Copywriting tips for visual content: How to write infographics, explainer videos, & more
April 16, 2026
Copywriting is everywhere. Some of it’s outstanding, some of it’s off-putting, and some of it manages to be both. But how much of it actually works? How can you tell when your copy is supporting the story you want to tell and when it’s just taking up space?
Effective copy doesn’t just sit there on a billboard, website, Facebook ad, or bumper sticker. It encourages people to take action or inspires deeper understanding. For either of those things to happen, your message has to matter to your audience.
It also has to catch their eye. After all, most people read copy by looking at it, so supporting your content with compelling visuals is essential.
Today, we’re talking all about effective copywriting for visual content. We’ll cover some basics that apply to all kinds of copywriting, then dive deeper into how to write for some of our favorite types of visual storytelling.
Check out our video guide to great copywriting and keep reading for more tips and resources.
Six principles for writing visual content
So what makes writing for visual storytelling different from writing other kinds of content, like blogs or web copy? Today, we’ll consider six principles for effective copywriting through a visual lens.
- Clear copy lays the foundation for effective visual content.
- Concise copy makes the most of short attention spans.
- Compelling copy get readers invested in your story.
- Hierarchy gives your story structure.
- Brand voice showcases your personality to increase personal connection.
- An eye for design ensures your visuals have maximum impact.
Our first set of principles are what we call the three Cs: clear, concise, and compelling.
1. Clarity
The first step in writing clear copy is understanding your audience. If you’re speaking to industry experts, you can assume a certain level of background knowledge. But if you’re writing for newbies, you’ll need to slow down and define terms as you go. Always meet your audience where they are.
Use plain language
One way you can do that is by steering clear of jargon. Just because you know your lingo doesn’t mean your reader does. And even if you are writing to industry experts, keep in mind that simpler words are faster to process.
Prioritize accessibility & understanding
Clarity is also crucial for accessibility in visual content. You can enhance clarity with short, simple sentences. Short sentences are easy for readers to follow. Their meaning is usually clear. It is easy to ensure they’re grammatically correct. Of course, having too many short sentences in a row can sound monotonous or choppy, so make sure you vary your sentence structure to keep audiences engaged.
Readability tools like Hemingway Editor can help you spot overly long sentences or complex phrasing. These tools can give you a sense of your overall reading level, but one of the best ways to test clarity is also the simplest: Read your copy out loud. If you trip over a sentence, your reader probably will too.
Write with visuals in mind
Finally, remember that visuals enhance clarity. As you write your copy, look for opportunities to use diagrams, charts, illustrations, and other visuals to add clarity to your content.
Let’s look at this example from Lemonly. We created this infographic about employer-sponsored health insurance to help folks understand their insurance benefits more easily. Since our audience included people new to health insurance and its various costs, we defined each one and provided brief explanations of when these costs are actually paid. That clear, consistent structure provides readers with the necessary vocabulary to understand the rest of the infographic. Once the basics are clear, the more complex information feels manageable.
2. Concision
Next up: Concision. Concise copy can help you eliminate unnecessary, excessive, superfluous, and extraneous language. Vague, unclear, or ambiguous copy is repetitive and redundant, plus it makes your writing appear sloppy and messy. (See what I did there? In other words, concise copy is clear and to the point.)
Focus on a single idea
The trick to writing concise copy happens before you ever set pen to paper or fingers to keys: Choose one, clear, specific idea to focus on for each piece of content you publish. Every sentence should support, clarify, or connect back to that core idea. If it doesn’t, cut it.
Every word in your copy also needs to earn its place. Filler phrases like “in order to” or “it’s important to note” only add to your word count, not your message. Again, it’s helpful to read your copy out loud — if you can remove a word without changing the meaning, you probably should.
Use concrete language
You should also eliminate vague language. Words like “great” and “innovative” sound, well, great, but they don’t communicate anything concrete. Instead of ambiguous adjectives, try specific examples. What makes your product great? How is your new technology innovative? Replace empty adjectives with details that show rather than tell.
Write in active voice
Finally, use active voice. In active voice, the subject performs the action of the sentence — think “The woman wrote the book,” instead of “The book was written by the woman.” Active voice keeps your writing energetic and direct. It also defines who’s driving the action, so you get bonus points for clarity.
Speaking of driving, let’s take a look at another infographic example. This “Golf for Beginners” infographic explains the rules of golf in clear, concise language. Sentences and phrases range from one to 10 words, so audiences can find all the information they need quickly. The breezy, punchy tone also allows our brand voice to shine through, and keeping the copy concise meant we had plenty of room for visual elements that help convey information.
3. Compelling
To round out the three Cs, we have compelling. Compelling copy makes your audience want to consume your content. And content worth consuming starts with stories that matter.
Write to tell a story
Your copy should tell a story, not just share facts. Whether you’re writing an infographic, a social media post, or a video script, think about the human element behind the information — the stakes, the emotion, the “why.” Write with purpose and write something you’d want to read.
Highlight benefits, not just features
Next, tell your audience what they want to know, not just what you want to say. Audiences engage when they see what’s in it for them. Answer “Why should I care?” before they even have to ask.
You can encourage your audience to care about your message by focusing on benefits over features. Features describe what something is. Benefits explain how it helps your audience. A feature says, “This software has built-in analytics.” A benefit says, “You’ll save hours every week tracking performance.” The difference is subtle but powerful — one lists information, the other makes it meaningful.
Focus on the audience
Finally, make sure your audience is the hero of your story. Take this “Clue”-themed video about the importance of checking your home’s water pipes for lead. We created it for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, but they’re not the focus of the video. Instead, our hero character is the person who takes the steps to check their pipes for lead. Focusing on people also made this piece a lot more interesting to design and animate — the fun central character and clever theme are delightful and add a more human element to the video.
So, we’ve covered the three Cs: Clear, concise, and compelling copy lays the foundation for a meaningful message. Our next three principles cover visual and stylistic choices that make your message stand out and pair perfectly with design.
4. Hierarchy
A clear and consistent hierarchy is crucial because it helps you organize your copy in a logical order, and it helps your audience understand how ideas are connected.
Organize and connect your ideas
Think of hierarchy as a roadmap for your reader. Headings, subheadings, body copy, and bulleted lists all signal which information is primary and which is secondary, so use them strategically.
Your headings should guide readers through the main ideas, while subheadings and bullets break information into manageable chunks. Remember that most people won’t read every word you write, so prioritize skimmability. Make sure the most important ideas stand out as headings, bolded text, or are accompanied by a visual that draws the reader’s eye.
Use consistent, sequential heading styles
Consistent headings matter, too. Always use heading stylings in order — don’t jump from a heading one to a heading three without including a heading two. This structure is especially important for accessibility. When content is properly nested, screen readers and other assistive tools can easily navigate and interpret it.
Structure your content for skimmability
Let’s take a look at this infographic about the benefits of flexible work. There’s a lot of information packed into this piece, but it’s organized intuitively. Three central questions guide the reader through the piece, and the information is further broken down into subcategories using bulleted lists, bolded text, and large visuals that break up the content. That makes it easy to pinpoint the most important ideas and decide where to skim the rest.
5. Brand voice
Next, let’s talk about brand voice — the personality behind your words. Your vibes and values should shine through in your tone, not just in what you say, but in how you say it.
Leverage emotional appeals
Think about how you want your audience to feel when they interact with your brand. Should they be concerned for your cause? Excited about what’s next for your organization? Empowered to take the next step on the customer journey? Let those feelings guide your word choice so you strike just the right vibe.
Use rhetorical devices & wordplay
Rhetorical devices are great tools for adding voice to your writing and making it more compelling. Alliteration, rhyme, and onomatopoeia can all enhance audience retention when used correctly.
When I’m brainstorming ideas for wordplay, I turn to a few trusty resources, including a thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, idiom dictionary, and a related words guide.
These are all great for finding that word that’s on the tip of your tongue or coming up with a fun headline that plays on a common phrase.
Align your visual style with your brand voice
And brand voice isn’t just about your writing. Your visuals should align with that personality, too. If your brand looks sleek but sounds silly, or looks playful but sounds serious, the result is off-putting. And remember: personality should never come at the expense of clarity. A descriptive headline is almost always better than a clever one — but if you can hit both, you’ve struck gold.
Lemonly did just that with our Wild West-themed annual report infographic. This infographic is chock-full of puns and personality. Finding ways to address the audience in cowboy lingo, incorporating rodeo slang, and adding alliteration throughout the piece help us tell the story of our year and give the audience a chance to get to know Lemonly’s vibe as a company.
6. Eye for design
For our last principle, let’s talk about writing with visuals in mind. That means thinking like a designer even if you’re not one.
Consider what can be shown vs. said
As you write your copy, ask yourself: What can be communicated visually instead of verbally? Maybe it’s data that could live in a chart, a process that could be shown in steps, or an emotion that could come through more powerfully in an image than a paragraph. The goal isn’t to describe everything; it’s to decide which elements belong to the words, and which belong to the visuals.
Collaborate between content & design
Collaborate early and often with your design team. Share your ideas, your narrative flow, and your most important takeaways so they can design around your story — not just decorate it.
Let’s consider our Beginner’s Guide to Formula 1 infographic, for example. We wanted to tell people what makes F1 cars unique, but that doesn’t mean we have to verbally describe all of the features and specifications that make these cars stand out. Instead, we can rely on illustrations and diagrams to convey the information in record time.
(Side note: If you like this infographic and want to see how we made it, check out our video.)
Content writing best practices for visual content
Next, let’s look at how these copywriting principles apply to a few of our favorite types of visual content, including infographics, microcontent, animated videos, and presentations.
Infographics
Lemonly is the home of the world’s best infographics, so we’ll start there. When you write an infographic, remember that bullet points are your best friends. They give designers visual flexibility and help readers skim.
If you’ve seen our previous video about how to make a great infographic, you know how important it is to keep your infographic narrow in scope. Focus on one topic, one audience, one goal, or one clear next step. Infographics often fit into larger campaigns, so make sure your CTA connects to the bigger picture.
Finally, infographics are ideal for data visualization. When it comes to data, don’t just drop numbers. Explain what they mean and collaborate with your designer to choose visuals and copy that clearly convey the key takeaways.
Check out a few infographic examples that feature data visualization:
Microcontent
Microcontent is a perfect choice if you really want to highlight just one idea for your audience or tease a larger piece. This is where brevity really shines. Microcontent should be ultra-focused — one quick idea, one clear message. Think visually: colors, keys, icons, and even data viz can do a lot of talking for you.
Your audience might only look for a second before they scroll, so make that second count with a clear, compelling headline. Decide what has to go on the image versus what can live in the caption. Keep it light, clean, and instantly understandable.
Check out a few microcontent examples of that pack a punch in a small size:
Animated videos
For short, animated video content, start strong. Hook your audience in the first few seconds with curiosity and energy, and write with a keen sense of rhythm. Short sentences and varying structure will go a long way in keeping your pace dynamic.
When writing video content, you also have to think about animation and transitions. Every visual shift needs time to breathe, so plan for transitions carefully.
While you might not be the one designing and animating your video, you should have specific visuals in mind while writing the script. If you can’t think of a visual that could accompany the text, a designer might struggle, too. Consider grounding your video with tangible concepts and human stories that might be more engaging for your audience.
And always, always read your script out loud. If it doesn’t sound natural read aloud, it won’t feel natural as a voiceover.
Check out some animated video examples that explain and entertain:
Presentations
In general, presentations need less text and more focus. Your audience should be listening, not reading — so give them just enough copy to guide their attention and reinforce your key ideas.
Clarity and pacing are everything here. Keep your headlines short, your bullets tight, and your visuals meaningful. One idea per slide is a good rule of thumb. If you find yourself shrinking text to fit it all on a slide, that’s your cue to simplify or split it up.
Use signposting to orient your audience — simple transitions, section headers, or visual cues that show where you’ve been and where you’re headed. A clear flow helps people stay with you from start to finish.
And remember: Slides are the supporting act, not the star. They should highlight your message, not repeat it. Let visuals amplify your story while your voice does the real storytelling.
Check out some presentation examples that balance breezy content with clear visuals:
Clear copywriting with a visual lens
There you have it — our crash course in writing for visual content! We covered six principles for effective copywriting, along with some specific tips for writing infographics, microcontent, animated videos, and presentations. No matter the format, the same rules apply: Be clear, be concise, be compelling — and let visuals do what they do best.
If you want even more tips on how to write great copy for your next project, subscribe to the Lemonly Lowdown and check out our YouTube channel for more video tutorials.