Does your blog get much traffic from Pinterest? If not, you might be missing the boat! With over 70 million users, Pinterest is creating more referral traffic for websites and blogs than Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or YouTube. Source: Copyblogger
Since Pinterest is all about collecting beautiful images, let’s talk about how to make yours most appealing so your post can be a pinned and repinned traffic driving animal!
There are 3 types of images that we create and at least one, and often all, will appear in every post we do.
- The Beauty Shot
- Pinnable Image
- Story Board Image
Let’s take a closer look at each of these.
The Beauty Shot is going to be the picture that really shows off the project, tip or topic you are discussing in the post. Since it is all about the visual, you obviously want this to be an attractive image. Try your hardest to take your picture during the day with natural light. This will help your photo be well lit, the colors stand out, prevent weird color casts, and help the background to be even and natural.
- Brighter images are repinned 20x more often than darker images
- Images with <10% background receive 2-4 times more repins than images with >40% background.
- Images with multiple dominant colors have 3.25 times more repins than single dominant color images
Source: Hubspot
I try to make the beauty shot vertically. Vertical pictures work more naturally with the way Pinterest is set up. They take up more real estate on the Pinterest Feed giving more of the screen and chance for attention to you!
Set the scene. Make the picture interesting with items that compliment the subject of the photo. For example, we recently posted some printable lunch box notes. Instead of printing out the note and taking a picture of it sitting on the table, I pulled out a lunch box, a piece of fruit, a napkin, a water bottle and some chips. It gave the photo, much more color and dimension, as well as filling the background to create interest!
When you compose the photo, make sure that you fill the frame with your scene. Don’t just have a tiny subject that is overtaken by the background.
and always… I mean ALWAYS, include your URL on that image.
The Pinnable Image is an absolute MUST if you are doing DIY, recipes, tips, or tutorials of any kind. All this means is that your picture will have text added to it that describes the pin. Having a pinnable image allows you to tell all the people who see the pin on Pinterest exactly what YOU want them to know about it regardless of who pins/repins it and what is written in the description box.
For example, I posted a recipe for homemade croutons. If I hadn’t included a pinnable image when it appeared on Pinterest, people would just see a pretty salad. However since I made a pinnable image, now everyone who sees this pin will see a pretty salad but know that the post is about how to make scrumptious homemade croutons! Be creative and pique people’s interest with descriptive titles and yummy adjectives.
and always… I mean ALWAYS, include your URL on that image.
Another great thing that a pinnable image allows you to do is make a post pinnable even when you don’t have a photo. On a post I wrote about things I wanted to do for my kids every day I chose to just make a text graphic instead of leaving the post with no photo. Now my post can float around Pinterest and drive additional traffic to our site.
You can create pinnable images with or without pictures easily with any photo editing software including PicMonkey, which you can use for free!
The Story Board image is a series of images that tell the story of how to do something or describes it. Right here I am telling the reader that this is everything they have ever wanted in a cookie using a story board image.
This story board from another post that has been popular on Pinterest shows how to prep baby finger foods. You want to give the story without giving away all the details so the readers will still click through.
I have no fancy statistics to share with you on this one. Just my own personal experience. I find that in posts I include a story board image in, people choose this image to pin over any other image in the post (including the pinnable image) about 80% of the time.
Case in point, this is a screenshot from our Pinterest Analytics showing that 4 out of the top 5 most clicked posts from Pinterest are the story board pins.
I have to assume that this is because it engages a reader by telling a story, and again as above, takes up more valuable real estate on the Pinterest feed.
I use PicMonkey to easily add my photos into their collage maker and position them vertically to get the most bang for my Pinterest buck!
and always… I mean ALWAYS, include your URL on that image.
In case you are wondering why I keep repeating and always… I mean ALWAYS, include your URL on that image, it’s because there are people out there who will steal your awesome image and link it to their site. Once a pin starts to become popular these people will take all of your hard work and use it for their gain. Also, at times pins just end up heading to the wrong place. By always having your URL on your pictures people who pin will know where the original source is.
Yes, you can just put your logo or site name, but I like to make it as easy as possible for people to find me. The easier it is the more people will find me, so I just spell it out for them. Literally!
I hope you enjoyed the tips I shared with you today! What tips do you have for increasing your Pinterest appeal?
Kimber is one of two mamas pin testing, crafting and creating recipes at The Pinning Mama. She’s an engineer by trade but a hopeless right-brain by practice. She loves God, her family, food, photography and most anything that is pink, sparkly or dark chocolate. Connect with her on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, Bloglovin, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
Such great tips – totally pinning this post!
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