Every person, and therefore every business, has their own style and the Pins you post reflect that. The goal of posting a Pin is to ultimately have someone click on it and go to your website. To read that blog post. To have a need met and purchase your product (if applicable). But if your Pin isn't eye-catching, then it doesn't matter how many times it shows up in a search, it will passed up and scrolled right by.
Pinterest Search Example
So what is it exactly that makes a Pin "eye-catching?" Let's look at my Pinterest and use "master bedroom ideas" as our search. Below you will see 18 full Pins and 9 Pins below that don't fit in the screen. Some of these Pins are just a picture while others have a text overlay on top of a rectangle or right on the picture. Look through the pictures below. What do you notice? They all seem to have a picture of a large bed. Most have some sort of text. Some have a logo or website information. What stands out, good or bad? Which one does your eye settle on first? Why?
Photo(s) and Text
When you're designing your Pin, you want the photo to take center stage, as the image displayed is what catches a viewer's eye first. But you don't want just a picture, because then the viewer doesn't know what information they would gain from clicking on your Pin. Second, you want your text to be easy to read. There are so many fun fonts out there, but a font that difficult to read on a screen where someone is scrolling, is not the font you want to use. The picture below shows some beautiful script fonts, that I would not recommend using for the main information on your Pin.
Rather, instead, pick something that is simple, yet bold. If you are loving a script font, you can still use it, but use it for filler text, such as "best" or "Ideas" in "Best Master Bedroom Ideas."
Branding
Once you've decided on a font to place over your picture, you also need to consider your logo or website information. That should also be displayed so if someone is passing over your Pin, they have a reference for what they saw. Just having text overlay to describe the Pin can get lost amongst all the other Pins that fit in with their search.
Now that you have a photo, text overlay, and logo, you're going to want a call to action. This is how you get viewers to actually click on your Pin. You don't want your Pin to have everything so that a viewer never clicks on it and goes to your site. You want it to oull them in. This call to action is as simple as "Click for More," "Click Here," "Read More," "Learn More," and so on.
Let's Compare
With all of these things in mind, let's look at two Pins that have the same features but one is optimized and one is not.
The pictures are the exact same stock image and the words are the same. Both images are optimized size for Pinterest at 1000 px x 15000 px. The first image uses 3 different fonts. The number 40 is big and bold and easy to read. The most important text, ideas and master bedroom, are an Open Sans font that is a contrasting color from the background it sits on. All the colors used are complimentary or directly match a color from the picture. The website is listed on the bottom and there's a call to action in the top right corner. Now look at the picture on the right. The non-important text is a Sans Serif font in black, that blends in with part of the picture. The most important text of the Pin is in a script type font that, while pretty, is not easy to read if scrolling quickly.
Takeaways
The photo should take center stage, whether it's one photo or a collage. If there's no photo, it's less likely for a viewer to stop scrolling and click!
Keep the most important text in an easy to read font
Include your brand logo or website as well as a call to action
Make sure that the colors of your fonts "pop" and are still pleasing to the eye for whatever your niche may be
Optimize your Pins to be 1000 px x 1500 px
These are just some basic tips for Pin design that you can start implementing now. But as a Pinterest Manager, it's my job and passion to take your ideas, blog posts, and products and create eye-catching Pins to stop a viewer from scrolling and click on that Pin, taking them to your website and therefore allowing you to get back to what you love: producing content and creating products to change people's lives.
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