Meet Elle McCann, the designer behind Jam + Toast, where budget brides can get creative and affordable options in wedding stationery. She's a lot like you. She's a one-woman-show that's navigating the waters of marketing her small bridal business online. And, recently, she's stumbled on something that works like a charm: infographics. So I asked Elle to share her story and shed a little insight on what makes this trending visual media so powerful when marketing to brides.

Kathy DalPra (KD): How long have you been experimenting with infographics?

Elle McCann (EM): I have done two infographics so far and try to space them out to have one every two months. This way it gives me enough time to market it and hopefully reach the most brides. Infographics also take some time to produce so giving myself two months to create them also help me great the best illustrations and display the graphics in the most appealing way.

(KD): What kind of results have you seen so far using infographics in your wedding business marketing?

(EM): My goal for using infographics has been to increase traffic to my blog and increase my social presence on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. I want to be seen as a resource for brides who are trying to stay within a budget for their wedding. After my first infographic, I reached a record 2,000 visits to my blog that week and gained over 100 new Facebook fans. I also noticed that people didn’t just look at the infographic post but they also stayed on my blog and looked at other posts like DIY decorations and commented and shared those. 

(KD): What are your favorite places/sites to post your infographics? Where do you host them?

(EM): I host my blog on my own hosting so to reach my goal of driving traffic to my blog, I will post my infographics on my blog. I then will start to share on my social media sites and contact a few of my contacts in the wedding industry about my infographic. I have noticed that other wedding industry professionals are really willing to share your content if it is good quality because it also helps get their name out there. 

As far as posting them on other sites, I have found a few good infographic directory sites like http://dailyinfographic.com , http://visual.ly and http://www.coolinfographics.com but some of them do cost money to have them featured. Also you can contact bigger wedding blogs about your infographic and see if they will share it with their brides but also some of them cost money as well.

(KD): Are there certain types of content that get some infographics more attention than others?

(EM): My business focuses on affordable wedding invitations and printable wedding invitations for a bride on a budget. Through my research of my target market, I have come to find out that my typical bride is very budget conscience. So to appeal to her all of my infographics deal with budget and how to save money.

My first infographic I did was on the costs of weddings by region and the budget breakdown (http://jamandtoastblog.com/weddings/wedding-budget-statistics/). I got a lot of feedback on it and it spread quickly on Pinterest. I think it was really interesting for brides to see how much the area cost was and then compare it to how much they spent.

My second infographic was on the top hidden wedding costs and tips on how to avoid them (http://jamandtoastblog.com/weddings/top-hidden-wedding-costs-infographic/). I had actually done a post about a lot of the same information months before and it didn’t really seem to get notice. The main thing I realized was that it didn’t have any pictures so I decided to turn it into an infographic. It was amazing to me how many people commented on it and shared it now as an infographic vs. a regular post.

(KD): What tips or advice can you give to someone trying infographics for the first time?

(EM): My advice would be to take your time and don’t try and rush the process. It can be tempting sometimes to just hurry and get something done but if you take your time, do your research and give yourself enough time to create the infographic you will have much better results. It’s about quality not quantity. So instead of doing an infographic a week and just throwing things together, work on one better quality infographic a month and it will get viewed and shared more.