Today on Day 16 of our Pinterest Tips emails, I want to talk about pins.

Specifically, pin design.

I believe I encouraged you way back in Day 1 or Day 2 to download the Pinterest App to your phone and create a PERSONAL account.

If you REALLY want to 'learn Pinterest' - you gotta get OFF a business account, and OFF your desktop or laptop...

and use Pinterest on your phone like a 'normal pinner'.

I don't know the official stats, but I'd feel safe to guess that at LEAST 85% of "normal pinners" use Pinterest via the App on their phone.

Those are your people... your potential blog readers.

You really need to experience it like THEY do.

On the App, the Home Feed is only 2 pins wide... and they scroll FAST.

Your pins need to stand out...

AND -

your pins have to imply something in it for THEM.

Let's start with your pins standing out.

First off, the days of having a common color palette and all our pins being "branded" - yeah.... not so much anymore.

If you are a BIG brand, a little logo will do it.

But for the rest of us, we need to stand out and stop the scroll.

For example, I made a pot roast the other night.

It was GOOD.

AND... it was easy.

It LOOKED good, too... almost 'Pinteresting' (if I was decent photographer lol!)

So, I COULD just pin a picture of my roast.

OR, I could take that picture and have the words 'Easy Pot Roast Recipe' on it

(like EVERY OTHER pot roast recipe pin).

Or... I could try and appeal to the reader.

Perhaps:

"The easiest pot roast recipe I've ever made with only THREE ingredients dumped in my crock pot"

Or:

"My Simple 'Dump and Go' Crockpot Pot Roast Recipe That's IMPOSSIBLE To Mess Up"

Or....

"The ONE Pot Roast Recipe My Family BEGS Me To Make (and it's only three ingredients!)"

Now, I am NOT a Food Blogger so my examples are weak.

yes, VERY weak haha!

If I were a food blogger, I'd know my audience and give them what THEY want.

I'm just trying to keep it generic here in my examples.

Your pins have to be more than:

Crockpot Pot Roast Recipe

(with a hard-to-read cursive font)

Because:

There has to be a benefit or 'draw' in it for THEM.

Something that makes YOUR pin NOT like every other pin on said topic.

Something that says TO THEM: Oh yeah, that's exactly what I want!

Every food blogger has a pot roast recipe - what makes YOURS different?

There's a thing in marketing called:

A.I.D.A.

It stands for:

Attention. Interest. Desire. Action.

It's a copywriting technique that is about using your words to encourage readers towards a certain action.

First you grab their attention --- get their interest - then they start to "desire" said thing... then they take action to get/do said thing.

Our pins have to do that.

In the Pinterest App, the Home Feed is a blur of words and pictures and STUFF.

Many of the words ON pins are so muted or fancy-scrolly that you can't even read them.

Personally, on the App, I just scroll until a pin makes me STOP scrolling.

Ya know what?

The pins that stop MY scroll are clean, CLEAR - and there's something in the wording that implies a benefit to ME.

It got my attention.

(I STOPPED scrolling)

It got my Interest

(I read it - maybe clicked on the pin to enlarge it)

It got my 'Desire'

(I wanted to know more)

It got my ACTION

(I clicked the pin and went to the blog post)

Just a fun, useless fact -

If you get ME to click a pin - you DID something haha!

Today... I'd love to hear you surfed around a bit inside the Pinterest App as a 'normal pinner'.

Scroll the Home Feed.

Do some searches.

Heck, look for YOUR pins.

Do your pins stand out?

What pins DO stand out to you?

Now don't COPY other pins, but LEARN from them and apply those techniques to your own pins.

I know as bloggers, making pins is just ONE MORE T-H-I-N-G we have to do.

And many blogger's pins SHOW that it was just a "I gotta do this" type of effort.

Pinterest traffic is WORTH the effort.

When people just want ho-hum straight information, they just go to Google.

That's not what they want when they come to Pinterest.

Think "BuzzFeed" type headlines on pretty pictures...

That's what they want.

Well, they might not ADMIT that's what they want...

BUT -

That's what they CLICK.

And you DO want CLICKS, right? =)

On another note:

I WILL be right back here in your Inbox tomorrow.

BUT -

There is a National Holiday coming up and I will be out of office for a few days.

What National Holiday?

It's a BIG one...

It's my BIRTHDAY!

Yeah, yeah, there's Valentine's Day and that little football game on Super Bowl Sunday -

but MY BIRTHDAY is officially (as of this moment) a National Holiday.

My birthday is Monday, the 13th... and my hubby and I always take a few days off for each other's birthdays.

SO - that means...

Pinterest Tips tomorrow, Friday... YES

Pinterest Tips Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th - NO

Long birthday weekends are a NO WORK ZONE around here =)

Okie dokie -

I'll be back tomorrow!

Jennifer

~PotPieGirl

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(Note: I will be out of office from 5pm Friday, February 10th until 10am Wednesday, February 15th)