7 tips for designing for Pinterest
Roughly a 4 minute read by Moona Paldanius
Pinterest is considered one of the world’s biggest social networks, with over 200 million monthly users. Uniquely, many of these people come to the site actively seeking to be influenced, a rare social media mindset that makes it an ideal marketing tool for brands.
When designing for Pinterest, there are a few tricks to have in mind that can help your Pins reach their full potential:
Focus on lifestyle photography
One key to a successful account is carefully styled and shot imagery that reflects the lifestyle around the product. Lifestyle photography captures the product in a realistic setting (rather than in a studio), giving it a much more relatable feel that the customer doesn’t simply purchase, but becomes part of.
Depending on the product, faces should generally be avoided if they have little relevance and/or don’t enhance it in any way. Suggestive poses, such as those featuring hands and feet are generally the way to go.
Use vertical images
The format to follow with your Pinterest posts is 2 : 3 in aspect ratio. Pinterest prefers images that are vertical and at least 600px by 900px. Making your Pin longer is an ideal way to make it stand out on the Board, but there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what is seen as oversized spam, so play it safe with 2 : 3!
Write minimum text in a bold font
If you are marketing a blog post, adding text to your Pin is advisable, but be careful not to overdo it! Emphasise positive words to capture attention, use bold fonts and avoid script fonts that are hard to read. Remember that most people use Pinterest on a mobile device, so make sure the text is big enough.
Create design templates
When designing your Pins it’s good to keep in mind that you are representing the product and the brand behind it. As such, it’s worth creating a basic style guide of fonts and possible brand colours that should be used across the Boards.
To keep the brand looking sharp and consistent, you can design a few templates that can be used to quickly create new Pins simply by replacing the imagery and text. Keeping the template clean and stylish can help you stick out amongst a crowd of overly-designed and tacky Pins.
Use warm tones & contrasting colours
Pinterest is a big fan of warm tones and contrasting colours. Depending on the product, try and incorporate the current season and its trend colours if they fit the brand’s style. Images with warmer tones (such as reds and oranges) tend to perform better than cold ones (blue and green).
If you are debating on a photo filter, choose a warm style. Images that are bright and happy tend to do better than moody and dramatic ones!
Add a watermark
Since Pinterest is purely based on Pinning and re-Pinning content, there’s always a chance your images might get taken without your permission and re-purposed in an undesirable manner! To avoid this, you can add a small watermark or brand logo to the Pin. If you choose to do this, keep it as small as possible so that the post doesn’t come across as too corporate.
Test your pins
The best way to figure out what works is to test the performance of different kinds of Pins. Try posting the same core image several times across different Boards; mixing up your colours and text to find which style works best for you.
Ultimately, the way to maximise the potential of Pinterest isn’t set in stone, but through knowing your audience and sticking to the above, you’ll definitely be ahead of the curve.
Happy Pinning!