Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash

Shortcuts

1. Get to Know Your Audience

2. Set Specific Goals

3. Experiment with Pin Formats

4. Pin Consistently

5. Create Carefully Tailored Boards

6. Prioritize SEO

7. Invest in Pinterest Ads

8. Focus on Key Analytics

💡 Bonus tip: Improve Your Pinterest Marketing by Scheduling Pins

Did you know that 80 percent of weekly Pinterest users have discovered new brands or products on the platform?

Pinterest marketing is an incredible way to get people interested

Why using Pinterest for marketing? Pinterest marketing is an incredible way to get people interested in your business and encourage them to check out your products or services.

Why Pinterest Is Important for Small Businesses

Photo by Natalie Grainger on Unsplash

With Pinterest, you can get your business in front of 400 million people looking to buy, make and do.

Pinterest is a visual search engine and productivity tool to get inspirations

Having said that, Pinterest is not just another social network. It's a visual search engine and productivity tool where you can get easily tons of amazing inspirations for almost anything.

Pinterest Terms in Nutshell

• Pins: A pin is a post published on Pinterest.

• Pinner: Twitter has tweeps and LinkedIn members. And Pinterest has Pinners.

• Promoted pins: Promoted Pins are Pinterest ads.

• Repins: Just like Twitter has retweets, Pinterest has repins.

• Rich pins: Rich Pins automatically pull more information from your website to your Pin.

• Video pins: Pins that include video.

• Carousel pins: Pins that include multiple images.

• Collection pins: Makes it easier for Pinners to shop for similar products.

• Idea pins: Idea Pins can be used to promote your brand in a new way.

• Boards: Use boards to save, collect and organize your Pins.

• Group boards: With Group boards more than one person can add content.

• Secret boards: A secret board can only be seen by you or invited collaborators.

• Protected boards: Protected boards are like secret boards but only you can see them or someone who has a direct link.

• Pincodes: Just like QR codes, can be placed on marketing material and scanned using Pinterest Lens.

Setting up Pinterest Business Account

Photo by Hookle

How to set up a Pinterest business account? This is easy. Simply sign up, select the “Create a business account” option, and provide some basic info on your company. Pinterest social media marketing is completely free.

If you have an existing personal Pinterest account and would like to connect your personal and business accounts to easily sign in with the same email, you can either create a linked business account or convert your personal account into a business account.

Once you’ve set up your Pinterest account, you can start creating Pins, connecting with Pinners, and building an audience.

Below are eight Pinterest strategies small business owners like you can use to master Pinterest marketing.

1. Get to Know Your Audience

Photo by benefitbeauty on Pinterest

Benefit Cosmetics above is an excellent example of a brand that knows its audience and caters to them with every pin.

The more you know about your target audience, the easier it is to create pins that they’ll want to share on their own Pinterest boards.

Your existing Pinterest analytics can provide valuable insight into who’s repinning your content, commenting, liking, etc. You can also use other social media platforms like Instagram to poll your audience and learn more about them.

2. Set Specific Goals

Picture by bustledotcom on Pinterest

Get clear about what you want to accomplish with your Pinterest marketing strategy.

Do you want to sell more products? Generate more website traffic?

Whatever you want to accomplish, be specific. Set goals that you can measure and have an exact end date. For example, you may want to double website visitors by the end of the month.

Once you know your goals, you can create content and a Pinterest strategy that helps you achieve them.

Bustle.com obviously has a goal to get more eyes on its gift guides.

3. Experiment with Pin Formats

Photo by ChickfilA on Pinterest

From activities to recipes, Chick-Fil-A has done a great job of varying its Pinterest content.

You can create all kinds of pins — single images, carousels, videos, infographics, etc.

Experiment with different types of pins to see which ones your audience likes most

Experiment with different types to see which ones your audience likes and shares most often. Pay attention to analytics, so you know what kind of content to create more of in the future.

4. Pin Consistently

Photo by Airbnb on Pinterest

Airbnb regularly creates and shares content, and their efforts are clearly paying off since they receive over 10 million views per month!

The more consistent you can be when creating and sharing pins, the better. Pinning at least once per day is great, but if you can do more than this, you’ll have an easier time reaching your target audience and building your brand.

If you struggle with consistency, social media scheduling can help. Create content in batches, then use a scheduling app like Hookle to share them automatically.

5. Create Carefully Tailored Boards

Photo by Etsy on Pinterest

Etsy has an incredible board strategy that helps users find just about anything.

Pinterest boards allow you to group similar types of content in a centralized place. Set aside time to curate boards and label them appropriately. That way, your audience can easily find what they’re looking for — recipes, certain products, etc.

If you make it easy for your audience to access content and find answers, they’ll be more likely to follow you and continue engaging with your pins.

6. Prioritize SEO

Photo by Pinch of Yum on Pinterest

With over 1 million followers and 157 comments on one pin, it’s safe to say Pinch of Yum has figured out the world of Pinterest SEO.

Search engine optimization (or SEO) is critical for all kinds of digital marketing, including Pinterest marketing.

When creating titles for your pins or drafting descriptions, keep SEO in mind. Consider the particular keywords for which you want to rank and include them strategically in your pins to boost visibility.

7. Invest in Pinterest Ads

Photo by Essie on Pinterest

This ad from Essie shows up in searches for “holiday nail designs” and does a great job of encouraging engagement from Pinterest nail art enthusiasts.

Paid Pinterest ads help you reach critical members of your audience and achieve your goals faster.

Ads on Pinterest might be more efficient for your business than on other social platforms as there might be less competition in your industry or playground in Pinterest. So that's definitely something worth checking.

Paid Pinterest ads help you reach your audience and achieve goals faster

With Pinterest ads, you can target ads around specific keywords, user ages, user locations, user interests, and more. You can also target specific types of users, such as those who have visited your website before or those who have previously engaged with your pins.

Pinterest allows advertisers to target ads around keywords, location, interests, age, and other metrics and categories.

8. Focus on key Analytics

Photo by Hookle

Finally, don’t forget to monitor Pinterest analytics once in a while. There are lots of ways to improve performance by assessing analytics.

We know you're a busy entrepreneur, and ways to focus on the most relevant analytics do exist. Wouldn't it be awesome to see the performance from one simple metric? Heck yeah!

See your performance in one simple metric - social score!

There are tools like Hookle that simplify not only Pinterest but all your social media performance monitoring into one metric - Social Score. This gives you a great snapshot of how your business is doing on all your social media channels. And better yet, suggestions on how to be more successful.

It takes time to build a successful Pinterest strategy. However, keeping an eye on the data helps you identify what elements of your strategy work and which ones need some fine-tuning. Then, you can use this information to make informed decisions in the future.

💡 Bonus tip: Improve Your Pinterest Marketing by Scheduling Pins

Photo by Hookle

Are you ready to become a Pinterest marketing master? And Pinterest scheduling master?

From getting to know your audience to monitoring your pins’ performance metrics, you can use a variety of tactics to improve your Pinterest strategy and maximize your results.

If you need help pinning more consistently — while keeping up with everything else in your schedule — scheduling your pins in advance can help.

That’s where Hookle comes in. Not only you can use Hookle as a free Pinterest scheduler tool, but Hookle helps you manage your overall social media marketing strategy from one convenient app and assists with scheduling, publishing, hashtag management, and more.

Download the app to experience the Hookle difference today.