Pinterest is a great platform for the eCommerce business. You can reach people who are specifically looking into products only on Pinterest. While organic reach is pretty much dead on Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest can reach a large number of users completely organic with the right content and marketing strategy. As a result, you can increase your traffic and sales.
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Pinterest as a platform is developed in a way that encourages people to click out of the platform and check out other people’s websites and products. If you’re not leveraging your Pinterest to grow your online store, then you’re making a huge mistake.
So, if you have an Etsy or Shopify store and looking to drive more traffic and sales with Pinterest, this article is for you.
Tip 1: Make your profile discoverable on search
The first tip is pretty basic but it’s very critical to your success on Pinterest in the long run. You need to spend 10-15 minutes optimizing your profile to showcase the best side of your business. Not only should you make it clear to the end-user what your profile is all about but you should also make it discoverable on search.
Pinterest contrary to popular belief is not just a social media platform but is also a search engine where people are always looking for cool ideas, products, and services to shop for. This is why when you optimize your profile to be discovered on search then you give your business and your brand the best chance to stand out and be visible.
1. Username
The simple thing you can do is to just add your brand or online store name within the username to make sure that anyone who searches by your username can find the right profile.
2. Description/Bio
The second place for you to optimize would be your description or bio within the username settings. You can simply navigate to the settings of your account and update your bio directly over there. Make sure to include specific keywords which will help your end customer find your account as well as the top product categories that you share on your profile as well.
For example, if you’re a Boho home decor company, then you can write á boho home decor’, rugs, pillows, cushions, etc in your bio. Also, the best practice is to use a narrow and broad keyword. A narrow keyword in this example would be boho cushions and boho rugs. A broad keyword would be boho decor.
Following this strategy helps us in two ways. 1) It allows Pinterest users to find you when they’re specifically searching for these keywords. 2) It helps Pinterest understand what your profile is all about so that they can recommend your pins and content to the right audience who has previously shown an interest in these keywords.
Tip 2: Create 1 board per product category
A board is simply a collection of pins or images that you share with your account which are directly related to your brand or business. People on Pinterest can find you in various ways. They can find you through your profile, boards, images on your account as well as directly through the images that you share within those boards.
With the same example ‘home decor’, an ideal profile should have one board for each category: cushions, pillows, rugs, furniture, accessories, and so on. The idea here is to create a visually appealing profile of boards and categories that your ideal customer is interested in. It helps to get your boards and pins recommended in search when people are looking for specific products to shop for and a reason to follow your profile.
To ensure that your board actually serves the purpose that you have for creating it comes down to two strategies.
1. Board Title = Keyword
Your board should have a title or a name that is directly linked to a keyword that people are searching for. It doesn’t have to be a one-word keyword it can also be a long keyword that people are searching for.
For example, Instead of creating a generic board on boho decor, you could say something like vintage boho decor or boho decor on a budget. Of course, you have to spend some time researching your ideal audience and figuring out exactly what keywords they’re looking for.
I have a really helpful video that is all about keyword research. So, click here to check that out!
2. High-Quality Pins
The next thing to keep in mind is to only include high-quality pins. A lot of people think that they should just curate a profile with thousands of pins and images and that will help them magically attract lots of customers. But that is the wrong way to go about it.
When you’re building your profile especially to build your brand or business, make sure it aligns with the eventual goals of your brand and business. This comes to the point that not only should you be sharing high-quality pins from other people’s accounts but you should also make sure that the pins and images that you create from your account match the same level of quality.
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Tip 3: Add multiple pins per product
This is something that will directly impact the number of sales and clicks that you get from Pinterest. Pinterest is a visual platform and people go there to check out products that they might be interested in. This means when they’re browsing through your profile or pins, they want to see as many angles as possible.
You want to make sure that your product has the best chance to be highlighted as well as something that people have a good impression of so that they’re enticed to click through and go to your store to complete the purchase.
Usually, online stores always have horizontal images and I believe that is always a great fit for a lot of different places. However, Pinterest favors vertical images. The next time you’re doing your product shoot or catalog, make sure to add vertical pins and images so that you can showcase your product in different settings. Especially for Pinterest, showcase it in a way that can be recommended by the algorithm.
When it comes to creating and uploading pins, there are two different types of pins that you can create as a product seller.
1. Simple Image
The first type of pin you can create is a simple image that you can either save from your website using the pin browser extension or you can upload it directly to Pinterest as a simple image. This pin will just be an image of the product that you are selling and will not have anything else on top of it.
2. Image & Text Pin
This pin is highly recommended by Pinterest. It shows your product front and center but it also has some text overlay on top of it to make the customer understand what that product is all about. If you’re a new or a business owner, this type of pin format might be really beneficial for you to educate and build awareness for your brand.
Also, no one format is better than the other. You should ideally be experimenting with both these pin types, just image only or image plus text, and see which ones perform the best for you and then optimize from there.
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Tip 4: Tag your product in the pin
When you create a new pin you have the option to tag your product simply by just using the tag button on Pinterest. This means when you add the URL of your product it automatically takes up the details from that product including the price of the product, stock, etc.
So, when people tap on the pin and do a close-up they are able to see the product attached with the pin as well as the details. I recommend tagging your products in your text as well as your blog posts so that people who are checking out all of the different content that you have in your profile also have an idea of what products are related to it.
For example, if you have a blog on your Shopify store that you also use to build awareness for your product and you’re posting pins that are related to those blog posts, you can also add your products to each of these blog posts which are relevant to that particular pin.
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It helps to build brand awareness plus it maximizes the eyeballs that your product gets on Pinterest irrespective of the content format or the type of pin that you use.
In case you’re wondering, I have in-depth product pins training within my program Pinfluencer Academy. So if you’re looking to take your Pinterest marketing skills to the next level, you can check out Pinfluencer Academy.
Tip 5: Show up consistently
Photo by Caroline Feelgood on Unsplash
This is the most important tip I have for you. Pinterest marketing unfortunately is not a set-and-forget-it strategy. When you look closely on the internet basically nothing is. Every platform is constantly changing and updating whether that is Google, YouTube, Pinterest, or any other social media platform for that matter.
Specifically for Pinterest, you should be providing consistent value on the platform whether that is through blog posts, sharing how your product works, and sharing more reviews or testimonials. One way or another you need to be providing value in terms of educating people about what your products are all about and how they can use the best use of them.
The next thing is to create pins regularly, multiple pins per product to showcase your product in different ways so that people are incentivized to buy it from within the platform. Besides providing educational value and creating regular high-quality pins, you also need to make sure that your pins, boards, and profile is optimized for search so that people can find you and your content can get recommended by Pinterest bringing you more traffic and sales.
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Whether it is once a week or twice a month you work on your Pinterest strategy, make sure to do it consistently. It can take you anywhere between 3-6 months especially if you’re just starting out and trying to build your profile from scratch to see the kind of traction that you’re looking for. However, if you follow the right strategy and consistently create the right optimized pins for the platform, you will see success much faster than before.
I have a completely FREE Pinterest masterclass that goes through the step-by-step process to convert your Pinterest account into a traffic and sales machine. So, if you’re interested, check out here.