Small Business Marketing: How To Book More Clients With Pinterest
Jul 11
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Pinterest has been the number one referrer of traffic to my website over the last year and a half—and I keep getting new clients because of it! But my Pinterest success didn’t happen by accident… far from it! It involved some in-depth small business marketing strategies, and more specifically—Pinterest and content marketing strategies—which I’m going to share with you here today, in my latest video!
Episode 121: Small Business Marketing
Small Business Marketing with Pinterest
The first thing you need to know about Pinterest is that isn’t really a social media platform. I included it in this social media series because a lot of people group Pinterest in with social media marketing.
But in reality, its social features are fairly limited.
Pinterest is actually a visual search engine. We’re on there searching for things… like inspiration, advice, tips. And there’s a huge search bar at the top of the app!
Once you understand that Pinterest is in fact a search engine, you can better understand how to use it to market to your client.
Pinterest and SEO
I’ve talked before about using SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) on your website to increase your ranking on search engines like Google.
Read More: SEO For Photographers: How To Boost SEO For Your Showit Website
Well you might be surprised to know that you can use SEO for Pinterest—because it is a search engine.
The idea is the same, but the implementation is different. Instead of trying to get your website to rank for certain keywords in your niche, you would try to get your pins to rank for those keywords.
And then those pins would link to your site.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. So let’s start at the beginning…
Here are 3 steps to drive traffic from Pinterest to your website:
Step 1: Create Valuable Content
Now let’s talk about those pins. Like I said, the point is to create pins that link back to your website.
But nobody is going to click on a pin that is super salesy, or gimmicky, or doesn’t provide any value.
The trick is to create valuable content that solves a problem for your ideal client.
If you’re scratching your head right now, wondering “what’s an ideal client?” then hit pause and check out my video Why You Need To Figure Out Your Ideal Client first.
Once you know who your ideal client is, then you know how to create that valuable content just for them. And this valuable content should be in the form of blog posts.
You want your ideal client to find you on Pinterest because they’re searching for something, that you as the expert have the answer to. So they click on one of your pins and land on your blog, where you not only provide that answer, but you introduce them to your brand and yourself.
You should also aim to provide so much more value, that they stay on your blog and click around to read more of your posts. This way you can build know, like, and trust with your new visitor.
I suggest publishing one new blog post a week, then pinning that post to Pinterest.
Step 2: Create Your Pin Graphics
Alright, so after you’ve created your valuable content, in the form of a blog post, you want your ideal client to find it. And like I said, Pinterest has been instrumental in helping me connect with my own ideal client (over and over again!).
To do this, make sure you include several Pinterest graphics in your blog post.
As you may have noticed, on the Pinterest app, vertical pins get more real estate than square or horizontal images—so you definitely want to use vertical images for your pins.
Pinterest recommends a 600×900 px graphic (or a 2:3 ratio) for all of your pins. Previously, pinners (myself included) would exploit the added space that was given to vertical pins, and they’d create really long pins that would take up a ridiculous amount in users’ feeds.
However, Pinterest has started to throttle back the exposure of those super long pins—so really it’s best to stick to that 2:3 ratio.
As a professional graphic designer, I create all of my pins in an Adobe Creative Cloud program called Illustrator. For non-designers you can use Canva, and a lot of my photographer clients use Adobe Photoshop.
The thing is, some of your pins are just going to be more successful than others. It could be the design, the wording, or the imagery that makes one pin really take off and another fall flat.
So that’s why I always include 4 different pin graphics in each post. I vary the design and imagery, and create a slightly different headline for each pin.
Over time you can start to see which pins are doing better and start to replicate the same qualities in your new pins.
Step 3: Regularly Pin Content to Pinterest
Once you’ve added your Pinterest-worthy graphics to your blog post, you want to pin those graphics to Pinterest.
You’ll want to make sure that all of your boards on Pinterest relate to your niche topic in someway. For me that means having boards about branding, website design, photography, graphic design, marketing, small business tips, etc.
Then you’ll want to pin from your blog posts to your various boards.
Pinterest likes users that are pinning regularly. For me that’s 20-30 pins a day. But you don’t want to “spam” your audience by dumping 30 pins into your feed all at once.
So I actually use an app called Tailwind to pin for me.
This app is amazing! I log in about once every two weeks and spend about an hour filling up my “queue” with my pins. Then Tailwind pins for me on a schedule, based on the best times for my pins to go out. So I’m only spending an hour every couple of weeks… but I’m “pinning” all the time!
Using the app is honestly some of the best time and money I have spent on marketing.
If you want to learn more about Tailwind, click that link down below so you can sign up for a free trial.
Small Business Marketing with Pinterest
Let’s review! Here’s how to create a successful Pinterest marketing strategy for your own small business:
- Create valuable content with at least one new blog post per week
- Create your pin graphics—I suggest at least 4 pins per post, in a 2:3 ratio
- Pin regularly on Pinterest—and check out the Tailwind app to pin on auto!
I hope this video and post have inspired you to get started on your own Pinterest marketing strategy!
Got a question? Ask in a comment down below!
Pinterest is an amazing tool for small business owners, but it’s important not to put all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to marketing. Wanna know how to use Instagram to grow your business too? Well, check out: Instagram Tips: 5 Steps To Grow Your Account For Your Business!
