Pinterest is a platform that’s perfect for showcasing products. So it’s no wonder businesses that want to increase their sales are flocking to Pinterest for marketing. Pinterest marketing can be a successful way to get people interested in your product. However, it’s important to have a strategy and pin with purpose if you hope to gain the most return on your time.
There are a few things to be aware of when it comes to efficient marketing practices on Pinterest. To learn how to improve your Pinterest profile so that it gets noticed and drives traffic to your website, continue reading! If you use my easy strategies, you’ll have perfectly curated boards and pins that your audience will love to share!
Make Pin-Worthy Images That Stand Out
Beautiful images are the most important part of a successful Pinterest marketing strategy. You’ll want to give people a reason to take a second look at your content and to click on it. To create click-worthy pins, you’ll need two things :
- Great (or at least decent) design skills.
- High-quality product photos.
Design Tools
If you’re confident in your own skills, feel free to make your own pins. You can take your own photos and use a simple graphic-design tool to create beautiful pin images. Some of the more popular tools include Canva, PicMonkey, Stencil, Adobe Spark, and Photoshop.
Personally, I use Canva to create my pins because it’s so easy to use. You can start with the free version of Canva and see how it works for. If you decide to upgrade to the paid version of Canva, you can try it free for 30 days. Here are some of the awesome features that come with the upgraded Canva Pro account:
- Unlimited folders for your designs
- The ability to resize your designs
- Upload and use custom fonts
- Set color palettes that match your brand colors
- Organize your photos with folders
- Download designs with transparent backgrounds
- Export designs as animated GIFs
High-Quality Images
Stock photo sites I’ve used that do not require image attribution (giving appropriate credit to the photographer) include Death to Stock, IvoryMix, KaboomPics, Negative Space, Pexels, PicJumbo, Pixabay, SplitShire, Unsplash.
The biggest issue I find with using free images is that everyone else can use them too. When you create a pin using a free stock image, Pinterest may have a hard time figuring out what your pin is about.
For example, I will pick on myself for a minute. This is one of the first pins I created a few years ago. I grabbed this free stock image because I thought it represented the topic I was writing about.
When I do a visual search from my pin on Pinterest, I get results for all pins that are like mine. To do this type of visual search, you have to click on the little box in the lower right corner to bring up the “Visually similar results”.
The results I see are not only about my topic, creating a workout routine, but it also shows pins that are about the dangers of PCOS treatment, how to care for yourself, and how to be a badass mom. See how we all used the same image for very different topics?
This confuses Pinterest because it’s not sure who to show your Pin to based on the image alone. Don’t worry, your pin title, description, and the board you save the pin to will still tell Pinterest what your pin is about. I’m just saying that using a widely available image makes it more difficult for Pinterest to figure out what your pin is about. And we don’t want there to confusion around our pin images.
If you’re not good at designing graphics, you might want to hire someone to do it for you. This is a service that I’m currently offering my clients. If this is something you’d like to outsource, check out my Pin Portfolio to see some of my designs.
Use Preferred Pin Sizes
Pinterest has verified that it is best practice to pin vertical images that are taller than they are wider. The recommended aspect ratio is 2:3 for pins. Aim for image sizes that are 2 units wide x 3 units tall, like 600 x 900 pixels or 1000 x 1500 pixels, for example. Here is a chart showing you other dimensions (in pixels) that represent a 2:3 aspect ratio.
Keep in mind that pins that have an aspect ratio greater than 2:3 might get cut off in the feed. If your pins are too long, this may keep people from seeing your full pin
Enable Rich Pins
Rich Pins are incredibly useful for businesses because they benefit users. Rich Pins provide more detailed information directly on the pin, making it easier for users to know what your content is all about.
Applying for Rich Pins
There is a setup process involved to apply for Rich Pins, but it’s easy to do. Follow Pinterest’s step-by-step instructions and you should be approved in no time. And the good thing is that you only need to validate one URL from your site in order to apply for Rich Pins across your entire website. If you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, your webmaster should be able to help you if necessary.
One other thing of note is that if you have metadata for multiple types of Rich Pins on your website, the type of pin that appears on Pinterest will be based on their priority. Rich Pin data is prioritized as follows: 1) App Pins, 2) Product Pins, 3) Recipe Pins, and then 4) Article Pins.
Types of Rich Pins
As mentioned above, there are four types of Rich Pins that you can choose from – Product Pins, Recipe Pins, Article Pins, and App Pins.
App Pins
App Pins include an “install” button on them. The user can install apps without even leaving Pinterest. This increases the likelihood that users will download your app due to its ease of use.
Product Pins
Product Pins are for shoppers who want to have a seamless buying experience. This type of rich pin gives users information on where to buy the product, its current availability, and real-time price.
Recipe Pins
Recipe Pins are a cook’s dream. These rich pins list ingredients, serving sizes, and cook times directly on the pins. This info can help someone make a decision about whether they want to read the full recipe or not.
Article Pins
Finally, Article Pins are great for readers because they include a headline and description of the pin’s content all in one place. This reduces the chances of a user clicking over to an article only to find out it wasn’t what they expected.
Repin From Others
It cannot be said enough how important it is to give back when using social media. So be sure you’re repinning valuable and relevant content from other users. To get started, type a term or keyword related to what your business offers into the search bar. Look for pins that are attractive to the eye and come from active accounts.
The idea is to pin content that is complementary to yours and valuable to your audience. This shows your audience that you care about them and want them to have a positive experience. Share pins from accounts that pin consistently and are active on their own accounts. You want to share pins from those who produce quality content.
Create Several Brand-Relevant Boards
Make it easy for your followers to find what they’re interested in. You should create a “Best of (Your Blog)” board as a place where you save only your own pins. If someone wants to see what you offer or what your brand is all about, this is a great place for them to start before heading to your website.
But don’t stop pinning your own pins there! You’ll want to pin them to many other brand-specific and general topic boards. Pinning to several boards increases the chances of more people seeing your content.
Let’s say I’m a food blogger and I have a business called “Rachel’s Healthy Eats”. I would create a board called “Best Recipes from Rachel’s Healthy Eats Blog”. This is a board where I would save all of my own pins and nothing else.
Next, I would create several other brand-related boards to which I can save my pins as well as other’s content. If I create a lot of healthy recipes, I would do a search on Pinterest. I would start by typing in “healthy recipes” into the search bar. The results will show me other associated keywords that people are searching for with “healthy recipes”. When I do this, I see the following results:
These keywords give me several ideas for more boards that I can create: Healthy Recipes for Weight Loss, Easy Healthy Recipes, Healthy Dinner Recipes, Healthy Recipes on a Budget, on so on. This gives me more boards to save my own pins. By using popular keywords in my board titles, the chances that my boards and pins will show up in other peoples’ smart feeds and search results increase because I used terms that are popular.
In a nutshell, use simple but popular phrasing for your board titles. Be sure to include keywords that are actually being searched for by users and are also associated with your brand.
Brand Your Boards
As mentioned above, you will want to optimize your Board Titles and Descriptions to make them SEO friendly so they’re found by keyword searches. But you can also customize the look of your Pinterest boards, to a degree. Using your brand’s color scheme you can give your boards a visual appeal that matches your brand’s image.
One easy way to pull your boards together with a cohesive look is to create cover images for each board. There’s been a lot of discussion among content creators as to on whether having branded board covers is beneficial or not. Most typical Pinterest users do not go to individual profiles to browse accounts as a whole. More than likely they see a pin they like in their smart feed and either pin it for later or click-through to the website to learn more.
Here you can see how Cate Rosales, from Sweet and Simple Life, brands her boards. For her board covers, she uses her brand colors in the background and then overlays keywords that match the Board titles.
Another example of an account that uses board covers comes from Megan Johnson, from LoveFamilyHealth. Instead of using colored backgrounds, she uses different images, but still overlays matching keywords to her Board titles.
I say that if you like to have a cohesive look to your profile, there’s no harm in creating board covers. You can use any of the design tools mentioned earlier to create an image that is square. Louise Meyers recommends using images that are 600 x 600 pixels in dimension. She is an expert when it comes to visual marketing and keeps her Social Media Cheat Sheet Sizes up to date. If you’re ever unsure about what size image you should use on any social media graphic, be sure to refer back to her cheat sheet!
Use your brand colors, fonts, logos, or other identifying traits to brand your board covers. Then all you have to do is go to the settings for your boards and add the graphic as the cover of each designated board.
Be Thankful
It’s always good to recognize those who have interacted with your brand. For those who’ve pinned your posts, you can add a note of thanks in the comment section of your pins. Be sure to tag them so they see your comment. You can also send a direct message. Be sure to do this in a way that is not considered spam, but genuinely helpful or appreciative. You can also send a short message to thank customers for making a purchase or offer a unique discount code.
Remember, your goal as a business should be to serve others and offer as much value as possible. This builds trust and creates loyal customers.
Improve Your Pinterest Profile Today
These strategies will have you on your way toward increasing your Pinterest engagement in no time. There will always be other tricks of the trade you can put in place later, but these are enough to make a difference without overwhelming you. Have fun with the process and enjoy the social interaction with your new followers.
Need a fresh set of eyes on your account? I offer account audits and account cleanup. I will take a deep dive into your account and suggest small tweaks that will make a positive impact on your Pinterest strategy. Take a look at my Pinterest Account Audit & Cleanup Package and let’s talk about how I can help improve your Pinterest profile today.
