How To Post Pinterest Pins That Go Viral For Course Creators & Bloggers
The dream moment. You have read about it. You wish you knew how to achieve it… A viral pin! Discover the essential components to post Pinterest pins that go viral for content and course creators:
6 elements your pin design needs to create Pinterest pins that go viral.
3 strategies to multiply your reach to make Pinterest pins that go viral (the last one is amazing!).
Your BONUS tip: Have clarity on your strategy: impressions, saves or outbound clicks.
Full disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission from.
You have been using Pinterest and have seen your pins do ok. Ok impressions. Ok saves. Ok outbound clicks. It feels ok but… what you really need is for pins to go viral. There are many reasons why you want to go viral:
You need your online course to be discovered organically by more people to increase your course sales.
You want your lead magnet pin to attract more email list subscribers.
You want your content to get more exposure to drive traffic to your website.
You need more volume of leads to go through your sales funnel.
You would like more leads to register to your evergreen webinar.
Whatever the reason is, you have heard it so many times: your traffic jumps soooooo much when your pin goes viral. You would love some of it.
You have even bought or reused Pinterest pin templates from others, hoping for the golden ticket to go viral. But you have not yet seen that happen…
You may be quite new to Pinterest and you are wondering what this is all about… Why does a pin need to go viral? What are the benefits? How do you post on Pinterest to create pins that go viral?
Pins going viral is that great moment when your pin jumps out of your normal metrics and you see significantly more impressions, more people saving your pin and as a consequence more traffic to your website or your sales pages! It is that moment when the Pinterest algorithm notices that people are loving your pin and hence it shows it to more and more people exponentially! Yeap!
That’s a great moment because with more pin exposure, you get more opportunities for your pin being saved or your pin being clicked through to your pages. Exactly what you want!
I am going to share with you the 3 components of how to post in Pinterest to create pins that go viral for online course creators and bloggers.
To post in Pinterest and create a pins that go viral, everything starts with your pin. You have heard this before I imagine. So here I’ll cover what your Pinterest pin design needs to have the potential to go viral.
However, remember that while pin design is very important, it isn’t the whole story. Later on in this blog, I’ll share the other two components needed!
Let’s start with the essentials. Without a good pin design, you will always struggle to go viral. So let’s look at how to achieve a great design.
The title of your pin is one of the most important element to stop someone from scrolling and look at your pin.
It is the same than a Youtube thumbnail or a blog title. It really pays off to spend sometime getting this right.
Some golden rules to get to your title are:
Address the struggle or the dream.
Have a clear promise, the result that will be achieved by going through your content.
Demonstrate the results with numbers or an image.
Keep it personal to them (‘you’, ‘your’).
Use Pinterest keywords.
Avoid jargon. Plain language is better.
The shorter the better but keep it meaningful. I tend to break this rule constantly! 😂
There is nothing better than practice with titles. The more you do, the more you will see what works for your audience.
So don’t forget to check your metrics to see what is working best.
Once you are happy with your title… you are not done!
This is probably the most missing element in Pinterest pins.
A great title needs to come hand in hand with a great Call To Action (CTA) to drive people to take action and click on your pin. It might seem obvious that the title incites you to click, but there is nothing better than making it clear.
The brain acts on commands.
By having the combination of a great title and a great CTA, you are sending 2 strong commands to the brain. The first one is the one the user itself generates by reading an irresistible title. His brain is already sending the signal of “you should be reading this”. The second signal, your call to action, re-inforces the first signal, and drives the user to click.
I must admit that I have made this mistake many times. Since I’ve been more focused on my CTA in the pins, my number of pin click-throughs has increased.
And, for those occasions where you only want the title in the pin design (without CTA), ensure that you add a CTA in the text of your pin description. Simple.
A great title and a Call To Action are essential BUT… they can come short of driving the Pinterest algorithm if your pin doesn’t include the keywords.
As with blogging or YouTube or hashtags in Instagram, Pinterest functions with keywords. Keywords are the words that people search more for a certain subject.
So it is important that you construct your pin design and description having researched the keywords for your pin.
Here is an example for blog courses keywords in the video below:
Here is another example in the video below with “healthy food”:
The second important element of your pin for keywords is your description.
Always include a pin description with keywords to create pins that go viral. The description is the section labelled “tell everyone what your pin is about”, when you are creating a new pin.
It can also help greatly to have the file name of your graphic or photo to include keywords, as well as the hyperlink.
We will see in section 2 where else you need keywords outside your pin.
To post Pinterest pins that go viral for course creators and bloggers, never forget the importance of an impactful image for your pin.
Pinterest is above all a visual content search engine. People in Pinterest act on what they see. If your photo, graphic or video in Pinterest is not striking enough, memorable enough to attract attention, your user will keep on scrolling.
It is always a good practice to have elements in your image that relate to your subject, to your title.
Pinterest uses artificial intelligence to propose pins that are similar, and the choice is not only based on the titles but also on the images.
You can notice this when you click on a home décor pin and how the suggestions that follow have a very similar design and feel. That choice is made on the image as well as the titles.
The same is the true for non home decor based pins.
Lastly, dark images do not tend to do that well in Pinterest. So bare that in mind when choosing your visual.
This one is very simple. Pinterest accepts a number of formats, including very long vertical pins and horizontal.
The pins that work best in Pinterest are the vertical ones, 1000x1500 size.
Just format your pins to this format. If you have your content in another format, create and use Canva Pro to reformat your graphic designs in one click! Only for this feature Canva Pro is totally worth it!
This is an element that many get wrong. The fonts and graphics.
More and more people are using mobile to browse, including in Pinterest. Have you noticed how small each Pinterest pin shows on mobile when you are scrolling down the suggestions?
Ensure the size and the colour of your font are right. Make them sufficiently big and with a colour that contrasts with the background.
Let’s look at 2 examples: the left one (dark photo) is unappealing and one struggles to know in a split second what it is about. I have exaggerated the mistakes in this design to make it very obvious, but you would be surprised how many pin designs are making some of these obvious mistakes.
The pin on the right (light colours) provides all the elements of a great pin: promise in the title, CTA, clear and stunning image on subject, contrasty and clear fonts.
Secondly, sometimes it can be interesting to add graphics to your pin to reinforce your promise, what your pin is about.
Look at the pin below from one of my blogs.
You see, the different elements for a great pin are really, really simple. When they come together, they make a real difference.
These are simple rules. Once you are aware, just follow them and you have achieved your first simple step to create Pinterest pins that go viral.
A great pin design is essential but not enough to get pins that go viral…
Confusing?
There is more to pins than just the design. Your overall Pinterest account needs to be optimised.
It is easily done to create a Pinterest account, start repinning and creating pins, randomly creating boards and just keep on going like this without thinking more about your account.
You can help significantly your pins to work really well in Pinterest if you work in getting a series of elements well set in your Pinterest account.
Have you thought about the keywords that you use across your Pinterest account? Are you using keywords that are aligned with your pins?
If not, go back to basics and get a few places in Pinterest set to work for you and your pins:
Your “Display name”
Your “About your profile”
Your Board names
Your Board description
Your Board cover
The most common mistakes are to forget your Board Description and not having keywords in your Display name and About profile. Take some time to get this fixed.
The video below shows you how to easily do it:
Now it’s your turn!
Once you have your keywords sprinkled through your profile and boards, just take a couple of minutes to consider where you are going to post your pin.
Obviously, you are going to pin it to a relevant board, but which one?
If you have your Pinterest built to maximise your traffic, you will have a series of boards inter-related to a similar subject.
You could be tempted to pin it to your course board because that’s really where you want it to appear.
However…
Always think where your pin will have more impressions or engagements to start with. Check your metrics in Pinterest or Tailwind and pin to the board with most impressions or the most engagements. You can a few days later pin a second version of your pin to another board.
Here is how you check this in Tailwind for Pinterest, which provides you with great insights on your Boards metrics. I personally love Tailwind Engagement Score, in the Boards Insights menu.
If you don’t use Tailwind yet, here is how to check some metrics in Pinterest:
This is a method that will ensure that your first pin, which is the freshest for Pinterest gets the maximum chances to go viral, because you are putting in a place with maximum exposure.
So what next?
To finish on how to optimise your account to get Pinterest pins that go viral, let’s just check one thing.
Have you got a board for just your own pins, only pins that you create?
Or are all your boards a mix of your pins and other people’s pins?
Your Pinterest account will benefit enormously of having boards dedicated only to your content, the pins that you have created.
This provides a great overview of what you offer, gives a clear point of entry into your website or products, and helps increase your follows.
Have a look at my own dedicated board, which, by the way, has the highest Engagement Score of all my boards.
Fantastic, you now know how to design a pin and how to optimise your Pinterest account to have Pinterest pins that go viral.
You might think that you’re done! That’s it. What else could really be needed to make Pinterest pins that go viral?!
Well in fact, the most important is missing…
Multiply your reach by sharing.
What do I mean?
You have two fantastic ways to spread the word around about your pins: Pinterest groups and Tailwind Communities. Plus you can also join Facebook groups focused on Pinterest or your niche that help you share your pins.
Pinterest groups are Pinterest boards where different people collaborate content to. You will identify them because they have multiple circles against them (have a look at the example below).
Let’s use therandomp.com Pinterest account to look for group boards.
Here there is a number of group boards, which you can identify because of the multiple circles on the right of the group name.
These Pinterest groups can:
be open to new contributors under certain conditions.
be closed to new contributors.
Have a look at these examples:
Once you click in a group board, you can see in the description whether the group is open for new contributors and what to do to ask to join. This group looks open.
This other group board is clearly closed to new contributors.
There are plenty of opportunities to spot group boards. Look for some good fits while not going for groups that are too busy. A few quality contributors are better than a lot with very inconsistent content.
Pinterest groups are a great way to maximise your pin reach. Don’t over do it though. The very last thing you want is to become spammy to the group or to Pinterest. Groups are places to collaborate with meaningful content and support each other.
You also have the option to apply to join Facebook groups related to your niche or specifically Pinterest. Some of these groups will regularly create opportunities for you to share your pins and will ask for you to repin other’s people pins.
They create traffic and help your Pinterest account with metrics.
It is sometimes difficult to know how many people in the group will really find your content relevant or whether the re-pins you get are somehow not true interest in your content. However, a proportion might still be useful.
Being active in Facebook groups for repins brings two upsides undeniably:
your Pinterest metrics will go up, driving the algorithm to show more your content,
with your pins re-pinned in other accounts, your impressions will go up, creating more opportunity to go viral.
Now that you have 2 types of groups to leverage your pins impressions, Pinterest groups and Facebook groups, you are still missing the most impactful of all.
I have kept the best for last!
My absolute favourite to explode your traffic and go viral is Tailwind Communities.
Tailwind for Pinterest is well known for its scheduling capabilities, to help you automate by scheduling your pins ahead of time.
Tailwind capabilities go well beyond this. My favourite one is Tailwind Communities!
Tailwind Communities is a similar concept to Pinterest groups however it has great benefits to Pinterest Groups:
A Tailwind Community enables you to share your pins for other people in the community to repin them.
The community rules usually mean that you need to repin on a 1:1 or 1:2 basis, meaning that if you share one of your pins you need to repin 1 or 2 pin from someone else. The metrics in Tailwind make it very easy to monitor whether or not you are re-sharing other’s people pins. So with good quality pins you will see repins easily. Cool!
Because you are actually not pinning directly in Pinterest, you are not going to be seen as spammy by Pinterest and be blocked!
Check out my blog on Discover My Secrets To Maximise Your Website Traffic With Tailwind For Pinterest And Be Super Productive. You have step-by-step videos on how to set up your Tailwind account and how to use Tailwind Communities to explode your traffic and have Pinterest pins that go viral.
My Pinterest traffic will not be what it is without it. Further more, as soon as I reduce my use of Tailwind Communities, my Pinterest traffic and my pins success reduces. There is a clear correlation. This is why Tailwind Communities is my number tool for Pinterest.
You know know the 3 components so that your pins go viral. Now. Before rushing into action, think strategy! Promised, it is easy!
You need to be strategic in what you want when you are thinking of creating pins that go viral. What are you after? Impressions, saves or outbound clicks?
Not many think about this element, hence why I did not want to finish this blog without sharing this with you.
For organic outbound clicks (click throughs to your pages), you are better off using a static designs (not a video).
For organic impressions, video drives far more views. However you will get less outbound clicks because when someone clicks on a video pin, it does not open your link.
For promoted content, video tends to work better, as video always stands out among the rest of the content.
A hybrid approach is to alternate between video and photos pins, to drive both impressions as well as saves and click throughs.
A viral pin is what you want to achieve in your Pinterest account to exponentially increase your traffic and results. It may seem an obscure art. To make Pinterest pins that go viral is based on 3 components:
your pin design
your account optimisation
your communities (to multiply you reach)
An irresistible title
A clear Call to Action (CTA)
Pinterest keywords research
A striking image
A vertical pin format (1000x1500)
Clear fonts and graphics matter.
Setting your account keywords
Pinning strategically to the right board
Set boards exclusively for your pins
Share with Pinterest Groups
Share in Pinterest Facebook Groups and other niche groups
Share with Tailwind Communities
Decide what you want to achieve with your pin (impressions, saves or click throughs) to determine what type of pin will work best for your desired outcome.
What next?
You see, as with magic tricks, once you know how to do it, it’s easy! So today when you pin, remember these easy steps to get your pin the maximum chances to go viral.
Please, don’t forget to tell me:
It is an absolute privilege to know that you read and find value in my blog! A HUGE thank you for your time.
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Hi! I’m Isabel
For years and years I have created and produced content, in particular visual content. You can find me very often with my cameras and tripod out and about!
My passion: to help you with your online presence and drive business growth through my blog and visuals collections (marketing templates, styled photos & video).
Ah, I have also worked for 24+ in the corporate world, leading quite a mix: transformation, marketing, coaching, sales, productivity, programme management, investments and product management.
I love sharing all these skills with you in my blog.
I am also founder of Agavea Properties, our family holiday rental business. My husband and I lead it with the passion with one goal in mind: serving our customers to create a memorable holiday experience for them.
So there you have it, that’s me! So there you have it, that’s me! Ah... I almost forgot, I ❤️ to travel, orange juice, my cameras & my family! My happy place is by the sea.
I have worked from home for many years. My purpose is to enable other online entrepreneurs to be successful while having a balanced life.
Thanks for being here with me!