agency that specializes in data visualization. These guys freaking rock. Founder Jesse Thomas is a fast-talking, quick-thinking, uber-passionate creative genius who intimately understands content, communication, and viral.

Jess3 is the enterprise-grade infographics manufacturer for companies like GE, Google, Facebook, Yahoo,

They've got a great blog going on data-visualization and infographics.

I can guarantee you're in good hands here.

Website: http://jess3.com/

Contact: hi@jess3.com OR 571-213-4308 OR http://jess3.com/contact/

They make amazing stuff like this:

(download)

And this:

2. Column Five Media

Column Five Media is an agency/production company that "creates exciting visual content -- and ensures people actually see it." These guys are legit.

They create great infographics for companies like GE, Sony, Intuit, Flowtown, KissMetrics, Hunch, and Mint.

Website: http://www.columnfivemedia.com/

Contact: jlankow (at) columnfivemedia (dot) com OR on Twitter OR their website.

They make amazing stuff like this:

(download)

3. Visual.ly

Visual.ly just launched last month, and is going to be a serious force in this industry. Founded by the former VP Marketing for Mint.com (notorious for their virally-amazing infographics that now help drive 1M pageviews a month to their blog), Visual.ly is poised to own the brand infographic space. I'd definitely put my money on these guys.

Visual.ly's launch video:

Website: http://www.visual.ly/

Contact: Stew Langille on LinkedIn or Twitter

THE ORIGINAL GANGSTERS OF INFOGRAPHIC MARKETING

Here are my favorite companies that use infographics as a core marketing strategy:

1. KissMetrics

Hiten Shah is an inspiration to lots of aspiring entrepreneurs. Put him on your radar if he's not already. KissMetrics has done a great job with viral, shareable, "insidery" infographics.

(download)

2. Mint

Mint.com is the OG when it comes to infographics promoted via the corporate blog. Check out some of their amazing data visualizations here:

(download)

Not just infographics, but they make great data-visualization videos too (this one also produced by Column Five Media, above)

3. Flowtown

Cofounders Ethan Bloch and Dan Martell are serious social media gurus. Flowtown is a pretty early-stage startup still, but their infographic strategy is big-league baller.

(download)

4. GOOD Magazine

Good Magazine makes the most consistently professional infographics on the web. Check them out and get inspired.

(download)

Click here to download:
the-secret-strategies-to-creating-successful-infographics-bHIaFAHpBetsjFdJfaBc.zip (1.37 MB)

5. OK Cupid

Quite a departure from the rest, OK Cupid makes some pretty racy, eye-opening, data-driven infographics…about sex and dating. For example, check out this data that shows iPhone users have more sex than Android and Blackberry users.