How To Make Pinterest Board Covers (& Bring Engagement)

You’re probably wondering how those other Pinterest users have these organised and branded Pinterest cover images on their profile. Those are called “Pinterest board covers”. It’s pretty simple to make but it will take a lot of time and effort.

After the outcome, you’re going to look like a professional Pinterest user. This leads you to gain followers and look like you take your brand seriously.

If you don’t know what Pinterest image covers are, then let me give you a simple summary of what it is. They’re the main images for your categorised boards. They help you brand out your Pinterest account from the others and make it look neat and tidy. If you don’t understand what I mean, check this out.

Funny thing is, I’m getting most of my clicks to my own site with these cover boards than my actual blog post pins!

If you would like to see an updated version on how to make Pinterest cover boards on your phone, you can check out the post here.

Do you want to make one too? Of course, you do. That’s why you’re here! In this post, you’ll learn how to make a bunch of Pinterest board covers.

So grab your mug of coffee or tea and let’s get right into it!

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Tools you’ll Need for Pinterest Board Covers

So what are the resources and tools you need to create your Pinterest board covers? I’ll be listing them here. (If it has * next to the tool, that means it is “optional”. You can pick between using it or not using it.)

• Canva
• Tailwind* (You can share your boards to the tribe members)
• CreativeMarket* (Grab beautiful images or fonts from there)
• SiteGround (You need a website! If you haven’t started a blog, check out this post here on how to create one)
• PixiStock* (Premium stock images for your board covers. You can grab them free every month by signing up to her newsletter)
• Adobe Photoshop (if you’re planning to use this design tool instead of Canva)
• PicMonkey (another design tool for you to create your Pinterest board covers)
• Pinterest (I mean, do you really need an explanation?)

Creating Pinterest Image Covers

But first, let’s figure out what you need to do first.

Note: I suggest while you design your Pinterest board covers, watch some Netflix/YouTube or listen to a Podcast. It’s gonna take a while.

Rename your boards

If your boards need a good renaming, do that first before you end up having to change your cover boards. You can also try capping the first letter (it makes it look neat).

Figure out your theme

Use the brand colours that you use to brand out your site/blog. If you don’t have one, start doing some research!

Look up inspirations on Pinterest by searching “brand colours”. From there on out, check out which type of colours you would like to brand out your blog. 
If it’s too much of a hassle to figure out your brand colours, check out Lisa Furze’s post on 6 Free online tools to help pick your brand colours.

Cover size

Now you need this to be as accurate as possible in order for the board covers to stand out and possibly fit. The original size is 217 x 146 px (Not recommended so stick to the end to see why).

What I did was try making multiple copies of the cover image with the different sizes and test it out by uploading it to one of my board covers. If the shoe fits, then jot down the size and stick to it!

(Update July 2020: I recommend using Instagram post size to create your board covers. You can check out all about the sizing in my new link here. Or you can click here to pick out Instagram templates.)

File Type

PNG or JPEG? I highly recommend downloading it in PNG or you image covers will look pixelated depending on the size you make it.

Let’s Start Creating Pinterest Board Covers!

Now that you got the idea and plan down, let’s make the cover boards with Canva!

1. Go to Canva and then on the top right corner, it says Custom Dimensions. Click on that and insert your size dimension for your cover board. And do make sure the dimension is “PX” (stands for pixels).
2. Go to Background and pick your brand coloured background.
   Other options:
   There are many ways to find images.
   ~ You can pick from the free backgrounds related one of your brand colours that are on Canva
   ~ insert your own images from your computer. You can take photographs using a DSLR camera or your own phone (that has good lens). If you’re a beginner in photography, you can take free live courses here.
   ~You can also grab some free stock images here.
3. (Optional) Go to Elements and add a little design to it. You can add lines, shapes, images, a grid if you would like to put multiple images in one.
   It’s all whatever you choose to do! If you’re planning on using a bright colour for the text/typography, then use a white square, size it and saturated to 75%.
4. Next, go to Text and make sure to add the Add a Subheading (the second one) just by clicking on it. Why not the heading? Because the heading is way too large to fit in the design.
   This is where you writing down the heading of your Pinterest boards. The parts where I highlighted is the typeface and the size of the text. Pick them out and resize it if you have long text.
5. Now once you’re finished designing, find the arrow going down in-between Share and Publish. The arrow pointing down on the line resembles a “download” button. Make sure to pick the file type PNG and then click Download!

Installing Pinterest Board Covers

Now that you got your design, it’s time to install it to your Pinterest board covers.

All I know is that it’s gonna take a lot of time to upload this cover images to each individual board manually. But trust me, it’s gonna be worth it!

1. Go to your main Pinterest account and on the tab bar, click on Boards.
2. Now, this is the part where people will get confused. Click on Plus icon and then click on Create Pin.
3. Upload your cover image and edit the title and description. Make sure you add your website and the board you are UPLOADING to. Check Publish Immediately and click the red Save button on the top right.
4. Then, select the board that you wish to upload to. Click on the pencil icon. That will lead you to edit the board.
5. Now scroll to Cover and click the Change button next to it. Upload your image cover from where you saved it to.
6. To find the uploaded cover image, click on the left arrow key. Once you’re happy with it, click on the red Save changes on the bottom right. Then save it again from the board edit and you’re done!

As I said, I do recommend the cover image size from Instagram.

The outcome will look pixelated and won’t fit the whole image like this. (The size was created intentionally just to give you a view of what it looks like when it out scaled).

Related Posts

• Use These Amazing 10 Pinterest Marketing Strategies to Increase Traffic
• Free Aesthetic Design Resources To Brand Your Business
• How to Post your Blog Post on Pinterest (for Beginner Bloggers)

Conclusion

Now that you get the idea and learned how to create your brand on Pinterest with these cover images, I suggest you start popping on your earphones and start researching and creating!

Lastly, my recommendation for today is Tailwind. If you don’t have time to manually pin your pins to Pinterest, I recommend using this automating tool.

It doesn’t have to be used on Pinterest, you can use it for Instagram too. All you need to do is go to your blog post pin, copy the link of your blog post to Tailwind, choose a board or tribe you want to pin it to and schedule! That’s it!

You can try it out for free using 100 pins. And if you like it, feel free to upgrade it!

Again, check out my latest 2020 post on creating Pinterest board covers (on your phone)!

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