069: How To Use Pinterest For Business (When You Don’t Know Where To Start)
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Today’s talking point:
I am so excited to dig into this episode which is all about Pinterest.
I see so many passionate purpose driven online business owners that are struggling to get that visibility that they want in their business. You are created for big things and I truly do believe that. Pinterest has been a game changer for me and my online presence and my business and I want to help you get those same results as well!
We go over why Pinterest is so important, how to use it, common mistakes (+how to fix them) and how to set up your own Pinterest profile.
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How To Use Pinterest For Business (When You Don’t Know Where To Start)
Today's episode is going to be split into four sections:
Why you should be using Pinterest for business and why it is so important
How Pinterest is working currently
Three mistakes you're making on Pinterest that make it hard for your ideal client to find you and how to fix those mistakes
How to set up your Pinterest profile
We want to build a long term scalable, sustainable business and focus on the long term game. We want to focus on the strategies and tasks that are going to pay off for us in the best way possible: long term results.
If what I just described resonates with you, and you are focusing on Facebook or Instagram, you are doing it wrong.
I see so many online business owners that are spending so much time creating content for these social platforms that just disappears after 24 hours. I'm sorry if I'm calling you out right now, but it's coming from a good place. Your content is too good to be ignored.
When you implement the strategies that I teach you, you put them into practice and you create this boss Pinterest strategy, you are going to get your content and your business seen by more people. So if you're done getting ignored, or you're fed up with your posts on Instagram getting rubbish engagement, you are in the right place.
Why Pinterest?
So why Pinterest?
87% of pinners actually come to shop. Pinterest isn't full of people that are just searching to search. They are searching with an intention.
Pinterest gains traction over time. Remember, we are in this for the long game. With Pinterest, you post something today and that pin can still be driving traffic to your website, months, even years after you've published it. I still have pins that are bringing traffic to my site that I published in October 2018. Let your content work harder for you.
Pinterest users have a 9% average higher income. Pinterest is a search engine platform, and pinners are performing 2 billion searches per month. When you understand keywords, and how to use keywords the right way, you will dominate your industry on Pinterest.
How To Use Pinterest
Pinterest is always updating their platform, so I thought it would be helpful to share the best up to date information with you at the time of recording this.
#1 | Pinterest favours fresh pins
Any pin that you create for a new blog post or an old blog post or product and pin to a board is considered a fresh pin. Now this is very interesting because before this big change, Pinterest was great for old established seasonal pins. Still, a pin you created two years ago can live on Pinterest during that entire time and help you with traffic and monetisation as well. It's important to know that Pinterest is favouring and prioritising fresh pins over old pins currently.
Related Tutorial: How To Create Pins That Go Viral
#2 | Pin directly from your site
Pinterest is encouraging pinning from your blog or website. The best move now is to pin straight from your website. Because Pinterest is encouraging pinning from your site, it is more important than ever to claim your website with Pinterest and make sure that you have verified it.
This is important because it enables analytics and rich pins, as well as lets Pinterest know that you are a content creator and not just a consumer of Pinterest. So you give Pinterest content versus just save content on Pinterest.
#3 | Pin consistently
Pinterest doesn't really care how many times you pin or what you pin. It is only concerned that you are consistent on their platform. So they don't want a pinner to pin every day and then stop pinning for two months. They want consistency, whether that's every day, once a week, once a month, whatever works best for you.
Now, this also means that Pinterest won't mind what you pin. So you can actually pin 100% of your own content and products if you want to. But I do advise against that since for certain strategies you need third party pins.
#4 | Grow your followers
Growing your Pinterest followers is important, I'll dive deeper into this in another episode potentially. It’s an important metric that allows you to be seen and share your content.
#5 | Space out your content
Pinterest wants pins to be well spaced on your boards. This means that Pinterest doesn't want content creators to spam their boards with the same looking pin row after row. If they feel that you are pinning the same pin too frequently, they may close your account or suspend it. Tailwind suggests every three to six months to pin the same pin.
COMMON MISTAKES
You Don’t Create Original Content
If all you do is re-pin, you're leading no one to your own website and we want people to come to your website. So pinning original content can mean saving images from one of your blog posts or linking to your products in your shop.
If you're not creating pins that lead to your own site, then you're not helping those amazing dream customers find you. In fact, you're just sending them somewhere else.
You Don’t Use SEO
Now, don't get scared by this. Pinterest has its own unique SEO (search engine optimisation).
Let's say someone is looking for a quick easy vegetarian butter pie recipe. Even if you have loads of amazing content and recipes on your website, and even if you have proper keyword phrases throughout your blog posts that make it known that you're a cook extraordinaire who makes an amazing butter pie…
Do you really think that your dream client will find your recipe if you've pinned it with the description that says “yummy yummy get in my tummy?” No!
When posting on Pinterest, you have to think like someone using a Google search bar. What are they going to type in to find what they are looking for?
You Don’t Rank For Your Search Terms
Now, having proper SEO and keyword rich descriptions for your pins is part of it. But your account as a whole needs to be on brand. That means:
Your account name, bio website link and board names should all make sense for what your business and brand entails.
Your board names and descriptions within those boards should also be consistent.
You’re Not Targeting Your Ideal Customer
With Pinterest, just as you would with anything in your business, you have to have a specific ideal customer. And you need to know who it is that you are trying to serve.
What are their pain points?
What are their deepest desires?
What do they need help with?
And then most importantly, when they come to Pinterest, what are they searching for?
3 Easy To Implement Strategies
#1 | Create original content and pin your own work
Now for product based businesses if you are constantly creating and launching new products, this is great because you can constantly be pinning your own products to Pinterest. But having a blog is so crucial. There's no other way to create original content than seeing your own blog posts and pinning those.
#2 | Utilise SEO by including descriptive and on-point key phrases in your pin descriptions and board descriptions
Remember, don't just guess these, take your time and do your research. It doesn't take long and it will massively pay off. Think about what people are searching for and use the features within Pinterest to find all the associated keywords based on what you've searched for.
#3 | Optimise your profile for search
From your account name to your bio to your board names to your board descriptions.
How To Set Up Your Pinterest Profile
This is going to help you gain even more clarity when it comes to your pinning and everything else.
In 160 characters or less, your bio is going to briefly explain who you help, how you help them and what you should do next. This is where you can include an opt-in of some kind.
There are loads of different words that you could use for this: an opt-in, a freebie, a lead magnet, they're all the same thing. It's basically something that you offer for free in exchange for someone's email address.
If you don't have a freebie yet, don't worry, we will get there. But really, the whole point of Pinterest is to build your email list.
When you're creating your bio, just keep in mind that Pinterest is a search engine. So you can actually infuse relevant keywords into your bio, and I even have certain keywords in my actual profile name as well. Keep it simple and just keep in mind your target audience.
I want to list this out for you so you can answer the following questions:
I help (insert who you help, what is their identity) learn, do, become (a deep desire or goal that they have)
Sign up for my “...”
OR find out more at my blog or join our Facebook community.
A few other things for your Pinterest profile:
Use a headshot of yourself or your company logo.
Make sure you're using keywords in your name and your bio.
Communicate your brand and what it is that you're about (Who are you? What do you do? What should people expect from you?)
Include a link for them to connect with you.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
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