Pinterest has been around since 2010, but many people still don’t know the power that this visual search engine can have on their business. Pinterest is a powerful marketing tool with great organic reach potential. Today we will discuss Pinterest strategies for beginners and the top ways that Pinterest can help you build your brand in 2023.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a visual search engine that allows users to save “pins” onto categorized boards. It’s a great platform for creative individuals because aesthetically pleasing graphics are perfect for showcasing creative work. Creators can pin content that inspires thier fans and sparks new ideas.
Pinterest has 443 Million users every month, and according to Influencer Marketing Hub, it’s users have a higher average household income than many other platforms. This means people using Pinterest have disposable income and many of them are ready to buy.
That’s great news for small businesses looking to gain more reach and sales!
The Pinterest algorithm also offers more organic reach than platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. If people like your pins, they will save them and Pinterest will push them out to more people.
Finally, Pinterest content lasts much longer than content on other platforms. A well-circulating pin could continue to get new views and clicks years after you have posted it.
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Ways To Build Your Brand With Pinterest
If you own a creative business, or are thinking about starting one, consider Pinterest when developing your marketing strategy. Beginners on Pinterest find the platform easy to navigate and helpful in boosting content reach.
Here are a few ways Pinterest can help you build your brand:
- Drive traffic to your online shop
- Create easily shareable visuals for your books and other written content
- Spread awareness about your blog or website
- Share your artwork
- Build your email list
- Create mood boards for yourself and your audience
- Show your fans how to use your products
- Give tips that can help your fans get better results
- Build a supportive community
Creating Pins
Pins are the “content” on Pinterest. These are typically 1000 x 1500 px graphics or videos that contain a title, description, and often a link.
Because Pinterest is a visual search engine, visually appealing graphics and videos do best on the platform. For Pinterest beginners, I recommend using a program like Canva to create your graphics because it’s easy to use and offers suggestions and templates for your content.
For more info about how Canva can help you build your brand, check out this post here:
How To Use Canva For Your Blog And Digital Media
Utilize Canva templates to create multiple visuals for the same content so you can split-test and see which pins get the most engagement.
Photos
The photos you put in your graphics are also important. Pinterest analyzes the photos used and suggests your pins to people who have saved similar photos in the past.
It’s important that you use high-quality photos in your pins, so the algorithm can identify what your pin is about.
I recommend either taking your own photos with a high-quality camera, or using a photo-sharing site like Unsplash or Pixabay. Just make sure you follow each site’s guidelines for using their content in your marketing.
Pinterest SEO Strategies For Beginners
As a search engine, Pinterest prioritizes pins that follow their SEO guidelines and give users the best possible experience.
They look at the pin’s visual elements, but also at the title, description, alternate text, and the boards that pin has been saved to. Using the right keywords will help your pins gain more reach.
Keywords
Keywords are at the center of most of Pinterest’s SEO and refer to the terms that users most often search for when they are using the platform. You can find popular Pinterest keywords by checking out the Pinterest Trends feature offered on the platform.
Once you find relevant keywords for your pin, you can add them to your title, description, and alt text to help Pinterest properly categorize your pin and share it with the right people.
Pinterest Boards
Your board titles and descriptions are also an important factor for Pinterest SEO. The Pinterest platform looks at the boards users are saving your pin to so it can determine who else would be most interested in seeing that content.
Experts recommend only posting your pins to the most relevant boards to help the algorithm categorize your content effectively.
Include keywords in your board titles and descriptions so Pinterest can easily identify what that board is about and properly categorize the pins in that board as you share them.
Tips For Posting To Pinterest
Pinterest rewards users who post content often. There is some debate on whether you should post more of your own content or instead share more content from others.
For Pinterest beginners, I feel like a 50/50 split is a good rule of thumb that will give you results even if the algorithm changes. That means, for every pin you post of your own content, also share someone else’s pin.
I have found this is easy to do organically. When I create a new board, I pin a few of my relevant pins to it and then I search for other pins on the platform to teach the algorithm what that board is going to be about.
Once you’ve saved a few similar pins to that board, Pinterest will start recommending more pins. You can tell how closely the algorithm has identified your board purpose by the pins that it recommends, so keep pinning until the algorithm gets it right.
How Often
Pinterest likes to see that users are consistently active on the platform. Posting several times a day throughout the day will give you the best results.
Tools like Tailwind help with this because you can set a posting schedule and let Tailwind post your pins automatically throughout the day. This content manager will also recommend the best times to post based on your audience and when they are most active.
Group Boards and Tailwind Communities
Collaborating with other creators is another great way to get more reach on Pinterest. Pinterest offers Group Boards that allow several users to collaborate on a specific topic or for specific keywords.
Finding group boards that are relevant to your topics, currently active, and open to new collaborators can be tedious. The best thing to do is search for these boards periodically as you pin new content and pay attention to how actively people are posting on them. Follow the board’s guidelines when requesting to join.
Tailwind Communities are another great way to collaborate with other creators. Communities allow you to join with other similar creators on Tailwind and trade shares for each of your content.
You can also schedule other people’s pins to your Tailwind schedule so the platform will take care of the timeline for you. Tailwind Communities has been one of the most helpful features for growing my own Pinterest account.
Pinterest Ads
Pinterest Ads are a great option for gaining additional reach on the platform. However, I don’t recommend rushing into paid ads too quickly. If you are a new user on Pinterest, wait a few months before investing in ads.
The Pinterest algorithm learns about you and your content the more you post. It can take several months for Pinterest to properly categorize your pins and show them to the right people. It can also take a month or longer for your Pinterest ads to start seeing results.
My Results
I have experienced the best results with ads, thus far, by posting multiple versions of the same pin organically and then waiting to see which ones are the most popular and gain the most organic reach.
Once a pin has been active for at least 30-60 days and shows higher activity than the other pins on the subject, I will often boost that pin with a low-cost Pinterest ad. This has grown my account exponentially over the past year.
Pinterest ads can accelerate your growth on the platform, but I don’t believe they are necessary to do well. If you choose not to pay for ads, you will still grow and see organic results over time as long as you stay consistent and utilize SEO strategies. Just be patient.
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Conclusion
Pinterest is an amazing platform for online creators. The visual search engine offers great potential for building your brand and sending traffic to the right places.
If you haven’t started a Pinterest account yet, I recommend getting one started immediately. It can take several months for your account to start to grow and see traction, but once it does, the content will continue to spread and gain reach for years to come.
To do well on the platform, focus on creating visually appealing pins, split-testing your content, posting regularly, and collaborating with other creators. Pinterest ads are also a great option once your account has started to gain traction.
Do you have more questions regarding Pinterest? Drop them in the comments! I would love to answer anything I can!
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