The three pillars of pinterst marketing
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I get asked all the time what the best strategy for Pinterest marketing is.
And the honest answer is……there’s no one size fits all strategy.
Every business I work with is so different, that I take a different approach to all of them.
If I didn’t, I’d be doing my clients a massive disservice.
One of my clients has an extremely strong brand presence and a massive amount of content, therefore I am pinning mainly their content and only a small amount of other pinners content. The ratio is probably around 90:10.
Another one of my clients is only just starting out and doesn’t have that much content yet (although she is furiously working on it, now she has the free time from handing over the Pinterest marketing to me), therefore at the moment I’m mainly pinning other people’s content and not too much of hers. More of a 20:80 ratio.
So just in those 2 examples, you can see how just one aspect of strategy varies massively based on the different business types.
However, I would say there are three pillars of Pinterest marketing that are definitely universal and apply to every business account on Pinterest. They include:
Images
This should come as no surprise. Pinterest is a visual platform after all. The visual alternative to Google if you like.
So when it comes to designing your pins, the images you use are mega important when it comes to your Pinterest marketing strategy.
Your pin images should:
- Be high quality
- Be a 2:3 ratio (I find 1000 x 1500px works really well)
- Be relevant to the website page it’s linked to
- Have a strong, clear call to action
If you don’t have your own photos (maybe you’re a virtual assistant and it doesn’t make sense to have your own photos), it is absolutely fine to use a stock photography website. There are plenty to choose from.
It’s also important to be aware that Pinterest can “read” your images, so you need to check that Pinterest is reading your image correctly. An easy way to test this, is to click on your pin, scroll down to “More like this”, and have a look at what other pins are coming up. Are they similar to what you’re pinning?
Keywords
I’ve probably harped on about this a million times, but it’s important to remember that Pinterest is a SEARCH ENGINE. We need to treat as so, otherwise we will never be successful on Pinterest.
To do that we use Keyword SEO.
Where to include keywords:
- Your pin descriptions
- Your board descriptions
- Your profile
It’s important that you don’t just stuff your descriptions with a list of long tail keywords though. You want your descriptions to flow in a conversational manner.
How to find keywords
Pinterest makes it really easy for you to find your most appropriate keywords.
Enter the most obvious keyword that is relevant to your niche in the top search bar in Pinterest.
I will use “copywriting” as an example here.
You see those coloured tiles underneath the search bar. Those are the keywords that people are searching for the most right now on Pinterest that are associated with “copywriting”.
So some long tail keywords that you could use for copywriting would be:
Copywriting inspiration
Copywriting examples
Great copywriting
Copywriting tips
Copywriting for beginners
FYI – this is also a great way to do blog topic research.
We can even take this a step further.
I’ve clicked on the tile “tips”, to go even deeper in the search for keywords, so I now have copywriting tips in the search bar, and Pinterest has given me these results below:
I now have even more ideas for pin descriptions, blog posts and even email opt in ideas:
- Copywriting tips for writing
- Copywriting tips for social media
- Copywriting tips for Internet marketing
- Copywriting tips and ideas
- Copywriting tips for Entrepreneurs
- Simple copywriting tips
- Cheat sheet full of copywriting tips (Great email opt in idea)
Do you see how the list of ideas is practically endless?
Doing the extra work and researching the keywords that are appropriate for your niche, will go a long way in enhancing your Pinterest marketing strategy and will put you a step ahead of everyone else!
Consistency
Consistency on Pinterest is so, so important.
We need to be pinning everyday. The number of pins isn’t as important, this will look different for every business, but we do need to be consistent about it.
This can be super time-consuming though if you’re doing this manually, so I like to use a scheduler.
Pinterest Automation
There are a few Pinterest schedulers out there, but my scheduler of choice is Tailwind.
Tailwind is an official partner of Pinterest and it has been confirmed by Pinterest that you do not lose any reach and are not penalised in any way as a result of using Tailwind to schedule out your pins in advance. All Pinterest really cares about is that you are being consistent with your pinning.
By using Tailwind, you will be able to schedule out all your pins for the whole week (or even longer if you feel inclined) and Tailwind will post them all for you at the most optimal times.
Tailwind also has a whole host of great features such as:
Tailwind Tribes
A place where you and other pinners in your niche can share each others content.
Analytics
Lots of great analytics that can assist you with your Pinterest marketing strategy.
Don’t have a Tailwind account yet? Try it out now!
Get your first month free!
Pinterest Management
Another way to stay consistent with your Pinterest account is to hire a Pinterest manager.
I manage a number of Pinterest accounts for various types of businesses and not only does this provide my clients with consistency, but also expert ongoing strategy.
It also frees up time for them to focus on producing more content for me to feed to Pinterest. And this is ultimately what Pinterest wants…..regular, fresh content.
So there you have it.
The three pillars of Pinterest marketing.
Stick to these three principles and you will be well on your way to forming a great Pinterest strategy!
