While content marketing strategies that include virtual reality and video are obvious showstoppers, statistics show there’s a more accessible visual tool that’s just as powerful: the infographic.

Infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than a complete article, according to Venngage, and they are the second most-used visual.

An infographic is a visual representation of information, containing elements such as images, text, charts, and diagrams to help readers more quickly and easily take in the information.

Forbes recommends infographics as an affordable content marketing strategy that can help creators squeeze more out of other types of content.

For example, turning key information from a webinar into multiple infographics that marketers can continue to share over a period of time.

This type of content boosts readers’ attention span and remembrance by 82 percent, according to Xerox, and content in color is 39 percent more memorable.

Infographics also are “liked” and shared three times more than any other content on social media.

When used in conjunction with other types of content, infographics also have the ability to drive more eyes to the content.

According to HubSpot, blog articles with infographics produce 178 percent more inbound links.

Since infographics are more readily shared by readers, content agencies more often link their blog posts to articles that have visuals because they are more interesting to their readers.

As a result, these articles containing infographics receive more views.

Statistics show that infographics in color produce particularly strong results. This content more easily prompts people to action, such as instructions for payment, and helps people find information 70 percent faster.

While infographics appear simple, there’s a lot that goes into this type of content, experts say.

Content creators must be intentional about the types of information they are trying to share, and have a specific goal in mind.

According to Forbes, some of the best methods for creating good content include:

• Keeping a journal handy for ideas
• Having a well-organized plan for all content pieces
• Measuring whether each piece is effective with the intended audience

Infographics are commonly used to summarize blog posts or reports, outline steps of a plan, simplify a process, or share survey data, according to marketing experts.

If a company wants to make infographics a larger part of its content marketing strategy, it can be helpful to hire an experienced graphic designer or work with a content marketing agency for resources and support, experts say.

However, marketing experts say it’s possible for a team to get started on their own by using infographic templates or building the graphics in simple programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Canva, or Piktochart.

Experts recommend brands trying out new types of content carefully measure the results in order to gauge what their audience wants more of.