Great news, business owners! Over 459+ million people are using Pinterest every month, and this number just keeps growing. At this point, Pinterest is just a free platform for you to get yourself in front of your ideal customer and turn them into paying clients. What I love about Pinterest as a marketing channel is that it helps connect your products, services and content with people who are SEARCHING for you. As a visual search engine, your Pinterest Pin designs are crucial. We are diving into how to create Pinterest Pins that convert as this is a problem so many bloggers and business owners run into on the platform.
I hear you asking – But how, Meagan?! With over 200 billion Pins being saved to more than four billion boards on the platform, HOW can you create Pinterest Pins that convert? How can I stand out or create Pins that have a better clickthrough rate?
Keep reading to find out my Pin design tips and tricks on how to create Pinterest graphics that go viral! This blog post is going to help you understand Pin content format types, what types of Pins to create and how to improve your Pinterest Pin designs. If you want a deep dive into Pinterest Pin designs, sign up to grab access to my free Pinterest Perfect Pin Guide.
What’s the Deal with Pinterest Pin designs?
Perhaps you’re like a lot of business owners or bloggers on Pinterest. You’re thinking – I don’t have time to be messing around with fancy Pins, I’m going to just upload any old image and call it a day. Something is better than nothing, right?
Not quite.
If you’re being strategic about using Pinterest to grow your business, you’ll want to pay a bit attention to the Pins you’re putting up.
Think about it: Content on Pinterest has the longest lifespan of any other social media platform (nobody’s really sure, but it’s predicted to be around 3,000 days). Compare this to a Tweet that lasts mere minutes, or an Instagram or Facebook post that disappears into the abyss after a few hours. That’s why sometimes a search on Pinterest turns up results with content posted 5 years ago or more! It’s a no-brainer where you want to be putting up engaging content that lasts. As a search engine, sometimes it can take weeks, months or even years for content to gain traction – the gift that keeps on giving.
Ultimately, for most business users on Pinterest, the main goal is to use Pinterest to generate referral traffic to their websites or landing pages. To do that, we need to understand how to make Pinterest pins that stand out. Having scroll-stopping Pins is what is going to help you Get more clicks on Pinterest – i.e. increase your Click Through Rate (CTR) on Pins. And we all know that more clicks = more conversions!
So, let’s break down the viral Pin formula that really works (with some bonus advice on improving your Pin designs)!
How to Create Better Pinterest Pins
Ever hear of the K.I.S.S principle? Keep It Simple and Straightforward. This definitely applies to Pinterest Pin design.
Remember – Pinterest is a visual search engine. That means there are two things to consider:
- How a user sees your images and perceives them
- How the Pinterest search engine “reads” your image (this is what Pinterest calls ‘visual signals’)
The best Pinterest Pin design ideas keep both of these two things in mind, and use them to their advantage.
Keep things simple and straightforward to make it easy for both your audience and Pinterest to figure out what your Pin is about, and what action you want your audience to take.
A huge component of conversion (getting people to click on your Pin) is in the DESIGN.
So let’s explore the Anatomy of a great Pin design.
The Easy Pin Formula That Works
This Pinterest layout template is a starting point to get creating your Pins that stand out and get seen. Let’s start with the obvious.
Clear Image
Pinterest is an image-based platform, so choosing the right image is critical. It needs to be clear and relevant, and attention-grabbing, so that your audience doesn’t keep scrolling but stops to focus more on your Pin. Pinterest Pin size is also important – I recommend a 2:3 aspect ratio (1000 x 1500 pixels works best)!
Text Overlay
You could stop with a great image and just upload that as your Pin, but you’d be missing out by not making full use of text overlays to get your message across. That’s where your Pin title makes a huge difference. What’s the Pin about? Use 3-4 words to explain. Don’t forget a punchy Call-To-Action too – what’s the next step for the user to take? Remember, COPY clarifies your message.
More than Just Image
But a Pin also goes BEYOND the image… and this is where you need to get creative with using keywords.
So often, we don’t pay enough attention to the Pin description – this is where you tell people what your Pin is about and use relevant keywords to ensure Pinterest understands your image so that you get discovered by users searching for your content!
Links, not Luck!
After you get your Pin all set up and ready to go, don’t leave things to luck and hope they’ll magically find their way to your website. Make it easy for them and include a Destination Link – a relevant link that takes users to where they can learn more / buy your product / sign up for your email list / DO THE ACTION! You can add destination URLs for Standard Pins and Video Pins (but not Idea Pins) currently.
Different Pin Formats for Different Folks!
Well, not really. Pinterest has a bunch of different content formats now – Standard Pins, Video Pins, Idea Pins, Carousel Pins, Product Pins (you get the idea!) … and they can all be used for different purposes. Pinterest has some great info on the best practices when creating content in all of these Pin types. As a business owner, I personally love Standard, Video and Idea Pins.
The most commonly used Pin formats for small business owners and bloggers are Standard Pins, Video Pins and Idea Pins.
Learn How To Create Perfect Pins For Your Blog Or Business For Free
This totally FREE guide shows you step-by-step how to create optimized Pins that will drive MORE traffic to your site and help you grow your Pinterest audience in 2021. This free guide dives into what you need to know for how to create Pinterest Pins that convert.
Get rid of all of the guesswork and get on this detailed guide to make better, optimized Pinterest graphics for your business.
Fair warning: You should only download this guide if you’re ready for more engagement, traffic and conversions!
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