Pinterest has some new updates, but what hasn’t changed is its almighty power for amplifying your business traffic! Seriously, that’s not an overstatement. There are ample creative ways to use Pinterest to boost your business, and today we’re going to get into the big 5 that you can simply begin implementing ASAP.
01. Include a link in your bio description
It’s important to focus on growing your Pinterest followers and traffic, but it’s even more important to figure out where you want to take them beyond Pinterest. How can you serve them in ways that will lead them off of the app and into a place where they can become a loyal client of yours?
Popular won’t pay the bills. So when you start to look at your strategy with a goal of conversion, it will take the pressure off of the numbers game. You’ll be able to shift your focus from quantity to the quality of those who are choosing to follow you!
Invite your new followers to interact with you off the app by including a link in your “About Your Profile” section. Include an invitation for them to click through if they want to learn more about you. Ideally this would be a link that would capture their information so that you can continue to serve them through an email list. You can also simply include a link to your website or your Instagram account. Just somewhere they can learn more about you.
My example: I teach entrepreneurs how to run successful and profitable businesses. Take my “Secret Sauce” quiz to find out what sets you apart: secretsaucequiz.com!
02. Take Advantage of the Shop the Look Feature
One of my favorite things about Pinterest is that people who are on the platform are there with an intention to look for things to be inspired by and shop. On other social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, they are there to be entertained.
Because of this, whenever we are talking about products that can be purchased, whether it’s physical products or digital ones, we want to tag them in our pins. To do this, after you bring a pin into Pinterest and it has been published, click on the pin, hover over it, and you’ll see a shopping tag. Click where you want the dot indicating something is for sale, and then link to the URL you’d like to connect to this pin. Select an image for the product, and then you can hit on the plus sign to tag the next two items.
This feature is typically used so that you can take a picture of, say, a kitchen and tag all the products in that image. Another example would be for outfit styling. So if you’re a product business, this is something you’re going to want to do. This is a great way to monetize your account by tagging products of your own or affiliate products that people can shop.
When you click on the shopping tag, you’ll be able to easily choose from products you’ve already pinned in Pinterest, or you can add URLs if you want to link to something you haven’t pinned yet.
I’ve also started using this feature as a way to invite people to take further action with me by tagging related items, whether that’s an additional blog post on the topic, an item in my shop, a course, a webinar, or a freebie. You can tag these types of things, too, so get strategic here and think beyond products for sale. Really consider what you can tag that will continue the conversation.
03. Repurpose content from other platforms
Pinterest announced that they are prioritizing fresh relevant content over anything else when it comes to distributing pins in the smart feed. Knowing this, a huge part of our strategy has been to make sure we are bringing in a new pin graphic each and every day.
Content can come in many different forms depending on what industry you’re in or what type of business you run. Chances are, every single day you’re creating content for your audience, but you may not have thought about it as “content.” Content includes: any words, copy, or posts you are writing for your business to serve and educate your audience or to simply let them into your life and business.
This includes:
- Facebook posts
- Instagram posts
- Instagram Stories
- YouTube videos
- Blog posts
- Email newsletters
- Podcasts
Content is what you are putting out into this world from your business, and I’ll bet you’re creating a lot more content than you anticipate! Think through where you’re currently creating content in your business. This might be a blog post, Facebook group, a landing page, products on Etsy, a Youtube video… anywhere you are creating for your business is a great place to look to maximize the amount of fresh pins you’re able to pin.
All you need is a link and then you can design a pin to represent that content, and you’ve got another place to promote the content you’re creating and drive new traffic to it. Our favorite place to design pins is a free site called Canva. They even have pin templates sized specifically for Pinterest to get you started.
04. Repurpose old content you’ve created in your business
If you’ve been in business for longer than a year, odds are there are some out-of-date pieces of content and resources on your website. It happens to every single business, and if you don’t intentionally go in and evaluate past content, it’ll just create a mess of mixed messages and outdated offers.
Why is this important for your Pinterest strategy? Here’s the deal: when you publish a pin in Pinterest, it lives on and has a longer shelf life than other places on the internet. So someone may find your pin a year down the road. Will that message still make sense? Is it evergreen, meaning it will always be relevant and up to date?
When you share advice or education on the internet, certain things can stand to be modified after a couple years. Through analytics tracking, we can see that some of our older blog posts are still showing up on Google and Pinterest searches and getting read, even though we’re not even pushing them out anymore.
This is exciting because our pinning efforts today will bring in fresh leads months and even years down the road, but my point here is that we need to keep that content relevant, or else our first impression with a new site visitor could be a poor one. Go back and see if you can update and modify the content you’ve created in the past, and then create a fresh pin graphic and bring that into Pinterest.
05. Present your content in a new way
While it’s smart to repurpose content you’re creating for other platforms and old content you’ve created, it’s important to remember the purpose of each platform and the unique audience that’s there, and tailor your content to fit each place. For example, Pinterest is a place people go to for inspiration and motivation. Consider this as you create new pins for your content, and think about how you can present your content in a way that will gain attention in a pin.
Knowing this, we started pulling quotes from each podcast episode that we could design in a graphic and pin to entice people to click through and tune in to the episode. These quote graphics have performed better than the simple podcast episode title when it comes to the Pinterest platform.
Another example is that although images of me do best on Instagram because my audience knows me… on Pinterest, we’re attracting new, cold traffic. Even though pinning from Instagram has been a key part of our strategy to pull in new content every day, we’ve experimented with using a different graphic with a sentence from the caption on the pin graphic vs. an image of me. Again, these have been performing better.
The key here is to think through how your audience is using Pinterest and create content they will respond to and then taking it further by tuning in to what is performing well and creating more content like that.
Pinterest for business
Seriously, is your mind blown? You don’t need to spend hours a day on the platform, but a little strategy goes a long way in using Pinterest to boost your business. Before you know it, your traffic will bloom like spring roses and you won’t believe the simple steps it took to get there.
