Pinterest boards! As Pinterest users, we think of them as a place to organize all the ideas and inspiration we love to save.
As marketers, we think of them a little differently…
We think of them as:
✔️ the “content buckets” we save and create pins in…
✔️ an important place to add our Pinterest keywords… and
✔️ a visual representation of the things we teach about and help with…
(… so when someone lands on our profile she “gets” what we’re all about!)
So, then, one of the first questions people often ask me about is…
How many Pinterest boards should you have?
And, while we’re on the subject…
What’s a good way to choose your Pinterest board topics? … so that you can use your boards strategically to grow your audience (and get clients!) as a coach, course creator, or service provider?
Well, Dear Reader, that’s *exactly* what I’m here to provide clarity on today – right here, in this blog post.
Read on to learn:
🎥 (Oh… and, if you’re not a big reader, but still want the info… You can press play on the training I recorded below! The content essentially mirrors this blog post!)
Is there a “magic number” of Pinterest boards to have?
First things first. Before I outline my recommendations for your boards, it’s important that I acknowledge this:
No.
No, there is not. 😉
There is no magic number of Pinterest boards to have – or pin to.
In fact, there are very few (if any) “magic numbers” or magic formulas for Pinterest in general. Different things work better for different accounts, in different niches, and for different goals and strategies.
BUT.
One thing you should know about me if we’re going to hang out? It’s this…
I’m not going to let that stop me from giving you a structure – or a plan to follow. ⇐===
Here’s why: Over the years of supporting coaches, course creators, and service providers who want to connect with their ideal people using Pinterest, I’ve learned that most of my audience are either:
a) Just getting started with Pinterest marketing; or
b) Dabbling a bit in Pinterest marketing – but not seeing results yet and looking to get more strategic and effective.
So, even though some Pinterest experts don’t like to offer “formulas” or an easy-to-follow plan… I am quite willing to. 🙂 Because I think that’s what you need when you are getting started (or when you are re-assessing a strategy that’s not working for you yet).
My philosophy is that you SHOULD start with a tried-and true structure (ideally one that you learned from an expert) – and follow that for at least 6 to 9 months.
After you’ve become consistent with that structure, you can look at the data you’ve collected and assess what’s working, what’s not, and where/how you want to tweak your plan (and your numbers / ratios / pinning frequencies, etc) – based on what worked for you.
I firmly believe that – absent a structured plan to follow – most coaches, service providers, and course creators simply won’t get started. Or, they’ll start – but they will quickly get overwhelmed by trying to “guess” at the numbers / ratios / frequencies (OH my!) … and they won’t stay in action.
They’ll just throw their hands up… and go work on something else. (So sad! They’re missing out on such a powerful – and easy! – audience growth tool.)
And as Mark Twain said, “The best way to get ahead is to get started.” 🐸
So, if you want to see those juicy results you’re hearing that Pinterest can provide…
… the Pinterest profile that attracts women searching on Pinterest for *exactly* what you help with…
… ideal clients clicking through to your content and offers every day…
… the list that grows on auto-pilot – even when you’re not working…
… Then, you have to get started.
So, I’m willing to give you a plan to start with. (There. I said it! 😉 )
Okay, so what’s the formula for how many Pinterest boards, then?
Right, so that’s the question you likely came over here to get answered. So let’s cover that. 🙂
In terms of the number of boards I think you should have, I actually have a three-phased answer for you – based on the “3 Phases” of your Pinterest marketing plan.
Phase 1: Strategic Setup: 10 to 15 Pinterest boards to start.
When you’re just getting started with a Pinterest marketing, you’re focusing on setting up (or cleaning up) your account – so it’s fully-optimized. (*Psssst… This is what I teach in my course.)
You’re getting clear on who you want to discover your content and offers, doing keyword research, adding keywords to six areas of your profile, learning to design and optimize pins, planning your monthly workflow, etc.
During this phase, I recommend that you start with 10 to 15 boards.
It’s during this set up process that you’ll also need to decide how to choose board topics and titles… more on that below in the “How to Choose Your Pinterest Board Topics” section below!
Phase 2: Workflow & Growth: Add 1 to 2 new Pinterest boards per month.
This is the phase in which you just do the dang thing. ;) The three most important things to remember during this phase are:
- Follow your workflow.
- Follow your workflow.
- Don’t get discouraged. Keep following your workflow.
(It’s funny because it’s true…
Pinterest can take time to really produce results for you. Those results are coming – and they will snowball over time. But Pinterest can only perform and generate leads for you if you are consistent – especially in the beginning!… But that’s an entire ‘nother blog post… 😉 )
Part of the “4 to 6 hour per month workflow” that I teach and recommend is to add 1 to 2 new boards to your account each month – until you get to about 25.
A Pro Tip for this: In keeping with my philosophy of making your monthly workflow as much of a no-brainer as possible (so you can stay consistent), I recommend this:
During Phase 1, when you are picking topics and titles for the 10 to 15 boards you create in that phase, also take the time to put three or four topics/titles “on deck.”
(For those of you that aren’t into sports… “On deck” is a baseball term. When there’s a batter at bat, there are also one or two batters “on deck..” which means they’re warming up, swinging the bat… getting prepped for their at-bat.)
Same concept here. When you’re choosing your 10 to 15 board topics/titles, actually choose 15 to 20. This is basically “batching” the work of choosing, reducing decision fatigue later on, and basically making it super-easy to add your one to two new boards per month during the first few months of the “workflow and growth phase”… #BatchingForTheWin!
Okay, now on to…
Phase 3: Optimization & Growth: Add Pinterest boards when you need them.
This is the phase in which you start drawing conclusions about what’s working – and do more of that. You can now tweak your workflow, update pin designs, etc. (If you *REALLY* want to, you can layer in more Pinterest strategies… but you don’t have to.*)
(*Remember, I have plenty of course students and clients who *only* focus on the basics – and get leads and clients using Pinterest!)
As far as how many new boards I recommend adding… here’s the deal:
In this phase, you add boards when you need more highly-relevant places to pin your new pins.
Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean. (‘Cause this stuff needs to make sense to you in a practical way, right?)
Let’s say you’re a health and wellness coach that specializes in helping buys moms with big families to create better self care practices.
In Phase 1, when you started your account (or cleaned it up and started using it strategically), you created 12 boards. They focus mostly on self care routines, evening routines, and “finding time for yourself” topics.
Six months later, you are creating some content (like blogs, podcast episodes, or Youtube videos) around how moms can improve their body image (and model healthy body image for their kids, right?)
So, you’d like to create some boards about body image.
And, that’s a great idea… because Pinterest values “relevancy” – so your pins will likely get better reach – and be in front of a more targeted audience – if you pin your “body image” content to boards that are specifically keyworded for that topic.
And, BTW… “Body image” is still directly related to “self care”… so you’re not going out into left field with this topic. (What’s with all the baseball metaphors in this blog post? I’m not even a baseball fan 🤷🏽♀️…) You’re just honing in more specifically on aspects of self care for moms.
So, you can still pin these pins to “self care” boards… but the first board you pin them to should be one of the hyper-relevant “body image” boards.
Okay… TL;DR? Here’s a quick summary of How Many Pinterest Boards to Have:
In Phase 1 of your Pinterest plan, start with 10 to 15 intentionally-chosen boards.
In Phase 2 of your Pinterest plan, grow your number of boards by 1 or 2 per month. (Draw from the ones you put “on deck” during phase 1!)
In Phase 3, just add boards when you find you need them – in order to have highly-relevant boards to add your new pins to each month.
Next up… let’s talk about how to choose your Pinterest board topics…
How to Choose Your Pinterest Board Topics
To determine what 10 to 15 boards to start with, take the following two things into consideration:
1) What content will you be pinning? Make a list of the blog posts, landing pages, podcast shownotes, video trainings, etc. that you have now – that you want more ideal client eyes on.
2) What words and phrases did you discover during your keyword research in Phase 1 – when you were setting up your account?
Your first 10 to 15 boards should live at the intersection of those two factors.
By choosing board topics that are aligned with the content you have available to pin, you’ll ensure that you have highly-relevant boards to house that content.
By choosing board topics that are aligned with the keywords you wish to rank for, you’ll get discovered by the perfect, action-taking audience for you on Pinterest!
Your Next Steps for a Strategic Pinterest Profile…
Okay… so that’s my wisdom around choosing your board topics, and how many you should have – at each phase of your Pinterest strategy.
If you’d love to be putting some of your audience growth and client acquisition on auto-pilot with Pinterest…
And if you’d like to learn the *exact steps* of Phase 1 above – Setting up your Pinterest profile to attract perfect clients, I invite you to enroll in my e-course Pinterest with Purpose.
In it, I reveal the step-by-step methods (and, yes, the formulas! 😉 ) I’ve been refining with my 1:1 clients for three+ years now – the methods that really work for online coaches and service providers.
Check it out and enroll here.
