Are you currently wondering if you should utilize Pinterest as part of your marketing strategy? Maybe you haven’t used Pinterest and have no idea where to begin? This post is for all those entrepreneurs out there wondering about the power of Pinterest marketing.
The reason for choosing to discuss Pinterest marketing is simple…It is one of the easiest ways to get traffic to a new online business. It can take a very long time to rank high enough to see the first page in a Google search result. However with Pinterest, you can put your content in front of potential/ideal customers organically and send traffic right to your website starting on day one.
Though Pinterest is often viewed as a social media platform, it’s really a visual search engine. It is a lot easier to rank high enough to get content in front of readers than it is on the search engine giants like Google. There are also great tools available to help you boost your efforts and build momentum. I will share those later on in the post.
Even though it is easier to get seen and drive traffic on Pinterest, it does require some effort and strategy. This post will share the top three ways you can maximize your results with Pinterest marketing.
Get That Profile Powered Up
If you are starting with a personal account, the first step is getting it switched to a business account. You will want the full suite of analytics that the business account provides. In addition, you’ll have the ability to create ad campaigns if you wish to double down on your efforts and have a few bucks for an ad budget.
If are new to Pinterest, you can completely design your profile which optimizes it from the start. If you are not, you’ll have a bit of clean-up to do in order to make your profile of interest to potential customers/clients/followers. Any boards you wish to have that don’t relate to your brand or business can be set to “secret”. Doing this makes secret boards only visible to you. Go ahead and keep pinning those recipes, just make sure those boards are secret and not cluttering the branding of your profile.
Name your profile with your brand to help people recognize you. Give a brief description of what you do. Name your boards with keywords you think pinners will be using to find content similar to yours. Reserve one board for just your pins exclusively because you will be pinning other user content to your boards.
I use this handy trick when I am building out a new board….I make it secret until I have at least 10 pins! It is best not to make boards visible that have fewer than five pins because it makes your profile look less desirable and the Pinterest algorithms seem to favor boards with more content. Make sure that pins get repinned even if it is you doing the repinning! This makes your boards look more legit in the Pinterest algorithms.
Make sure to verify your website with Pinterest to enable rich pins. This basically connects your pins to your URL and gives you pins a boost of authority that they redirect to the content the pin is showcasing. You should also embed all versions of your pins on your posts. This acts as an SEO booster for Pinterest. If you don’t want all of the pins to be visible to website visitors you can easily hide the images in your background of the webpage.
Have A Pinning Strategy
For those who have never created a pin before, stick to vertical images. Keep it simple. Utilize branding to keep your look consistent. Use easy to read fonts and colors that correspond with your brand. I highly recommend checking out Canva. You can make pins quickly and easily and using Canva is free!
It might seem extremely intimidating, but you need to be pinning, and doing so A LOT. When I first started, this seemed insurmountable, but don’t worry your queue will be filled up in no time. I use an awesome tool called Tailwind that completely automates the pinning process and takes the guesswork out of getting the most from your Pinterest efforts. Tailwind has a free trial offer, so go check it out!
Another pretty much indispensable feature is the Tailwind Tribes. Basically, these are groups that exchange content for pinning. You submit a pin for others to share and you return the favor. The rules are usually very simple, share more than you submit. This has helped me gain so much more traction on Pinterest and Tailwind posting for me has been a lifesaver.
My Pinterest profile has grown drastically to between 14K and 24K additional views per month in just the last two months of using Tailwind. I have also started gaining more followers too! Well worth the $15 monthly investment. I choose to add new pins once weekly and have 4-5 new pins per week. If you produce more than this, your results may be even more drastic! This is just what works for me and my busy schedule.
Now that I have a good solid foundation of pins I have created, my Tailwind queue basically fills itself and rotates my content. I login once a week, schedule a couple pins from the Tailwind Tribes I am part of. I upload the 3-4 pins I created for my blog post that week and give my Tailwind queue a shuffle.
In about 10 minutes, I have a pinning strategy that runs on auto-pilot until I login again. With the looping features, I could legit leave my profile alone for weeks and it would continue repinning my best content to Pinterest. Pretty cool right?!
Network, Network, Network
This is the part of using Pinterest for marketing that I didn’t learn right away, but have found very helpful for getting followers and traffic. It involves old fashioned networking! Join Facebook groups in your niche and show up. Answer questions and engage.
In groups that allow promotion, participate by asking for group members to visit your website, read a blog post, view a pin, or follow you on Pinterest and other social media channels. This WORKS and it is an awesome way to make new friends and build a list of contacts for future collaborations as well. We’ve started a new community of online entrepreneurs looking for collaboration and inspiration. Join it here!
Alternatively, you can also look for Pinterest group boards to pin content to. You can use a service like Pin Groupie to locate group boards and apply to them. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a response from some of your group applications. That is normal. Only apply to groups that your target audience would frequent and only choose boards that have good activity/engagement and quality content.
Don’t forget that Tailwind Tribes is also a way to network. You can use the group chat feature to talk to other group members! Showing up in chat also gives you an opportunity to connect with tribe mates. As relationships develop, you may find collaborations, followers, or have a pin you submitted to a tribe go viral!
I hope all the information in this post has been useful and gives you actionable steps to start Pinterest marketing today. If you need a little more help learning how to create pins that get noticed on Pinterest, we are launching a FREE course that can help with that! It is called Pin Creation in Canva! This is a basic building block for learning to make quality Pinterest Pins. If you are interested in this FREE course that will also give you access to free coaching in our private Facebook Group, enroll here and we will get you all the details.
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