Most of us have been using Pinterest for years to plan parties and decorate our homes. But did you know that Pinterest could be one of the best free ways to drive traffic to your website and to generate leads for your small business? In this episode, I share my own Pinterest marketing strategy and what I’ve done to get over 800,000 monthly viewers on that platform. I’ve also doubled my website traffic and consistently book new clients every single month from that platform!

 

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Episode Highlights

• (1:06) Why I fired my Pinterest Manager
• (1:52) Pinterest isn’t a social media platform
• (2:16) How to optimize and set up your Pinterest profile (keyword research and basic Pinterest set up)
• (3:30) How to set up Pinterest boards
• (4:45) How to create content for Pinterest (Fresh pins and Pinterest best practices)
• (6:46) An inside look at my own Pinterest marketing strategy with 3 examples of Pins, Pin Titles and Pin Descriptions
• (9:50) What to look for in Pinterest analytics
• (10:56) How to think about your client journey for Pinterest
• (12:00) Tools you can use to manage your Pinterest
• (14:23) Creative ways you can use Pinterest

 

Why I fired my Pinterest Manager

I want to share a mistake I made last year, and why I ended up having to fire my Pinterest manager. I’ve been using Pinterest consistently for my business for a few years now, but I didn’t really get serious about it until last year. I was generating leads, so I went ahead and hired a Pinterest manager to try to ramp up my leads. My Pinterest manager was doing an incredible job of getting my monthly views to go up, but there was zero return to that investment. I was not getting traffic back to my website and my leads were not coming as frequently. They were pinning content and doing things to make my analytics go up, but not to actually bring in results.

 

Pinterest Basics and Steps to Pinterest Optimization

Before we start talking about Pinterest strategy, it’s important to remind you that Pinterest is not a social media platform.  Pinterest is a search engine, which means people go to that platform to search for products or services. You’ll want to pin content that purposefully points back to your website or landing pages.

1. The first thing you’re going to want to do to optimize your Pinterest profile is keyword research. You need to know what people are typing into the search bar when they’re looking for products or services like yours.
2. You’re going to want to convert to a business account. This will allow you to see all the different analytics that you need, and also allows you to claim your website or Etsy shop.
3. Fill out your profile by typing in your display name and profile description. Your display name is a great place to start using your keywords. Profiles are searchable on Pinterest, so someone can find your whole profile if you use keywords in your name.
4. Once you have your name and description filled out with your keywords, you’re going to want to move onto boards. Boards is where you’re going to save your pins on your account. I recommend starting with about 10 to 15 boards, and you’re going to want to name these boards with your keywords.
5. Start creating Pinterest content. If you have about 10 to 15 boards to start with, you’re going to want to have between 20 and 50 pins on each board. Pinterest highly favors fresh pins, which means they prioritize anything that comes onto the Pinterest platform that is new. You can still link to old blog posts, but the images and pins that you share to Pinterest will perform better if they are new to that platform. I like to create 5-10 different pins for every single blog post or landing page.
6. Every pin is going to have a title and description, and that is where you want to use your keywords. If you’re creating about five to 10 different pens, you want to make sure that your title and description is a little bit different for each one.
7. Another thing to think of when you’re creating content for Pinterest is what the different seasonal trends might be. With a business account you can click over on the analytics tab and find trends.

 

How to know if your Pinterest Marketing Strategy is Actually working

With a business profile. you can check your analytics! My biggest priority for Pinterest is going to be getting people back to my website. I want to drive traffic to my different blog posts and to my  landing pages so that I can try to convert website traffic into paying clients. When I’m checking my analytics on Pinterest, here’s what I look for:

1. Impressions: How many times my pins were seen
2. Engagement: How many times someone actually interacted with my pin. They can interact with your pins through close-ups (when they tap the pin open to read the description or to see the image), link clicks (when they leave Pinterest and visit your website) or they can save your pin to their board.
3. I prioritize link clicks because that is what gets them off the Pinterest platform and onto my website where I can try to nurture that relationship!

 

My goals for Pinterest are to increase my website traffic, convert that traffic into leads and convert the leads into paying clients.

 

Tools I use to manage my Pinterest Marketing

1. Canva– The website I use to design my fresh pins
2. Trello– I use a trello board to keep all of my Pinterest keywords and hashtags organized by category
3. Tailwind – This is by far the best Pinterest scheduler out there
4. Virtual Assistant or Pinterest Manager – Outsource your Pinterest to a professional, but just be sure you know what their Pinterest strategy is

 

Creative Ways to Use Pinterest for Your Business

If you’re already on a platform like TikTok or YouTube, you can repurpose your videos on Pinterest. Pinterest loves video content, and it really prioritizes it over images. Upload your videos to Pinterest, add some keywords and hashtags, and you’re good to go!

You can also create info graphics! An info graphic is a great way to share really great content that can point back to your website. But an info graphic is also going to be something that people want to save and repin. Another way to use Pinterest is for your affiliate marketing. You can easily create pins that point back to your affiliate links so that you’re not just making money off of your own work. Lastly, you can use Pinterest to grow your email list. Create a lead magnet or some type of freebie that you can share to Pinterest and start getting people on your email list.

 

Links and Resources Mentioned

• Canva
• Trello
• Tailwind