Are you ready to use your Pinterest account for more than just creative holiday recipes or tips on how to renovate the mudroom yourself, finally?
Or maybe, just hearing the word is sending you into a mental tailspin.
“C'mon Alison, not another social media platform that I need to worry about. I've got enough on my plate trying to figure out all of the updates Instagram is constantly rolling out.”
Regardless of your stance, you're in luck today!
No one can turn down a FREE opportunity to market their business. So I brought on Pinterest pro Karrie Chariton-Bhurgari. She is a Pinterest strategist, helping business owners understand how they can leverage Pinterest to get customers to come over to their stores, make purchases, and join their email lists.
Karrie has helped shops, bloggers, and DIYers go from zero pins to over 7.6 million monthly views!
If you still doubt this whole thing, then you're in for some even better news. There are ways to simplify the Pinterest strategy. You can make Pinterest work for you without sacrificing very much time or effort at all.
Currently, in my business right now, we spend about three and a half hours per month on pinning. We've gone from 200 monthly visitors to hitting almost half a million monthly visits using Karrie's amazing advice, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me.
So let's dive in for some incredible insights!
How Karrie Got Started Working With Pinterest
Karrie has been working in the online space for over four years. She started out as a blogger, which is how she was first introduced to Pinterest. In the blogging world, pins were how you were found.
Karrie eventually realized that she preferred the social media side of things and transitioned from blogging into helping others understand this creative social media platform's power. She started out with a lot of DIY bloggers, and because the blogging world isn't all that big, she quickly found several clients in the same niche. Since then, she's worked with people in various industries such as e-commerce, coaches, influencers, etc.
How Does Pinterest Fit in the Game of Social Media?
Pinterest has been around for about a decade and has gone through quite a few identity crises in that time. You might remember when hashtags were a thing on there. Then they moved to SEO and eventually flip-flopped on that too. The back and forth has led to a ton of confusion amongst business owners looking to use the platform for marketing purposes.
So, where does it stand now?
Well, it has transformed into a search engine of sorts and is on its way to becoming an e-commerce platform. They recently added an integration feature with Shopify to make it easier for Shopify owners to catalog and sell their products.
How to Create Pins That Convert
The first thing is to have an understanding of SEO. You want to categorize your pins so they can actually be found. Consider the perspective of the buyer. What are they looking for? Think of all the different ways they would be looking for your product; that is how you structure your keyword search.
Next, you NEED to have good photography. Good photography is crucial in helping you convert your pins on Pinterest. Karrie advises us that Pinterest prides itself on being an inspiring and happy place. To this end, lifestyle pictures that tell a story will help you connect with your customers and result in better conversions.
Another tip is to create blog posts for your pins. It doesn't even have to be that long. The goal here is to create lists where you can group multiple products. Think, “Five Must-Have Sweaters For Fall”.
And finally, use strong CTA's. Your call-to-action is your chance to directly tell your customer what you want them to do.
Tips For New Shop Owners
One word. Tailwind. It's a Pinterest scheduling app that will save you a whole lot of time. It doubles as a networking opportunity by connecting you to other shop owners through Tailwind Tribes.
To be an active tribe participant, you upload your pins for other people to share. But there's a scoreboard that says okay, you've uploaded nine pins, now you need to share nine pins. It essentially is an, I scratch your back, you scratch mine approach, and it can really help bring shop awareness when just starting out.
Another great tip for newbies is to strategize the boards you have. If you have a blog, then there should be a board solely dedicated to that. As far as your products, feel free to make niched boards so that multiple products can get pinned to various boards.
Using earrings as an example, you could have a board that's just generalized and then go into more specific categories such as earrings that are popular with teens, wood earrings, feather earrings, etc.
Lastly, Karrie suggests being incredibly intentional if you're thinking about using ads on Pinterest. You'll want to remember that it isn't a time-sensitive platform. So, you don't want to promote a pin detailing your sale coming up at the end of the month. Think more long-term. It's also vital to know what you're using Pinterest for. Is it to get people on your sales page? It's all about the strategy, not pinning just for the sake of it.
My Top Pinterest Takeaways From Karrie
- Pinterest is a search engine. It's not about hashtags anymore.
- It's like two birds with one stone because you're on Pinterest and then when people type it either in Pinterest or in Google, your products, your store, your freebie, whatever you're giving away can show up on both platforms.
- Take awesome pictures!
- Use the Shopify blog feature to drive traffic from Pinterest over to that blog post that you've created right inside your Shopify store.
- New pins are doing better than old ones. You didn't miss the bandwagon!
- Use Tailwind to schedule your pins.
- Focus on evergreen promotions.
- Make your CTA pop.
- Repeating it, have great photography! It is so so important.
- Add the Pinterest app to your Shopify store.
