How to get 1.5 million Followers on Pinterest and Build 2 Highly Successful Businesses [CASE STUDY]

Jillian Leslie knows how to build online businesses. She has co-founded and runs two highly successful companies, CatchMyParty.com and MiloTree.com with her husband, David. MiloTree offers an easy, beautiful popup solution to convert site visitors into email subscribers and social media followers.

Catch My Party has 1.5 million Pinterest followers AND attracts millions of monthly visitors who use the site to plan and share party ideas, download free party printables, and see what’s new and trending in the party space. 

What’s the secret to 6-figure site traffic?

You might be tempted to guess Google BUT, just 25 percent of Catch My Party’s site traffic comes from Google. 

A whopping 65 percent of Jillian’s traffic comes from Pinterest!

Keep reading to see how she does it…

Pinterest Strategy for More Followers and More Dollars

1. Start with helpful content

To drive traffic from Pinterest, you’ll need content that solves problems for your customers. 

So Jillian’s first tip is to get to know your audience — particularly the things that bug them!

Then use that knowledge to create content that offers your customers the solutions they crave!  

For Catch My Party, Jillian creates content that helps people plan parties in all kinds of scenarios.

For example, throwing parties during a pandemic can be challenging — now imagine doing it for a quarantined teenager! What could be more stressful?

Aware of the problem, Jillian and her team created a blog post that’s a guide to help parents throw a great virtual party for their teen.

The title leans into helpfulness with the word “easy.”

With useful content on her blog, the next step Jillian takes is creating Pins to promote it. 

“Because we solve people’s problems, people find value in our content, and our followers grow,” Jillian says. That large Pinterest following is essential to Catch My Party’s success.

“The number of people who follow you absolutely impacts the overall reach of your Pins,” she says.Keep creating content that is valuable, and you’ll expand your followers and your reach.

2. Pin Consistently

As with so many things in business, consistency is key. Pinterest marketing is no exception — it won’t work with a hit or miss approach to creating and posting Pins.

“Over time, we’ve discovered that the more consistently we Pinned, the faster our followers grew, and the better our traffic from Pinterest,” Jillian says. For Catch My Party, the key to consistency is Tailwind.

“We use Tailwind to schedule our Pins, and without Tailwind we would be lost,” she says.

[sc name=”pinterest-boilerplate”]

Here are the features the Catch My Party team depend on:

Board lists

Effective Pinterest marketers like Jillian know that Pinning content to more than one board boosts success because Pins get seen by more audiences.

But, it can be difficult to Pin manually to multiple boards — not to mention the risk of over-Pinning.  

Jillian addresses both with Tailiwind’s Board Lists. 

“Because we have so many Pinterest boards,” Jillian says, “we use board lists to help automate our Pinning. We group relevant boards together into a list. Without board lists, it’s easy to forget a board — and lose that opportunity to be discovered.” 

Tailwind’s board list feature also automatically protects users from over-Pinning. 

SmartGuide

“Because of Tailwind’s SmartGuide, we don’t have to worry about not complying with Pinterest’s best practices,” Jillian says. SmartGuide warns creators if they are Pinning too much of one thing, and if they are, Tailwind Create makes it easier than ever to pivot to new content.

Batch Pin with Publisher

Another tip for busy entrepreneurs: Batch Pinning! 

Jillian’s team does all the Pinning for Catch My Party during one work session each week, which frees up serious time for other business-critical tasks. 

3. Follow Pinterest Trends

Jillian and her team team diligently monitor new trends in the party space. And, they do it with Pinterest.

Here’s how:

Pinterest Feed

“We can start to see trends bubbling up, just by looking at our Pinterest feed, and doing some quick searches around parties,” Jillian says.

For example, in early 2021, people want to know how to throw a party safely — virtually or in-person — with appropriate protections to keep everyone healthy. 

The Catch My Party team responded by creating content about how to bring people together to celebrate while also staying safe. 

In addition to monitoring their own feed, The Catch My Party Team relies on other Pinterest tools to find new ideas for new content.

Pinterest Predicts

If you’ve relied on visually boring Google Trends to keep up with the latest, you’re going to love Pinterest Predicts.

Check it out, and enjoy a scroll through the company’s beautiful, scary-accurate divination of the next big things!

Other great Pinterest-based trend-spotting options:

  • Use Pinterest Search for your topic
  • Check out Pinterest Today for daily doses of inspiration. 

4. Learn from Analytics

In addition to trends across Pinterest and the party industry, Jillian pays close attention to her own success with analytics, specifically data about what Pins are getting Repinned and what Pins are driving traffic to her site. 

“Our best ideas come from paying attention to what is already happening,” she says. Then lean into what works.

Take that Pin that went viral and build content that is similar to that Pin, because there’s something about that Pin that worked and resonated. So try it again, with a twist.”

“There’s no better way to get the data than through Tailwind’s Pin Inspector, Boards Insights, Organic Activity, and Top Pin reports,” Jillian says. 

“My audience is busy dealing with diapers,” she says, “So what I do is I look at their behavior through the lens of analytics, and I glean so much information from that.” 

5. Adopt Pinterest’s New Features

Jillian not only watches what her audience responds to, she also pays attention to innovations in the Pinterest platform. 

For example, static Pins currently perform best for driving traffic to Catch My Party, but the team is experimenting with Pinterest videos and Pinterest Story Pins.

“When Pinterest rolls out something new, my recommendation is always to try it!” Jillian says. 

“You get less than half a second to get somebody’s attention on Pinterest. You have to keep looking for ways to make something pop, even if it’s a tiny difference, do it! Keep experimenting and keep it fresh!”

6. Focus on Keywords

Jillian recommends thinking carefully about the keywords you use to describe your boards. 

“Keywords, keywords keywords,” she says. “Anytime you can tell Pinterest exactly what’s in your Pin, do it!”

Jillian uses keywords in text overlays on Pins, on Pin descriptions, board descriptions, and in hashtags. 

“Anywhere we can communicate directly to the Pinterest algorithm with a keyword, we do!“ 

So where do all of Jillian’s keyword ideas come from? 

The Catch My Party team relies on tools like SEMrush and Ubersuggest to find keywords, but they also do simple searches in Google to see what comes up and what related terms Google suggests.

[sc name=”pinterest-seo-webinar-text-cta”]

7.Invest in Quality Images

Jillian has seen big improvements in Pin engagement since investing in top-notch IMAGERY.

Among other things, Jillian suggests upgrading your camera or phone to get better camera technology.

“It’s all about the photos, and it’s all about portrait photos,” Jillian says.

Jillian’s Top Pins

Once you have quality photos, experiment with colors and Pin formats to see what your audience prefers, Jillian recommends. 

Want to learn more about marketing and online business from Jillian? Don’t miss her podcast, The Blogger Genius Podcast, where Jillian interviews successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs, plus leading industry experts. You might recognize a few of our Tailwind members, like Alisa Meredith and Jeff Sieh, as guests on her podcast.

Here’s a quick recap of the steps Jillian follows to get 1.5 million Pinterest followers: 

  1. Create helpful content
  2. Pin consistently
  3. Follow Pinterest trends
  4. Learn from analytics
  5. Adopt Pinterest’s new features
  6. Focus on keywords
  7. Invest in quality images

Pin Me for Later:

How to Increase Pinterest Engagement in 2021 (Original Data Study)!

How to Increase Pinterest Engagement in 2021 (Original Data Study)!

Finding what works on Pinterest can feel like chasing a moving target. What we need more than anything else right now is data – and oh, do we have data!

Let’s have a look at what is increasing saves on Pins today.

What We Learn From High-Performing Pins

We looked at all Pins Saved or Created on Pinterest in January 2021 and identified several hundred with over 5,000 saves (formerly called repins). This included Pins our members shared via Tailwind, directly on Pinterest, and by any other method. In these studies, we report on saves rather than impressions or clicks.

Make note of any action items that you can implement today!

A note about the terminology: “Create” = the first time you share an image on Pinterest (formerly, Pin). “Save” = any time an image is saved again (formerly, repin). In most cases below, “engagement” = saves – an indication that people are engaging with and helping increase the distribution of your content.

New Images Generate More Engagement

Accounts averaging 20 saves or more per Pin are Pinning more original content (creates) than saves (repins). Of the January 2021 Pins we looked at with over 5,000 saves, only 18% were saves themselves.

In a November 2020 study of over 160K Pins across 1,500 accounts over 16 weeks, we found that original creates (that FIRST TIME an image goes out) account for the vast majority of the saves you’ll get on your Pins.

For all new Pins published via Tailwind in January 2021, new Pin Creates received 3.6x as many repins as Saves of existing Pins.

Action Items

The BEST thing you can do is to create the most inspirational, engaging new content you’ve ever made for your blog, site, or store, and Pin that. Creating a few images for that fabulous new content will help you get that content to a broader audience.

The SECOND BEST thing you can do is to create new images for your existing content. In another study we ran of Pins published in July through October of 2020, we found that Pin engagement starts to drop off about 60 days after publish.

Why not create new, seasonal, timely images for your still-relevant content. Make sure your images look fresh and new. Beyond that, could you reach an entirely new audience with a subtle shift in your content focus? Learn more about getting more from your content here (hint: it’s a simple formula with lots of options for everyone).

PRO TIP!!! For Pins saved via Tailwind in January 2021, making and sharing Pins with Tailwind Create resulted in 373% more saves than did resharing existing content.

Here at Tailwind, we’re taking our own advice! We have professional designers who create beautiful images for our content, but lately, the Pins bringing in the most engagement are the ones I made in Tailwind Create in just a few minutes! Here’s one that does very well for us:

Video Pins Are Highly Engaging

We looked at several million Pins saved in January 2021 and pulled out those with over 5,000 shares (formerly called repins). We found that of the several hundred we’ve analyzed so far, 30% are video Pins.

What the vast majority have in common is that they show the viewer how to do something, usually in a step-by-step or demonstration format.

Many are TikTok videos, perfectly sized for repurposing on Pinterest. Fitness and Craft videos dominated the top spots.

Action Items

Try video Pins! Check out a recent Facebook Live where Kate of Wave.video showed us how to make some very simple videos. Record your own step-by-step videos and make them truly useful. They do NOT have to be expertly produced to succeed.

Pins With Many Saves Feature Reactions, Comments, and Photos

Of January 2021 Pins earning over 5,000 saves, 89% of them had some combination of reactions (Stories and videos only), comments, and photos. Are they getting more reactions, comments, and photos because they have been saved so many times? Or are those other signals helping increase distributions and therefore, saves?

It’s not totally clear which comes first here. Though Pinterest does take engagement signals (especially from your followers) into account when determining distribution, so it seems likely that engagements like this create a positive feedback loop – boosting your distribution and saves.

This video has a combination of reactions, comments, and photos – all strong signals to Pinterest that this is quality content that should be distributed.

Action Items

Make your Pins worth reacting to – or worth a comment or photo! The Pins we’re seeing with this kind of engagement are for the most part how-to videos or beautiful travel and fashion photos. Show your product in use in unconventional ways and invite people to try it and share their results.

The #1 most-shared Pin is a how-to craft video with 20,000 reactions, 25 photos, and 45 comments! Not every industry can expect comments and photo uploads on their Pins. Recipes, fashion, and beauty images are the most prevalent in this group.

Try sharing your Pinterest content with your engaged email audience. Suggest they try out your ideas and leave a comment or photo if they do.

What We Learn From High-Performing Pinterest Accounts

More Followers = More Pinterest Engagement

Our study of 2 million accounts receiving higher than average numbers of saves per Pin suggests that follower count does matter. In fact, in the group that consistently enjoyed higher than average engagement, the average follower count was over 50K. Those moving from lower than average engagement in November to higher than average in January averaged 4.3K.

Could this be because these accounts have been on Pinterest longer and have perhaps amassed some level of trust in the algorithm? Maybe. Could these larger accounts be utilizing Pinterest ads to expand their reach? Maybe. Whatever the reason, higher follower count often correlates to more saves.

On Pinterest, More Followers = More Saves. Consistent high performers average 50K followers. Source Feb 2021 Tailwind study over over 2M accounts receiving higher than average numbers of saves per Pin November 2020 and January 2021.

Pro Tip: Pinterest has signaled that they are looking to connect users to people who inspire them. This means community and followers will likely become more and more important to your success on Pinterest over time.

Action Items

Encourage your existing blog, email, and social audiences to follow you. They already love your content, so are likely to engage and save when they see it on Pinterest – further increasing your reach. We like the WordPress plugin MiloTree for this. But you can also share a “What we’re Pinning” mention in your emails or embed Pins or Boards on your site.

Also, CLAIM YOUR WEBSITE. : ) See below.

Successful Pinterest Accounts Claim Their Sites!

Not claiming your website could result in your Pin creates being registered as Pin saves – and we already learned that Pin creates generate 71% of the engagement you can expect from your content.

In a February 2021 study of over 2m accounts Pinning in November and January, fully 80% of those consistently enjoying higher than average engagement rates had claimed their domains on Pinterest. Compare this with under 3% of the consistent under performers.

When you claim your website, you let Pinterest know you are the source of everything saved from your site. You’ll have access to powerful analytics, your content will feature prominently in your profile on the “Created” tab, and everything anyone ever saves from your site will feature YOU as the creator – with a big “follow” button next to your image and profile name. If you don’t claim your site, the person saving a Pin that links to your site gets that follow button instead. Not cool.

Check out this example. Lili may have saved it, but the content creator, Sweet Cs, gets the credit, which will help grow an engaged following.

Claim Your Website - 80% of high performers have. Source: Feb 2021 data study of over 2m accounts Pinning in November and January.

Action Item

Claim your site 🙂 Simply click on your photo in the top-right corner of the page and select “settings” and go to Claim. The process is pretty simple, but you can learn more here.

Successful Pinterest Marketers Use Tailwind

Pinterest prefers consistency in sharing. If you like to batch create content and Pins, that means you’ll want a scheduler to space them out for you!

We looked at all Pins published via Tailwind, manually, or scheduled on Pinterest during July 2020 – January 2021 and found no difference in Pin engagement (saves). When comparing engagement on saves, we actually saw slightly higher performance for the Tailwind-published saves versus the Pinterest saves. This held true for saves and creates in January 2021 alone as well.

The best way to use Tailwind today is to create beautiful branded images in a snap with Tailwind Create (our members average 1.8 minutes per Tailwind Create design compared with 15 minutes for popular drag-and-drop editors) and schedule them with SmartSchedule – at the best times for engagement.

Pins published via Tailwind have the same or higher engagement than those published manually. Source February 2021 data study of Pins shared July 2020 - January 2021. Results held true for Pins shared January 2021 alone.

In Conclusion: Getting More Engagement on Pinterest

Numbers don’t lie. Make these insights part of your Pinterest by making them a part of your strategy today! Remember to:

  • Share new, relevant images for inspiring content.
  • Create video Pins, especially of the step-by-step or how-to variety.
  • Encourage reactions, comments, and photos
  • Grow your engaged followers.
  • Claim your website.
  • Use Tailwind and especially Tailwind Create.

[sc name=”pinterest-boilerplate”]

Pin Me for Later:

New Instagram Reels Algorithm Update (+ Tips!)

Instagram Reels on orange background

The launch of Instagram Reels turned heads around the world, and users flocked to the new medium to create engaging content for their followers!

But with the rise of Instagram Reels came a rise in rumors and theories about the Instagram Reels algorithm – we’re sure you’ve heard some of them!

If you’re confused about how Reels works, and how to get the most chance of reach and engagement from your content, we have good news.

On February 9, Instagram released some important clues about what will be prioritized on Reels – and what will be deprioritized by the algorithm! 

Also, we found a way to make your life (and social media management) a bit easier with our new feature. Now you can plan, schedule, and post Reels with Tailwind!

Read on to find out if your Reels content is in line with the new algorithm update, or if you might need to make some changes to your Instagram Reels strategy!

How the Instagram Reels Algorithm Works

The exact algorithm behind Reels remains a bit of a mystery, but we know a few things for sure.

Instagram is encouraging adoption of this new tool, which means Reels content is front and center on the platform right now.

Reels appear in larger squares on the Explore tab, are suggested to users in their feeds, and have the star spot on the Instagram navigation bar (right in the center!)

All of these features spell a big opportunity for uses to have their Reels content seen by existing followers – and potential followers!

However,  some types of Reels content now have priority, and some will start declining in the algorithm. We’re going over what you need to know in the next section!

Changes to the Instagram Reels Algorithm You Should Know About

A few changes to the algorithm and some new best practices from Instagram will help guide your Reels content strategy. Here are the most  important points:

Reels Reposted From Other Platforms Won’t be Recommended

And yes, this  includes TikTok videos! Here’s what Instagram had to say about it:

“We’ve heard that low video quality reels (i.e.blurry due to low resolution) or content that is visibly recycled from  other apps (i.e. contains logos or watermarks) makes the Reels experience less satisfying.

So, we’re making this content less discoverable in places like the Reels tab.”

Humor and Entertainment Will Be Recommended

This one should come as less of a surprise, but after surveying users and observing interactions with recommended Reels, Instagram is doubling down on engaging, light and humorous Reels.

“People tell us they want to see entertaining, funny, and interesting content in places like the Reels tab, and we’ve gotten better at recommending that.”

Heavy Text Reels Are Out

Like the recycled content we mentioned before, Instagram has hinted that Reels content made primarily of text over the images won’t be as likely to be recommended. This applies to other formatting styles too, like videos shot in horizontal mode, and videos with borders around them.

Tips to Make Reels Content That the Algorithm Likes

So now that you know some of the confirmed changes to the way the Reels algorithm operates, here’s some tips from Instagram on how to make Reels content that is more likely to  be recommended!

Make Reels that Are Entertaining and Fun

Use your Reels content to inspire a laugh, a smile, surprise and delight or has an unexpected twist. Even if you’re someone who likes to post tutorials and recipes, consider a humorous slant for your Reels content – and save the in-depth explainers for Posts and IGTV!

Make Reels That Are Inspiring

In this tip, Instagram clarifies “start a trend that others can easily participate in.” That makes sense when you see how popular Instagram challenges are, with many users making their own  versions of popular Reels prompts.

When approaching content this way, think of a viral factor to your content. What can you challenge other users to recreate themselves? Look to current Reels and TikTok trends for inspiration.

Make Reels With All the Creative Tools At Your Disposal

Reels is equipped with text options, filters, camera effects and music! Use all of these when possible in your Reels content.

And if you can create a Reel directly in the app rather than uploading a video, this will make the editing process much easier!

Make Reels That Are Experimental!

Stories brought brands and Instagram users a little freedom away from their feeds (Stories only live for 24 hours, while a Feed is forever!)  and Reels is an  opportunity to do the same thing.

Don’t feel so constricted by your brand or aesthetic that you don’t step out of the box and play around with new ideas or challenges. You never know when you might become the next big hit!

Try something new, be yourself and have fun!

Make Reels that Are Entertaining and Fun

Use your Reels content to inspire a laugh, a smile, surprise and delight or has an unexpected twist. Even if you’re someone who likes to post tutorials and recipes, consider a humorous slant for your Reels content – and save the in-depth explainers for Posts and IGTV!

Make Reels That Are Inspiring

In this tip, Instagram clarifies “start a trend that others can easily participate in.” That makes sense when you see how popular Instagram challenges are, with many users making their own  versions of popular Reels prompts.

When approaching content this way, think of a viral factor to your content. What can you challenge other users to recreate themselves? Look to current Reels and TikTok trends for inspiration.

Make Reels With All the Creative Tools At Your Disposal

Reels is equipped with text options, filters, camera effects and music! Use all of these when possible in your Reels content.

And if you can create a Reel directly in the app rather than uploading a video, this will make the editing process much easier!

Make Reels That Are Experimental!

Stories brought brands and Instagram users a little freedom away from their feeds (Stories only live for 24 hours, while a Feed is forever!)  and Reels is an  opportunity to do the same thing.

Don’t feel so constricted by your brand or aesthetic that you don’t step out of the box and play around with new ideas or challenges. You never know when you might become the next big hit!

Try something new, be yourself and have fun!

[sc name=”autopost-reels-cta-fullsize”]

Pin Me For Reference :

Instagram recently dropped some hints about the Reels algorithm. Find out what changed, and some tips for making Reels that get engagement and reach!