How to Create High-Converting Pinterest Pins with Canva

What Should Be On a Pin?

If you’re new to Pinterest and creating pin graphics, make sure to read my previous blog post, What Images Work Best for Pinterest Marketing. This will help you understand the basics of a pin and what images work best!

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Steps to Creating High-Converting Pins

Once you’ve got the basics of pin design, you’re now ready to get started designing your own pins in Canva.

1. Log Into Canva

After logging into Canva, you will be taken to the home page. You can find templates here as well as your own designs.

2. Select a Design

I highly recommend not using just any design or template on Canva. The reason is that ANYONE can use those free designs. However, if you can’t design a pin to save your life, these are better than nothing.

3. Start Customizing

You’ll start adding images, changing fonts and colors, and adding your logo. Again, if you are not good at graphic design, just stick with the template and don’t go too wild. If you’re more experienced at design, then feel free to play a little.

4. Export

Once your design is to your liking, it’s time to export the design. I suggest exporting as a PNG file. Make sure you name the file what you want it called. Using basic names like 1.PNG or PinGraphic.PNG is not going to help with SEO. Help yourself out and name it whatever the topic of the pin is, such as HighConvertingPins.PNG if creating a pin for this blog post.

5. Share to Pinterest

Now it’s time to share to Pinterest! Make sure to post it strategically and not just like a spaghetti noodle. Here’s my post on a Basic Pinterest Strategy For Creators if you need help developing a Pinterest strategy.

What Templates Should I Use?

As mentioned above, I suggest not using a public template on Canva. This is because many, many people will also use this template. Once you’ve spent enough time on Pinterest, you’ll start noticing trends. One of those trends you’ll see is creators using the same templates.

Part of a good Pinterest strategy is standing out among the crowd. It’s hard to stand out when you’re using templates that everyone else is using too.

Start Making High-Converting Pin Graphics with Canva Today!

Now that you have the basics, you can begin making pin graphics that convert with Canva. If you are unsure of how to put all of these pieces together, you can grab my Pinterest Graphic Templates here! For just $27, you get 50 pin image templates on Canva to customize to your brand and business!

Grab Nicole’s Pinvisible Graphic Templates now!

The post How to Create High-Converting Pinterest Pins with Canva appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Pinterest Marketing Best Practices and Strategies

Wait, there are best practices for Pinterest Marketing?

Yes, friend! And you should take the time to implement these strategies and best practices so you can quit wasting time on Pinterest. If you’re not using it strategically, then there’s no point in using the platform. When you do use the platform with these best practices and strategies at hand, you will see why it is vital to have your business on Pinterest!

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The basics to improve your Pinterest account

Being that these are the basics, take 10 minutes and do this – like right now after you read it! Seriously. These are the basics that I notice on most accounts when clients hire me for Pinterest strategy sessions, so I’m giving you a little bit of free help here.

Profile Image

This should probably be a headshot, especially if you’re a personal business like Jessica. For Jessica, it would not make sense to see a logo because she is a personal business that her audience connects with her face. If you are a corporation like Target or you have a product-based business, go with your logo. Think about it this way, if people recognize you as the owner, use your headshot; if they don’t recognize the owner, but recognize the logo first, use the logo.

Display Name

Before you make something cute like “Ashleyyyyyyy – Boy Mom” I want to encourage you to think how potential clients, community members, etc will find you. If your name is Ashley and you’re a boy mom, but your business is a plant shop, no one is going to find you. Use either your name or your business name! You can also do a little hack like I did and use both your business name and what you do.

Website

Claim it! Get that little check mark on your website under your display name. By claiming your website on Pinterest, you allow for better analytics and tracking. This is an easy best practice to implement. You will need to install some coding on the header of your website, but it’s super easy! The fun thing about claiming your website on Pinterest is that your display name and profile image will show up with any pins from your website. So even if someone else saves a pin from your website, your information will show up! (This also happens when you claim Instagram, Youtube, and/or Etsy or if you install the Pinterest app on Shopify!)

Best Practices and Strategies for Pinterest Beyond the Basics

The number one thing you can do to improve your Pinterest marketing is to pin and pin consistently. Don’t pin five graphics today and nothing for two weeks. Pinterest rewards consistency just like other search engines, YouTube and Google. 

If you cannot commit to live pinning 10-30 times per day, then use Tailwind. You can schedule out pins in intervals and find complementary content within Tailwind so you can do it in batches. Batching is gold, right?!

Eye-catching pin graphics and videos are the second most important best practice. The point of using pins is to get Pinterest users to CLICK to your website. If these pins do not grab their attention, you’re missing out on traffic. 

Traffic for most people is ad revenue, brand partnerships, more sales, and clients. So it is essential to use high-quality images and graphics with TEXT to entice Pinners to click! For further information about creating images that work best on Pinterest, read my post on Hey Jessica here.

Another best practice that gets overlooked way too often is a plethora of public boards. Public boards on your Pinterest profile should be two things: related to your content and attractive to your ideal client. Let’s go back to our  “Ashleyyyyyyy – Boy Mom” example. So Ashley has 100+ public boards and they have nothing to do with her plant shop nor her ideal client. Most of them are about toddler boy clothing, recipes, and mom quotes. 

While these boards are great if Ashley was a mom blogger, they don’t help her plant shop business. Before doing anything else, she should make any board that isn’t related to her business or ideal client SECRET. Do not delete any boards!!!! Ashley can start making public boards related to her business like “Plant Tips for New Plant Owners” where she shares a blog post about watering schedules. I go into more detail about Pinterest board names on the post Basic Pinterest Strategy for Content Creators.

Implement These Best Practices and Strategies for Pinterest Marketing

Don’t just scroll away now. Head to Pinterest and start implementing all of these best practices I’ve laid out for you. Once you begin seeing results from these strategies, I know you will WANT to continue using Pinterest as your secret marketing weapon!!

Still confused about making eye-catching pin graphics?! For just $27, you can grab my 50 Pin-visible Graphics Templates for Canva here!

The post Pinterest Marketing Best Practices and Strategies appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

Basic Pinterest Strategy for Content Creators

I created content, now what do I do for Pinterest strategy?

Once you create a piece of content and it’s published, you can then share it to Pinterest. You’ll first need to create a few pin graphics or pin videos. Not sure what kind of graphic works best for Pinterest? Check out my post What Images Work Best for Pinterest Marketing now!

After creating some pin graphics or videos, you’ll want to pick your best one and post it to the most relevant board first with a keyword-rich description. Keywords in the description will help your pin be returned when a Pinterest user searches for the same topic. Using keywords is one of the most important elements of a basic Pinterest strategy for content creators.

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Using Pinterest Boards for Strategy

By selecting the most relevant board first, you help Pinterest connect the dots between the content of the landing page, the pin, and keywords. Remember, Pinterest is a search engine, so by helping connect these dots will ensure your content is showing up to the right audience.

Let’s say you create content about plants. You just published a new YouTube video about watering and feeding schedules for monstera deliciosa. When you go to share your new pin graphic on Pinterest, to which of the following boards would you share first?

a. Plant Resources and Tips
b. Indoor Houseplant Lovers
c. Resources | Monstera Deliciosa
d. Plant Moms | Tips and Information

If you selected C, you passed! This board would be the most relevant board because it is clearly ONLY about monstera deliciosa plants. While you can share your pins to the other boards since it is on-topic, you want to make sure to share to the most relevant board FIRST.

Creating multiple boards for next-level Pinterest strategy

As a Pinterest Strategist, one thing I love to do is create multiple boards on similar topics. This will help you maximize your reach and get your content in front of a bigger audience. Since Pinterest board titles are indexed by Google, it is helpful to have multiple boards on the same topic.

Sticking with our plant theme, let’s say you create weekly YouTube videos on houseplants as well as blog twice a week. That’s three pieces of content per week that you can share to multiple boards. With the theme being houseplants, you could create boards like the following:

Houseplant Videos
Resources | Monstera Deliciosa
Indoor Plant Care Tips
Home Decor | Houseplants
Resources | Soil + Plant Food

If you’re wondering why you shouldn’t just create a bunch of board sections within one main board, head to my blog post Why You Shouldn’t Use Board Sections.

Adding Tailwind to Your Pinterest Strategy

After sharing your first pin graphic to the most relevant board, you can use Tailwind to automate your publishing process. Tailwind is an API-approved Pinterest scheduling software.

You can schedule your pins, submit them to Tailwind Tribes, and automate the publishing process all through Tailwind. If you can take about an hour a week, you can pretty much put your Pinterest scheduling on autopilot. 

The best part of using Tailwind is that you can interval your pins. This allows you to schedule one pin out over the course of a few months. I love using this feature for evergreen content!

Learn more about Tailwind on my blog post here.

Implementing this Pinterest strategy

As with anything in life, implementation is key. Now that you have the knowledge, take the steps to put it to work. Pinterest is not a place where you will see overnight success.

You should plan to put in the work for a minimum of three months due to Pinterest being such a slow-burning platform. However, do NOT give up! Remember Pinterest is the THIRD largest search engine behind Google and YouTube and it does help with SEO!

Click here to learn more about all-things Pinterest from Nicole on her website (or even hire her as your strategist, if you'd like!)

The post Basic Pinterest Strategy for Content Creators appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

What Images Work Best for Pinterest Marketing?

Pins, Pin Graphics, Pin Images?!

First, it’s important for you to know that I’ll be using pins, pin graphics, and pin images interchangeably, but they are all the same thing. This will help you going forward if you continue researching best practices for pin graphic creation.

Pins are the image or graphic that Pinterest users click on or save for later. These graphics will either make someone want to click through to your website or keep scrolling. Our goal is to make the user click and, thus, bring you more traffic.

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Key Components of Pin Images

Before I cover what makes up a pin image, think about the ones you see that you’ve clicked on: What do they include? What enticed you to click? What colors stand out? Were there words or text on the graphic?

The Background Image

This should be a crisp, professional looking image. You could also use a background color and have the picture on top of it, but I prefer the background to be an image. The image should be related to the subject matter. If you see an image of finger nails, but the pin is linking to a post about business podcasts, it is going to confuse the pinner and result in a huge bounce rate.

When picking images to use for your pin, make sure to stay clear of selfies and angles of someone looking directly at the camera. Pinners are visionaries and like to IMAGINE themselves in your spot, in your image, doing what is shown–so let them imagine that by not directly showing another human’s face. When they can’t see someone’s face, they can easily imagine their face there.

Pinterest’s AI is set-up so that when you search for something, similar images will come up. Keep that in mind if you plan to use stock photography. Regardless of if the stock photos are free or paid, this can impact how your graphics show up. For example, when I search “sleep” on Pinterest, here’s a pin that I found:

When I look at this pin and see the suggested pins below it, I find quite a few graphics with the same stock photo. Taking that a step further and using Pinterest’s visual search tool, I can see a plethora of graphics using this same stock photo.

That’s related to Pinterest’s AI, but it also makes the graphic look similar and “blend in” instead of stand out from the others. With pins, we want to stand out so users will click!!

If you cannot hire a brand photographer or have the knowledge to take your own pictures, I definitely suggest using a paid stock photography platform instead of a free one. This will allow less access, making your pin graphic not blend in as much. However, the best case scenario would be taking your own high quality photos or hiring a brand photographer.

Text Overlay

In order for pinners to understand WHY they should click through to your website, you need to give them enough information ON the image. Most users do not read the pin descriptions because of the visual nature of Pinterest. (Side note: descriptions are still important!) On your pin image, you want to use easy to read fonts that do not blend into the background. Look at one of Jessica’s pin graphics:

It is super easy to read and the text gives me a sense of the subject matter. Even when I squint my eyes, I can make out the font! If you squint your eyes and cannot make out the words, try another font. Cute, hand lettered fonts are super hard to read compared to a sans serif like the one in Jessica’s pin above.

Logo or Website

This is more of a personal preference. I recommend trying out both and seeing which one you prefer. Using one of them prevents spammers from stealing your graphics and redirecting links to their content. On this pin graphic of mine, you can see I actually included the logo at the top and the website at the bottom:

Bring it all together

As you go through the components above, I highly recommend A/B testing to see what resonates best with your audience. Some audiences may prefer bolder colors like reds while others prefer more pastel colors. When you see traffic increasing from a specific type of pin graphic, create more like it!

Start Making Images that Work for Pinterest Marketing

Now that you have the basics, you can begin making pin images that work for Pinterest Marketing. If you are unsure of how to put all of these pieces together, you can grab my Pinterest Graphic Templates here! For just $27, you get 50 pin image templates on Canva to customize to your brand and business!

Grab Nicole’s Pinvisible Graphic Templates now!

The post What Images Work Best for Pinterest Marketing? appeared first on Jessica Stansberry.

How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Business

Sure, there is always that one person, the anomaly, who can grow their business overnight on Pinterest. But anomalies are just that – very rare. If you’re ready to get started growing your business using Pinterest, keep reading!

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How to Grow Your Business Using Pinterest in Three Easy Steps

Step 1: Define what business growth means to you.

This can mean one thing to a 7-figure business owner and another to a brand new entrepreneur. It can also mean completely different things to product-based businesses and service-based businesses.

Take five minutes right now and jot down what growing your business means to you.

Step 2: Determine your Pinterest strategy.

You cannot just throw spaghetti at a wall and see what sticks; you need a real strategic plan.

This might mean you need to research Pinterest strategies, take a course about Pinterest, or even hire a Pinterest Strategist for a consultation. Whatever level of a strategy deep-dive that you can afford will work best for you. Don’t forget that time is money and many free resources do not provide information in the order that you may need it.

Step 3: Have patience. Pinterest is a SLOW BURNING platform.

There are little to no overnight successes on this platform.

Sure, you might have a pin go viral, but what about everything else? Give Pinterest the time it needs to do the work for you. Remember, Pinterest is a visual search engine and not a social media platform. It takes time to see consistent growth on Pinterest. Keep following the strategy you’ve decided on from Step 2 and do not give up. In three months, reevaluate your progress. At this time you should be seeing a 1-3% month over month growth from Pinterest traffic.

1-3% may sound like a very low number, but that’s the AVERAGE percentage of growth for all accounts. And, please, make sure to track the right Pinterest metrics so you don’t get frustrated by any vanity metrics.

Utilizing Pinterest for Business Growth

As you move forward with using Pinterest to grow your business, make sure you follow the three steps I outlined above.

The biggest tip I can give you for growing your business with Pinterest is to be consistent!!

If you're looking to grow your business using Pinterest, Nicole can help! Click here to work with her on your Pinterest strategy today.

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What Metrics to Watch to Measure Pinterest Success and Growth

Many entrepreneurs utilizing Pinterest as a marketing tool get caught up in tracking the wrong analytics.

Let’s Break Down The Numbers

• Monthly Viewers – how many people see a pin. That could be your own pin you saved or someone else’s pin you saved.
• Followers – how many people follow your Pinterest account.
• Impressions – how many times a pin (yours or someone else’s you saved) appears on the Pinterest feeds and search.
• Website Sessions – according to Google, “a group of user interactions on your website within a specific timeframe.” Meaning this number is reflective of people landing on your website.

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Does Monthly Viewers Indicate Pinterest Success and Growth?

Monthly viewers is the number that many Pinterest users get caught up with because it is displayed prominently on the profile page. 

However, this number does not equal Pinterest success or growth. I like to think of monthly viewers as an indicator of the health of the Pinterest account. For example, if you had a Pinterest account with 25,000 followers and 12k monthly viewers, I would interpret that to mean the account is inactive. On the flip side, if you had 250 followers and 900k monthly viewers, I would see that as an active account.

Many brands and sponsors put a lot of weight into the monthly viewers number. This metric should not be used to measure Pinterest success and growth, even with brands putting a higher weight on accounts with 1M+ monthly viewers.

As a Pinterest Marketing Strategist, I manage accounts that have 10M+ monthly viewers and ones with 103.9k monthly viewers. Can you guess which account is getting more website sessions? The latter one.

Other Metrics that do not Indicate Success and Growth on Pinterest

Followers and impressions on Pinterest are two other metrics that do not indicate Pinterest success and growth.

Unlike Instagram, followers on Pinterest do not serve a huge purpose. Sure, some of your saved pins will show up in the “following” feed, but not a lot of Pinterest users even use that feature. Considering many Pinners use the app from a phone, they are typically going straight to the search feature and not going to the “following” feed. However, I would not discount this number. It’s still an indicator that your content is relevant to your audience. If this number is going down or staying stagnant, it is time to reevaluate your Pinterest strategy.

Again, impressions are how many times a pin–yours or someone else’s you saved–APPEARS. There is a huge difference in appearing vs. being noticed. Impressions do not track how many eyeballs landed on that pin. It tracks how many times that pin showed up. And y’all, that pin might not even be your own content. 

If you notice that your impressions are super low, it might be time to create new Pin graphics to catch some eyeballs. But this is a number that you should not be tracking as a key performance indicator on Pinterest.

What Really Matters When Measuring Success and Growth on Pinterest?

Traffic. Clicks. Conversions. In a nutshell, all of this can be tracked through website sessions. If you are not getting sessions (eyeballs) on your website, whether it is a blog or an e-commerce platform, then that is when you know you need a Pinterest strategy overhaul.

Pinterest is a visual search engine. When a platform user searches for omething, Pinterest returns with search results. Those returns are pin images. When the Pinterest user sees a pin image that catches their eye and it looks like it can solve their problem, they will click it or save it to return to it later. Sometimes they will both click it and save it.

Those clicks drive traffic (website sessions) to your website. This is the KEY to success and growth on Pinterest. Generally, you can expect to see a 1-3% growth month over month (MoM) on the platform. Sometimes this varies, such as with seasonal content or other variables out of our control. However, a 1-3% growth MoM is a sign that your Pinterest is healthy, successful, and growing.

If you are new to using Pinterest strategically for your business, I suggest comparing year over year (YoY) traffic. For example, you might be getting about 500 sessions from Pinterest in the last 30 days. Compare that to the YoY numbers and you can see that you may have had 25 sessions the previous year in the same 30 day time frame. That would put you at a growth of 425 sessions, which is a 1,900% increase!!! That is a huge success!!

Success and Growth on Pinterest Takes Time

Pinterest is a VERY slow-burning platform. If you are not seeing overnight success, do NOT be discouraged. Look at those website sessions month over month and year over year. Do not start looking and comparing daily numbers because you’ll just drive yourself crazy.

Now that you know which metrics to watch to measure Pinterest success and growth, I want you to track them – and do not compare to your business bestie’s numbers. EACH ACCOUNT IS DIFFERENT. With Pinterest, your only competition is your previous month.

Want to learn more about Pinterest strategies? Check out Nicole's website, Saunders Says!

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