You are hearing it all the time. Pinterest is fantastic, it’s amazing, I just love it, it has increased traffic to my blog, online store and products. And here you are left shaking your head and saying, I haven’t got a clue. So if you are wondering how Pinterest works or have an idea about how it works but want to know more? Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret, Pinterest has been one of the most successful ways I have been able to generate traffic and sales to my Etsy products and store and I am going to share with you what I have learnt and how you can do it too.
SO WHAT IS PINTEREST?
With over 175 million active users there must be something to this Pinterest thing. Basically Pinterest is a giant web based visual search engine where pinners come together to share their interests, ideas, products, blogs, recipes, DIY projects and the list goes on. Think of it as a big vision or pin board to create a visual display. A bit like the old fashioned mood board.
Not only is Pinterest a great medium for everyday people, Pinterest is also a fantastic tool for business owners to promote their ideas and products. If you want to get your products, business and blog in front of a potential audience of millions of people and drive tons of traffic to your shop, website or products without spending a cent, then read on.
When you pin something to one of your boards your pin is immediately viewable by your followers and people searching on Pinterest. When someone else pins your pin to one of their boards that’s called a repin and then their followers will see that pin and so on and so on. This can create a ripple affect where your pin can be discovered by many people.
BUT WHERE DO I START?
If you want to use Pinterest as part of your online marketing strategy, I would strongly recommend you sign up for a business account. It’s completely free. Even if you already have a personal account, you can convert it to a business account without too much fuss.
With a business account you have access to analytics, can create rich pins and you can also have the ability to create ads with promoted pins, not that I have ever paid to promote any of my pins but I will never say never.
Use the “about you” field to let people know about your business. Remember, these words will not only tell people what you do when visiting your profile page, they can also help people find you by using terms that people might search for. Upload your business logo as your profile image and you can have your website, online store or blog URL as a clickable link from your profile page. All of these things can be set up in your profile.
Here is a link to getting started Create A Pinterest Business Account
WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE SEPARATE BOARDS?
You will need to create one board before you can get started. As you add boards, think about your niche products and what topics would best fit your business and brand personality. I also try to name my boards using keywords and phrases that might show up in searches. If your name your board by your business name, unless you are a well known brand, you probably won’t get much traffic. Try thinking of each individual board as ways of grouping together your products and ideas.
As a marketing strategy, add the URL link, email address and any other information you want to tell people about in the description part of the board. You can do this by editing the board and adding these details. Be sure to use keywords and phrases in the board description. This will also help people looking for items like yours to find you.
LET’S PIN IT!
Pins are visual ideas, recipes, products, DIY inspiration people find and save to Pinterest from all around the web.
Each pin has a clickable link which will take you back to the origin of the website it was saved from. If you click through the pin you can learn more about it, how to make it or where to buy it.
The ideal pin size for your images are. Drum role please….
- Profile images: 165 x 165 pixels.
- Pins in feed: 238 pixels x adjusted to height.
- Expanded pin size: 735 pixels x adjusted to height.
- Pin boards complete size: 238 x 284 pixels.
- Cover image: 217 x 146 pixels.
- Tiny thumbnails: 51 x 51 pixels.
Of course you can use any image to make a pin. You can even pin directly from your Etsy or Ebay listings on your computer or by clicking the Pinterest logo on the actual listing. It will open a new window where you have the opportunity to select (or create) a board to pin to. That’s it. The main image and description comes across, and the link is automatically created.
You can also use the Etsy selling app to pin items by going to your active listings, selecting a product, clicking on the share tab bottom right, and then the share tab top right. From there you can share to your social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.
The pictorial tutorials below will take you through how you can create pins directly from your Etsy listings and how you can create a manual pin from the Pinterest home page or your profile page.
CREATING A PIN DIRECTLY FROM YOUR ETSY LISTING
Click the Pinterest icon from your Etsy listing
Go to your actual listing on Etsy, the view that a potential buyer will see when looking at your item, and click on the Pinterest social share button at the top as shown below.
Select the board you want to pin to
This window will open after you click the Pinterest icon as shown in the graphic above. Select the board you want to pin to and that’s it.
CREATING A MANUAL PIN ON PINTEREST
Click on the red circle with the WHITE cross
You can create a manual pin directly from Pinterest. Just go to either the Pinterest home page or your profile page and click on the red circle with a cross in it on the top right hand side of the page and select create pin. See image below.
Click on Create Pin in the drop down box
This is the drop down box that will appear after clicking on the red circle with white cross button on the home or your profile page.
Create Pin window
This window will open once you click on the Create Pin button above. Click on the image icon box to upload your image. Copy and paste the URL from your listing into the Website section and add your description to the description section.
Just a little tip. To add the website or product URL, go to the item you want to pin, open the listing and copy the URL at the top of the page in the search bar and paste into the website section. Voila. You have created a pin with a direct link and that’s how you can drive traffic to your products.
TAKING YOUR PIN IMAGES TO THE NEXT LEVEL
You can keep it that easy but if you want to take your pins to the next level, I use a photo editor like Ipiccy or Canva to make my pin images stand out and get noticed. It is a known fact that the most clicked on image size are the long skinny pins. They drive traffic because you need to click on them to see the full size, they just look better, they are more noticeable and look more professional. I will give you an example below of the standard image with the listing and the created image using a photo editor.
Standard Image
No photo editing or adjustments.
Created Collage Image
This image was created using a collage tool with addition of graphics in Ipiccy
Have a play around with it. Find out which ones drive the most traffic which you will be able to monitor in your analytics. If you can adapt your pins, try out the longer, skinnier type.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING!
One of the downsides of Pinterest is your pin has a very short shelf life. Once you post a pin it is immediately available to view by your followers and from searches on Pinterest. I have even heard your pin is most visible and has the best chance of being discovered in the first 20-30 minutes but I am not 100% sure about this as I have had people repining my pins from months ago. Having said that, your pin is always visible in searches and people looking through your boards so don’t despair too much.
You need to think strategically about when you post your pins and pin when there is the greatest number of people who will see them, which is usually between 6am and 6pm.
KEEP IT FRESH
People love new and original content and so does Pinterest, just like other social media platforms.
If you are pinning new, interesting and engaging content to Pinterest every day, you will get new followers and in turn your Pinterest platform will grow. Why is this important, the bigger your Pinterest platform, more people will click on your links to your website, products and ideas and most importantly, the more traffic you will get from Pinterest.
SHARING IS CARING!
If you begin your Pinterest journey with the thought that you will create boards for your content and products only, think again. Unfortunately you will not be a successful pinner and your pins will probably not be seen. This is the reason why many people who try Pinterest who adopt this strategy don’t see any increase in traffic and ultimately give up.
It is really important to pin not only your own product pins but other pins to your boards. This is called repining. Like everything else in social media marketing, it is driven by popularity and algorithms. Pinterest rewards pinners that continually repin popular pins that other people like and repin to their boards. It is a bit like a ripple affect. The more people repining your pins, the more your pins and boards show up in searches and the more chance someone has to discover you and click on the link in your profile.
You can use pinning tools like Tailwind (sign up for a free trial), but for me I like to do manual pinning. In my opinion it is important to know exactly the type of pins that are being pinned to my boards and the time they are being pinned. It doesn’t take too long. Each time I list a new item in my Etsy or Ebay store I pin it. I also spend a few times a day visiting Pinterest to discover other popular pins to repin to my boards. Each time I visit Pinterest I would probably repin 5 pins at a time.
BUILD YOUR PROFILE
If you want to create lots of traffic from Pinterest you need to have followers. You can attract followers by pining a little bit every day, preferably at peak traffic times. Find other interesting people to follow by going to the “Popular” or “Everything” tab on your Pinterest navigation bar. Don’t just pin things that relate to your niche or products. Start thinking outside of the box and pin things that are interesting to you or things you like. Chances are if you find them interesting, other pinners will find them interesting as well. If you visit my profile I have boards not only for my business niche but my interests and loves.
Check out my Pinterest profile here Rhinestone Mumma Pinterest Profile
IT PAYS TO BE A GROUPIE!
A group board works the same as a regular board, the only difference is that along with the board creator, other invited collaborators can also contribute pins and add categories. Group boards are a great way of getting your product recognised among other like minded pinners. Usually these boards have a lot of followers and contributors and your pin will have a much better chance of being noticed and getting traffic from that pin.
If you want to find Group Boards to join, you can simply type in what you are looking for in the Pinterest search bar and a see what drops down. The first part will be search terms, then People/Profiles and then Boards. Just click on the boards you are interested in, follow the board or if it is a group or collaborative board just follow the instructions on the board. Usually you only need to follow the board and send a message to the admin or creator of the board so they can send you an invitation to join.
Here’s your personal invite to join my group board Etsy Sellers Promote.
There is also a great website where you can discover group boards to join called Pingroupie. A bit like a online directory for group boards on Pinterest.
This is also a great list for finding group boards to join.
WHAT’S A RICH PIN?
There are four types of Rich Pins, app, product, recipe and article. Rich pins have more context about an idea, product, recipe or article because they show extra information about your pin.
When you set up Rich Pins (using the link below), your items will have real time pricing, availability and where to buy your product.
When you add Rich Pins to your account, all your future pins will be enabled. That means you only need to do it once.
If this is something you would like to do, here is a link to Create Rich Pins
SHOULD I DELETE PINS?
In my opinion you should absolutely delete underperforming pins and pins with links that go nowhere. As we discussed before, pins can have a very short shelf life so if it’s under performing get rid of it. You may have pinned something a while back that has now sold out or been relisted with a different URL. Delete the old pin and pin the new pin with the fresh URL. It brings me back to the social media machine favouring the popular pins as well as other forms of social media like Instagram and Facebook. Like everything, you need to work at it, tweaking and adjusting.
When I started deleting underperforming pins my unique monthly visitors shot up by 50,000. I am guilty of looking at pins before I repin them to my boards to see how many times they have been repined.
So yes, deleting pins helps you to get noticed on Pinterest.
THAT’S A WRAP!
I hope I have been able to shed some light on how Pinterest works and how you can use it effectively to create traffic to your online store or blog.
If you have any questions or would like to add anything you think is relevant please don’t be shy and leave a comment.
As I am an avid Etsy Seller, most of my posts are geared to Etsy Success although many of my guides and tutorials will be useful for if you use other platforms to sell your products. You can visit my Etsy Store at Rhinestone Mumma
Here are some of my recent blog posts you might be interested in;
Etsy SEO! What’s It All About?
Instagram Product Tagging! What’s It All About?
Etsy Hyperlinks! What’s It All About?
Etsy Shop Policies! What’s It All About?
If you want to join our community on Facebook Etsy Sellers Promote & Help we would love to have you on board. We are always discussing ways to improve our Etsy experience and grow our sales.
Have a great day 🙂
Rhinestone Mumma 