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I have a love affair with Pinterest.
But let’s be honest, who doesn’t?
Not a day went by that I didn’t spend pinning my life away on Pinterest. It brought me great pleasure most days and certainly encouraged my creative juices.
Fun fact, when I decided I want to start selling products, I did not have a clue how to make the products I wanted to sell. So not only did I NOT know how to start a business, I didn't know how to create the very products I wanted to sell online.
Crazy, right???
I didn’t even know how to sew, but I was determined to make it happen. And that is where Pinterest came in, I must give big ups to Pinterest for all the inspirations and tutorials.
So yeah...thank you Pinterest for all that you do.
You must excuse me, Pinterest does something to me.
I digress...
Fast forward...after opening my shop I decided to utilize the platform to assist me with finding ways to market my Etsy shop. During my time of research, I stumbled upon a huge golden nugget that I hadn’t realized existed.
People were using Pinterest for business. This intrigued my need-to-know-why-and-how self. And so, I dug deeper to figure out how this was possible.
Here’s what I discovered:
- Pinterest drives massive traffic
- Pinterest has a high rate of converting shoppers who are browsers into buyers
- Pinterest holds a longer shelf life of your content compared to any other platforms
Holy, cow! With perks like that, who could pass up such an opportunity? What do I have to lose right?
But wait, though!! Will Pinterest work with my products? How can I make this a strategy that will work for my shop?
Yes, these were all concerns that crossed my mind too.
But, let’s get that misconception out of the way before we begin. Pinterest is not just for dinner ideas or service-based businesses. Any and every business can obtain an audience on Pinterest using the right strategy. Yes, that means it works for small craft businesses too. Think about it, at this moment, you're using Pinterest for pure fun and gained followers with little to no effort, right?
So imagine what magic you could create if you have something to share.
Okay, let’s get started…
I’m going to walk you through how to set up a Pinterest account for your Etsy shop to increase views and sales (yes, sales) to your shop.
8 | Boards
Your account is all set and now you can begin creating boards. Your boards will house the pins that are relevant to your business. Boards are a collection of your images and simply keep everything neat and organized.
Pinners have the option of following your entire account or only the boards that are of interest to them. Whenever a Pinner follows your account and/or boards, any Pins you save will appear in their feed.
It’s now time to create these babies.
Funners!
- Create your boards: On your profile, click Boards > Click the plus sign.
- Use keywords that describe your board and its contents.
- Be sure that your boards are relevant to your products and shop. For example, boards from Hello Frankie + Co. Pinterest account, this includes boards centered around Etsy tips and entrepreneurial resources. This helps your audience understand exactly what your business offers.
- Once you have created your board, click on the pencil icon to add a description. Your description will describe what Pins are within each board. Your description doesn’t have to be elaborate and complicated. Use a 1-2 sentence line for your description.
- Choose a category that closely applies.
Remember, keep your boards relevant to your products. If you have chosen to convert your personal account to a business account, be sure to make your personal boards secret.
Don’t fret, you can still pin your life away with DIY inspo…
Just keep them private puh-lease.
Alrighty…back to your boards.
Create your boards…
…done…
…name your boards with keywords that your audience would be searching for…
…done…
Now let’s organize these boards and fill them up.
Your first board should be all about you. Name this board after your business. Additionally, every Pin that is placed on this board should include only your products. The remaining boards will include a mix of your pins and pins from others.
How many boards should I have? That is totally up to you. I like to start with a minimum of 10 boards for variety and to broaden my reach with my target audience.
You don’t have to panic with overwhelm. The initial set up is a project for sure and will take a few hours or so to accomplish. In my opinion, baby steps are better than not getting anything done at all.
Once you've made your boards you can always make them secret until you are ready to fill them up.
9 | Pinning Time
Your boards are all set-up and now you must fill them with Pins. There are a couple of ways you can tackle this. You can either add your Pins manually or approach this with an automated strategy.
If you choose to Pin manually, install the Pinterest browser button. This allows you to save anything from any website.
On the other hand, I would highly recommend automating this process for a few reasons. #1, that’s one less thing that you have to worry about and #2 automating takes out all the guesswork in relation to a pinning schedule.
If you go the automated route...which you totally SHOULD…sign up with a Pin scheduler such as Tailwind. (Pinterest has recently changed its policies and BoardBooster is no longer an approved scheduler. In fact, it is considered spammy and will do more harm than good).
Your Pinning strategy should include these best practices:
- Pin a minimum of 30 pins a day. (Totally doable if you are automating this process)
- Utilize a Pin scheduler to spread your Pins out throughout the day instead of all at once.
- Pin a mix of your Pins and Pins of others. How many of your Pins should you share compared to Pins from others? There isn’t any set number. When starting out, you will have to Pin more of others images because you don't have much to work with. However, once you have built up your own Pins you can Pin more of your own.
- To accelerate your growth and expand your reach at a quick rate, join group boards and Tribes.
10 | Scheduling Tools
As mentioned above, automating is the way to go. It saves time, helps you draft new Pins easily, and schedules out your Pins in advance.
Tailwind:
Tailwind is the Pinterest scheduler that I use. Some cool features that Tailwind has to offer are it's Smart Calendar that analyzes what is the most effective time for you to Pin based on your followers. There is also a browser extension that allows me to easily add Pins.
BoardBooster: (No longer an approved scheduling tool per Pinterest)
BoardBooster is also a scheduling tool for Pinterest. I don’t personally use the scheduling tool aspect, however, I do utilize the looping feature that in essence takes your old Pins and Repins them by placing them at the top of your boards.
They each present with unique features that are beneficial for your Pinning strategy. For that reason, I use both as they complement each other quite well. Where one falls short, the other covers. But, if you don’t want to shell out money for both services I would say go with BoardBooster as you get multiple services in one. The downside of BoardBooster is the complicated design and slight learning curve.
However, if you’re looking for less complicated and more analytics then spring for Tailwind for sure.
Regardless of your decision, they are both great tools and you can’t really go wrong with either.
11 | Join Group Boards
Group boards are managed by others and require an invite to pin to the specified board. Group boards are a gold mine as they allow you to put your products in front of more people.
Keep in mind when joining group boards, stick to boards that relate to your business. You can find group boards on Pingroupie or you can check out those in your niche to see what group boards they may be apart of and request to join.
All group boards have instructions and rules on how to apply to contribute to each board. This can be found within the description of the board.f
Wrap Up:
Yes, there is some upfront effort to getting started with Pinterest. But it is an awesome strategy to grow your business. By implementing these steps, you will be well on your way to seeing massive results.
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