Pinterest Marketing Expert Explains How To Create Images To Get Noticed On Pinterest?

Updated September 2018

Pinterest Marketing Expert Reveals How to Use Pinterest for Business: How Do I Create Images That Stand Out & Get Noticed On Pinterest? 

Nothing communicates as effectively as a picture…after all a picture is worth a thousand words. Visual content marketing has become the most powerful form of storytelling that a business can offer their target audience. If you can’t say it in words show an image.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have gone on the record that pictures are the key attributes to getting more shares and views.

Our brains love visuals and processes images 60,000 times faster than text. Here are a few compelling facts according to Ethos3:

1. Social media users are 40% more likely to share visual content than other types of content.

2. Infographics can improve website traffic by 12%. This infographic (as shown below) was created with the free infographic maker, Venngage.

3. Visual content receives 94% more views than written content.

Social media users love to consume visuals. Unfortunately for many marketers and bloggers, creating attention-grabbing images has been a challenge. And if you’re just starting a new business on a shoe-string budget, outsourcing your visuals to professional graphic artists may not be something you can afford.

One of the BIGGEST mistakes I see in blogs and articles is that the writers do not include images. There are two reasons why you should always include images in your blog posts:

1. Your audience is more engaged and that means the higher chance that they will read the entire blog post. Visuals are so critical that if you don’t have them in your blog posts readers will most likely bounce off quicker.
2. It gives you an opportunity to provide more information. Visuals are just easier to consume.

It’s unfortunate because I come across great articles I want to share on Pinterest but there’s no image! So I can’t share them. Not only that, but when images are included they are too tiny and are not even pinnable.

According to 2016 B2C Content Marketing Trends visual content is a priority for B2C content creators.

5. 90% of the information your brain receives is visual.

6. 65% of people are visual learners.

Pretty images works wonders on Pinterest but a lot of it is science and art as well. Creative that works on one social network won’t necessarily work for the other. You need to have a game plan for each network. For example, Facebook and Instagram your text overlay should be no more than 20 percent of the ad image while Pinterest on the other hand has no limitations.

If you don’t get your images right on Pinterest you’re not going to get people to notice. If they don’t notice you they won’t save or click through your images. Your audience doesn’t know about what they ultimately discover behind your images. So if you have a really great blog or product that will help them improve their lives BUT your images doesn’t make that obvious then you will struggle and wonder why Pinterest didn’t work for you.

How to Use Pinterest for Business: How Do I Create Images That Stand Out & Get Noticed On Pinterest? 

For Ecommerce here are 33 proven ways to dramatically improve the performance of your visual content to get more traffic and sales:

1. Design vertical images aspect ratio of 2:3 to1:3.5 and a minimum of 600 wide x 900 pixels long. Please don’t make your pins longer than 1260px because they will get truncated.

On Pinterest, you can pin or upload images that are at least 100 pixels and no more than 10mb. But you really want to avoid tiny images because they just don’t get as much engagement. According to Pinterest when you upload pins that are more than 736 pixels it’s often clunky to upload. There is a lot to know, you can’t wing it.

2. The colors red, pink, and purple seem to promote repinning, while green, blue, black, and yellow seem to suppress it. (Plos One)

3. According to Pinterest informative pins are up to 30% more engaging than other pins. In the Deep Focus, Path to Purchase study in 2016 they identified two things that influence people to buy. Images that combined inspiration (72%) and information  25%) played a big role in purchases people make. Make sure every piece of your content include these two factors if you want to maximize your success on Pinterest.

4. Always add a text overlay that conveys the main message. Focus on the key takeaway. As you can see in the below the main message here is fabulous skin. The text should be clear and legible because over 80% of Pinners use their mobile device when they are on Pinterest.

5. Create a multi-product image using multiple images within a pin to show a room decor theme, an outfit, a DIY and how-to pins. These types of pins see a 42% higher click-through rate.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/153333562298846880/

6. Pins related to trending topics see an average of 94% increase in click-throughs. Pins with content specific to current celebrations and events have a 22% higher online sales lift.

7. Rich Pins drove 20% more engagement per Pin compared to those without the rich product information.

8. Search engines can’t see your pictures so include file names on your images that contain targeted keywords. You will get much better search performance with “wedding-hair-ideas.jpg” than you will with “DSC001234.jpg.” This way when someone pins your images from a blog or website using Pinterest’s browser button, by default the image alt-text is what is going to be used as the pin description.

9. For e-commerce, use multiple products (as shown below) to get more website visitors because they can speak to different tastes. Multi-product Pins can have 65% higher click-through rates and 50% higher checkout rates.

As you can see the lifestyle image shows shoppers that these shoes are available in six different patterns. It also includes a text overlay describing that it is also available in two types of materials, patent and suede. They are making it very obvious what the image is about making it easy for people to make a decision.

In addition, pins featuring a person wearing or using the product drove 25% higher email conversion lift. 

Campaigns that show someone using the product or service were 67% more likely to drive offline sales lift.

10. Images with multiple colors get repinned 3.25x more than the ones with a single dominant color.

11. Medium lightness is repinned 20x more than very dark images. Don’t post images that are too light or too dark, stay natural.

12. 50% color saturation receives a whopping 10 times more repins than images totally de-saturated.

13. Red beats blue. The winning combination is red, orange and brown as these images are receiving 2 times the number of repins as the blue ones.

14. Images with less than 10% background get 2-4x repins than images more than 40% of white space.

15. Avoid human faces. Images without faces sport almost 25% more repins. Only 20% of images on Pinterest feature a face.

16. Images with a smooth texture are repinned 17x more than images with a rough texture.

17. Product images that have an authentic setting meaning “lifestyle images” (as shown below) versus a white background drive 159% more likes and repins. Help your audience visualize what they can do with your products ideally from your customer’s perspective. Show your products in real action.

18. High quality, high-resolution images are a must. Please don’t cut corners on this.

19. Show close-ups of the product’s details. Get a plugin for a mouse-over zoom.

20. Does your image help Pinners determine the actual size of your product?

21. Show different angles of your product.

22. Color images receive more attention than black and white. A black and white image only gets 2/3 viewer attention span while color images get more attention two seconds or longer. (Source: Column Five)

23. For local based business feature popular landmarks and helpful tips for your target audience. For example, if you’re a wedding planner you can take pictures of places where brides can get their gowns, wedding favors, limousine rentals and so forth.

24. Infographics baby! (Source: Neomam) People process images 60,000 times faster than text, making helpful infographics are a definite hit on Pinterest.

25. Branding 101: Add your logo or website URL to your pin on the bottom or top center. Your brand or business credibility can make Pinterest shoppers more inclined to visit your site.

26. Avoid busy images.

27. The right images for home & DIY category:

• According to Pinterest home and DIY Pins with step-by-step instructions have on average 80% higher save rates.
• Setting up realistic situations in your images really helps people connect with what they’re seeing. Pins that feature real-life situations have 25% higher save rates, while similar DIY Pins have 40% higher click-through rates.
• Add useful advice to your images so people can take action on them. Images with lists, tips and advice see up to 93% higher click-through rates, and similar DIY Pins have 45% higher click-through rates (plus 34% higher save rates!).
• For DIY Pins, try adding branding to the image. DIY Pins with product placement can have 17% higher click-through rates. Adding a brand logo can also increase checkout rates.

28. The right images for food and drink category

• Make the food the focal point of your image.
• Images that show food in real-life situations have up to 8% higher click-through rates and 13% higher save rates.
• Including step-by-step instructions can get you as much as 90% higher save rates.
• Adding text to the image can help explain the benefit or a unique characteristic when the image alone may not, for example “Gluten-free dessert” or “No-bake cheesecake” Food Pins with these call-outs have seen 23% higher click-through rates and 31% higher save rates.
• Adding a logo to an image when the brand isn’t clear can get you up to 28% higher save rates.

29. The right images for fashion/style category

• When you show products in real-life scenarios can have 30% higher click-through rates and 170% higher checkout rates than images that show products on a plain background.
• Images with branded product placement have seen 60% higher click-through rates.
• Pins that show someone modeling clothing or accessories can see 115% higher checkout rates.

30. The right images for hair and beauty category

Pinners want to see how beauty products look on real people before they buy.

• Images that show products in real-life settings have 50% higher click-through rates on average, and images focused on people see 21% higher click-through rates.
• Add a tutorial to make your content even more useful and save-worthy.
• Step-by-step instructions have seen up to 78% higher save rates.
• Including your brand in your Pin image makes it easier for people to remember your product, and it adds credibility to the idea you’re sharing with the audience. Plus, images with branded product placement have seen as much as 21% higher save rates!

31. Pins that include “new” in the text overlay drives 10x higher aided awareness.

32. We know that Pinterest is great for growing your email list. Pins promoting special offers or sales drives 61% higher email conversion lift.

33. Images that have the same image on Pinterest and the landing page receives a 13% higher online sales lift.

Pinterest Expert Actionable Tips for Marketers, Ecommerce, Bloggers & Publishers:

1. If you’re not proficient in Photoshop I highly recommend you use Canva. I use Canva for 80% of my blog images. They offer great tutorials and it’s great for non-techies like myself! Canva also offers templates and images you can purchase for only $1. Add a text overlay to describe the pin and voila you’re done!

2. Check your Google Analytics reports once a month and make a list of your top blog posts that you published some time ago. Revive older blog posts with new images. Better yet create five to 10 images from a single blog post so you get more traffic to your blogs.

3. Looking for free stock photos? I recommend http://www.pixabay.com, http://www.pexels.com, and http://www.unsplash.com

4. Check your Pinterest analytics once a month to see how your pins are performing. Do more of what’s working.

5. Make images easy to share by having the “Save” buttons alongside your content. This call to action button will trigger people to save your images. According to Pinterest the save button increases saves up to 5x by making it easier, faster and more intuitive for people to save your content to Pinterest.

Now that you know some of the secrets for getting more engagement on Pinterest the truth is you may not be great at producing the images. For example, my Dad makes this amazing dish called caldereta. He’s been generous with his recipe, tips, tricks, etc but those who have tried it cannot duplicate the tenderness and taste of his meat dish. You may actually think that your images look great but unfortunately from what I see on Pinterest some images are so unpleasant they make a face cringe just looking at them. Like, ouch! Oh my!

I encourage you to create three images and then get someone who is an expert on creating images for Pinterest look at them and provide feedback before going forward and producing more. That’s the only way to ensure you maximize your success on Pinterest. You may have great products, a great blog but if your images are weak and “fail” then you’ve just wasted time and money.

If you’re struggling to figure out if you do or don’t have enough images or what types of images specific to your business vertical to use for Pinterest my management service includes that when we manage your Pinterest account for you.

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 getting a strategic audit on your account or to discuss my Pinterest account management services. To learn more about how you can be more effective on Pinterest check out my Pinterest Marketing Course for Business. Chapter one is FREE.