The design of your pins can really effect your success on Pinterest and the traffic to your site. So if you’re not using Pinterest, or not sure what it is listen up. Firstly if you are not using it, you are missing out on a boat load of potential traffic. Whether you are a hand-made maker and or seller or one to one services it can work for you. Pinterest isn’t like most social media platforms, it actually encourages people to click off the site and onto yours. Pinterest pins can live forever and you can still gain traffic 6 months after posting, unlike instagram and ticktock. So really you gain far more for you efforts…hopefully I don’t have to persuade you anymore!
I would like to talk to you about specifically Pinterest pin designs. I’ve been using Pinterest on and off for a couple years to promote my business, i do know a few things. I’m no Pinterest manager or expert, but I do know a heap load about good design and what specifically about works and what really doesn’t. In the Pinterest space, the number one is gaining someone attention. You will be competing against a lot of other pins on the feed, so really how do you pins sing the loudest than the rest and actually get clicked on?
Common Scale Issues in Pinterest Pins
The most common mistake when it comes to creating Pinterest pins is scale. Scale can be difficult when you are creating something on adobe or Canva, because usually we are a lot more zoomed in, working on a laptop screen. Therefore, we believe certain types of fonts and scale of text are simple and easy to read. But it is crucial to remember that your pin will not be this size when published. It will be scaled down and sitting amongst a sea of other pins. So if even if your text is fairly large in editing, zoom out and make sure that the scale of text is actually readable. Whether that is on laptop feed or mobile size screen. After publishing if the text size on your pins feel right when viewed on the app, then make a note of the size text you used and stay consistent. Is text size that important? Really yes, if someone has to quint at your pin for a couple seconds they’ll feel friction and slight frustrations. Meaning they will be more likely to stop giving your pin more attention and move. I don’t want you to spend all this precious time creating pins, and simple not be clicked on just because people can’t read your title easily enough.
Why Less Is Sometime More With Layout
Being a typical designer I drawn to minimal, clean and simple layouts. I’m say you have to be exactly the same and obviously wouldn’t expect anyone to throw away their brand personality. However, I do think it’s time to evaluate how many element you are trying include on one Pinterest pin. Too many elements such as load of images, title, sub title, paragraph, boarder, illustration, multiple fonts, multiple colours, fake buttons etc. Too many of these at once can create this feeling of overwhelm with your reader. This is because everything within your pin is fitting for their attention, so much that they can breath. This is a fairly common mistake, that steams from a place of fear. Fearful that if they don’t add enough element it won’t be eye catching enough for people to click on. When in reality it can hinder you, and less like to give you more attention or to be clicked on.
So unless you are skilled designer or have some experience in designer done you research! You won’t really know how to arrange too many element without competing with each other. So for easy I suggest have less design element in the first place to worry about is best. Then deciding on hierarchy, by having an over load of element in your pin hierarchy can easily be lost. What is hierarchy? Really it create an order of what you want people to see and read things in. Usually you will want the title to read first. I like to create a background layer with an image and put a filter on top and lower the opacity so it is muted and fades into the background. And then i can layer on top a piece of text that pops out and this title can be bolder and spike someone curiosity. Don’t be tempted to add too many elements, and do think about the order you want people to see everything in.
The Power Of Colour In Your Pins
As just decided I liked to use a filter layer over my background image. The colour i use for this filter layer is usually a rich dark brown tone with opacity lowered. If I didn’t include this layer and slaped a piece of text straight over the top of the raw image. We would run into some major issues. Images have a contract and will usually have some dark and light tones. So whether I used text that’s black or white, there will be areas were it would be harder to read or even impossible to actually see the word it self. So we can use colour to help text to more noticeable and readable.
Colour can be a really effective tool to get someone attention. However, again using one to many different colours and or using colours that don’t compliment each other will have a less desired effect with your reader. So if your are a little unsure or unfamiliar with colour wheel, it’s time to get well acquainted with this. Colour can help you express more about your brand and even be used to help explain what topic your pin is about. For example if you have a couple of different content pillars you might talk about creativity and business. Therefore, you may decided to assign a brand colour to each. The background for creative pin topic’s are always pink and business are black etc.
Colour can be used in smaller ways by highlight a specific word within a title, to make sure your people take notices of it. You can also use small shapes of blocked colour behind specific pieces of text such as call to actions. This doesn’t just go for Pinterest pins but for all piece of marketing material. Don’t be afraid to use some colour, use it to stand out and if it’s right for your brand use it to make a statement, to look different.
Make sure you are creating Pinterest pins that will get clicked on! If you are taking the time to create such helpful blog posts, podcast episodes and or youtube videos I want your people to actually click on your pins and read! It’s horrible to fall down at the first hurdle tog et traffic towards this content. I really want your people to read title to gain curiosity and get excited about it and inspired to actually click on it! Last week I got into the nitty-gritty about podcast after year, I’ve made my fair share of mistake and I want you to save some time!If you are thinking about starting a podcast or already have one, feel free to go have a read or listen right now!