Have you ever thought about using Pinterest to market your business? For years I’ve known that Pinterest can be a powerful marketing channel but I’ve never 100% committed to creating and consistently following a marketing strategy for Pinterest. For 2020, I’ve decided to focus on using Pinterest to promote my marketing consultancy and I’m going to share exactly why I’ve made this decision and why you should consider using Pinterest too.

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At the beginning of the year, I take the opportunity to do a thorough review of my Google Analytics. One of the things that stood out to me was how much traffic came from Pinterest. Pinterest was my 3 biggest source/medium to my website. It accounted for 12.76% of users and was the biggest referral. It was bigger than Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (even if you combine m.facebook.com l.facebook.com and facebook.com together).

Now for people who are actively using Pinterest, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to them that Pinterest performed better than any other social media platform, but Pinterest hadn’t been a priority for me. I’m not a pretty picture person so even though I know the value it is often the thing I leave to the end. Every now and then I would get inspired, but unlike everything else, I have always struggled with being consistent. That is in complete contrast to Instagram and Facebook. For both of these social media platforms I had consistently been posting and putting in considerable time and energy, but both had driven less traffic to my website than Pinterest.

Why Pinterest is a great marketing platform

Whilst most people class Pinterest as a social media (and in Google Analytics it is categorised under Social), it is a visual search engine. I love SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and I’m very proud to have blog posts ranking on the first page of Google and videos ranking on the first page of YouTube. Therefore, I can use those skills to help my pins appear when people search.

Now the great thing about search engines rather than social media is that content lasts a lot longer. If you write a good blog post it can be on Page 1 of Google for years and in the same way, if you have a great pin it will continue to be showed regardless on when it was originally created. With a Pin lasting for years rather than hours/days, the return-on-investment on Pinterest is much better.

Also, there is another major difference between the reason why people are on Pinterest versus Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are primarily used to connect with people you know. They are spaces for you to share your thoughts, pictures and/or videos and look at what other people post. People can comment on your posts and you can comment on other people’s posts. On some platforms, you can share, tag and get conversations going.

Pinterest works differently because it is actually really hard to have a conversation. You can comment but hardly anyone does. The majority of people who are on Pinterest are actively looking for something. It is used for people who are planning, actively searching, researching, collating and curating. This means rather than being an annoyance. You are wanted. People want you to answer their problems.

Now that you know why I’m going to be focusing on using Pinterest and why Pinterest is a great marketing tool I’m going to share the process I’m going to go through.

What actions I will be taking to improve my performance on Pinterest

1. Ensure that every single blog post has a pin included – I started blogging about books in 2016 and about business and marketing in 2018. That means I have lots of blog posts that don’t have a Pinterest Pin on the page. This means if someone wants to pin my blog post to their board they are usually stuck with having to use the feature image which is landscape. This is a massive no-no in the world of Pinterest. Therefore, I will be going back and making sure every blog post has a pin.
2. Reviewing my boards – Currently, I have 28 boards. This is a mixture of my own boards and group boards. At some point in the past, I go a little bit carried away and tried to join as many group boards as possible, but as with most things, quantity is better than quality and now seems like the right time to review the performance of each board.
3. Create pin templates – As I mentioned I’m not naturally a person who enjoys making aesthetically pleasing pictures. To help make my life easier I will create templates in Canva. This will make it super easy for me to make new pins to share blog posts, free resources and quotes.
4. Creating 2 additional pins for each blog post – The main reason I’m focusing on Pinterest is to increase the number of readers of each blog post. Whilst I might be only putting one pin into every blog post there is no limit to the number of pins you can create for a blog post. By having multiple pins I will have the opportunity to pin old blog posts that aren’t currently attracting much traffic. Also, having multiple pin designs will mean I’m able to analyse the performance of each pin design for future pins.
5. Research whether I should invest in Tailwind – If you have been looking at scheduling your Pinterest pins then you are likely to have come across Tailwind and Boardbooster. Boardbooster closed on 28^th June 2018, which now means Tailwind is now the leading Pinterest scheduling tool. Lots of bloggers and business owners have spoken about how Tailwind has helped them to drastically improve their reach so I will be looking into whether I should start using the tool as well. If you want to check out Tailwind for yourself click here.

Hopefully, by now you can see why I’ve decided to use Pinterest to market my business and I hope after reading this you are able to see how it might be beneficial for you too. For years people have thought that marketing via Pinterest was only useful if you had a wedding or interior designer, but it can be used for so many other businesses.

Want help working out how to use Pinterest effectively for your business? Learn how you can work with me here. 

Already using Pinterest and love this post? Don’t forget to Pin this so you can refer to it later.