How to Master the Art of Pinterest Images

Pinterest is the ultimate visual playground for inspiration, motivation, and dare I say marketing. Smart bloggers and social media marketers know that Pinterest is the place to be to build interest in their brand and draw relevant traffic back to their websites. One way to excel in the social media space is to master the art of Pinterest images.

Mastering the art of Pinterest images has never been so easy using graphic design templates like the ones on Adobe Spark or Canva, but there are a few steps to take after you create your image to ensure that you’ve optimized your masterpiece.

In a recent Forbes article, entrepreneur Caitlin Pyle of Proofread Anywhere credited Pinterest traffic as her number one source for web traffic and a significant influence on her million dollars in earning in the first fifteen months of her business. $1,000,000 in earnings from an online business powered by Pinterest! Sounds amazing, right? Caitlin's Pinterest account has less than 14,000 followers at the publication of this article proving that you don't need to have millions of followers on Pinterest to earn a million dollars.

I hope this information helps you gain traction with your Pinterest account and brings traffic back to your blog or website.

1 Create Lasting Content

 

Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform, so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours, and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know!

This pin was created over three years ago and gets a few repins every day with the current total being over 3,000 repins!  You can easily create a quick quote graphic with the new templates that will far outshine this graphic made in 2013 PC (pre-Canva).

In fact, this pin was seen over 12,000 times since 2015. [and holy smokes is that thing UGLY]

2 Size Matters

 

On Pinterest, long, tall images command the show taking up the most visual real estate in the Pinterest feed. To create pins that generate action, Canva's template creates images 1000 pixels x 1500 pixels which is Pinterest's preferred size.. While this size might not be optimal for your blog, you can create a pin on Pinterest with your custom graphic and embed your pin into your blog post. This creates an engaging invitation to repin your pinned article.

Steps to Pin a Graphic

1. Add your custom Pinterest image with your branding and website on it.
2. Add 100 – 200 words of text to describe your pin using relevant keywords. Remember people tweet directly from Pinterest so keep it concise and compelling.
3. Add a link to your blog article or homepage in the description.
4. Edit the pin to add the link in the source.

3 Google loves Pinterest Images!

 

Taking the time to create custom Pinterest images with proper titles can help build your website traffic. Individual pins and whole Pinterest boards can rank well in Google search. When you create your image and save your image, make sure you give it a great title that will help people find your content on Google.

4 Rock the Save It Button

 

Make sure your Pinterest images are ready for the Save It Buttons.  Using Pinterest’s Save It Button Chrome Extension, a little white Save It button will hover over each pinnable image. You want to make sure you add a description on each image that you load so people can easily pin with one click.

This used to be called the Pin it Button, but Pinterest changed the name a while back.

5 Call to Action

 

A call to action (CTA) is a little bit of text asking people to take a specific next step; it’s the action you hope will happen. From Quicksprout, “there is an 80% increase in engagement for pins that contain a call to action.” You can use a call to action to ask people to share a post after they read it.

A few other calls to action:

1. Pin it for later
2. Click here for your free download
3. Register today
4. RSVP here
5. Sign up here

If you plan on promoting your Pin, don't add the call to action on your graphic – it might not be approved for promotion. You can add your call to action in your Pinterest description instead.

6 Build Your Brand

 

Include branding on every graphic that you make for Pinterest.

Your visual brand is reinforced each time you repeat your brand’s colors, logo, and style building trust over time and people become more familiar with your visual message. Great branding communicates your message and brand personality. It may take a little practice to get used to adding your branding, but the efforts will pay off over time.

I hope this gives you some ideas for creating successful Pins for Pinterest.