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Top Tips for Creating Great Pinterest Story Pins

Stephen Siu on May 13, 2021

A Pinterest Story Pin on an iPhone on an aqua background.

Pinterest Story Pins have finally arrived and we’re definitely here for it. Story Pins are a whole new way to engage your audience other than the comments feature. Like Instagram Reels, Story Pins are animated photos or videos that give users helpful information, while entertaining them in ways they didn’t even know they could be entertained on Pinterest.

So what are Pinterest Story Pins and how can they help your business?

Let’s take a look.

What are Story Pins?

Story Pins are a cool, new way to get your audience engaged on Pinterest. Similar to the Stories features on other top social media sites like Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories, Pinterest Story Pins allow creators to present a series of images or videos that can be tapped through.

Story Pins are great for recipes, brand stories, product details, travel guides, and recommendations.

They’re also great for boosting engagement on Pinterest because they allow viewers to react to your Story Pin quickly with reactions like “Thanks,” “Love,” “Wow,” and “Great Idea!”

How to Create a Story Pin

Before you create great Pinterest Story Pins, it helps to know exactly how you’ll do it.

Create Story Pin on the Pinterest dashboard

Step 1 – Log into your Pinterest business account and click Create Story Pin.

Step 2 – Click the downwards arrow and choose up to 20 images or videos (or drag and drop them).

Step 3 – Design your pages using the tools on the right side of the screen. Choose a layout for your page and decide what color background you want. To adjust your image or video, click Image or Video and adjust or resize to your preference.

Step 4 – Click the plus sign icon on the top left-hand side to add more images or videos. If you want to change the font, background, or layout of multiple pages at once, hold down the shift key and select the pages you want to edit.

Step 5 – Click Next and choose a theme from the dropdown menu. Then, add the details to your Pin.

Step 6 – Fill out all of the information for your Pin, including the Story Pin title, which board you want to Pin it to, and which 10 tag topics you want to add to your Story Pin to reach people searching for similar ideas.

Step 7 – Click Publish and you’re done!

Related Reading : The Ultimate Pinterest Image Size Chart

Why Use Story Pins for Business? 

Businesses can benefit from using Story Pins to help make their content more discoverable on Pinterest. Story Pins can be seen by your followers at the top of their feed, giving you a great spot right at the top of the Pinterest app. It also helps businesses be discovered by people who aren’t already following them.

Thanks to the Discover Creators icon in the Story Pin section, users can find new and inspirational content, which might include you and all that you offer on Pinterest and beyond.

When people hear information, they’re only likely to remember about 10 percent of that information three days later. However, when paired with a relevant image, people retained 65 percent of the information three days later.

So if you want people to remember what you’ve said, pair it with visual images or videos!

Tops for Creating Great Pinterest Story Pins 

1. Tell a Compelling Story

If you want to be successful with Pinterest Story Pins, make sure your Story Pins tell a compelling story. Whether it’s a brand story or a case study of clients using your product or service, make sure it captures the attention of your target audience and gets them to act on your Story Pin. Plan out your Story Pins with a beginning, middle, and end.

2. Upload High-Quality, Eye-Catching Images and Videos 

Visual content is an incredibly effective way to reach your target audience on social media platforms like Pinterest. In fact, between 40 and 80 percent of businesses will rely heavily on visuals as part of their marketing strategies in 2021. That means, in order to compete, you’ll need to create high-quality, eye-catching images and videos in your Story Pins. Otherwise, you might not get the results you’re looking for.

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3. Tag Your Story Pins

Pinners are 70 percent more likely to engage with product tags in scenes. So if you want people to find your Story Pins based on the topic, you’ll need to tag your Story Pins with topics to help categorize them. Doing this will help make your Story Pins more discoverable on the platform. Use the description box to provide even more context and information about the Story Pin. If your Story Pin is a recipe, you could use tags like “recipes,” “recipe ideas.” And you might use hashtags like #eatingwell, #onmyplate, or #foodforfoodies.

4. Create a Understated Call to Action

A call-to-action is something that prompts someone to take action, whether it be a click, a like, or a comment. Usually, the CTA would sound something like “Buy Now,” “Call Now,” or “Learn More.”

The CTA for your Story Pin should be subtle because you’re looking for engagement at this point, not necessarily the sale. So you don’t want it to be something that prompts the user to follow, re-pin, or share a URL to a helpful tool or resource.

5. Don’t Forget About SEO

Hashtags used to be one of the most important aspects of creating great Pins because they helped users find relevant content, but in 2020 that all changed.

Using relevant hashtags isn’t as important because their effectiveness is limited to a short, initial burst of extra exposure. So don’t spend a ton of time worrying about Pinterest hashtags. Instead, you want to brush up on your Pinterest SEO skills!

Focus on including your main topic in your Pin Title, and choosing relevant tags (up to 10) that match your content subject. You’ll also want to assign your Story Pin to a relevant Pinterest Board!

 6. Make it Human

Story Pins are a great way to let people get to know the creator behind the content. Show your followers and other users that they can relate to you and your brand. You could show your humanity by narrating your idea or showing your face.

Doing this can help Pinterest users connect with you in a truly authentic way. So find ways to connect with your audience in a way that shows your humanity.

You could try sharing your fails as well as your wins. Or you could show your audience some of the top struggles facing business owners and creators (like you).

Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable and really show people that you’re just like them.

7. Check for Quality

Story Pins are meant to feel more authentic, which means quality is key. That means you need to check your borders to ensure the edges of the screen aren’t covered. Is the lighting the best it can be?

Remember, natural light can do wonders for a photo or video. Think about whether the videos and images in your Story Pin fit well together style-wise? If not, consider using filters or switching the style up a bit so that everything meshes well.

Make sure the images and video are high-resolution and that the focus isn’t blurry (it should be crisp, clear).

Types of Story Pins to Create

There are a few types of Story Pins you can create to help boost engagement and reach:

  • Listicle Story Pin (i.e., 7 Places to Find WFH Opportunities, etc.)
  • The How-To Story Pin (i.e., How to Start a Business From Home in 2021)
  • A Day-in-The-Life Story Pin (i.e., A Day in the Life of an Instagram Influencer)
  • The Mental Health Story Pin (i.e., mental health reminders for remote workers or essential mindset tips to help you work from home successfully)
  • Behind the Scenes Story Pin (i.e., A Look at How Your Product is Made from Start to Finish)
  • The Answer Your Own Question Story Pin (Ask a question, like “Can I really design the life I’ve always dreamed of?” and then answer it with your content)

Examples of Great Pinterest Story Pins

Wanna know what a great Story Pin looks like? Take a look at three top examples from business accounts using Story Pins like pros.

The recipe Story Pin from Scott Can Eat makes great use of video to engage Pinners, by giving them something beautiful and colorful to look at, as well as providing on-screen instructions. Bonus points: It’s super easy to make – and tasty, too!

WendysWorld_XOX created a tutorial that shows users how they can achieve an editorial makeup look with an ombre lip. She uses high-resolution video to showcase the steps, and includes an understated CTA to get viewers to follow her.

Finally, Glamour UK uses an easy-to-read listicle format to engage users and teach them about financial literacy. This Story Pin uses a combination of animations, images, and words to convey the point! 

Conclusion: Creating Great Pinterest Story Pins

 Creating great Pinterest Story Pins may take some time and trial and error while you test different images, captions, and videos. But the process can go a lot more smoothly if you have tools to help you create and manage your Story Pins effectively.

Tailwind Create can help you create amazing, eye-catching Story Pins that get people engaged and help you become more discoverable to both your followers and other Pinterest users! Plus, you can create stunning graphics for your other social media platforms while you’re at it – with one click of a button!  

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Pinterest Story Pins are the latest way to boost engagement on Pinterest, but how do you make a good one? Read our top tips and thought starters here.

Using the New Pinterest Analytics for Smarter Marketing

Greg Starling on May 7, 2021

How to use Pinterest Analytics for Smarter Marketing in 2021

As you well know, Pinterest is constantly improving and updating their analytics data. What can we learn from them and how will they inform our Pinterest strategy?

Let’s have a look, shall we? We’ll start off with some of the basics and then move into using analytics to inform our strategy.

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Pinterest Analytics Glossary

An overview of Pinterest analytics, including impressions, saves and outbound clicks

Pinterest Impressions:

What are impressions on Pinterest you ask? Pinterest impressions refer to the amount of times your Pins were seen on any given screen. Impressions are a good indicator of how often your pin topics are being searched, and if your Pins are anywhere within scrolling distance. 

Engagements:

Engagements numbers tell you how many times your Pin was clicked or saved. This can also help you see how often your topics are searched and whether or not your pin drew enough interest for a click or a save.

Tailwind Tip: Use engagement data with your total audience data to get understand your content’s engagement rate. 

Saves:

Saves indicate how often a user saved your Pin to one of their boards. This is likely a higher intent metric, as it’s something the user wants to remember (and possibly buy). It will also come up again and again for them when they go to those boards!

Total Audience:

This metric is easily confused with impressions, but it measures how many unique views your Pin had. That means that it is measuring exactly how many people saw your Pin (not necessarily how many times they saw it). 

While impressions can have one user multiple times, total audience tracks the user only once. 

Outbound Clicks:

This one is self-explanatory, and an excellent indicator of audience intent. Outbound clicks refers to the amount of visits to the linked URL in your Pins (from the Pins themselves of course). 

This is a very important metric in determining how successful your Pins are in your overall sales strategy. 

There is lots more insight to gain from Pinterest analytics, but hopefully these basic definitions can help you as you review your performance metrics.

The New Pinterest Analytics: How It Works

The first thing you’ll notice is the design – clean and simple. It’s a huge improvement over the old dashboard.

By default you’ll see Impressions from all content types during the last 30 days:

  • Pins you saved from your site (“From you” – this includes repins on that Pin)
  • Pins other people saved from your site (“Not from you” – this includes repins on that Pin)
  • Paid and organic
  • Activity from all devices and from all your claimed accounts PLUS activity on Pins you saved which go to other people’s sites.

Whew!

Pinterest analytics gets a big makeover

Now comes the fun part – filtering the data! You can change your date range to show up to 90 days of information.

The first drop-down menu allows you a quick look at trends in:

  • Impressions
  • Engagements
  • Closeups
  • Link Clicks
  • Saves
  • Engagement Rate
  • Closeup Rate
  • Link Click Rate
  • Save Rate

Customize your chart view by using “Split by” to visualize trends broken out by:

  • Content type (Organic or Paid and earned – earned being downstream activity resulting from ads)
  • Claimed accounts (your website, Instagram, other people’s sites, etc.)
  • Device
  • Source (From you or Not from You)

Here are some of the important marketing questions you can answer with the new Pinterest analytics.

Pinterest Analytics FAQ

1. Which of My Pins Generate the Most Pinterest Traffic?

We’ll hop down to “Top Pins” below the graph at the top and change the drop-down menu to “Link clicks.”

Then, set your filters to:

  • “Content Type – Organic” (so your ad data doesn’t skew the results)
  • Claimed Accounts – Your URL

Voila! You’ll see the Pins which are sending the most traffic to your site.

Are they mostly Pins you saved or are they “Not from you” (change the “Split by” dropdown to filter)?

Why does this matter? Understanding what types of content, which image styles, and what subject matter sends the most traffic to your site is crucial in planning your content strategy and informing the design of your Pins.

Related Reading : Pinterest Site Verification – A Step by Step Guide

Sort by Top Pins in Pinterest Analytics
Sort by content types and account in Pinterest analytics

2. Which of My Pins Are the Most Engaging?

Just switch the Top Pins drop down to “engagements.”

You can change the filters on the left to limit results to your own URL and to Pins you saved (“From you”) as well.

Why does this matter? When Pinterest shows your content to your followers first, they’re looking for a reaction. More engagement from your followers = more distribution for your Pin!

Taking a look at what Pinners find engaging can help you determine which topics and even which Pin designs/text on Pin work best for your audience.

Tailwind Tip: Looking at engagement for Pins NOT from your website gives you a look at what is working for your competitors, which might work for you, too! To view those Pins, just change your “Claimed sites” option to “Other Pins.”

If you spend hours and hours designing countless pins, Tailwind Create for Pinterest is for you. It automates the work of creating pins, giving you more time to guide the strategy of your Pinterest channel.

Sort by Top Pin > engagements in pinterest analytics
Sort by Claimed Accounts in Pinterest Analytics

3. How Much Impact Is My Strategy Having on My Pinterest Traffic?

If you’ve ever tried a new Pinning strategy and wondered – “How much is this really working?” now you can know for sure!

Set your date range for just before you started making the changes.

(Note: it can take a while to see an impact, give it at least a couple weeks before you check!)

Then set your filters like this :

Because you want to see all the impact on your traffic you’re looking at Pins you saved (“From you”) and Pins from others (“Not from you”) you’ve selected Source “All.”

But because it’s helpful to see just how much impact your activity has as opposed to that of others, set your “Split by” to “Source.”

Why does this matter? Any strategy you implement is worth measuring!

Do recall though, that Pinterest activity is very seasonal, so compare your overall traffic this period with that last year as opposed to traffic last month or a few months ago.

You’ll need to do that year-over-year traffic comparison in Google analytics for now – the more granular analytics are only available for the past 90 days at this time.

Just go to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals > Traffic.

4. On Which Devices are People Most Engaged with MY Content?

Change the drop-down menu to “Engagement Rate” or “Link Click Rate” (depending on what you want to track) and Split by “Device”.

Set the filter for Claimed accounts and select your website URL.

Why does this matter? Knowing where your traffic comes from can help you make Pin designs that convert even better.

If most of your engagement is from mobile (as will likely be the case), you know you need to prioritize the legibility of the text on your Pin image and make sure that your landing pages are optimized for mobile viewers.

5. Is My Instagram (or YouTube or Etsy) Content Performing on Pinterest?

Have you claimed your accounts in your profile? When you do, Pinterest learns that you are the creator for the content on those sites, and includes stats on Pins from all those platforms in your analytics.

It can also help you get more followers on Pinterest and those claimed accounts. But, is anyone really seeing that content? Does it make sense to cross post from Instagram to Pinterest?

Now you can easily find out!

Just change your “Claimed accounts” filter option to Instagram and your drop-down menu to whichever metric matters to you!

Why does this matter? Sharing new, fresh content to Pinterest is a great way to increase your exposure and for Pinterest to see you as an active creator.

But you don’t want to be Pinning content that isn’t engaging. Check to see if:

  • It’s worth your time
  • If your content from other accounts is engaging to your audience

Ready for Deeper Insights?

Tailwindapp’s Pinterest Analytics Tools takes your data (and sales to new heights). Tailwind can divide up your data so you can see how each board, keyword, hashtag and source URL performs. 

You can also implement heatmaps, see how your engagement levels progress over time, and even get insight into when your audience is most active.

Ready for that deeper strategy? Give Tailwind’s Pinterest Analytics a try. We’re so sure you’ll love it that we’ve offered the trial for free!

Conclusion: Using the New Pinterest Analytics

Now that we can split out activity from paid and organic, Pins we saved versus Pins others saved, and on and on, we can learn so much which will let us make our Pinterest strategies stronger and more effective over time.

Which burning Pinterest marketing questions will you answer with the new analytics?

Let us know if we missed yours!

Was this helpful to you? Please Pin it for later!

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How to Sell on Pinterest: 9 Strategies for Success

Greg Starling on April 22, 2021

sell on Pinterest buyable Pin on blue background

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “can I sell things on Pinterest?” the answer is a resounding YES. In fact, you can multiply your traffic and sales by attracting perfect-fit customers with Pinterest!

And you’re in luck, because Pinterest and online shopping are a match made in Ecommerce heaven.

Using Pinterest to Sell More Products

With 200 million monthly active users, Pinterest is a place where people go to be inspired, to learn about new ideas and products, to plan their best life.

It’s not a social network where users curate a vision of how they want to be seen. It’s a discovery destination that helps people curate ideas to support their own vision of their best possible selves.

All of that inspiration and planning – along with Pinterest’s beautiful images, leads to sales.

In fact, 72% of Pinners say that Pinterest has introduced them to a new product or service and that Pinterest has inspired them to shop when they weren’t actually looking for anything!

Pinterest drives more referral traffic to shopping sites than social platforms do

Among those using Pinterest weekly, the numbers are even more compelling. Ninety percent of weekly Pinners use Pinterest to make purchase decisions.

And as for traffic, well, Pinterest drives 33% more referral traffic to shopping sites than does Facebook, 71% more than Snapchat, and 200% more than Twitter! Clearly, the potential for YOUR online store on Pinterest is huge.

Why Pinners May Be Your Perfect Customers

Then there’s the overall makeup of the typical Pinner. Seven in ten moms are on Pinterest – and we all know who makes most of the purchasing decisions at home!

If you feel like a bit of an underdog on other networks, Pinterest is for you! Ninety-seven percent of searches are unbranded, meaning Pinners are open-minded and eager to discover something new.

It also means you have an opportunity to reach people much earlier in their decision-making process.

Understanding this important difference in the way people search on Pinterest compared to say, Google or Amazon, is key to getting your products discovered and increasing your sales.

9 Strategies for How to Sell on Pinterest

The investment you make today in great images, compelling descriptions, and high-converting landing pages can pay off for months and years to come.

In fact, while most of your reach on social networks occurs in 24 hours of posting, on Pinterest “half of site visits take place 3.5 months after the first pinning, while half of orders take place 2.5 months after the pinning,” says Pinterest. 

This also means that when you decide to use Pinterest to sell more, you should be patient, realizing that, as in life, overnight success on Pinterest is the exception rather than the rule – but with consistency, sales and success WILL come.

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#1: Use Keyword Research to Find the Best Product Keywords

When people search on Pinterest (and there are 200 BILLION searches per month), they’re not usually looking for something specific. In one recent Pinterest webinar, the presenter said, “I don’t go to Pinterest to find Nike shoes. I go to Pinterest because I don’t know how to dress myself!”

So, if you are using the same keyword list for Pinterest that you use for Google, it’s time to branch out.

“Getting your business to show up online in unexpected, yet still relevant places, can increase the likelihood of people saving your Pin or clicking on your ad,” suggests Pinterest.

While you should certainly use your product keywords, you’ll find some less direct keywords will also be very helpful. Start with your typical words and work your way out. Need an example?

Let’s start with the example of Nursery Bedding. What’s one step beyond a search for “nursery bedding”? You could look at it from a couple of different perspectives:

  1. The expectant parent might look for this when they’re in a place where they’re ready to consider nursery bedding:
    1. Nursery ideas
    2. Decorate a nursery
    3. Baby’s room ideas
    4. How to plan for baby
    5. What to buy when you’re expecting
    6. First-time parent tips
  2. Someone looking for gift ideas for the parents to be might search:
    1. Baby shower gift
    2. Baby shower gift ideas
    3. Unique baby shower gift
    4. Ideas for new parents

Pinterest gives us a great tool in its guided search bar, which can help you expand your keyword ideas. Just enter a keyword, like “nursery ideas” into the search bar and hit enter.

Guided search for nursery ideas on Pinterest

Clicking on any of the relevant tiles will likely give you even more options. These are words that Pinterest says people search in connection to your original search term. Use this method to build out your Pinterest-specific keyword lists.

#2: Optimize Your Pinterest Business Profile

While more action happens in search than anywhere else, that’s no reason to neglect your profile. Especially if you are linking to your profile from your site, in email newsletters, and elsewhere, you’ll want it to look good.

Use your keywords when choosing your username. Remembering that 97% of searches are unbranded, unless you’re an unmistakably famous brand, consider leading with keywords. For example, rather than just “My Brand Name,” try “Home Furnishings | Nursery Bedding | Decor – My Brand Name.”

Use your keywords in your profile description as well. Write in natural language, not attempting to “keyword stuff.” Read more about the new Pinterest business profile, including how to set up your cover photo here.

There are a couple of simple, but important technical steps you can take to give your products and content a better chance of appearing in relevant search.

  1. Make sure you are using a business profile. Not only is this a requirement if you are promoting your business on Pinterest, but business profiles also provide certain advantages over personal accounts, namely:
    1. Access to analytics.
    2. The ability to claim your website (which gives you a distribution advantage).
    3. Access to Pinterest advertising.
  2. Confirm or “claim” your website.
  3. Apply for Rich Pins.

#3: Highlight Your Products with Pinterest Boards

Forget the “80/20” or “20/80” rule. There may be, in theory, no reason you have to Pin anyone else’s content to your Pinterest account. “Sacrilege!” you say?  It’s true. Sarah Hoople Shere, Head of Product Marketing at Pinterest, confirmed this for us.


Create One Board to House All of Your Content

You can and should Pin your content to more than one Board. It’s good practice to have one Board that contains all of your blog and catalog content and nothing else. You’ll likely find that Board, being a unique resource in the Pinterest universe, performs well in terms of engagement and traffic.

Create Niche Boards to Showcase Your Blog Posts and Products

Let’s say you sell and/or blog about vintage women’s clothing, accessories, jewelry, and home decor. You might have the following Boards (among others):

  • Unique Vintage Clothing and Accessories – Brand Name Here
  • Vintage Women’s Clothing
  • Vintage Women’s Accessories
  • Vintage Jewelry
  • Vintage Home Decor

When you add a new necklace to your site, you’ll share it to the most relevant Board first to give Pinterest the most specific signal about what your content is so that they can display it in the most relevant searches and feeds. So, in order, share it to:

  1. Vintage Jewelry
  2. Vintage Women’s Accessories
  3. Unique Vintage Clothing and Accessories – Brand Name Here
  4. Vintage Home Decor

To avoid giving Pinterest mixed signals (which could hurt your distribution and search placement), do NOT Pin your new listing to the irrelevant Vintage Home Decor Board.

Each time you create new content – whether product listing or blog post – make sure it has several relevant, specifically-named “Homes” on your profile. If you need to create new Boards along the way, go for it!

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This one is so important, and it’s worth repeating: Share new content immediately and to the most relevant Board first, then schedule it to go to the other relevant Boards over time. Ideally, for an SEO boost, you’ll change the description each time you share your Pin. Try to make it tightly relevant to the Board title.

You’ll want to make sure you schedule your new content to all relevant Boards right away so you don’t forget! Grab a [sc name=”free trial of Tailwind for Pinterest”] now and get your new content out and scheduled with Board lists and interval Pinning so it gets on to every relevant Board with natural spacing and at the best times for engagement.

Board Descriptions Matter – But Not For the Reason You Might Think

Have you ever searched Pinterest for a Board? If you try it, you might notice, as I have, that the first results are often Boards with no description at all. So, then, are they really important?

search for Pinterest boards

Yes! You see, Pinterest looks at several signals to determine where your content should show up in search and other feeds.

One of those is your Board description. Creating keyword-rich Board descriptions will help surface your Pins in applicable searches and feeds. So spend some time on them!

#4: Post Consistently on Pinterest

Pinterest favors content by Pinners they call ‘Active Creators.’ Aim to create new content weekly. Pin consistently – daily.

There is no maximum number of acceptable Pins per day, but aim to share quality content that will engage your audience, rather than aiming for an arbitrary number of Pins per day.

On the other hand, don’t let your Pinterest account become inactive because you’re on vacation – use a Pinterest-approved scheduler, like Tailwind!

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#5: Create Inspiring and Engaging Pins

Pinterest recently shared their findings from research looking into what works in Pin creatives by your objective.

They shared how Pins for awareness should be different from Pins designed to generate email signups, online sales, or offline sales. Really interesting stuff!

There are some Pin design tips that work well for all objectives:

  • Add your logo, tastefully. Added to the top or bottom center of a Pin, Pinners can make out your logo clearly (it won’t get covered by Save or promote buttons) and know this is an actionable Pin.
  • Set your product image as the focal point of the Pin – make it the main point of the image.
  • Add context. Show how to use your product.
  • Make your text overlay bold and clear. Go beyond what it is to add context. Make sure your text is at least 20pt – optimize it for mobile!
  • Optimal Pin size is 2:3. 600×900 pixels, for example.

When creating pins, automate your Pinterest strategy to save time and create the perfect pins to advertise your products. Try using Pinterest templates to quickly create beautiful and personalized pins.

Since we’re interested in selling more on Pinterest,  these tips will be especially helpful:

  • Lean into seasonal events and everyday moments. Whether you’re talking about a time-specific holiday or a recurring everyday moment (think dinnertime or bedtime stories with the kids), bringing in moments can increase your sales up to 20%. This also drives urgency for faster conversions.
  • Pins with CTA in the text overlay tend to have a 6% higher online sales lift.
  • Include pricing and feature information in your Pin descriptions for an average 28% sales lift.
  • Create consistency between the Pin and the landing page visually for an average 13% sales lift.

#6: Repurpose Your Content with Multiple Pins

Did you create a great Pinnable image for your newest product or blog post using some of the tips above? Fantastic! But, why stop with one?

Creating multiple images is a great way to increase the distribution of your content on Pinterest in a way that appeals to a wide variety of your followers and other Pinners.

Try with text overlay and without. Specifically, try a direct call to action in your text, such as, “discover,” “find yours,” “start now.”

Create a collage of products in a category. Share a lifestyle image with product images beneath (lifestyle images often convert better than a straight product shot). Turn user-generated images into stunning Pins that inspire!

Pinstances Pinterest account
Check out some of Pinterest’s Boards with examples of Pin styles to try.

When you save a new Pin or reshare one you’ve shared before, try switching up your description to target a new group of keywords for Pinterest SEO.

This will enable your images to appear in more search results!

#7: Collaborate with Other Business Owners

Tailwind Communities are groups of like-minded business owners – usually made up of those who blog about a certain niche topic.

If you have a blog, you can use Tailwind Communities to add in your best content, which your Community Members can then share out – potentially expanding your reach and growing your traffic.

If you’re not a blogger, you might use Communities to find quality content to share to your own account to keep your account active during times when you’re unable to create your own fresh content.

You may also find valuable partners for potential content collaborations in your Community.

#8: Engage Your Followers to Reach New Customers

Sounds a little contradictory, doesn’t it? But, if you want to reach more than just those who follow you, you need to make sure what you’re saving to Pinterest engages your followers. Why is that?

screenshot of Tailwind Pin Inspector

Pinterest serves up your Pins to your followers first. Their engagement – or lack thereof, tells Pinterest how fast and far to distribute your Pin – or not!

If your followers don’t engage, there’s a good chance your Pins won’t appear high in search and in other feeds.

If, on the other hand, it really resonates with your followers, Pinterest gets the signal that this is something worth spreading!

So, how can you engage your followers? Look at what you’ve Pinned that has already proved to be engaging.

In Tailwind’s Pin inspector, you can see which Pins generate the most Repins. In Pinterest analytics, look for the Pins which generate the most clicks.

Whether those Pins are for your own site or they link to other people’s content, you can learn something from each one! Look at the Pin image. Is there something about it that makes it especially appealing?

What about the Pin description? Do keywords or style of writing stand out to you? Maybe it’s a particular topic or trending style that you see over and over in your top Pins. Let that inform your content AND Pinning strategy.

Another key to engaging your followers is to Pin when your followers are most likely to be on Pinterest and engaging.

How do you figure that out? Let Tailwind do it for you! The SmartSchedule analyzes your content and the activity of your followers to generate suggested timeslots for your schedule. Try it out for free!

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#9: Advertise Your Products on Pinterest

In a hurry to get started? Pinterest Promoted Pins can help you get in front of a larger audience, fast. Targeting options such as keywords, interests, audiences, locations, gender, and more enable you to pay to reach your best potential customers right away.

Key to your success in Pinterest advertising will be installing your conversion tag so you can target website visitors, enabling tracking so you can tell how ads are impacting sales, figuring out how much to bid, and knowing how to interpret results in the dashboard.

How to Sell on Pinterest – In Conclusion:

The potential of Pinterest to help you sell more with your ecommerce business is enormous – and exciting!

The long-term success of your Pinterest marketing depends on consistent, quality Pinning which engages your followers. Beautiful and inspiring images, effective use of keywords, and niche Boards which showcase your Pins will help your content go far beyond your followers.

Prefer to learn in a webinar? We’ve got you covered. This one-hour, on-demand webinar will walk you through everything you need to know to sell more with Pinterest.

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The Beginner’s Guide to Pinterest Story Pins

Paul Johnson on April 12, 2021

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Did you know that since the pandemic began earlier this year, Pinterest has grown its monthly active users from 335 million to over 420 million?

Big changes have been happening at Pinterest to keep up with all the new ways Pinners are interacting, and we are loving all of their newest features, including Pinterest Story Pins.

Today you’ll learn all about Story Pins including what they are, who can create them, how to view them and how to make them.

Important note: not all Pinterest accounts have access to Story Pins yet, but more business accounts are expected to have access to Story Pins soon so keep on the lookout!

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What Are Pinterest Story Pins?

Story Pins are multi-page Pins which give creators a chance to tell a story, engage their audience and even gain more followers!

The beta version of Story Pins launched to select Pinterest business accounts in March 2020. The feature will continue to roll out to more Creators like you!

That said, all Pins, including Story Pins, can be seen by more than just your followers. By creating a Story Pin, it encourages other Pinners to follow you while boosting your reach!

With up to 20 pages of photos, videos, and text, Story Pins are a way for Pinterest users to create more amazing content and showcase multiple products or ideas in one Story Pin.

A Story Pin helps creators share behind the scenes moments, quick tips, recipes, craft ideas and step by step tutorials.

Users can swipe through the pages and find information such as an ingredient list, materials needed for the project, and other details!

Story Pins are all the craze right now on Pinterest and unlike Stories features on other platforms, Story Pins don’t disappear after 24 hours!

Who Can Make Pinterest Story Pins?

Some creators have access to Story Pins already, but if you don’t, you can apply for Story Pins here.

Pinterest is still rolling out Story Pins, so if you don’t yet have access, hang tight!

For now, keep reading to learn all about Story Pins so you are ready to create them as soon as you’re accepted.

Are Pinterest Story Pins Good for Engagement?

We’re so glad you asked. We set out to test this new feature and find out if it was worth the fuss. After all, driving traffic from Pinterest is a goal for a lot of Pinners, and regular Pins in the feed are great for this!

However, we don’t recommend you skip over Pinterest Story Pins, based on our brand new study.

We took a look at 20 million Pins published from February 12 – March 12 sent through all methods (Stories, Image Pins, Video Pins, etc.) and found some fascinating clues about how Story Pins fit into your marketing strategy.

In our study, we found that Story Pins get 41x more saves than static image Pins! Important distinction – these are for Story Pins that you create yourself. Saved Story Pins do not perform well at all, which makes sense if you think about it. Story Pins are intended to connect the Creator to the Pinner!

The downside of Story Pins is that you can’t link to your site. However, they’re really helpful for attracting a growing, engaged audience because all those saves and interactions are creating more distribution than static Pins that have a link.

Another interesting fact? Story Pins seem to be an especially strong engagement vehicle for accounts with more than 10,000 Pinterest followers. ️‍♀️

Although Story Pins may not perform best to drive traffic to your site, they still have immense value in engagement and community on Pinterest. That’s why we recommend if you haven’t started exploring the feature, make the leap and experiment now!

How to View Pinterest Story Pins

Story Pins are noticeably different than regular Pins.

Notice the numbered icon in the upper left corner? That’s how you recognize a Story Pin!

To view all its contents, just click on the Story Pin to swipe through and get inspired!

And bonus: Story Pins are also a bit longer with a 9:16 ratio, so they may stand out more in the Pinterest feed.

How to Make Pinterest Story Pins

If you have access to Story Pins, you can follow these simple steps to create and publish your Story Pin!

  1. Click the “Create” tab when you are logged into your Pinterest business account.
  2. Click “Create Story Pin”. If you don’t have access to Story Pins yet, you won’t see this option.
  3. Select 1-20 images and/or videos to upload. Videos should be no more than 60 seconds in length.
  4. Design your pages using the features provided. There are different font and color options to choose from. Adjust your layout or add more pages.
  5. Click “Next”.
  6. Pick a theme for your Story Pin.
  7. Add details such as an ingredient list or materials needed.
  8. Click “Next”.
  9. Add a Story Pin title.
  10. Choose a Board for your Story Pin to publish to.
  11. Select up to 10 Pinterest tags related to your content.
  12. Click “Publish”.

Need some helpful tips to get started on creating Story Pins that work on Pinterest? Check out this list of amazing tips from the Pinterest Business Community.

How Brands Are Using Pinterest Story Pins to Connect With Their Audiences

Brands and creators are getting creative with their Story Pins! Want to see more Story Pins in action? Here are some examples of brands totally rocking it!

Amy Shamblen, a creative photographer and owner of a styled stock photography membership, does a great job at showcasing her work while providing tips for maintaining creativity.

The House That Lars Built created this beautiful step by step tutorial for pressing flowers. What a great way to encourage Pinterest readers to follow you or check out your blog!

Tastemade does a fantastic job being really thorough with the recipe ingredient list and directions. Who wouldn’t want to follow them to discover more Story Pins like this?

When creating Story Pins consider how your content can inspire your Pinterest audience. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy and complicated.

If anything, your Pinterest audience wants to learn more about your brand and what goes on behind the scenes. As always, keep Pinterest creative best practices in mind. And if you’re stuck, use the 5 Dimensions of Inspiration to help you tell a positive and inspiring Story with your Pin!

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How to Avoid Being Reported for Pinterest Spam in 2021

Greg Starling on March 1, 2021

Pinterest spam reporting on Pink background

Has your Pinterest account ever been suspended for “spam”? Have you ever received an email from Pinterest regarding a Pin that’s been removed due to a copyright infringement allegation – and you had no idea why?

Pinterest discourages spammy behavior on the platform to create a better experience for all – after all, what people love about the platform is how easy it is to discover relevant, unique content. But some well-intentioned content creators and Pinners now wonder – how can I avoid being reported for accidental Spam on Pinterest?

To understand what’s happening – and how you can stay out of trouble – it’s important to clarify what exactly is considered spammy behavior on Pinterest and how you can avoid it or even the appearance of it.

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What is Considered Spam on Pinterest?

Spam and spammy behavior on Pinterest is primarily seen in five different kinds of actions.

What Can you NOT Do on Pinterest?

  • “Stealing” Pins,
  • Unnaturally high-volume behaviors,
  • Saving Pins that lead to unrelated content,
  • Saving disallowed content
  • Overly repetitive Pinning,

Let’s look at each one in detail and see how we can avoid accidentally being caught up in the clean up!

Pinterest Spam Behavior #1 – “Stealing” Pins

If you’ve ever clicked on a Pin only to be taken, not to a blog post about “easy family dinners,” but instead to a shady, spammy, or pornograhic site, you are not alone! Pinterest works hard to prevent this type of issue, which is really two fold:

  1. Content creators work hard to create beautiful blog posts, recipes, and product listings only to have unscrupulous marketers hijack their Pins, linking them to unrelated sites.
  2. As Pinners, it’s frustrating to click on a Pin, or save it for future reference only to find later, when you’re ready to act on it, that it doesn’t lead to anything actionable – and might instead be something you REALLY didn’t want to see.

When you use Pinterest on mobile, you might have seen the message, “Did you find what you were looking for?” after a page loads. This is one way Pinterest is trying to ensure a good Pin-to-site experience. By all means, click the applicable button if you can.

How You Can Avoid Contributing to THIS Spam Problem

A.B.C. – Always be checking. Links, that is! When you save a Pin from Pinterest, take a moment to click through and make sure the Pin goes where you think it will.

Using Tailwind Communities to find great content to share to Pinterest can be a good way to save time on link checking. If you know the members of your Community are trustworthy, schedule away! The best ways to have a Community like this are to start one yourself and add your peers or to join niche Tailwind Communities that include high-quality, relevant content.

If you have a large Community or are in one where you don’t know all the Community Members, it’s a good idea to check the links before you share.

How do I report spam on Pinterest?

If you see Spam or find that someone has stolen your images, by all means, report it. Just click for a close up of the Pin and click on the three vertical dots and choose report. The brand new options look like this:

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If the stolen content is yours, choose “My intellectual property” and follow the instructions (learn how to avoid accidentally removing ALL instances of the Pin here). If the content is NOT yours, choose the top option, “Spam.”

Choose whichever option is most applicable.

Pinterest Spam Behavior # 2- High-Volume Pinterest Behavior

Who among us HASN’T gone on a Pinning binge from time to time? When you’re collecting ideas for project or event, that is perfectly natural and is not anything to worry about. So, feel free to get back to your “hygge inspiration” Board. 😉

What CAN cause a problem, however, is action that gets flagged as looking like an attempt to game the system. 😉

For example:

  • Logging in and out over and over.
  • Commenting on Pins in quick succession or posting the same comment many times.
  • Following a large number of Pinners in a short period of time.
  • Saving many Pins from the same website quickly
  • Using a link shortener or redirect such as bit.ly

If you’re blocked for any of these behaviors (or a combination thereof), not to worry, you should regain access within 30 minutes to 24 hours (pinterest).

If you’d rather avoid being blocked and reduce the risk of suspension (hello!), Tailwind SmartGuide has you covered. Our SpamGuard keeps an eye on your queue to make sure you’re not Pinning too much. If you are, you’ll be alerted, and Pins will be moved to the end of your schedule. Read more. 

Pinterest Spam Behavior #3 – Saving Pins that go to Unrelated Content

When a Pinner sees your image of a gorgeous apple pie, they expect to click on it and arrive on a page that tells them more about the apple pie. Using something popular on Pinterest, like images of irresistible desserts to get someone to a site about something totally unrelated provides a less-than-ideal experience for everyone.

Make sure that, even if your page doesn’t contain the EXACT image you Pin, that there is consistency between Pin and page. This is especially important when you are repinning from Pinterest. Remember – A.B.C. Always be checking your links!

Pinterest Spam Behavior #4 – Saving Disallowed Content

Let’s keep Pinterest family friendly, shall we? Pinterest is NOT the place for nudity, violence, self-harm messages, hate speech, disinformation campaigns, promotion of controlled substances, or harassment. Read all the community guidelines here.

This one is pretty straightforward and easy to avoid accidental infringement. However, you DO want to check links on anything you repin to ensure it doesn’t lead to that kind of disallowed material.

Pinterest Spam Behavior #5 – Overly Repetitive Pinning

Have you seen the new options for reporting Pins on Pinterest?

The options are much more specific than before, and there is now an option for reporting “repetitive” posts. This has lead many content creators and marketers to ask – how repetitive is too repetitive and how can I maximize content distribution and not be flagged for spam?

While Pinterest is not going to give us exact numbers, there are some common-sense concepts that will help.

How to Avoid being Flagged for Repetitive Posts

Pin your new content to each relevant Board. Because of the way the algorithm works, Pinterest will naturally continue surfacing your content over time.

For some of your best content, there are healthy ways to reshare them at relevant times during the year – as with Tailwind Smartloop Seasonal Loops! Sharing fresh content will get you the best results, and for your existing content that can mean refreshing your image and description while also Pinning to new, relevant Boards.

Note that the “same Pin” means the same image with the same link. Saving an image you’ve saved before but changing the description or hashtags, while this was once recommended as a way to help increase distribution, it is still considered saving the same Pin.

That makes sense, as the thing most people notice about a Pin is the visual, so not changing the image will make it seem like the same Pin to Pinners even if the descriptions are different.

Adding UTM codes or other meaningless extensions to the URL also won’t make it a “new Pin;” Pinterest will look at the canonical URL for the page.

There’s no need to remove old Pins. If you’ve perhaps fallen afoul of this guidance by saving the same Pin to the same Board in rapid succession in the past, you do not need to go back and delete old Pins. Adjust your habits going forward. Read more about resharing on Pinterest.

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To get more distribution for your content on Pinterest:

Create multiple images for each piece of content. While you can still share each version to any relevant Boards, content has a natural lifespan; there comes a point when continuing to save the same image repeatedly will become less and less effective. So, spend as much time as you can on making brand new content, but don’t feel pressured to create many pieces of new content per day to Pin. If you only have time for one new Pin per week, just keep it consistent.

Refresh your existing content with new images and new descriptions to appeal to a new audience and to make it relevant to different Boards.

What about Tailwind SmartLoop? Will it get me flagged for spam?

No. We’ve worked closely with Pinterest to establish suggestions and limits on SmartLoop and to update these in partnership with them. Over time, we plan to continue adjusting these limits as needed to ensure Tailwind members stay compliant with the latest guidelines provided to us.

SmartLoop also includes recommendations from SmartGuide, a Tailwind feature aimed at helping you avoid unnecessary risk to your account. It suggests reasonable intervals to help you make sure you are resharing, but not too often. Learn more.

What about Tailwind Communities? Are they a source of spam?

Tailwind Communities can help you easily find quality content from people you know and trust, making authentic and safe content curation much faster and easier.

There’s always a possibility that a devious marketer tries to use a good platform to do bad, though, so we’re also working with Pinterest to figure out ways we can continue to keep people who would abuse Communities or Pinterest off of the Tailwind Communities platform. And we suggest you always check the links on content added by people you don’t yet know.

What if your Pinterest account is suspended for spam?

What if, despite following all the rules, your account is suspended anyway? Pinterest has a clear and open channel for reaching out if your account is mistakenly flagged as spam. You can start the process here.

Many report that they first get a “we are not restoring your account” form letter, but that if they persist politely and consistently, their accounts are eventually restored.

Conclusion: You CAN Avoid Being Reported for Spam on Pinterest!

Most of the guidelines come down to common sense:

  • Save Pins like an actual user, avoiding too much repetition.
  • Make sure the Pins you save go where you expect them to go. Check your links!
  • Steer clear of troublesome high-volume activity (aggressive commenting, following, etc.).
  • Keep Pinterest PG.

If your goal is in line with Pinterest’s goal – creating a fresh, dynamic platform for search and discovery, you’re well on your way to sustainable, progressive growth with your Pinterest marketing. Tailwind can help with that – making it easier to Pin in a way that leads to long-term growth with Smartschedule for optimal posting times, Tailwind Communities for quality content to save, and SmartLoop for safe resharing.

Tailwind is a Pinterest partner tool, meaning we work with Pinterest to enable best practices and help you grow your business through Pinterest. 

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

Leslie Cohen on February 19, 2021

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.

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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.

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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

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

Greg Starling on February 19, 2021

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.

Get 373% More Saves When You Share a Tailwind Create Image. Source: 2021 study of Pins January 2021 comparing saving existing Pins and creating new images with Tailwind Create.

Try Tailwind Create Now.

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.

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The Hottest Wedding Industry Social Media Tips & Trends in 2021

Rebecca Barnatt-Smith on February 15, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic turned the wedding industry upside down last year. Hello, small backyard ceremony! Goodbye big, in-person event.

Wedding industry pros found themselves working virtually and developing plans for more #pintimate weddings. Think smaller guest list, but higher per-person budget.

It’s no surprise social media marketing tactics have shifted, too.

In their annual report, the Wedding Academy has documented all of the new skills and current best bets for industry practitioners.

In this post, we’ll dig into what you need to know about the latest trends and tips for using social media to grow your wedding business in 2021.

And, we’ve summarized it all in one cheat sheet, waiting for you at the end of this post.

Instagram Best Practices for the Wedding Industry

Instagram is a marketing powerhouse for businesses in the wedding industry; it’s hyper-visual, and its hashtags, exceptional organic reach, and strong visibility options can help you connect with clients.

When using Instagram, these tips from Lauren Grove can help drive results:

  • Share your most beautiful work. You always want to put your best foot forward. Weddings themselves are formal visual feasts. Match that tone in your Instagram feed.
  • Think about how engaged couples (not individuals) use Instagram. Gone are the days when brides called all the shots. Today, many engaged couples are making decisions together. Consider how they might use Instagram to research potential vendors and post accordingly.
  • Cater to lurkers. Some people are big engagers; they comment on everything. Others, not so much, but they could still be potential customers. Share tips for inspiration and to offer value – even if you don’t get a ton of feedback.
  • Use Reels for education purposes. Reels are wildly popular on Instagram right now. Use them to share tips like “hottest looks for 2021” or “questions to ask your florist”. Reels can help build rapport and trust.

Remember that while you should use hashtags, you shouldn’t rely only on industry-focused tags. Couples are searching in very personal ways, and they don’t always begin with hashtags you might expect. Experiment here to see what works. 

See Lauren’s section in the Wedding Trend Report 2021!

Wedding Industry Pinterest Marketing Best Practices 

There are few more effective or powerful social platforms for wedding vendors than Pinterest.

Here are some current Pinterest marketing tips from the report to keep in mind from Rachel Waring at Rachel Emma Studio:

  • Create fresh, useful content. Inspiring content is great, too, but nothing comes close to “useful” content that offers value to your target audience. Think about sharing your most gorgeous photos of your work and attaching them to resources that are optimized for search.
  • Beautiful, positive pins should be at the core. Weddings are meant to be happy occasions, so putting a positive spin on everything is important. Instead of a Pin promising “how to deal with annoying family wedding drama,” go for a spin on “how to make your future in-laws part of the wedding planning process.” 
  • Watch your “Today” tab and follow Pinterest Trends. Do you know what people are searching for on Pinterest when it comes to weddings? This year, for example, yellow and grey have been named the “wedding colors of 2021.” You can detect trends like this through the Today tab, and you can then create relevant content accordingly.
  • Use shopping Pins. If you sell physical products like wedding decor, hair accessories, veils, and wedding favors, create shopping Pins to help drive easy purchases.

See Rachel’s section in the Wedding Trend Report 2021!

Wedding Business: Video Marketing Tips to Keep in Mind 

The concept of a Zoom wedding would have made us laugh two years ago. But, here we are, with couples brainstorming ways to get their grandparents logged on for the big moment. 

The move to video includes marketing too. If you’ve been holding off on incorporating video in your marketing plans, now’s the time to jump in! 

Use video to provide value, build rapport, and capitalize on emotion more effectively than with standard images alone.

Here’s the TLDR for wedding industry video marketing on social this year from Kylie Carson, CEO of the Wedding Academy: 

  • Use captions. Always include closed-captions for your videos. They’ll ensure that the content is accessible to all users, including those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Plenty of users also elect to watch videos without sound. 
  • Don’t stress about perfection. Mobile-shot videos (which look like they’re shot from customers) are perfectly acceptable. Bust out your iPhone, and remember that the quality of the content of the video is the most important part. Instagram Stories are a great place to try your hand at an informal feel. 

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  • Do opt for live broadcasts. Use live video to help customers get to know you, answer their questions, and nurture them toward a booking. Live video makes a huge impact on every social platform. And, it definitely needs a place in your strategy for both Instagram and Facebook in particular.
  • Add longer videos to your strategy. The days of making only short, 30-second videos are over. IGTV, YouTube, and Facebook allow for longer videos, and if you’re offering valuable content, people will keep watching.
  • Create videos with hotspots. Hotspots are interactive elements within a video. Viewers can click, download or take other action when a video includes a hotspot. Instagram Stories, for example, allows accounts with 10,000 or more followers to add “swipe to click” CTAs, and you can add clickable elements on YouTube videos, too. Take advantage of hotspots to snag leads WHILE users are engrossed in your video. 

See Kylie’s section in the Wedding Trend Report 2021!

Final Thoughts 

As with all industries, wedding pros will succeed with a mix of generic social media tips, and unique advice tailored just to them. The trends discussed here are all relevant and actionable right now as we move further into 2021, so consider choosing some to incorporate into your strategy as soon as possible.

Interested in seeing the full report on social media trends and tips in the wedding industry for 2021? Download it here. 

Cheat Sheet Infographic Wedding Industry Social Media Tips

As promised, here’s your cheat sheet for easy reference.

(Click image to download.)

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The Covid-19 pandemic turned the wedding industry upside down in 2020. Grow your wedding business in 2021 with these social media trends and tips.

Pinterest Update to Monthly Views (+More Changes)!

Paul Dughi on February 11, 2021

Pinterest Monthly Views on green background

If you use Pinterest for your business, Pinterest analytics are probably your best friend. From showing you which Pins perform best to how much of your website traffic comes from Pinterest to how your advertising dollars are working for you, the importance of understanding your metrics is undeniable. 

In 2021, Pinterest is making this even easier for you! They have updated their metrics for paid ads and organic content, with one of the most notable changes being the shift from monthly viewers to monthly views. 

How does this affect you? Read on for everything you need to know.

Introducing the New and Improved Monthly Views

If you’re a Pinterest pro, you’re likely used to only being able to see the number of monthly viewers.

This number included people who may have Pins linking to your site as Pinned by you and others, but also views on Pins you saved that link to other people’s sites.

So it was never a good indication of how Pinterest was working to grow your business.

With the new update, the spotlight is on your content. You’ll see the total number of times your Pins appeared in search, home feeds, and other locations in the past month. 

This includes the Pins you publish and Pins others have saved from your claimed domain or accounts!

By the way, not claiming your domain could lead to Pins from your site NOT being included in your monthly views (or on your Create tab on your profile).

Not verifying your site on Pinterest can also have a real impact on your Pin performance!  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 verified their domains on Pinterest.

Compare this with under 3% of the consistent underperformers. Claim your site now!

How This Helps You

In one of their recent Facebook Lives, Jeff Sieh and Tailwind’s Alisa Meredith discussed the  benefits of the new feature. 

First and foremost, it gives content creators more credit for their Pins and ideas. Now you will be able to see how well the content you work so hard to create is performing on Pinterest.

Secondly, it helps you as a business owner gain more accurate data. As we mentioned before — in the past, monthly viewers reflected views to content you have shared from everywhere. The new monthly views statistic only reflects YOUR content. That’s meaningful!

You can still view total Monthly Viewers by:

  • Opening your Pinterest Analytics
  • Selecting Overview
  • Select “Monthly Total Audience” from the drop-down menu under “Performance Over Time”
how to view Monthly Viewers after new Pinterest update

Pro tip: Keep in mind that (most likely) Monthly Views > Monthly Viewers since Pinners who view one of your Pins will likely view some of your other Pins as well.

Other Updates to Pinterest Analytics

‘Close ups’ for organic Pins are now referred to as ‘Pin Clicks’

Pin Clicks represent when people click on your Pin to learn more. This only counts the number of CLICKS on your Pin, not Sideswipes as you may be used to. 

‘Link clicks’ for organic Pins are now referred to as ‘Outbound Clicks’ 

Outbound clicks represent the number of clicks to your destination URL. This change in terminology creates more consistency between the terminology used for paid and organic content.

Metrics terminology will be updated to be the same between organic and paid metrics

This will make it easier to analyze all your metrics across Pinterest, regardless of whether it is paid ads or organic content. 

The default metrics in your Business Hub and Analytics Pages will now show the performance of only Pins linking to your site.

These metrics will show the data for Pins you’ve published and Pins saved from your claimed domains. This will help you better understand which content drives followers to your page, traffic to your website, and conversions for your business. The performance of other Pinners’ content you’ve saved to your account will still be available via the ‘Include saved Pins’ tab in your Analytics graph filters. 

What do you think about the new Pinterest updates? Let us know in the comments below

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Pinterest has rolled out a new update to Pinterest Analytics, including Pinterest Monthly Views! Find out what’s different here!

Shop Looks with Pinterest AR Try On!

Kristie Hill on February 9, 2021

Pinterest AR Try on

If you’ve been browsing beauty products on Pinterest lately, you may have noticed a new button appearing in the corner of some products.

This is the brand-new Pinterest AR Try on feature, which allows you to try on products before making a purchase – using  your camera lens! 

Whether you’re a curious Pinner or a brand on Pinterest, we have all the details on this new feature, how it works and how you  can apply to get it yourself. Keep reading!

What Is Pinterest AR Try on?

Pinterest AR Try on is a new augmented reality tool that allows users to try on products using their camera. The feature was first introduced in January 2020, and was limited to lipstick products. 

Just a few weeks ago, Pinterest added eyeshadow products to the mix!

Pinterest Try on is powered by Pinterest Lens, a built-in feature that uses your phone to find new ideas, recipes, outfits and more just by pointing your camera at an object. Try on takes the feature to a whole new level.

The tool partners with ModiFace to include high-quality rendering, skin tone range features and smart recommendations for products.

In short, it’s pretty awesome.

Who Can Use Pinterest Try on?

If you want to get in on the Try on action, we have good news! For Pinners, the free feature is available in the mobile app on Pinterest and iOS. Just find a participating brand to experiment!

And if you happen to be a brand interested in connecting your catalog to Pinterest Try on, you can do that too!

At the moment, Pinterest Try on is limited to lipstick and eyeshadow products, but the offerings and capabilities are sure to expand.

New brands are being added to Try on all the time! All you have to do is complete the application process.

How to Apply for Pinterest Try on (As a Brand!)

Right now, applications for Pinterest Try on are on a case by case basis. First, you’ll need to meet two basic requirements.

If you meet these two requirements, great! You’ll now need to reach out to your Pinterest account manager to let them know you’re interested in Pinterest AR Try on.

How to Use Pinterest Try On to Shop Makeup Looks

If you want to use Pinterest Try on yourself to test out  makeup  looks from your favorite brands, you can find enabled  products in three  ways:

  • Through the Pinterest Search Bar
  • Enabled on Product Pins in your feed or Search
  • Through Pinterest Lens!

To try on a product, search for your favorite makeup brand with Try on enabled. If that’s too much work, open the Pinterest app and tap the Pinterest Lens icon (camera icon in the top right). 

Now, tap the Lips icon to select Try On!

This will populate products with the feature enabled.  You can tap either the lip or eye icon in the top of  the screen to switch between lipsticks and eyeshadows.  Then, swipe through the color swatches at the bottom of the screen to find products to test!

Testing Pinterest AR Try on feature
Our social media manager Lacey bravely volunteered to test the eyeshadow feature for us!

You can also swipe up on the products at the bottom to find more recommendations (“More Like This Look”.)

And that’s not all – if you tap the color swatch once during Try on, your phone will snap a picture, which you can Pin to shop the look later!

Pinterest  Try on Offers Exciting New Opportunities for Shopping

Pinterest created the Try on tool to make Pinterest shopping an easier  and more satisfying experience.

“We heard from Pinners who wanted to try on new looks for happier purchases they won’t want to return while mobile shopping.

They also wanted ways to explore looks without the anxiety  that may come with trying something new at a store or buying a new product  online they haven’t tried.”

Pinterest

Plus, it’s a great avenue to increase sales  and the performance  of Shoppable  Pins!

“As we make Pinterest more shoppable through products like AR Try on, the platform becomes more engaging and actionable to Pinners, which can result in increases in usage and click-through of ads.”

“Organic features like Try on and ingestion of catalogs to create product Pins can oftentimes complement a paid strategy where brands drive traffic across the site.”

Pinterest

The tool offers a ton of new capabilities for selling on Pinterest and increasing reach. We have to say, we’re excited to see where this goes! We’ll be watching for updates and developments, so check back soon!

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Pinterest’s new AR Try on opens up a world of shopping possibilities, right from your mobile phone! Find out how it works and how brands can get in on the action here.