Maybe you’ve heard about all the traffic people are getting from Pinterest and you’re wondering – how can I get some of that – without adding to my already too-long to-do list?!?
The secret to Pinterest marketing success is simple – it’s about the images. Yup, it’s all about the design, the text overlay, the description, and even the quantity of images you create!
The best news is that you when you learn to create high-performing images for Pinterest FAST, you don’t need to have a huge backlog of content to see results. You don’t need a degree in design. And you DEFINITELY don’t need to spend hours and hours on Pinterest marketing every week for it to pay off.
Let’s get down to how to make irresistible Pinterest images in seconds. It’s so easy, you’ll be an image-creating machine, taking over the Pinterest feed with image after image that Pinners are powerless to resist!
It’s part art, part science, all fun! Remember, people are on Pinterest to open to new ideas and products and are excited to find inspiration as they search and browse. Pins help people decide what to do and buy next – planning their best future, sure, but looking for items and ideas to help improve their day-to-day lives TODAY.
Pinterest analyzed over 21,000 Pins across several verticals to look at over 25 attributes on each (whether it had a logo, whether the Pin shared a new product, etc.) to find out what was consistent across Pins that generated awareness, email signups, and online and offline sales. What they found can help you create the perfect Pin.
Check out this beauty by Smucker’s!
Whether it’s a product photo you’ve taken yourself, images from a custom lifestyle shoot, or the perfect stock image, the background image for your Pin sets the stage for success – literally. If you’re selling a product, you’ll want to feature it prominently, but probably won’t want to use all product images on a plain white background. Try putting them in a real-life setting, photograph it from different angles, or simply show someone enjoying it in their lives.
If you’re selling a service, you’ll often have to be a bit less literal in your image choice. For instance, it may be tricky to try to visually represent something like tax services, or a blog post that will promote your services. However, in this example, the Creator thought about their audience (bloggers) and created something that would appeal to them and used a strong text overlay to convey their message!
Pinners love the platform and often cite the fact that it’s an oasis from the negativity of social media as one of the top reasons it’s their “happy place.” It’s a place people go to look for inspiration and ideas. Make sure your images foster those feelings.
This Pin has me ready to pack my bags!
While 98% of Pinterest searches are unbranded, Pinterest consistently reports that subtle branding increases overall Pin effectiveness. While no reason has been given to explain this effect, it could be that seeing that brand name prepares the person clicking on the Pin for the site they’re about to visit, builds trust and awareness, making them more likely to take action on the site.
Show people how to use your product or service. Show it in use in real life; and whenever possible, tie in a connection with an event, season, or an everyday moment – like dinnertime with family, homework with the kids, or starting your workday.
Since most of your Pin description isn’t visible in the feed, let people know what your Pin is about with some helpful text on your image. Give them a reason to click.
Did you know that Pinterest reads the text on your images?!?! It’s true! So, make sure to incorporate keywords on your image.
And while Pinterest can read your text, make sure humans can as well! Skip the curly, fancy fonts and stick with easy-to-read text while using plenty of contrast with the background. Remember, most people will see your Pin on mobile where script fonts can be hard to make out.
Pinterest has provided clear guidelines:
It’s easy to see why you’d want an image that is portrait aligned rather than horizontal – they just look better and take up more room in the feed. The quest for more real estate in the feed has lead to some verrry tall, or “giraffe” Pins, however. Pinterest determined that those didn’t provide the best user experience, and so has either truncated most of those extra-tall images or prevented their distribution.
Make more. 🙂 Pinterest gets specific about what they’re looking for when it says,
“You should create new Pins linking to your claimed accounts at least once a week. Consistent, ongoing activity is the best way to build a dedicated audience on Pinterest.”
For those of us strapped for time, the good news is that “content” can just be a new Pin on Pinterest!
Isn’t one enough?
I know, I know. When you hit “publish” on a blog post, the last thing you want to do is spend MORE time thinking about it. But you know as well as I do that your content is only valuable if people see it! In fact, many professionals suggest you spend as much time or MORE promoting your content as you do creating it.
Fortunately, creating multiple Pins for each post or product can be quick and easy, and there are compelling reasons to do so!
“When it comes to increasing content mileage, solving traffic problems, and keeping Pinterest happy, images offer the highest ROI when compared with other, more labor-intensive tasks.” Tina Gammon, Creative Director at Simple Pin Media shares her reasons
That’s right, the easiest way to multiply your Pinterest traffic is to multiply the number of new Pins for each page or post on your site or blog!
For a while, we were told that simply changing the description on a Pin would make a “new” Pin, possibly increasing your opportunities for exposure and distribution. Many people consider a “new” Pin to be anything other than a Repin. While it can all seem rather confusing, the actual answer is quite simple.
A new Pin is a new image/URL combination. So, you could make 10 images for one blog post or product listing and have 10 new Pins! Or, you could make 10 new blog posts with an image for each and have 10 new Pins. I think it’s pretty clear which is easier to do!
A new image for an older post can breathe new life into your content on Pinterest and bring in more traffic, too. It’s not simply the result of giving Pinterest what it wants (new Pins!) either. New designs can appeal to different people, giving your content a better chance at attracting the all-important click!
For example, Jessica Boschen of What I Have Learned took a post from way back in 2015 and created a new image for it. Her new Pin has generated over 10,000 visits to her site in the past 30 days, compared to a (still-impressive) 2,000 clicks!
Original:
New:
Tina and and Simple Pin Media team noticed something very similar in one of their client’s results. Here, the original Pin got 779 clicks, but when they save the new image, it received 5.5K clicks in the same time period. That’s an increase of over 600%!
Original:
New:
And remember, Jessica and Simple Pins’ client enjoyed meaningful traffic increases from creating just ONE Pin. You can create as many as you like!
Naturally, you want the best return for your time spent, so you’ll want to choose carefully which content gets a fresh new Pin (or five). Here are three different methods to try:
Tina at Simple Pin Media says they use Google Analytics to look at winners and losers for traffic. If a post or page is doing really well, they capitalize on that trend with a new image. If the piece never really took off or the traffic is sliding, they’ll make a new image to try to revive it. Here’s an image they tested for a client. Can you guess which performed better?
(The one on the right!)
Jessica of What I Have Learned has a different approach. “I chose posts that were seasonally popular in the next month (back to school). I knew these posts had gotten a lot of traffic in the past.“
Here at Tailwind, we’d be interested in creating new images for content that we know encourages people to sign up for a free trial. Whether that content is a week old or three years old, if it still works, we can give it new life and new traffic with a new Pin image!
The answer is…as many as you reasonably can! But it also depends on the volume of content you have and your publishing schedule. For example, if you have 10 blog posts and you only publish one new post a month, creating 4-5 images for each post will keep you adding something brand new to Pinterest every single week. Consistent activity is a signal Pinterest watches for and rewards with greater distribution.
If you have 300 blog posts or product listings, you might just choose the ones that convert the best or the ones that are most relevant this time of year and create 1-2 new images for each.
Tailwind Tip: Add the variations on your seasonal Pins to SmartLoop and they’ll get shared at the best times each year without you having to remember to do anything!
Going forward, if your publishing schedule is say, once a week, aim to make 2-3 images for each post and share them a week apart (remember to schedule with Tailwind!).
Jeff Sieh, of Manly Pinterest Tips says, “Since Pinterest mentioned that they want new content, we’ve initiated a “Fresh Pins Strategy” at KimGarst.com
For every blog post, we create at least 5 different variations on the image, as well as the Pin description, then use Tailwind to schedule out those Pins using interval Pinning. At the same time, we pick which image we think will work the best and add that to our Tailwind Communities. All these Pins are tracked with UTM codes and the versions that perform the best are added to Tailwind’s SmartLoop to Pin evergreen content throughout the year.”
Very smart!
Don’t feel like you need to start from scratch every time. Some savvy Pinterest marketers have image templates on hand that they can reuse for every single post. And you don’t always need to start from a completely different main image, either. You could:
The idea here isn’t to “trick” Pinterest into thinking you have a new Pin so they’ll increase your content reach – it’s to present your content in a fresh, new way that inspires people to click.
Pinterest does look for continuity between Pin image and the images on your page, so you might find you have better results if you stick with a similar style or color scheme, but test it out for yourself!
Jessica says, “So far, I have always used a new base-image, of some sort. I want the image to look entirely different. In the future, I may consider using older photos as the base-image and reworking the elements around it.” For example:
As we discussed, a new description on an old image doesn’t make a Pin “new,” but some people like to try new descriptions when creating new images for content. While this doesn’t allow for a true “A/B” test, it could help you get found for different key words, or the call to action you use in the new description might prove to be more motivating than the last.
Tina is a big fan of templates, saying, “We currently have ten templates in play for Simple Pin Media Content. These branded templates make it super easy to test both a new image and Pin copy (separately of course – one element at a time!) in a relatively small amount of time.”
Speaking of templates – we’ve created a bunch to give away as part of the Perfect Pinterest Pins Toolkit. In it you’ll get:
Haven’t tried Easil? It’s a super-easy drag-and-drop editor we think you’ll love. Here’s how to remix an image using image editing software Easil.
There IS, in fact, a magic formula to creating irresistible Pinterest images that drive traffic:
So, what do you say? Have a few seconds to make great Pins this week? Grab our Perfect Pin Toolkit! We’d love to see what you do with the templates – please share a link to your creations in the comments!
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