So you’re a photographer, calligrapher, planner, interior designer or run another service based type business and are wondering how you can make Pinterest work for you? We thought so, we get this question a lot “I don’t sell a physical product, so how am I going to showcase my services since this is such a visual platform?” or maybe you’re thinking “I run a local business, how the heck am I going to find my target audience for my specific location on such a broad platform?”
As a wedding photographer? I thought the same thing! These thoughts are totally normal for someone considering a new place to market and invest their time into, so today I’m going to show you how Pinterest can work for your service based business.
Create content that leads your client
Here’s the thing, people go to Pinterest to be inspired or to help them solve a problem very early on in planning something. What does this mean? If they are planning a wedding for example, you better believe Pinterest is one of the first places they are going to start the process of planning. If they’re doing a home renovation, they’ll be on Pinterest creating a board of ideas. This is such a huge opportunity to reach people at an early stage so that when they are ready to hire someone, it will be you.
Position yourself as an expert in your niche
So what content should you be creating to accomplish this? How-to articles are among the most pinned on Pinterest. Try to think of ways you can show up and serve your audience in your area of expertise that makes them say “wow, she really knows her stuff” and meets them at that beginning stage of the process. Often teaching your audience can come in the form of a blog post or a freebie that requires someone to enter their email address in exchange for a download of your content so that you can continue the relationship and build the know/like/trust factor that’s necessary before someone hires you.
Focus on relationship building
Because you’re offering a service, it’s extra important that you show up as the face of your brand. You are going to want to relate and connect with your potential customers. You want them to be invested in you and you’ll need to connect with them on a more personal level.
People want to know about the person behind the business and you have a story to tell. I’d challenge you to share about yourself across all social media platforms. Get out of your comfort zone and think about ways you can incorporate what makes you unique in your Pinterest presence. Me? I’m known for my love of mac n cheese, yoga pants, home decor and my laid back style and all of those things show up in my Pinterest feed.
You’ll be surprised to see that people love connecting with YOU the person and not just your services. I promise. How do you do this on Pinterest? Change that profile picture to one your YOUR beautiful face so people get to know the person behind the business. Next, reply to any comments on your pins and comment on pins of other local businesses in your area.
A local Pinterest strategy
A lot of service-based businesses have a local presence, so here are my 5 best tips for creating a local Pinterest strategy.
- Collaborate on Pinterest with other local businesses: How do you do this? Create local boards and pin their content. You could even consider creating a group board together to offer the best resources for your area highlighting your collective services and products.
- Promoted pins: While we’re proud of our organic Pinterest strategy, if you are looking to target very specific people on Pinterest, promoted pins could be a quick way to accomplish this. You can set the parameters to target people only in your area to get your pins in front of the exact right people.
- Local keywords and boards: Remember, Pinterest is a search engine and having a strong local keyword strategy will help showcase your content to the people in your area and to those searching those words. Make sure you are using cities, local hot spots, nicknames, etc. anywhere you can add text to your pins, boards and profile.
This was so helpful to read! Thank you, Jenna!
So helpful, thank you so much! I love your blog and your energy! Love from Colombia:)