Pinterest Idea Pins are getting the best reach on the platform – and driving lots of growth for the accounts that are using them well. They’re hands-down the best way to grow your audience and your Pinterest-driven profits.
They also happen to be flexible, engaging – and great fun (if you’re clear on how to use them strategically).
Oh, and they are here to stay. 🙂
But I’m hearing from a lot of Pinterest marketers and creators that Idea pins are time-consuming. 😑😑😑 And I get it. They aren’t as fast and easy to crank out as standard (single-image) pins.
So in this post, I’m sharing three of the best ways I’ve learned (over the last 2+ years of creating Idea pins for my own account and for clients) to make them more quickly.
I’ll cover how to:
- ‘Measure twice, cut once’ with Idea Pins
- Stop wasting gobs of time tracking down what you need to create profitable Idea Pins
- Make a month’s worth of Idea Pins feel so easy that it almost feels hard *not* to do it
These tips will help you reduce the time it takes to create Idea Pins – without sacrificing quality or results!
Ready? Let’s make this happen…
Strategy #1: Plan out your Idea Pins first – then create them.
You’ve heard the saying, “Measure twice, cut once.” right?
It always comes to mind when I catch myself starting a new project – before I’ve taken a few minutes to first plan out the steps.
And, inevitably, if I first take fifteen minutes to plan something – the execution is always more easeful and less time-consuming.
Pinterest Idea Pins are no exception to this. If you plan a bit first, the creation (or building the pin in the app) will be so much easier and quicker.
🆇 No more skipping CTAs because you forgot!
🆇 No more “Ugh, what keyword was I going to use here again?”
🆇 No more staring at a blank canvas, wracking your brain about what to EVEN create about!
Planning out one month of Idea Pins could look a little something like this…
1) Deciding how many Idea Pins you’ll make in the coming month – and how frequently you’d like to add them.
2) Selecting the topics and angles of your Idea Pins. (Pssst… This also ensures that they will fit in with your overall content plan and pillars, and be about something your audience actually wants – which makes your Pins more effective, too!)
3) Making some key decisions about each pin – for example, keywords to use and calls to action to incorporate.
Now I realize that some creators may read this and feel like “planning” feels a little heavy. If that’s you, keep these two truths in mind:
- You can always supplement your plan with more spontaneous Idea pins. If you have your pins planned, but you get a great idea and feel inspired to create – go for it!
(Note: I’m not giving you permission to abandon your plan! 🙂 If you have 7 pins planned… and you feel a spontaneous urge to create three more at varying times throughout the month… you’ll end up with 10 pins.
- The planning process I describe above could be *very* simple and quick. It could take you just a few minutes each month – if you’re organized.
… which is why – in my course, Idea Pin Brilliance – I include (what I consider to be 🙂 ) the perfect tool for this.
The Brilliant Idea Pin Planner is a google sheet that is your one-stop tool for organizing your ideas and planning Pins (one month at a time). I built it around the three critical elements that Idea Pins need to get you results – so it’s very effective.
So basically, this is the takeaway here:
✔️ A good organizational system/tool makes your Idea Pin planning a breeze; and
✔️ Subsequently, the planning session makes the Pin creation so much faster.
Strategy #2: Coral your Idea Pin resources in one place.
Many Creators feel it’s hard to quickly put hands on all the resources they need – and to remember all the things to do – when creating Pinterest Idea Pins.
As mentioned above, the way I avoid that problem – and save eons of time on my pin creation workflow – is to keep everything I need handy in The Brilliant Idea Pin Planner. (It’s a google sheet is my structured yet customizable ‘headquarters’ for my Idea pin workflow.)
In addition to giving you the framework and place to quickly *plan* pins, it also houses the ‘cheat sheets,’ checklists, and resources/links that you need when creating them – all in one handy spot.
Most of these are already in there when you access the planner. (Yayyy! Time saver right there!) But you can also add your own, if desired.
I’ll give you just a few examples of these:
✔️ A quick keywording checklist (where do the keywords go?)
✔️ A link to my favorite headline and hook formula lists (so you can quickly pick one and make sure your text overlay will stop the scroll – not be boooorrring… 😉)
✔️ A place to record your most frequently-used topic tags
So yeah… having everything organized in one place will save you soooooo much time – whether you decide to use my system (included in my course Idea Pin Brilliance) or create one of your own.
Okay, on to Strategy #3… (Maybe the most powerful of the three!)
(Pssssst…. You can 📌 pin this article for reference to your “Pinterest marketing” board:)
Strategy #3: Take it “slow and steady” with your Idea Pins.
I want you to plan on making 1 Idea Pin per week. That’s it. Maybe increase to 2 later.
Sound crazy? Feel like you could do more? Well let me explain…
Have you read (or heard of) Atomic Habits by James Clear?
It’s one of my favorite books. It really changed my outlook on habit creation – and helped me make some lasting changes that I had previously struggled with.
One of the central ideas of the book is that it’s easier to build good habits when we start small… like REALLY small!
For example, if I want to have a strong core (and be someone with great abs!), I *could* try to commit to some elaborate ab workout 5 times per week. Let’s say… 100 sit-ups, 60 seconds of planking x2, 100 heel taps, and 100 dead bugs – 5x a week.
But chances are pretty good that it wouldn’t last. (I have a lot I want to do in the mornings! I’ll bet you do, too.)
BUT… What if I committed to doing five sit-ups every morning? Or even four? This is SUCH a no-brainer that it would almost be impossible to skip a day. I mean, I can spare literally ten seconds to fulfill this commitment to myself, right?
And I might not see results right away… but over time, my results would compound. And – perhaps more importantly – I would begin to really identify as someone who does sit-ups every day. So the habit would stick.
If you want to read more about this, this blog post sums a lot of it up – quickly. 🙂 (I know you’re busy.)
Meanwhile, though, let’s bring this back to Pinterest Idea Pins…
All of the above is why I recommend that new Pinterest marketers (or those who have not yet mastered a consistent pinning workflow) start SMALL. In fact…
You can get great results from Pinterest with just 1 or 2 Idea Pins per week (Start with one!!!)
Yep… Slow and steady can win this race. And Pinterest is a GREAT platform to take this approach on – because it’s a search engine.
Here’s why “Slow and Steady” works particularly well on Pinterest…
Remember: On Pinterest, when we add pins (and use a good strategy and good keywords), they can be discovered for months and years when pinners are searching for your topics.
So unlike on social media, we don’t need to constantly be feeding the content beast with *daily* content that gets lost in a fast-moving feed.
When you add content to Pinterest slowly but steadily (Idea pins and/or standard pins), over time “a little becomes a lot.” And people can find you when they search for your topics.
Ready to learn how to consistently (& efficiently!) create high-performing Pinterest Idea Pins?
Perfect! That’s what you’ll learn in my course, Idea Pin Brilliance.
It’s my simple system for creating Pinterest Idea Pins that grow your audience, your influence, and your income.
It’s a course.
It’s a planner. (As mentioned MANY times above! 😉
It’s packed with “ah-ha moments” about Idea pins – and all the step-by-steps you need to create brilliant ones that get results. If it sounds like the solution you’ve been looking for, click on over to learn more and enroll!
