How to Create a Pinterest Strategy That Will Grow Your Blog and Business
(This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I was also compensated to create this post, though all opinions are my own.)
If you want to grow your blog or business than you should have a plan for your marketing, and strategies for your content, Pinterest, social media, product creation, sponsorships and more.
Is it important to have a strategy specifically for Pinterest? With 320 million monthly users, it sure is! Take a look at these stats:
“93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest”.
Here are the steps for creating a Pinterest strategy that will help grow your blog and business.
Know Who Your Target Audience Is
If you haven't quite “pinned” this down yet, you need to do it now. You may have heard about creating your “avatar”, basically it’s a made up person that represents your target audience. By knowing exactly who that is, you’ll than will be able to market to them specifically which will grow your followers and bring traffic to your website and blog.
Determine What Your Goals Are
Are trying to get more brand awareness? Do you want more people to sign up for your emails? Increase sales of a product? By doing this you can better plan your pin design, descriptions and decide which analytics you need to pay attention to.
Create a Monthly Pinning Schedule
Plan out what you will pin based on seasons, holidays and events. Refer to Pinterest’s Top 100 Trends Guide to make your marketing more relevant and use it as a point of inspiration for new products. By doing this in advance you will be more organized and not wondering at the last minute what content to pin.
Figure Out What You Can Outsource
Everybody can't do everything. You may need to have someone help you with your Pinterest management and marketing. Decide what you will need help with. Do you have a hard time writing keyword relevant descriptions? Do you need help designing pins? Or using the Tailwind pin scheduler? Get the help you need so that you can focus on the things you do well.
Follow Others Whose Pins You Want to Share
You should follow pinners that are related to your niche. Here's a tip: Make a list and copy their Pinterest urls. Then you can quickly refer to your list to see what they've pinned.
Learn From a Pinterest Pro
A great resource to help you master Pinterest is the Making Pinterest Possible Ebook from Ana at thesheapproach.com. It includes180 plus pages filled with strategies, video trainings and more.
Plan Out Your Boards
You should have a "Best of" board for your content only and it should be your first board listed. You want pinners to check your pins first! Your other Pinterest boards can be on topics related to your niche and what your audience is searching for. Do you have boards that are not performing well? You should delete them. Can you add specific holiday themed boards at certain times of the year? Don't be afraid to move your boards around and have the most relevant ones at the top. Experiment with different board titles based on what is being searched for.
How Will You Design Your Pins
An effective Pin design will attract your audience. Will you work with a graphic designer? Do you want to create them yourself? If you’d like to create them yourself use Tailwind Create to design multiple pins with 1 click! There are also many free and paid graphic design programs out there to choose from. Determine if you have the budget for a paid one or not. Do you have the time to learn the program? Will you buy stock photos or join a membership stock photo web site? Do you want to take photos yourself and need to buy a quality camera or smartphone?
Join Group Boards and Tailwind Communities
Group Boards are boards on Pinterest with multiple contributors. Tailwind Communities are essentially the same thing but only available in Tailwind. You should only join Group Boards and Communities that are relevant to your niche and not those that are open to all types of blogs and businesses. For a list of group boards you can check out pingroupie or pinsprout. You can also check the accounts of those in your niche and see which group boards they belong to or if they have any of their own. Your pins have the potential of being seen by thousands of more pinners! You should always review those you have joined from time to time to see how they are performing. You may need to leave some and/or join new ones.
Decide What Keywords You Want to Rank For
The keywords you choose to add to your descriptions will bring up your pins in the smartfeed for those searching for that keyword. Type words or a phrase in the Search bar that's relevant to your content/product. See what other words come up right underneath. These are the words that are being searched for. If you've been having a hard time with conversions, re-write your descriptions. A great keyword search tool is KWFinder which is really easy to use.
A search for “art for” brought up these keywords. If your an artist than you should include the keywords relevant to what you sell in your board and pin titles and descriptions for both. Use keywords naturally…do not stuff your descriptions with a lot of hashtags.
How Often Will You Be Pinning
Pinning consistently throughout the day on Pinterest is important, but not everyone has time for that and so I recommend using the Tailwind pin scheduler to help with this. I’ve been using Tailwind for a while and love that is saves me so much time. If you are already using it, review your schedule. Does it need to change? Should you be pinning more often on certain days? If you haven't used it yet, sign up here and receive a FREE month. What’s great about Tailwind is that it will create a Smart Schedule which determines the best time to pin. And now with its new SmartLoop feature, pins can be scheduled to loop. Plus it also offers great analytics.
Review Your Analytics
Your Pinterest Analytics will give you insight on what's working and what's not in addition to your Tailwind analytics. If this is new to you then you should learn what the different metrics mean and what you need to pay attention if you have a specific goal you’re trying to achieve. The most important metric is knowing how many clicks are going to your website. To see this information you will first need to “claim” your website with Pinterest. If you are already set with your analytics continue to keep track of your progress.
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I believe can be an asset to your business. I hope you will find them useful!
