How To Use Pinterest For Business
If you have ever wondered how to use Pinterest in your business – you are in the right place.
In this full guide to using Pinterest I am going to show you what to do and what to avoid when it comes to marketing your business on the platform.
With 322 million monthly active users, and the figure growing every day, Pinterest is a powerful way to market your business for free. In this guide I will take you from Pinterest novice to running a successful Pinterest account.
one
Create a business account
It’s important that you set up your Pinterest account as a business. If you are brand new to the platform just head over to https://business.pinterest.com/en-gb/creating-your-account and get started.
If you already have a Pinterest account you need to find out if it’s a business or a personal account. Log in to your account on a laptop or desktop computer and look for some clues. Can you find a tab called “Business Hub”? Can you see options to view analytics and ads? If you can then you have a business account, if you can’t then chances are you are running a personal account.
If you want to keep your current account and switch it to become a business then head to https://www.pinterest.co.uk/business/convert/ and follow the onscreen instructions. If you want to keep your personal account then head to the settings and select “Add Business Account”.
It’s important to have a Pinterest business account so that you can make use of additional features such as verifying your website, rich pins, and analytics.
two
Understand how Pinterest works
Now you have your account it’s important to understand how the platform works for your business. Often Pinterest is described as a social media platform, however this isn’t particularly helpful. Instead start thinking of Pinterest as a search engine. The platform operates on search terms and keywords and is much closer to Google image search than it is to Facebook or Instagram.
Once you understand that the platform runs on keywords – it will change the way that you set it up and use it.
three
Optimise your profile
When setting up your Pinterest profile consider the keywords that you include within your profile name and bio. Use the words that you use to describe yourself on your website, perhaps include a county or country that you want to be found in. Use all of the possible characters available to you. Ensure that your profile picture and username matches your other social media account for consistency. Make sure your contact details are up-to-date and your website is verified.
four
Create boards
Now your profile is ready to go it’s time to start thinking of the boards you want to create. Remember when creating board ideas you need to ensure you are using keywords to help people find you. Don’t call a board “my work” instead call it something niche with lots of keywords such as “rose gold and pearl luxury wedding inspiration”. Think about the words that your customers will be searching in order to find whatever service or product you have. The more niche the keywords, the better chance they have of coming across your boards.
It’s also important to create boards that can house your work. There is no point in creating lots of boards that are full of other people’s pins.
It’s also important to create boards that can house your work. There is no point in creating lots of boards that are full of other people’s pins. Every board you create should have pins that link back to you and your website, otherwise you are just marketing other people.
Need board name ideas?
Take a look at what competitors are doing (although bear in mind they may not be good at using Pinterest) also take a look at the types of images and content you already have on your website and start building board ideas around them.
Colours, places, craft ideas, and themes always do well on Pinterest, so keep that in mind too.
five
Start pinning
Now you have some boards in place it’s time to start pinning! You can either pin images from your own website, or repin other peoples from within Pinterest! It’s really important that you do both! Only pin your own stuff and Pinterest won’t like it, only pin other people’s stuff and you are just wasting your time. You need to make sure you have a healthy balance of your own work and other people’s but make sure the balance is in your favour.
The quickest way to pin organically is with a browser extension like this. Once installed you can navigate to any page on the Internet, hit the button, and start pinning the images to your account.
You can also create pins by uploading images from your computer – but be careful! Every pin you create of your work should always link back to your website or social media pages. If you just upload images they will start circulating Pinterest, but with users unable to know they originate from you. Always have a linked URL, and make it as relevant as possible. If you pin a picture of shoes, don’t send your user to the homepage, send them to a page on your website where they can order the shoes!
Use keywords. Don’t forget the importance of using those keywords in your pin titles and descriptions. These are what will enable people to find you in the search. Use niche keywords to describe what is in the image, in the way that a potential client would look for it. For example don’t just call it “water bottle”, call it “rose gold and black metal water bottle personalised with initials, UK”.
six
Be consistent
Now you’ve started pinning it’s important you are consistent with it. To see real success on the platform it’s best to pin little and often, rather than 100 times today and then forgetting about it for a month. Try and find a time of day when you can pin or for ease consider using a scheduler (more about that later).
As with all marketing you get out of it what you put in, be consistent and keep adding fresh content to Pinterest and you will see your numbers start to rise.
seven
Keep an eye on the numbers
When it comes to Pinterest there are two main numbers you need to be paying attention to.
Firstly your monthly unique viewers, this is the amount of people who are putting their eyes on your pins every month. It’s quite possible to get this number up into the 1000’s or even the 100,000s. Whatever your number is today make a note and make sure it’s going in a general upward direction. It’s worth noting at this point that your numbers will fluctuate, they will go up and down depending on the season, whether your pins go viral and a huge number of other factors. If they dip, don’t panic – just keep following the guidance above and they will go back up again.
Secondly, and more importantly, keep an eye on your link clicks. This is the amount of people clicking from Pinterest over to your website or Etsy store. And this is the number that you really need to pay attention to because this is where sales or lead captures happen. This number will build over time and you need to pin consistently for 3 – 6 months to start seeing real impact.
Pay attention to which pages on your website people are landing on most consistently. Make sure you are optimising these to either keep people on your website longer or to make a sale or capture a lead.
eight
Consider blogging
If you don’t already, then consider starting a blog on your website. When you pin from a blog post you can create “rich pins” on your account. These pins are favoured by Pinterest and will generally do better for you.
When you have published a blog post make sure you pin all of the images within it to your account and also create a graphic with the name of your blog post and pin that. These graphics tend to get a higher number of clicks as people need to click through to your website to find the inspiration or answers they are searching for. It is possible to create multiple graphics that all lead back to the same blog post.
nine
Use a scheduler
If you want to free up your time but continue to be consistent with Pinterest then consider using a scheduler. Pinterest does have an inbuilt scheduler but at the time of writing it has a number of restrictions such as only being able to schedule 30 pins ahead.
I recommend using Tailwind to schedule your Pinterest account. It has a number of features which are well worth paying for as they will save you a huge amount of time. You can take a look at Tailwind using my affiliate link here and get a month free.
ten
Get further training
There are so many layers to Pinterest and the platform is constantly shifting. I have given you the “first aid course” to get started with, but if you want to become a doctor you will need to go further. You can find out more about my full intensive Pinterest Mastercourse here.
You are also welcome to join my FREE Facebook group where you can get further Pinterest help and ask your questions.
Take a look at our other free guides:
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