How To Begin Pinterest Marketing For your Business
At first Pinterest marketing may seem like quite a lot of effort, but believe me when I say - Pinterest marketing for your blog or business is one of the best ways to drive a crazy amount of traffic to your site and get cash rolling in (provided your site is monetised, of course). I realise that this can all become a tad overwhelming in the beginning and I’m going to keep it all as brief and to the point as I can. If you would rather skip the ins and outs of it all, feel free to check out my Pinterest Virtual Assistant services.
Set Up your Pinterest Business Profile
So, where should I begin with Pinterest? Click here to watch the demonstration tutorial to get your account set up. Having your Pinterest account setup correctly not only gives you access to analytics and metrics to track performance, but if you’re using Pinterest for marketing your business its actually required that you have a business profile (stated in Pinterest’s terms and conditions).
Create Boards Related to your Niche
Once you’re all set up with your Business Account you’ll want to create a few boards related to your niche, or area of expertise. If you’re a travel blogger, you’d create destination boards and travel related “topics” as such. If you’re a stationery business, you’d create boards related to each of the items you sell like wedding stationery, notebooks, business cards, etc.
Fill out Board Descriptions
After your boards are named you’ll need to write out a description for each. Descriptions are powerful because the key words you use make it easier for your board and content to be found when people are searching for it. Pinterest is, after all, a giant visual search engine. Make sure to SEO your board descriptions. Pro Tip: An easy and effective way to figure out which key words to use is by searching your topic in Pinterest itself and using the search results like this …
Get Pinning
Right, now let’s get those pins rolling. You can begin with “repinning” pins you find within Pinterest that already relate to your board topics. Yes, ideally you want your content and pins to get noticed. But you’re also going to need fillers for your account to bulk it up a bit. Fill up your boards and then start adding your own custom made pins.
Aim for about 15 pins in each board before you begin adding your own original content. This way your boards and account looks full and appealing to others who may want to follow you or check out your account.
Create your Custom Pins
You could say there’s an art to pin designing, but I guess you learn through practicing and spending some time on Pinterest when you notice which designs and fonts are appealing to you. I would scroll through Pinterest and notice which pins stood out to me and then I’d try to use the same elements when creating my own.
I use Canva to create my pins over here for clients at Haskin Creatives and even for my own personal blog. It’s completely free to use and they even have some nifty templates. Think about your business or blog brand and relate your pin designing to match it. Think colours, fonts and photos. Be consistent and learn from your mistakes. Look at which pins get noticed and experiment with creating more like them.
Share and Repin your Pins
Start by embedding your pins into your site so that others can share it and be sure to upload it yourself to your Pinterest profile. Create multiple pins for the same post and repin each one at least 5 times to different related boards. If I have a pin about “Teaching in Vietnam” I could repin it to my blog board, teaching in Asia board, travel board and various Group Boards (more on them later).
Obviously you won’t want to spam your followers and it sure won’t look great if someone sees the same recurring pin flat out on your feed, so you’ll need to space them out and create a healthy balance between your pins and other content.
You also can’t bypass a great looking pin, killer title and description simply by repinning yourself. These factors are what get you noticed and allow others to repin your content, leading to a viral pin. This is what you are striving for, so limit your own repins to 5 times per pin.
Wait, how much time is this going to take?
It’ll soon become apparent that this whole balancing act can become quite the task. In truth, if you really want Pinterest to work for you and you’re serious about growing your sites traffic, you need to be pinning throughout the day during optimal times. If you choose to do this manually, Pinterest can really rule your life. Ain’t no body got time for that!
That’s when your guardian angel, Tailwind, comes in.
I know, I know. I was sceptical about the scheduling tool when I first heard about it too, but after completing the 100 pin trial I knew I couldn't live without it. Tailwind is a game changer and saves you a ton of time. All of my clients are required to have their own Tailwind account - it’s that valuable to me!
Get into Groups Boards
When I first started out group boards were the scariest part of the process for me, but turned out to be pretty simple and easy. I absolutely love the community of group boards now! All you need to do is spend some time on Pinterest looking for group boards related to your niche. You can tell it’s a group board if you see the profile photo icon has multiple people.
You’ll then want to follow the instructions to apply which you can find in the board description. I usually just send the admin a private message if there are no details on how to get into the group board. Remember you’re asking them for a favour, so be nice!
Why would you want to get into a group board, you ask? It’s simple. By placing a pin into a group board that has a following 10x that of your own, you immediately reach a far greater audience meaning your pin is more likely to get clicked which equals more traffic through your site. Group boards are the bomb!
Rinse and Repeat
Keep up your pin creation, scheduling and group board activities and you are bound to be successful in getting massive traffic through your site.
Hello, I’m Megan!
An introvert at heart, Pinterest is the perfect platform for me. Simply posting your content using the right marketing strategies gets you an abundance of website traffic? No engagement or ‘showing up’ needed?
Who wouldn’t want to use this powerhouse of a platform …