This email was sent to my email list on October 19, 2022.
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Hey !
I hope you’re doing well!
The other day I was reading an email that made me laugh inside a bit (but that was totally true). In it, it said that pinners love ugly pins. And, in my experience, they sure do!
Some of my most successful pins have been (in my opinion) hideous. But, hey…they still did really well so I’m not complaining!
I wanted to relay this message in case you needed to hear it: Don’t stress to much about your pin design. If your fear of creating ugly pins is holding you back from actually creating and publishing pins, I challenge you to let that fear go out the door and to just take action.
The thing is, pin design improves over time, too. When I first started designing pins, they were straight up awful. But, with time, my pin design skills have improved a lot and I am much happier with the pins I publish now.
Am I saying that pin design doesn’t matter at all? No, not at all. That would be a lie. There are some things that are proven to perform better on Pinterest (ex. vertical pins at least 1000×1500 pixels, lighter image backgrounds, bold fonts, etc.).
And, of course, your pin design does matter to an extent. But it just may not matter to the extent that we think it does.
Free Pinterest templates
If you really struggle with pin design, you can always look for Pinterest templates to help jump-start your pin creation. Here’s a free pin template set from an insanely successful blogger/Pinterest marketer, Carly Campbell. There’s also some neat pin template sets on Etsy for decently low costs!
What really matters on pins
(The following segment was added and did not appear on the original email.)
Since it’s clear that “ugly” pins can perform really well on Pinterest, you may be wondering how you can really differentiate yourself from competition. In my opinion, that’s pin titles.
Think about it…what pin title would make YOU want to read on: 12 makeup products for skin with acne or 12 game-changing makeup products that helped clear my acne prone skin?
I don’t know about you, but the second one would get my click!
The titles on your pin images can matter. A lot. (I’m not talking about the title that you type in on Pinterest, I’m talking about the words you put on your pin design, because this is what pinners will actually read when scrolling through their feed.)
Pinterest expert Carly Campbell has an incredible ebook on how to write pin titles that CONVERT. Her tips are amazing and could be game-changing for your Pinterest strategy. I would highly recommend this ebook to anyone using Pinterest to drive traffic especially to blog posts.
I think pin titles are important for a few reasons. (1) They can help to encourage more users to click onto your pin URL. (2) If you get more conversions, your engagement rate on your pin will go up. This will send a signal to Pinterest that your pin is high quality, which will then likely distribute your pin more AND possibly your other pins.
So really, this is something that may help your Pinterest all around.
When I design my pins, consciously thinking Would this title make ME want to click on this pin to read more? has helped.
I hope that this email inspires you to take action on Pinterest. With the holiday season approaching, you want to make sure that you’re publishing any holiday/seasonal-related content ASAP as well!
Talk to you soon,
Leah Marie
