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 480 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 using Pinterest for beginners, where we’ll unlock seven secrets to harnessing this visual search engine for your business’s success. Whether you’re an e-commerce entrepreneur, food blogger, creative artist, or service-based business owner, Pinterest’s engaged audience and powerful search capabilities provide a fertile ground to flourish.
Why Should My Business Use Pinterest?
Pinterest is not just a social media platform—it’s a search engine that allows you to get your business in front of people actively looking for what you offer. With a strong Pinterest marketing strategy, you can meet your customers right at the moment they’re searching for solutions like yours!
Pinterest users are highly intentional and ready to buy. Here are some of the latest Pinterest stats that highlight why it’s such a valuable platform:
✅ 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 (Return on Ad Spend) than other platforms
✅ Brands see 2.3x more efficient cost per conversion compared to other social media ads
✅ Shoppers on Pinterest spend 2x more than those on other platforms
✅ Pinterest posts have one of the longest lifespans—pins can drive traffic for 6 months to a year!
And now, Pinterest’s ad platform is more advanced than ever, allowing businesses to scale faster by using Promoted Pins, Shopping Ads, and Video Ads to reach new audiences.
So, as you can see, Pinterest is an incredibly powerful tool for expanding your brand’s reach, driving long-term organic traffic, and increasing sales.
What Types of Businesses Should Use Pinterest?
While Pinterest can work for many businesses, some industries see exceptional success thanks to the platform’s highly engaged audience. If you’re wondering whether Pinterest is a good fit for your business, here are some of the best-performing industries:
- E-commerce & Retail – Perfect for showcasing products like fashion, home decor, accessories, and gifts. Pinterest Shopping Ads make it easier than ever to turn browsers into buyers.
- Food & Beverage – Restaurants, food bloggers, and nutrition brands thrive on Pinterest. Recipes, meal ideas, and cooking hacks perform exceptionally well.
- Travel & Tourism – Hotels, travel agencies, and tour operators use Pinterest to inspire travel planning and bookings.
- Home & Interior Design – Ideal for designers, furniture brands, and DIY home improvement businesses. Pinterest ranks as a top platform for home decor inspiration.
- Health & Wellness – Fitness coaches, wellness brands, and self-care influencers see huge engagement on Pinterest.
- Beauty & Fashion – Beauty brands and fashion retailers use Pinterest for trend inspiration, tutorials, and product promotions.
- Parenting & Family – A top platform for moms! Parenting blogs, baby products, and educational resources thrive here.
If your business offers visual, lifestyle-based, or inspirational content, Pinterest should absolutely be part of your marketing strategy.
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. Here are some of our services:
- Pinterest Set-Up & Strategy: If you’re just starting or wanting a little professional guidance with your Pinterest marketing, this is a great option! 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.
- Pinterest Advertising: Get results faster with targeted ad campaigns on Pinterest. Our ad experts are trained to optimize, retarget and move the needle; check out some of our amazing case studies!
- Pinterest Organic Management: 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.
If you’re not sure what you need, let’s book a call and figure it out together! We offer free discovery calls to find out what option is best for you. Book yours here.
