Okay, this post is gonna be a bit long but it will be worth it, I promise!
When you finish reading, you’ll have a complete understanding of how Pinterest marketing works and how you can get started on this platform to attract your ideal audience.
How does the Pinterest algorithm work?
First thing to understand: Pinterest is a search engine, not social media, this meaning that what works on social media won’t always work for Pinterest.
Search engines work like this: people search for something and the platform throw a result based on that search term they have used, these search terms will determine the content that comes up.
If I search for “recipes” then I find “recipes” right?
If I search for “high-protein meals” then Pinterest will show me pins related to this subject, and only pins (images or videos) that have the KEYWORD “high-protein meals” in their title and descriptions will appear in my results.
You’ll see… KEYWORDS help your audience find you and your content.
Let’s say you are a hormone health coach and you put your content on Pinterest utilizing keywords related to hormone health… then, people who are ACTIVELY searching for this will be able to find you.
But that’s not all… Pinterest pins go linked to your website (homepage, blog posts, lead magnets) so when they find your pins, they can also visit your website and learn more about you…
From there, people can sign up for your freebie, getting into your email list or even be bold and book a discovery call with you.
Now, here’s how you get started
- Set up a business account. Yes, you need a business account to access features such as the metrics that tell you what your audience is responding too. Go to your settings to find that option, it’s FREE.
- Claim your website. Claiming your website can look different for everyone depending on who is your website provider, so here I’m gonna leave an article about claiming your website which helps people see you’re trust worthy.
- Enable rich pins. I want to keep this simple so the best way I can explain you what rich pins are is basically “extra info” from your website (metadata from your posts…) that goes to your pins, and that helps you with your Pinterest SEO.
- Do your keyword research. I already explained what keywords are and why they are important, what I’m gonna do now is leave a link here to my big keyword list by niche that also teaches you how to find even more keywords.
- Optimize your account. This is the part where you gather all your keywords and place them in your display name, bio, username if possible… board titles and board descriptions as well.
- Create your boards. Create boards to organize your content and also, to tell Pinterest where your pins should be shown… you can think of your boards as your content pillars, for example: “Pinterest marketing for bloggers” and “Pinterest marketing for eCommerce” are two board ideas.
- Create your pins. You can create pin graphics utilizing tools like Canva or you can repurpose video content that you have, pins will lead people to your website so make them appealing for your audience!
- Stay consistent. I don’t mean pin multiple times a day… staying consistent can look like putting out one pin image a day or 3 pin images a week.
Psst… send me an email at [email protected] if you’d like to have this done-for-you (;
A few things to keep in mind when marketing your business on Pinterest
- We don’t go around throwing our paid offers all over the place. It’s not that we can’t promote paid offers later on but ideally, we nurture people with value content first, okay?
- Also, your pins will be on Pinterest FOREVER, don’t make pins for offers that will go away… people will be able to see your pins 10+ years after you posted them.
- It takes a while to grow when you are doing organic Pinterest marketing but once it pays off, it pays off!! It’s about staying consistent with your pinning (posting) and applying the right strategy.
- Pinterest is meant to be a safe space for everybody so make sure your content follows Pinterest community guidelines.
- Pinterest wants fresh new content, so don’t post the same image over and over and save it to multiple boards (For reference, read this post about how to make your pins look different and this one on what not to do on Pinterest).
- “Saturated niche”? No problem! Just because you see a lot of experts on a subject, that doesn’t mean there is no space for you and many many Pinterest users will still be able to find you and see what you have to say.
- Your niche doesn’t seem to be very popular? Great! More for you!
- Pinners (Pinterest users) plan for the future, if you happen to have any “seasonal content” you’ll have to put it out there months in advance… the trends tool will help you!
Well, I’d say this has been long enough… I’ll let you go for now but don’t forget to grab your FREE Pinterest checklist so you can be sure your account and pins have what it takes to attract your ideal audience. See you in the next one!
