Ken Barhoover, marketing manager for Park Place Technologies, uses content marketing to make his company stand out on the web. His company publishes news articles, white papers and other forms of written content that drive search standing and help attract relevant site traffic. To stay on top of web audiences’ growing demand for visual content, Barhoover recently opted to add infographics to his content marketing strategy, and the company has seen a variety of benefits.
“Link building is something that we’ve struggled with at times. In our industry, it can be difficult to create something that drives people back to our site. Infographics give us a type of content that is interesting to different audiences.” – Ken Barhoover, Marketing Manager, Park Place Technologies
Adding a touch of color to site content has helped Park Place liven up how it presents information about data center hardware maintenance, which Barhoover suggests isn’t always top of mind for customers and prospects. Beyond engaging site visitors, he says colorful and, more importantly, relevant infographics discussing industry trends have promoted the brand’s visibility by acting as linkbait for the site.
“Link building is something that we’ve struggled with at times,” Barhoover said in an interview with Brafton. “In our industry, it can be difficult to create something that drives people back to our site. Infographics give us a type of content that is interesting to different audiences.”
Barhoover said the graphics also fuel sharing on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Offering content that users want to share with their friends and colleagues results in more inbound links, social advocacy (or word-of-web referrals) and an improved overall web presence.
In the past, Brafton has highlighted comments from marketing experts that praise the benefits of infographic marketing. However, it’s important to create quality infographics that explain relevant trends, while adhering to the same editorial accuracy standards applied to other site content.
“Infographics can help appeal to the audiences you’re targeting,” Barhoover said. “But there are so many of them appearing on the web that it can’t just be an infographic for infographic’s sake. There are some out there that are poorly done.”
Whether it’s bad fact-checking or hidden, irrelevant links in graphics, any infographic that isn’t created with the intention of bringing relevant information to prospects can hurt a site’s position on the web. (Matt Cutts, Google’s distinguished engineer, said earlier this year that the search leader has taken notice of poorly made infographics.) Park Place invests in research for graphic content and works with experts to create infographics the company is proud to share internally and with prospects. Barhoover believes the brand is rewarded with a strengthened identity that attracts and impresses prospects.
“There are copies of our infographics in every cubicle in our office,” Barhoover said. “For our prospects, not everyone we speak to wants to read a white paper start to finish, so visual content helps target different people more effectively as well.”
