With just a few clicks around Pinterest, you can come into contact with it's millions of monthly users. Those users are there looking for inspiration and motivation they haven't found by searching the vastness of the world wide web. Pinterest puts exactly what users want right in front of them in a more easily digestible format.

The millions of users on Pinterest are dreamers, do-ers, and overachievers. They're looking for the one missing link to their next big design, purchase, or creation. When you put yourself in the middle of that search, you're opening yourself up to potential clients.

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Why use Pinterest to market your business?

The interactions on Pinterest are completely different than what you are used to on any other social media platform. People use Pinterest as a personalized search engine. With the main focal point being photos, your branding will start to stand out amongst the crowd instead of blending in with your competitors. Brand recognition will rise due to the fact, your potential clients will be scrolling past you regularly.

Pinterest has been influencing users' purchases since its beginning. Everyday, people are discovering new brands, techniques, and products. It's the missing link between you and your potential clients. Users aren't just planning what they want, they actually are making purchases from the site or heading to the brick and mortar store as a result of what they've found.

Setting Up Your Pinterest Account

Once you’ve joined Pinterest with a business account and claimed your website, you are ready to set up your profile. Just like in your Instagram bio, the words you use in your Pinterest profile matter. It’ll allow you to be more easily found through the site.

To improve your odds of getting found in a search, make sure to include:

-Business Name: ex. Collectively Social

-Business Type: ex. Digital + Social Media Agency

-Business Description: ex. We represent business owners and creators who are looking to define their goals and fine-tune their marketing strategy. We specialize in all things digital marketing and social media.

Additionally, include a clear photo of your logo or yourself, whichever you want to become more recognizable, and your location.

Before You Start Pinning

As mentioned earlier, Pinterest is all about the visuals. The look of your profile will become increasingly important for your branding. Board covers create a cohesive feel and seperate your profile from those of personal profiles. It’s another extra step that’ll help you become more recognizable to your new clients.

Board covers can be easily made in Canva, or you can have a graphics artist create them for you. Cohesion can come from simply using your brand colors, adding your logo, and a title for the board. Create boards that represent the different areas of your brand and boards that work as mood boards for your potential clients.

When describing your board, the same techniques apply from creating your bio. Use keywords that are easily searchable and accurately describe the pins that will accompany it.

Board Name: ex. Instagram Marketing

Board Description: ex. Here at Collectively Social we are passionate about social media marketing for businesses and individuals. We specialize in all things digital marketing and social media . We are here to help you grow your business through social media marketing strategies that work.

Be sure to choose a corresponding category and click Save.

Now, It’s Time to Start Pinning

There are 2 places you are going to want to install a Pinterest save button: your website and your browser. The pin button for your website should be placed on every page and/or image you want to make quickly pinnable to Pinterest.

Depending on your web host, there will be multiple ways to add this button so please consult your host for any additional add-ons you may need to download. The same goes for your browser. If you are using Google Chrome, a quick search for “Pinterest browser button” will lead you directly to the link. The same should apply for the browser of your choice.

The Pinterest button for your browser is so you can pin articles, photos, and webpages that align with your business motto. Pinterest isn’t just about pinning your creations, it’s about sharing and spreading the love to other brands, businesses, and individuals. Just like your favorite social media platform, sharing from another Pinner can prompt them to visit your profile to share something back. That share then puts you in front of their audience, and the cycle continues.

If you are pinning blog posts…

Be sure to use Canva or your graphic designer to create at least 3 covers per post. The information in the blog post will always be the same but the different covers will help you appeal to more people. Play around with colors, graphics, and white space to create covers that are similar to your branding but different from each other.

When readers go to pin your content, they’ll pin the covers that speaks to them which will most likely speak to their audience, as well.

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Your Words Matter, Too

Pinterest isn’t just a collage of pretty pictures. While your images matter, the second most important facet of your pins will be your words. You have to remember to optimize every post for optimum SEO results.

Pin descriptions are where you tell your potential clients and customers what you are offering. The graphic is meant to catch the eye so the scrolling stops, the description is what will make them click. Fill your description with keywords so your pins pop up in searches.

You can find the proper keywords by performing a search of your own. Click the search bar and start entering phrases you think would match your niche, product, or service. Take note of the phrases that bring up articles and graphics that relate to you. Now, for every new pin, you can sprinkle those phrases in to optimize your pins for the best search results.

Automate Your Pinterest Publishing

Automation will save you all the time in the world. Once you get a schedule down, you’ll be able to sit down once a week or twice a month to create your feed. It’ll help keep you pinning consistently even when you haven’t looked at your pins in days.

There are two basic methods for automation: Hootsuite and Tailwind.

Hootsuite

Once you’ve set up your account and connected your Pinterest account, you can start creating, scheduling, and publishing content directly to your boards.

The pin creation tool in Hootsuite looks very similar to Pinterest. The biggest difference is that you can pin to multiple boards at once. The rest of the title, link, and description boxes should be done the exact same. Once created you can choose to publish now or schedule for a later date and time.

Tailwind

The joys of Tailwind are the features that not even Pinterest has, such as Tribes and the ability to schedule months worth of pins at a time.

Tribes on Tailwind are like groups on Pinterest. They both allow you to join a select group of pinners in your niche so you can share each other’s pins to a wider audience. On both Pinterest and Tailwind, you can easily search for groups and tribes that fit your brand. The purpose of each is a community partnership to help each other grow.

Scheduling is where the fun part happens. Just like the Pinterest browser button, Tailwind has a browser button of their own. Once added, you can send anything directly to your Tailwind account for later scheduling. It makes it super easy for scheduling pins from your blog, website, or an article on updates in your industry. Another great feature from the Tailwind browser button is it will always suggests other similar pins to help you build your feed and keep it sprinkled with appropriate outside sources.

Once you get to scheduling, you can easily drag and drop pins into your calendar. You’re able to create a schedule for yourself, i.e. post 4 times at specific times everyday. You’re able to see what pins will be posted when and order them in a way that will flow when they post to your profile.

If you put yourself on a schedule, i.e. update your pins on the 15th of every month, you can write it in your calendar and forget about it. You’ll be pinning consistently while staying stress-free.

Explore the Value of Adding Rich Pins

Rich Pins aren’t for everybody but they are worth mentioning if you find that you tend to need more than the allotted word count on a regular Pinterest pin.

Rich Pins are enhanced pins that pull extra data from your website to provide extra information to the pinners before they click through to the site. They are available for apps, recipes, products, and articles so you will most likely have something that fits every once in a while. It’ll include extra information such as the author name, date of publishing, and a more in-depth description along with some type of call-to-action button that’ll help you get more click throughs to your site.

To set up Rich Pins on your site, Pinterest has their own step-by-step directions for a flawless connection.

Play Around with Promoted and Buyable Pins

Promoted Pins are just like the ads you see on any other website or social media platform. It’s a Pinterest ad you can create with a pin you know will catch the eye of many so you can achieve the purchase, visit, or share you are looking for.

Be sure to choose a pin with a universal topic that is central to your target audience and always optimize your descriptions for SEO and keyword distribution. You will notice a Promoted Pin by the word Promoted underneath, but if you are seeing that same pin on another board, the Promoted label won’t appear anymore making it appear as a regular organic pin.

Buyable Pins are exactly what they sound like. Pinners will be able to purchase directly from the pin without having to leave the Pinterest website. It’s a quick way to get your product or service in the hands of your audience with just a few clicks. It’s worth trying out if you want those conversions from window-shopper to full-blown customer.

As always, remember to check your analytics to make note of what’s working for you. You don’t have to try all these tips at once but whenever you see the need to switch things up, it’s good to have some other methods under your belt.

If you’d like to learn more about using Pinterest for business and how Collectively Social can help, click here to book a free appointment.