Wondering how to start Pinterest for business marketing? You’re not the only one. Every day I get questions for entrepreneurs who are soooooo ready to set up a Pinterest marketing profile and strategy – but are a bit lost when it comes to exactly how.
I’ve been supporting online coaches, course creators, and experts with Pinterest marketing for about six years now. And many of my students and clients come to me when they are just getting started with Pinterest.
So, I’ve gotten preeeeeettttttty good at answering all the Pinterest for beginner questions.
This post is a round up of the common questions I hear – and my no-nonsense, “let’s keep it simple” answers.
Sound refreshing? Perfect…
Here are the FAQs I’m answering in this post. (Read them all, or click on any of the links below to jump to the answers you’re seeking!)
- Is Pinterest just for recipes and crafts? What if I’m offering and marketing something different?
- So, how does Pinterest work to attract clients?
- How many Pinterest pins should I pin – as a beginner? And how often?
- When I’m a Pinterest marketing beginner… Do I just start pinning?
- Where do the keywords go – when I’m setting up my Pinterest for business profile?
Okay, let’s dive right in, starting with…
Is Pinterest just for recipes and crafts? What if I’m offering and marketing something different?
Nope! No. Niet. Definitely not just recipes and crafts anymore! 🙂 As Pinterest has grown as a platform (and it has grown FAST!), the variety of things that people search for has expanded a great deal.
Health, wellness and wellbeing topics… Entrepreneurship and work from home tips… Love, dating, marriage, and relationships…
Your thing is probably being searched… so check!
If you’d like to have my help with checking, enroll in my free Pinterest marketing masterclass here. This is one of the five main topics I teach in the free training. You’ll learn *exactly* how to tell if your audience is looking for what you offer / help with / teach.
So, how does Pinterest work to attract clients?
At its core, Pinterest is a search engine. More specifically, it’s a search and discovery platform.
And, in some ways, it works a lot like Google.
Pinners search for things that they want ideas, inspiration, and solutions around. Pinterest serves them up pins (images, videos, ideas) that are a match.
As marketers, we use keywords to help Pinterest know what our pins are about… and then Pinterest can show them to people who are searching for those (and related) things.
So, picture this…
You have a pin or a piece of content that is about a nighttime yoga routine for better sleep. You use *keywords* on that pin like:
- “yoga before bed,”
- “how to fall asleep faster,” and
- “nighttime yoga for sleep”
Someone searches for “yoga before bed” or “yoga for sleep”… and your pin can be served to her in her feed. If your pin stops her scroll, she’ll…
- click to get a better look.
- consume the content you’ve created to help her solve her problem, inspire her, or give her an idea.,. and
- follow the call to action you’ve laid out (what you want her to do next, to learn more from you)
There are some nuances here, of course, but that’s the basic way that that Pinterest works to attract clients (or buyers, if you’re not a service-based business).
How many Pinterest pins should I pin – as a beginner? And how often?
I encourage my course students and clients to start – and get consistent – with pinning:
- 1 to 2 standard pins per week, and
- 1 to 2 Idea pin per week.
Once you hit your stride with this, you can increase your frequency if you’d like – but you don’t have to. These days, it’s not about quantity on Pinterest. It’s about quality.*
Pinterest has explicitly told us that it wants less, higher-quality content… so focus on quality images and great audience targeting (more on that below!), and you’ll win at Pinterest!
* Just in case you’ve gotten caught in a Youtube rabbit hole of outdated Pinterest information… If you’re hearing people talk about pinning 10, 20, 30 pins a day – this is an outdated strategy. Be careful whom you learn from! 😬
And remember this: When someone searches for the thing you offer (and created content about)… and you didn’t add your content… then she won’t find you. If you do add it, she could find you!
So, focus on adding a little of your content at a time. And remember, Pinterest is a search engine. So build your body of work there, so people can find it when they search for your thing. Little by little, a little becomes a lot!
When I’m a Pinterest marketing beginner… Do I just start pinning?
The best place to start is by setting up an optimized Pinterest profile.
(Pinterest is soooo different than social media. So don’t simply jump in and try to emulate your IG strategy! That’s a ticket to frustration-city.)
Instead, take some time to understand how Pinterest works first. Then, set up a great profile – so you’ll have a solid foundation for attracting your ideal audience to your pins and content.
Because Pinterest is a search and discovery engine (more like Google than like social media!), you’ll want to do some keyword research to find out what people are searching – around your topics and area of expertise.
Then, when you’re building your profile, you’ll use the keywords you find in four places on your profile…
In the next FAQ, I’ll list those four places… (Yep, I’ll just list them out for you! Told you this was going to be a no-nonsense post! 😉 )
(Pssssst…. You can 📌 pin this article for reference to your “Pinterest marketing” board:)
Where do the keywords go – when I’m setting up my Pinterest for business profile?
When you set up (or clean up!) your Pinterest profile, you’ll want to add your chosen keywords:
- In your display name
- In your bio / about me area
- On your board titles
- In your board descriptions
(Remember: Do keyword research on Pinterest first to find the right keywords – to be sure you’re targeting keywords that your ideal people are searching!)
Is there a step-by-step process to follow – to set up my Pinterest for business profile?
Yes! My course, Pinterest with Purpose is THE course for online coaches, course creators and experts.
If you want to learn how to set up (or clean up) your Pinterest profile so that is strategic – and sets you up for easy, sustainable client acquisition… then my course Pinterest with a Purpose was created for you.
It’s a self-study e-course that reveals the methods I’ve been refining with my 1:1 clients – the strategies that work for coaches, service providers, and course creators.
In the course, I take you, step-by-step, through the process of getting your Pinterest profile set up optimally – so you can use it to grow your audience and sign more clients.
Learn more & enroll here!
