Pinterest is one of the most visual platforms I have ever found. Seriously. More so than Instagram and Facebook. Yep I am 100% serious. Now not to confuse you, because more often than not I am told by clients or those I talk to that they think that Pinterest is a social media platform. Let’s just set that record straight. It isn’t a social media platform, it actually is a search engine much like Google. I like to refer to it as Googles prettier, younger sister. Cause well… it is. 

It is so much more than just a place to post pretty pictures, to find a recipe or a craft, or for those renovation ideas. It actually is one of the best places to market your business online. Don’t believe me? Let’s do a little test shall we? Head over to trusty google and type in a search for your niche or something your niche would look for. Now look at the results. I promise at least one of them will be from Pinterest. 

Insane? Yep. 

So now that we know that it is a great place to market just about anything, just how do we do it? Well the key to getting seen on Pinterest is really in the art of the pin. There are four key elements that really make or break a pin, and we are going to cover them all!

YOUR IMAGE

First and foremost is going to be your image. It is what makes your audience stop in their tracks and want to click, save or even visit your link. So pictures, pictures and more pictures that are beautiful and awe inspiring that match your topic are going to be gold here. 

Remember this platform is all visual, so it is image based. Pinterest also favors ones that are vertical as opposed to horizontal ones. Another great tip for the platform is images without faces do better than ones that do, so bear that in mind when you are creating. Most images have an overlay of some sort, and some sort of text, which you can make sure matches your post and your branding. 

I like to create a set of templates that makes things super easy and slick for myself, so the sizing is set, the blocks for text are there and all I have to do is update the image and the wording. It saves oodles of time when you have it all set. 

When you are creating your text, make sure it is readable, clear and large enough that it captures attention but not so large that it overshadows other information on the pin. 

Bear in mind that a good majority of users on Pinterest are mobile users, so make them mobile friendly and ones that are going to interrupt that scroll. 

If you don’t have a bank of images, don’t fret! You can use things like Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels and even Canva to create your masterpieces!

YOUR TITLE

You want an equally show stopping title to match that amazing image you just pulled out. So make sure it is something that makes them stop, take that second look, dig a bit deeper and click on over! You want to make sure it is almost cliff hanging, like they just *HAVE* to know what else is coming. However, make sure you deliver. There is nothing worse than clicking over on something only to find that what you were promised just wasn’t there. UGH. 

Remember that these little titles are searchable on Pinterest so make sure that you use keywords here so that they pull when your ideal audience is looking for that subject matter. So say I wrote a post all about the amazing desserts at Disneyland (hello churros…) I would want my title to be something like ‘The 10 best desserts at Disneyland’. 

Making sense?

YOUR CAPTION

Ok, this is where the rubber hits the road – metaphorically speaking. We need to make sure we are doing everything we can to make that caption convert our readers. You get 500 characters to take advantage of here, and well… you might think that is alot, but the truth is it is gonna go fast. 

You want to squeeze all that goodness in there. So give them a preview of what they are going to get if they click, use those keywords to make sure your pin pulls in searches, and make sure it is interesting cause why would they click if you are boring?? 

I cringe when I see people ignoring this section… you can do so much with this! Don’t ignore it! 

YOUR URL

Ok, if you gained nothing else from this post… please please take this one piece of advice. Make sure your URL is in a few places with your pins. There is nothing worse that working hard on this content, creating these beautiful pins, sending them into the pintresvere and then… nothing. 

First up, make sure that your URL is on your image somewhere. It doesn’t need to be that specific link, but just the plain URL so in case for some odd reason the URL gets broken, they can search their way back to you and look for that article. Trust me, I have had people find me that way. Worth it. 

Second, make sure when you upload into the platform that the URL is working and valid. That way the pin starts it’s life on the platform with a pretty beautiful connection. Hopefully it doesn’t break, but at least we did our part. 

Third, you can drop that link in the bottom of your caption, again just the generic so it can be found there as well. We want to make it as EASY as possible for someone to find their way back to our site to gain that info. 

PHEW.

That was a lot of info! I hope that you were able to gain some tips and tricks to help you work your way into amazing success on creating amazing pins on Pinterest! 

Let me know in the comments what the best tip was for you!