As a marketing channel, Pinterest harnesses great potential to increase website traffic, leads, and generate revenue for a business. If used properly, it can become an active and powerful source of traffic. And it’s a traffic source that keeps giving, in some cases for months and years long after the initial pin was published. And there’s more. Pinterest can also help you with brand awareness and with a higher search rank in results displayed by search engines.
Oh, and did you know that Pinterest gets an estimated 52% of its traffic from search engines? Compared to other social networks’ traffic from search, Instagram gets 17%, Twitter gets 15%, and Facebook gets 9%.
You can learn more about the benefits of using this marketing channel for your business in my article, 5 benefits businesses can get from using Pinterest marketing in their visibility strategy.
While Pinterest marketing is increasingly appealing for more and more businesses, there are many business owners, and entrepreneurs who feel confused about how to even get started using this new marketing channel in their growth strategy.
Where do I even get started?
Before you despair and give up, remember to start with the simple things. Use the assets that are in your control, and when it comes to Pinterest, the first place to start is setting up your profile. This is achievable even for those of you who might be new to this platform. Here are the basic steps.
For an in-depth look at each of these steps, check out my free checklist on how to setup your Pinterest for Business profile like a pro, available here.
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Sign up for a Business Profile
If you are planning on using Pinterest for commercial purposes then the platform’s Terms of Service indicate you should be operating on this channel using a Business account.
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Verify your website
This step gives you access to advanced analytics, rich pins, and lets you see what people are Pinning from your website.
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Claim your Instagram, Etsy or YouTube accounts
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Profile picture
Your profile picture is a big part of that first impression you’re going to make on Pinterest. It’s also part of your branding so make sure you do pay attention when choosing your profile picture.
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Profile name & username
Pinterest used to allow long form names, but now you are limited to 30 characters, so make sure you make them count.
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Bio aka Profile Description
Your profile bio helps Pinners figure out who you are by allowing you to add a short story behind the name and picture. Pinterest says you should use the profile description to introduce your brand and what inspires you.
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Boards
Boards are one of the main reasons a Pinner will decide to follow you. These are very visible on your profile. You can see them on your homepage’s overview, on your homepage’s header, as well as being prominently featured in the menu under your profile pic and bio.
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Pinning
Pinterest suggests you pin at least once a day to make sure your followers don’t lose touch with your story
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Website Friendliness to Pinners
Make sure that Pinners have high-quality, beautiful images to save from your website and add the Save button to your site
Although Pinterest looks pretty, behind the scenes, this is a marketing tool, and it uses an algorithm to categorize and display content on its platform. Do take into account that Pinterest is a long term game, and in increasing your visibility you need to make sure you’ve made the most of your available assets, like profile description, boards’ names, their descriptions, as well as the keywords and hashtags used in giving context to your pins.
New to Pinterest marketing?
If you’re ready to give this channel a try, but you’ve only heard about it, and are still pondering how to even get started, or maybe you haven’t used it for a fair while now, and would need to get an expert’s checklist on how to get back at it, this free resource is for you. I hope that it will make it easier for you to navigate this channel.
To help business owners and entrepreneurs get started on the right foot with Pinterest marketing I prepared a free step-by-step profile setup checklist. It takes people who are new to Pinterest marketing through the essential steps they need to take to setup their Pinterest for Business profile like a pro.
Need help starting with Pinterest marketing?
There are so many fun ways to integrate Pinterest in your content marketing. If you need help planning your strategy for Pinterest, I can show you how to make this new marketing channel work for your brand. You can book a free strategy call for your Pinterest marketing below.
Hi there! My name is Monica. I am a visibility coach and content marketing specialist who creates blog & Pinterest strategies to generate website traffic and leads.