Anna Bennett
You’ve all heard that saying “a picture is worth a 1,000 words” right? After all we live in a fast paced society where we’re glued to our smartphones, laptops, iPads where images are easy to consume. Study shows that 65% to 85% of people describe themselves as visual learners. If you’re not including images in your articles readers will most likely leave your site and you can expect your bounce rates to go higher.
Visuals help tell your story as a brand or business. It is truly one of the most vital characteristics of content marketing. On Pinterest it could mean the difference between success or constant struggle for Ecommerce businesses and publishers.
Pinterest users will tell you that this discovery tool can be addicting because of the visuals. Did you know that the average Pinterest user logs an average of 1 hour and 17 mins per month on the site compared to 36 mins on Twitter & 12.1 mins on Facebook?
As a Pinterest Account Manager one of the biggest challenges I find businesses have is deciphering what images works on Pinterest. Many struggle with where to even begin. Some skip Pinterest all together because they have no visuals or at least that is what they think.
What businesses fail to realize is that they have valuable resources that they can turn into visuals. This is what I help business figure out. For starters Pinterest is about the future and it’s really not a social media website. Pinterest is like a giant digital cabinet full of all sorts of things you want to be, have & do; so you pin the ideas (images) and save them for later.
At a recent webinar that Pinterest hosted they explained what makes a pin successful. After researching hundreds of thousands on Promoted Pins (ads) they have found that images are by far and undoubtedly the main key to having success on Pinterest.
Here are 12 keys for creating highly effective pins:
1. Multi-product shots – it speaks to different tastes giving Pinners more options
2. Text overlay – makes it obvious what the image is about
3. Lifestyle images – this helps Pinners visualize how to use your product or service
4. How-to’s
5. Lists
6. Tiled images
7. Add a logo which gives you brand recognition. Avoid block of logos which can be distracting.
8. Use Rich Pins
9. Size matters. Use vertical pins (2:3 to 1:3.5 aspect ratio) with a minimum width of 600 pixels and 900 to 2100 pixels in length.
10. Don’t use amateur images
11. Make sure they don’t look like banner ads: avoid borders or distracting text
12. It conveys helpfulness
Pinterest Marketing Expert Actionable Tips:
Look at all the images you have created to date and use this 12 step checklist to see how you can improve your images. Maximizing everything you do on Pinterest will help you not only stand out from your competition but help you get found on Pinterest’s search results.
Remember that pins live forever on Pinterest. They have a much longer shelf life than on any other social network so be mindful of that when creating your images. You want your images to serve the Pinner’s future.
Bottom line: Pins should be helpful, compelling, creative, and help Pinners to take action on what interests them.
If this is overwhelming for you and you feel like you are going around and around with Pinterest and not getting anywhere contact me, a Pinterest account management expert about my Pinterest account management services or to learn more about how you can be more effective on Pinterest check out my Pinterest Marketing Course for Business. Chapter one is free.
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