Getting more repins on Pinterest can expand your reach, gain more followers and make more sales. I’ve been busy researching the science and strategy behind getting people to share images on Pinterest. Here are 21 different ways you can increase the likelihood that this happens.
Optimize your images. Curalate analyzed over half a million images on Pinterest and discovered some interesting facts on what works best.
- Images that are reddish-orange get twice as many repins as those that are predominantly blue. You may be limited in what you can do regarding image color, but you can always try using a filter on your image and see how it looks.
- Avoid black and white images. You may think they look artsy, but they don’t get pinned as often. Images with multiple dominant colors get 3.25 more repins than those with just one dominant color.
- Dark images don’t do well. Those that have a light texture get repinned 20 times more than dark images. Adjust the exposure of your images using an online editor like Picmonkey.
- Stay away from desaturated images. Images with 50% saturation get ten times more repins than desaturated images. Use your favorite online editor to adjust your images as required.
- Tall and skinny images do better than wide ones. Images with an aspect ratio between 2:3 and 4:5 get 60% more repins than taller images.
- Refrain from having a lot of whitespace in your pictures. Whitespace discourages people from repinning. Pictures with less than 10% background get 2 to 4 times more repins than those with 40% or more background.
- Soft and feminine wins out over rough and manly. Smooth texture images get 17 times more repins than those with a rough texture. Maybe that’s because women rule on Pinterest.
- Steer clear of images with faces wherever possible. Pictures without faces receive 23% more repins than those with faces.
Make sure your image looks good on phones and tablets. Since 75% of Pinterest traffic comes from mobile devices, this makes a lot of sense. Specifically, you should avoid text overlay that appears too small on these devices. The size will depend a lot on the type of font used, so view the image on your phone if in doubt. Also, keep descriptions to around 100 characters so that they don’t get cut off on either Android or Apple devices.
Make sure your blog post image is Pinterest friendly. Pictures on blogs tend to be very broad and while they may look good on your site, they don’t turn out well on Pinterest. Get the best of both worlds by serving up the blog picture to site visitors while providing a Pinterest optimized image when someone pins it to Pinterest.
Here’s how you can code that into your blog. However, an easier way is to use Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress and create a Pinterest-optimize image for each post.
Get your email list to repin your content. This can be particularly effective if you have a large mailing list, but no matter what, every little bit counts. Feature one favorite pin in your regularly scheduled newsletter and ask your readers to repin.
Repin popular older pins to another board or the same one. Think of it as a retweet on Twitter. This can get you some additional repins, but just be careful not to over do it. You don’t want your boards to look spammy.
Join a group board related to your brand. PinGroupie is an excellent way to find relevant boards quickly. Not every board accepts new collaborators, so you’ll have to visit them one by one. Your best bet is to focus on those that provide explicit instructions in the board description on how to join.
Pin at the right time. Everyone seems to have their own opinion and Hubspot posted some interesting data on this topic, but the best bet is to check your Pinterest analytics. This will tell you the cities in which your followers reside. From there you can determine their time zones and schedule your pins accordingly. By the way, ViralWoot has a great scheduler that makes this real simple. If you’re a B2B brand, you’ll definitely want to post during business hours and avoid the weekends. On the other hand, B2C brands find that consumers typically use Pinterest after work and on weekends.
[Tweet “Don’t pin everything at once. Space your pins apart at least 30 minutes to an hour.”] Otherwise, you crowd your follower’s stream and come across as looking spammy. Our scheduler makes you look good and saves time too!
[Tweet “Repin what’s popular in your niche and ride the trend. “]Take advantage of the things in which people are currently interested. Pinterest makes this relatively straightforward by providing its own board of popular pins and related topics.
Pin relevant images. Pinning what’s popular is great, but it only works if what you pin is related to your brand. Think outside the box, but still find a root topic for your pins. Relate your content with your brand, the ideology and reaffirm your customers.
Tutorials and guides are always good to pin. This type of content typically does well on Pinterest. No matter your niche, there’s always some great guides available. If not, create your own and get even more traffic! You’ll entertain and educate your customers at the same time.
Edit the pin description on things you repin. Spend a couple of extra minutes to ensure that the description reflects your voice. Pinterest may be a highly visual platform, but the written word still has value.
Go the extra step and visit the site to pin the original image. Eighty percent of activity on Pinterest are repins. You can stand apart from the crowd by being the minority that provides original content.
Fill in the Category section fro your board. People can’t pin what they can’t find. Do this as it will help you get found.
Pinterest marketing, like many endeavors, is undergoing constant change. You need to constantly test to discover what works best for your situation. Are you getting lots of repins? What strategies do you recommend?