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Written by Andy Fling, Orginal Article Published @Helpfornewbloggers.com
Are you new to marketing and wondering how to make the most of Pinterest marketing for business growth? There’s no reason to feel overwhelmed. We were all there once. All you need is a little sound advice that will get you pointed in the right direction. Following are my best tips on Pinterest marketing for beginners.
Note: Traffic Wonker has sadly gone out of business, but owner and CEO Andy Fling has given me permission to share his useful Pinterest research and other information on my site. I jumped at the chance as Andy is the smartest guy I know when it comes to Pinterest!
I’m Andy Fling, the founder of TrafficWonker, and a few years ago I was just like you. I jumped on Pinterest when it was brand new. None of us knew what we were doing, but we tried things. Some succeeded. Some failed. This post includes five of my best actionable tips that will leave you feeling less overwhelmed and far more enabled to crush your Pinterest marketing for beginners.
1) Pinterest Pin Scheduling
Pinterest is currently driving 19,500 visitors a month to my sites – that’s 235K visitors in one year. My most important marketing strategy is pin scheduling. This can be an important factor in your Pinterest marketing for business.
The following chart shows what has been happening with my music education site, MakingMusicFun.net, since I built TrafficWonker in 2015. Pinterest referral traffic has gone from 53,040 visitors per year to 191,103 visitors per year for this site alone. I’ve only added new product pins and varied my queue 4-5 times in the last three years. The rest is the power of TrafficWonker.
Some of you may be considering other pin schedulers. If you’re an experienced marketer they would serve you well. However, if you’re new to Pinterest marketing you will need to make many decisions to use your tools effectively. If you make the wrong decisions, there won’t be any skyrocketing or exploding traffic for your blog. Just disappointment.
2) Multiple Pinterest Images for the Same Blog Post
People don’t talk about this tip much, but creating multiple images for every post you write is something you should not overlook. Creating three images for your post gives you three very important advantages:
a) More Points of Entry – A point of entry is a link on a blog that people can click to find your product. On Pinterest, it’s a clickable image. With three images out there you’ll be multiplying your points of entry, followed by more traffic to your site.
b) Varied Pin Design – Sometimes the first pin you design will be the one that changes everything for your business. It happens, but it’s better to not leave so much to chance. Instead, create a variety of pin images with different colors and slightly different titles and post them all to Pinterest with a link pointing to your post.
c) Varied Pin Descriptions – Pinterest is a search engine. Multiple pin images will also give you a chance to write multiple pin descriptions with different keywords so no matter what people type they will find your pin.
Here are a few pins created for the same post for comparison.
If you don’t want to miss this post too, having been seriously intrigued by the varied colors, titles, and fonts, here’s the link: How to Expand Your Reach on Pinterest – Steal My Secrets.
3) Pinterest Image Size
In my early days on Pinterest I tried short images, only to discover they don’t work. They got a few repins, but not as many as their taller counterparts. The ideal pin size is 736px wide by 1103px tall according to a popular research study. However, what you want to say needs to fit and it may not at this size. Just remember that taller is better.
4) Collaborative (Group) Boards
You’ll reach many people with your own boards and you should invest time in developing these boards. They will be an incredible asset to you in the future. The problem is if you are just getting started your Pinterest account audience is small. Collaborative boards can provide you with a much larger audience instantly.
What is a collaborative board?
A collaborative (group) board is a Pinterest board created by one pinner and then opened to other pinners for collaboration. When a member is added to the board it becomes one of their boards too and is viewed by their audience. Everyone invited to a collaborative board can add pins to it. Collaborative boards include a small circle in the lower left corner showing a face or logo for the board owner and then recently added members.
What is the benefit of group boards?
Being a member of a collaborative board means everything you post to that collaborative board has the potential to reach a very large new audience. How? Because each member of the group board has thousands of followers of their own.
How do you find quality collaborative boards?
My best advice – go find the top pinners in your niche and see what group boards are working for them and then ask to be added to them.
If you’re interested in adding collaborative boards that will be beneficial to your account and Pinterest marketing efforts, here’s a list of things to consider before and after you join a board.
a) Choose boards with 50+ collaborators.
b) Choose collaborative boards that you can find on Pinterest board search. Type the name of the board and search. If the board comes up in the first 4-5 rows of the search results, it’s likely getting considerable engagement. If we remember that Pinterest is a business that must show us quality products to be viewed as useful, then the fact that a board is ranking high in search means that Pinterest likes the board. This fact alone is all the proof you’ll ever need that it’s a good board. The only question you’ll need to answer now is, “Is this a good board for me.” That’s where testing comes in. I’ll cover that a little further down the page.
To search for a board that you are interested in, type the name of the board into the search box and hit return. If you can find it in the first 4-5 rows it’s probably an incredible board. If you can find your board in the first 20 rows Pinterest likes it and it should be valuable to you.
I tested a couple of my boards to see where they ranked. My Social Media Marketing Tips board is doing very well, ranking #5 in the search results for the popular keyword phrase “social media marketing tips.” My Small Business Marketplace board is also doing rather well, ranking #23 in search for the keyword phrase “small business.” I chose to search for this board with this shorter keyword phrase because the title of my board is too unique. When I search for it with “small business marketplace” it comes up #1, but doesn’t give me an accurate idea of its quality. The lesson here is search with common keyword phrases and limit your search words to 2-4 words.
c) Choose collaborative boards owned by extremely successful pinners. This is a is a big win if you can be part of these boards.
d) Choose collaborative boards where the company is good. Click on the gray circle with a plus in the middle. It will show you a list of members that are participating. Click on a few members to visit their Pinterest accounts. If these pinners have exceptionally high monthly viewers then that board will be a great choice. If many of the members have less than 5K monthly views don’t consider this board. This fact alone is a strong guarantee that it is a quality board because it isn’t having a negative effect on the pinners already contributing.
d) Choose collaborative boards where the company is good. Click on the gray circle with a plus in the middle. It will show you a list of members that are participating. Click on a few members to visit their Pinterest accounts. If these pinners have exceptionally high monthly viewers then that board will be a great choice. If many of the members have less than 5K monthly views don’t consider this board. This fact alone is a strong guarantee that it is a quality board because it isn’t having a negative effect on the pinners already contributing.
e) Avoid collaborative boards that have pins unrelated to the board title. Some boards are filled with random pins and should be avoided at all cost. These boards are “bad neighborhoods” and your account could be penalized just because you’re associated with them.
f) Avoid collaborative boards where it’s hard to find pinners with monthly views over 20K.
After you join the board you’ll need to do a little testing to see if it’s worth keeping. Some boards are bad boards that can limit the performance of your account. Start by manually pinning five of your best pins to your new collaborative board and save the Pinterest urls. After 7-10 days paste these urls into your browser to see if anyone saved your pins. If several of your pins have saves this board is worth keeping. If all you see are giant goose eggs – “0” saves – it might be time to leave this board and find another one.
5) Cross-Promotion
Cross-promotion is a form of marketing where customers of one product or service are targeted for related products. Cross-promotion may involve several companies working together to promote a product in a way that benefits both companies. Take for example Pixar’s Toy Story movie. Pixar didn’t just run a few TV commercials and show the movie in theaters. They created toys, t-shirts, figurines, games, blankets and more. There were so many products that the release of the movie was hard to miss.
How Can Cross-Promotion Help Pinterest Marketers?
On Pinterest, cross-promotion means sharing your pins on more than one board.
For TrafficWonker I created a collection of boards right from the beginning that would allow me to cross-promote all of my pins, including:
Pinterest Marketing
Pinterest Tips for Business
Pinterest Marketing for Beginners
Social Media Marketing Tips
Goals for Bloggers
For my elementary music education site, MakingMusicFun.net, I have a piano sheet music board that is very active. To take advantage of this traffic I add my music theory worksheets, games and flashcards. They’re not a perfect fit for a sheet music board, but they are resources piano teachers and students will find valuable.
Cross-promotion on a variety of boards gives you another way for people to find your products.
It’s Time to Take Action
I don’t want to leave you here wondering what to do next. Here’s a list of things you can do to start optimizing your Pinterest marketing. Just because you’re a beginner doesn’t mean you need to make amateur mistakes. You can easily become an expert in Pinterest marketing for beginners.
a) Sign-Up for a Pin Scheduler. That will help you keep pinning regularly and keep an ongoing flow of pins sending traffic to your account.
b) Make Additional Pins Images – Create more images for your top 10 pins. Use your brand colors to vary to look of your pin, vary your titles and then schedule these pins too.
b) Review Pins Sizes – If any of your pins are square or shorter make a new tall pin. Check out my post on the 5 Tips for the Perfect Pinterest Pin.
d) Join Collaborative Boards – Find five great collaborative boards and write the owner to let them know you’d like to be a member. Start posting to them. Leave boards that don’t help you get saves and clicks.
e) Cross-Promote – Cross-promote your pins to other boards. If some of your pins won’t fit on another board create a board where they will fit.
f) Buy Pinterest Marketing for Dummies – This is a very helpful book, especially if you are trying to learn Pinterest marketing for beginners or Pinterest marketing for business. Click the link to purchase it from Amazon.
If you found this post helpful, please help other beginners that may be struggling by sharing it on Pinterest. Thanks!
