The Pin Design Secrets That Get Your Podcast Episode Pins Clicked
If you’ve ever opened Canva, stared at a blank template, and thought “I have no idea how to make Pinterest pins for my podcast,” you are so not alone. It’s one of the most common worries I hear from podcasters who are curious about Pinterest pin design but feel like they need to be a professional graphic designer to get started. Good news: you don’t! In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly what makes a pin stand out in a crowded feed — the images, the colors, the fonts, and the one element that matters more than all of it combined: Pinterest SEO keywords. This is one of my favorite podcast marketing strategies to teach because it’s sustainable, it doesn’t rely on chasing trends, and it works quietly in the background to bring new listeners to your show.
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
- Why images (especially ones with faces!) make your Pinterest pin design pop
- Choosing pin colors and fonts that help you stand out instead of blending into your niche
- Making sure your pin text is big enough to read on a phone so your podcast pins get clicked
- Letting Pinterest users know a pin leads to a podcast episode, not just a blog post
- Why Pinterest SEO keywords are the most important ingredient in a pin that gets found
- Exactly where to put your keywords: image text, pin title, and pin description
- How Pinterest strategy for podcasters fits into podcast marketing strategies that skip social media
- A behind-the-scenes look at Andi’s Pinterest VIP Setup service
Why Creating Clickable Pins for Your Podcast Matters
Here’s the thing about learning how to make Pinterest pins for your podcast — it’s not about becoming a designer overnight. It’s about understanding a few simple principles that make people stop scrolling. Images with faces catch the eye. Text that’s readable on a phone keeps people from scrolling right past. And letting people know your pin is tied to an actual podcast episode (not just a blog post) sets the right expectations before they click.
But here’s what I really want you to walk away with: none of that matters if Pinterest doesn’t know who to show your pin to. That’s where Pinterest SEO keywords come in. When you use the same keywords in your pin image, your pin title, and your pin description, you’re essentially handing Pinterest a map that says “show this to the exact person who needs it.” That’s the difference between a pretty pin that goes nowhere and a pin that quietly brings in new listeners week after week.
This is exactly why Pinterest has become one of my go-to podcast marketing strategies — it’s a sustainable podcasting strategy that keeps working long after you hit publish, without needing you to show up on camera or keep up with another social media app. If figuring all of this out on your own sounds like a lot, that’s exactly why I created Pinterest VIP Setup, where I handle your pin creation and full profile optimization for you.
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Unedited transcript of the episode:
When I first started making pins for Pinterest, I was definitely an anomaly. For whatever reason, I wasn’t worried about creating the perfect pin. I just found some templates on Pinterest and moved on. I now know that that is very unusual because one of the most common worries podcasters come to me with when they’re trying out Pinterest is, “I’m not a graphic designer. I don’t know how to make beautiful pins.” Well, today I’m going to walk you through how to create pins for your podcast that get clicked and saved
📍 Hi, I’m Andy Smiley, and I’m obsessed with helping you grow your podcast without letting it rule your life. I share strategies that actually work, the stuff I wish someone would’ve told me sooner, and conversations with the smartest podcasters I know. So what makes a great pin?
because it’s hard to explain pins without showing you things, I have a screenshot right now up of a Pinterest page that I’ve been looking at recently because we’re trying to figure out allowance with my kids. So if you’re listening to it right now and you want a visual aspect of it, you wanna see what I’m talking about as I’m talking about it, I put the link to the YouTube video in the show notes so you can hop on over there when you have a second to kind of see what I’m talking about.
So one of the things that makes a really good pin is having an image and not just words. So as we’re scrolling, I’m noticing this one’s pretty good, um, ’cause it does have that image there, and it does kind of jump out at me a little bit.
But I will say, images are good, but images with faces are even better. So if we keep scrolling, I’m still not seeing any faces, so I feel like nothing is really jumping o- Oh, but this kid, I feel like seeing his face, it kind of jumps out at me a little bit, and I feel like it doesn’t feel very cluttered, this pin doesn’t.
And the, like, the words are big, pretty easy to tell what this pin is about, and it… I feel like, ’cause it isn’t as cluttered as some of these other pins look, it jumps out at me a little bit. So when you have an image, if you can put a face with that image, that can help catch people’s eye.
For some reason, people really like faces. Probably just ’cause we’re all human, and that’s what we like. Another thing to look out for with pins is to see what colors and fonts and that type of thing people are using for pins in your niche or similar niches and try and do other colors, if that makes sense.
And it also applies to, like, a lot of this feels kind of cluttered and, like, in my face, while this pin felt very straightforward and not in my face. Like, it was almost calming compared to everything else, and so I think that’s why my eye was drawn to it. But sometimes that’s more so with colors.
Like, maybe you are a plant podcast, like I talked about in last week’s episode, and everyone is using a bunch of greens, which kind of makes sense with plants. But if everyone’s using green, maybe if you used pink mixed in with mostly pink with a little bit of green, then you might stand out a little bit more, and people’s eye might be drawn to th- your pin instead of someone else’s.
Something to keep in mind. Another thing to think about is making sure that the words that you put on your pin are big enough for people to read easily on their phone. So currently right now I’m on my laptop, and so everything is a little bit bigger.
It’s easier to read the words. So the- truly sometimes what I will do when I’m creating a pin, is I will hop into Canva, and I will, like, zoom out on the pin until it’s small, like about the same size as what it would be on the phone so I can make sure I can still read it.
So, like, this, our kids’ chore system and why we pay them, that’s big enough that I could read that on a phone easily. Because if someone can’t read the words on there, then they’re just gonna scroll past. Like, we, we as a society don’t have time for things that we don’t understand or can’t read easily, and so we need to make sure that
as we’re creating pins, we make it easy for people to understand what the cool content is that we’re creating and that they get when they click on the pin
One thing that’s unique to podcasters in creating pins for your podcast is making sure that people know that when they click on a pin, it’s taking them to an episode
So that the Pinterest users aren’t surprised
When they click through and they end up with an episode. So a good example of this, well, truly, it’s kind of small, this writing up here, but it says, “Hey, this is a podcast. It’s Not About Money, the money podcast for intentional parents.” So that helps the Pinterest user know that this is an episode or this is from a podcast, so it’s probably gonna be an episode.
And you will wanna make sure to do something similar on your pins. If that’s new episode, like just writing new episode on one,
or having your podcast name and logo on there so that everyone is aware that this is a podcast, and it’s like, “oh, this isn’t just a blog post. This is also an episode where I get to learn more.” Just something to keep in mind so that people understand where this pin is taking them And the most, very most important thing about creating great pins, is to make sure that you are using SEO keywords.
You wanna use it, like, in the words on the pin. You also wanna make sure that you use it in the pin title, which is this part, and in the description. You want it in all of the places so that Pinterest knows exactly who to show this to.
When you let Pinterest know that this pin is for parents who are trying to figure out allowance for their kids, and they wanna do it in a way that makes them yell less, then make sure that all of those words and phrases that you found, are on the pin, are in the pin title, and are in the pin description.
That will help Pinterest show this to the right people
And if all of that sounds like way too much work, and you’d rather have someone else handle it, you aren’t alone.
That’s exactly why I created Pinterest VIP setup. Not only do I create your first 30 pins with options for me to continue to create your pins after that, I also set up every other aspect of your profile to make sure it’s optimized to bring in new listeners, from Pinterest SEO keyword research to connecting your website to your Pinterest account.
So you don’t have to lift a finger to get the Pinterest ball rolling. You just have to show up to a growing audience. Click the link in the show notes to get started. As a recap, referencing your episode on the pin, using images, especially images with faces, and colors that aren’t the exact same as pins in your niche is nice. But the most important thing to remember is making sure the words on the pin are big enough for people to easily read on a phone, and your Pinterest SEO keywords will help your pin get found much more than just a pretty 📍 picture while you were listening today, did you think of someone who’s been wanting to grow their podcast using Pinterest but doesn’t know how? Will you send this episode to them?
You can click that little share button in your podcast app and text it straight to them. In next week’s episode, I’ll be sharing about one of the most controversial topics in the Pinterest world: how many pins should you be pinning? Thanks for being here, and I’ll see you next week
