How to use Pinterest for beginners, the ultimate guide!
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to connect with their target audience and expand their online reach. While established platforms like Facebook and Instagram have long dominated the scene, one hidden gem remains overlooked by many: Pinterest. With over 450 million active users each month, Pinterest offers a treasure trove of untapped potential for businesses seeking to drive traffic, boost brand visibility, and grow exponentially.
Welcome to our comprehensive guide to how to use Pinterest for beginners, where we’ll unlock seven secrets to harnessing this visual-centric platform’s power for your business’s success. Whether you’re an e-commerce entrepreneur, a passionate food blogger, a creative artist, or any other type of business owner, Pinterest’s unique features and engaged community provide a fertile ground to flourish.
Why should my business use Pinterest?
Pinterest is a visual search engine that allows you to get your business in front and center of searches related to your business. With a strong Pinterest marketing strategy, you can meet your customers right when they are searching for you! Pinterest users are a very intentional and focused audience. Here are some impressive stats about Pinterest:
- 45% of US users have an income of over $100k
- 85% of weekly users have made a purchase from Pinterest pins
- Pinterest delivers a 32% better ROAS than other platforms
- Brands see 2.3x more efficient cost per conversion
- Pinterest has one of the longest post lifespans (6 months to a year)
- Shoppers on Pinterest spend twice as much as shoppers on other platforms
So as you can see Pinterest is a very valuable tool for reaching and expanding your target market.
What types of Businesses should use Pinterest?
Pinterest can be beneficial for a wide range of businesses, but some types of businesses are particularly well-suited to leverage the platform’s unique features and audience. We didn’t think a how to use Pinterest for beginners guide would be complete without talking about some of these categories. Here are some examples of businesses that can thrive on Pinterest:
- E-commerce and Retail: Businesses that sell physical products can effectively showcase their inventory on Pinterest. From fashion retailers to home decor stores, Pinterest’s visual nature allows these businesses to highlight their products in a visually appealing manner, driving traffic to their online stores.
- Food and Beverage Industry: Restaurants, cafes, food bloggers, and food-related businesses can find success on Pinterest. The platform is an ideal place to share recipes, food photography, cooking tips, and dining ideas, making it an excellent tool for culinary inspiration.
- Travel and Tourism: Travel agencies, hotels, airlines, and tour operators can utilize Pinterest to showcase destinations, travel experiences, and travel tips. Inspirational travel photos and well-curated boards can attract potential travelers and promote their services.
- Home and Interior Design: Interior designers, home decor stores, and home improvement businesses can thrive on Pinterest by sharing beautiful room designs, DIY ideas, and home renovation tips.
- Health and Wellness: Fitness instructors, health bloggers, and wellness brands can share exercise routines, healthy recipes, and self-care tips on Pinterest. The platform’s visual appeal can attract health-conscious users seeking inspiration.
- Arts and Crafts: Artists, crafters, and DIY enthusiasts can find a receptive audience on Pinterest. Sharing creative ideas, step-by-step tutorials, and finished art or craft projects can engage users and drive traffic to their websites or online shops.
- Wedding and Event Planning: Wedding planners, event organizers, and related businesses can showcase their services, decor ideas, and party planning tips on Pinterest. The platform is popular among users planning special occasions.
- Education and Informational Content: Educational websites, tutorial creators, and informative bloggers can utilize Pinterest to share infographics, educational resources, and how-to guides to attract a curious and learning-oriented audience.
- Beauty and Fashion: Beauty brands, fashion designers, makeup artists, and fashion influencers can use Pinterest to display their latest trends, styles, and beauty tips, catering to a visually-oriented user base.
- Parenting and Family: Parenting blogs, family-oriented businesses, and childcare providers can connect with parents seeking parenting advice, family-friendly activities, and parenting hacks on Pinterest.
While these are just examples of popular Pinterest Categories, the flexibility and broad user base of Pinterest mean that various other businesses can also find value in the platform. The key is to create visually appealing content, understand the target audience, and align the brand’s message with the interests of Pinterest users.
7 Easy Steps for How to Use Pinterest for Beginners
Before diving into Pinterest marketing strategies, it’s essential to understand what makes this platform different from others. Unlike social media platforms that focus on personal connections, Pinterest revolves around the concept of sharing ideas and inspiration through images or “pins.” Users can create themed boards where they save and organize pins related to their interests or goals. As a business, you can leverage this visual aspect to showcase your products, services, and brand in an appealing and engaging way. As pinners search for the topics that they are interested in, they will find your pins and click to your website or save them into boards to come back to later.
Here are the seven first steps to starting your Pinterest marketing journey.
1. Set-Up a Business Account
The first step in our guide for “how to use Pinterest for beginners” is to make sure you have a Pinterest business account. This account type provides access to valuable analytics and advertising features that can help you better understand your audience and optimize your marketing efforts. When setting up your business account, ensure you have a clear and compelling profile image, an informative bio, and a link to your website.
PS- Here’s our guide for How to Set-Up a Pinterest Business Account
2. Claim Your Website & Connect Product Catalog
One of the first things to do after you set-up your business account is to verify your website and add your product catalog if you sell a physical product. Connecting your product catalog to Pinterest allows you to showcase your products to a wider audience and take advantage of Pinterest’s shopping features. To connect your product catalog to Pinterest, you’ll need to install a Pinterest tag and connect a data source. It’s a bit of a technical process but very worth doing to reach the maximum audience.
3. Research Your Keywords
Pinterest is first and foremost a search engine so having a good Pinterest SEO strategy will ensure you are getting the most from the platform. You should make a list of your top keywords and then use it as a guide for setting up the rest of your account and for pinning. When we start with a new client we create a master Keyword Report with the top 50 keywords, this list is not exhaustive but it helps guide us as we execute the pinning strategy. Here are some helpful resources:
4. Optimize Your Pinterest Profile
Before you start pinning, you need to make sure your entire Pinterest account is optimized with keywords. You can create themed boards that reflect the different aspects of your business, this will make it easier for users to discover content and to get all your keywords in. You can have as many boards as you want, as long as they are relevent to your business. Board names, board descriptions, your profile name and bio should all be packed with potent keywords that will appeal and target a wide audience. For example if you sell kitchen decor, you could have boards for different styles of decor; “Farmhouse Kitchen Decor”, “Modern Kitchen Lighting” these are terms that are more niche and will come up as pinners search for these products.
5. Create Eye-Catching Pins
Pinterest is a visually-driven platform, so invest in high-quality images and graphics. Vertical images with a 2:3 aspect ratio (ideally 1000 x 1500 pixels) are the best size. Use Canva to create Pinterest templates and customize them with your colors, fonts and logos.
PS- Check out our Pinterest Graphic Design Guide for more info!
6. Schedule Your Pins
Once you’ve created a group of pin graphics or photos, it’s time to start pinning. You can upload your pins into Pinterest itself or use a scheduler like TailWind to drip your pins out over a specific time period. I recommend getting a scheduler to use so you can stay consistent with your pinning and have a balanced schedule. No matter what method you use, you will want to make sure that every pin has a keyword rich title and description. Each pin can go into up to 5-10 different boards. Just make sure you space them out and only put them into relevent boards.
7. Monitor Results
Watch your Pinterest Analytics very closely to see how pins are performing and what content is trending. This can help you refine your Pinterest marketing strategy and get better results over time. Track your numbers monthly so you can watch as your account grows and becomes even more successful!
PS- Check out our guide to Pinterest Analytics
Do you Feel Overwhelmed by Pinterest?
If you’re short on time or if Pinterest marketing feels overwhelming, our team would love to help you get things started! We offer several services for any budget or business size to help you kick start your Pinterest marketing.
We offer Pinterest Set-Up & Strategy Consultations where we will help you create your Pinterest SEO strategy, set-up and optimize your account and then walk you through how to use Pinterest for YOUR business in a one-on-one consultation.
We also offer Monthly Pinterest Management where we handle the day-to-day of your Pinterest marketing or advertising. We will set-up your account, create beautiful branded pins and then schedule and maintain the your account so you can get back to doing what you love in your business.
We also offer free discovery calls to find out what option is best for you. Book yours here.
