Pinterest is an amazing tool for building your business.
Since making Pinterest the main focus of my marketing strategy, I’ve seen my website traffic increase, email list grow, sales flourish, PLUS I’ve received regular blog comments and guest posting and interview invites!
I was so excited about these results that I decided to learn even more about Pinterest and started managing other people’s accounts. I’m so passionate about Pinterest that I want everyone to be on there. And when I see someone on there but they’re not getting the awesome results they could be getting it makes me sad. :(
Below I outline a few common mistakes people make when marketing their businesses on Pinterest. If you’re making these same mistakes I have some solutions for you that you can implement to start getting real results from your Pinterest marketing efforts.
This article may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through the link, I get a small percentage at no additional charge to you. See my disclosure for more info.
COMMON MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE ON PINTEREST:
1) They pin whatever they want
Having a strategy for Pinterest is very important. One of the things you need to do is get clear about your target audience. What do they do in their free time? What brands do they follow? What’s going on in their lives right now?
Then pin Pins that will attract your target audience- just like when you started your business and you got clear on your ideal client (you did that right? If not, do it right now), you need to know what your target audience is into.
Then make boards for those topics and pin to them. Don’t make the common mistake of only pinning your own interests. Pinterest is about your ideal client, not you. That doesn’t mean you have to start a personal Pinterest account or stop pinning things that interest you, you just need to make your personal boards private. That’s it!
2) They only pin business-related topics
On the opposite spectrum of the above are pinners who only pin business topics. Their reasoning is that they want to attract their ideal clients. Ok, they’re going in the right direction but people are also interested in recipes, fashion, makeup, and travel.
“Fun” boards like recipes and crafts give you a well-rounded account that people are more likely to follow. You’ll also want to create holiday and seasonal boards. People are on Pinterest looking for ways to do things or to get inspired.
3) They don’t have descriptions for their boards
This is a very common mistake I see with new clients and other pinners on Pinterest.
Creating keyword-rich board descriptions will help people find your pins. Pinterest is similar to a search engine like Google so you’ll want to optimize your boards and pins so that they’ll come up when people look for them. Just like SEO’ing your blog posts, you want to SEO your Pinterest account!
Use Pinterest to research the best keywords for your boards. Type topics into the search bar and see what comes up. Those are the exact words pinners are using to find what they need. You want to use those same exact words in your board descriptions.
4) They pin their blog post once and call it a day
I’m guilty of doing this a long time ago. I thought pinning my blog posts once was good enough.
If this is you today, I have news. It’s not enough. You want your pins out in Pinterest land circulating as much as possible.
Create a blog board dedicated to all of your blog posts. Then create boards relevant to the topics you blog about. Now when you publish a new blog post you’ll pin it to your main board and the boards that are relevant to the topic.
Oh and also pin it to your relevant group boards! (Don’t have any group boards? See below!)
**PRO TIP:** Don’t repin the same pin back to back (Pinterest might flag your account as spammy). Instead, repin the pin every 2 days or use a tool like Tailwind to automate the process.
5) They don’t have any group boards
Group boards allow you to get in front of a bigger audience than you could by yourself. Some of these boards have thousands of followers. Group boards have the potential to grow your followers and website traffic quickly.
A note about finding the best group boards for your biz:
The best group boards are those with lots of contributors who are actively repining, liking, and clicking pins. You’ll want to choose boards that are directly related to your business. If you blog about copywriting, then group boards for solopreneurs, women entrepreneurs, and bloggers would be good choices.
You can find group boards in many different ways:
- Type in a topic at Pin Groupie and see what comes up
- Check out other pinners to see which group boards they’re a part of (you’ll know it’s a group board because you’ll see multiple profiles in the lower-left corner like the group board below)
6) They don’t use any Pinterest tools to help them pin
You HAVE to pin consistently AND often if you want your marketing efforts to pay off on Pinterest. Pinterest is interested in sharing content from quality pinners so pinning frequently is one of the ways to boost traffic to your pins (and website).
There are different Pinterest tools out there that will help you increase your reach by automatically pinning for you. Are these tools worth the money? Heck yeah!
My favorite is Tailwind because it automatically loops (repins) all of your blog pins, getting them in front of more people. So even if you take a day off (or two, or three…) Tailwind is chugging away, keeping your account active, relevant, and valuable in the eyes of the Pinterest algorithms.
Can I get an Amen!?
Look, you may think you’ll pin every day but it just won’t happen. Believe me. Life gets in the way. You’ll get busy or burnt out, and before you know it’s been two weeks and you’ll already have lost some momentum.
Tailwind also has some other amazing features, like Tribes which will help you get your pins out there more, a scheduling tool to help you schedule new pins to any board you choose, and something called the SmartLoop that automatically repins your pins for infinity!
Tailwind is your friend. Use it.:) (But don’t forget to pin fresh content too!)
7) They don’t follow influential pinners
Following pinners is a strategy that easily gets overlooked. People are focused on pinning, not following.
But following other pinners is a great way to get the attention of other people and grow your following (and when your followers grow, your pins are getting in front of more people. You want that!).
Don’t just follow anyone though. Yes, there’s a strategy for following people too!
Who to follow:
- Your ideal clients
- Your competitor’s followers
- People who pin a lot of your pins
Follow people whose boards and pins are similar to your brand. That way your Pinterest feed will be full of pins to pin! And make it a point to follow some new people once a week.
8) Their blog pins are square or horizontal
If you want to be successful on Pinterest, you need to be creating and pinning vertical pins with easy-to-read text and attention-grabbing titles. There are lots of pins out there. You want your pins to stand out!
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create professional-looking pins thanks to Canva (and yes, you can create them with a free account!) Canva has Pinterest templates that you can use to create branded pins for your blog posts. No excuse!
You also want attractive backgrounds for your pins. I used to hate weeding through cheesy photos on stock photography sites to find one semi-decent image.
That is until I started using Haute Stock for my pin images. They make it really easy to find a beautiful image quickly.
Above is one of my pins that went viral. It is vertical, easy-to-read, and has an attention-grabbing title. Win!
9) They’re not on Pinterest because they have a local brick and mortar business
If you’re local, your strategy will be a bit different from an online business, but Pinterest can still be extremely valuable for you.
For example, you’ll want to look for local businesses and people to follow, find local group boards to pin to and create boards that feature local businesses and activities in your area. That way, people in your area (or who are planning a trip to your area) are more likely to find you.
10) They don’t know what they’re doing
To get the most out of Pinterest you HAVE to know what works. You can’t just pin whatever you want, whenever, and get amazing results (as explained above). You can either learn Pinterest strategy on your own and implement it or hire someone to manage your account for you.
If you want to go the DIY route, I highly recommend the following courses:
Become a Pinterest VA Today – Learn the types of Pinterest services you can offer, how to create and schedule pins, and much more! If it’s not currently open you can sign up for their waitlist.
Pinterest 101 – Learn how to do keyword research and optimize your Pinterest profile and boards for more traffic. Gain instant access when you join the Introvert VA Club.
If you decide you’d rather delegate pinning to someone, we can help! Click here to hire a VA to help you out!
RELATED ARTICLES:
How to SEO Optimize Your Pinterest Boards for More Views
Blogging Tips for Virtual Assistants
Tips for Getting Started with Email Marketing
