Do you feel like you’re in a Pinterest rut, and banging the same old drum with your Pinterest content?
There are tons of new niches, educational content, and tips and tricks catching eyes on Pinterest right now, and the biggest question many Pinners are asking themselves is how to translate their knowledge into new forms of content to ride the wave?
Never fear, Pinterest super guru Jana O. is here to help you unlock your creativity, power, and purpose to approach your Pinterest content with fresh ideas and experiment with new approaches on Pinterest!
The Pinterest with Purpose course creator, Pinterest professional, and Clubhouse star is here to share her thoughts and advice for putting a new spin on the same way of doing things on this episode of Marketing Unleashed!
Jana works with coaches, course creators, service providers, and consultants to monetize their unique knowledge on Pinterest.
“They still think of Pinterest as a place for recipes and crafts and things like that. Of course, we love it for those topics, but most people probably know there are so many topics, especially in health and wellness, self-care, style, and relationships as well.
These are all niches that have really exploded on Pinterest, and there are a lot of people in my audience who are trying to figure out how to translate those ideas they have and that they teach and coach around to the platform.”
Jana O.
In this episode, we discuss:
How to use your industry knowledge to speak to new audiences
The correct way to think about Pinterest as part of your marketing
The best Idea Pin ideas to try
What kind of content to make for Pinterest to continue the conversation with your audience
“I think we have to remember that people are on Pinterest looking for ideas, inspiration and things to make their lives and their businesses better. They’re looking for things to do and try and buy, and we have to figure out how to capture their attention with things like that.”
On using your content to nurture a continued relationship…
“A lot of people when they first get started, they don’t realize that people aren’t necessarily gonna like, see their thing and buy it immediately. There has to be some of this nurture going on between when someone finds you and when someone actually pulls out their wallet and that’s even more true on Pinterest – we call it very top of funnel.
And that’s because people are new to us in a lot of situations when they find us because it’s a search engine. So we need to remember to take what we’re teaching and what we know, these things that we’re monetizing and breaking it down into little things, little tidbits or micro ideas that are going to give people ideas, inspiration, solutions, and things to try.”
On why Idea Pins are great for sharing knowledge…
“Idea Pins are a really great tool for people who are infopreneurs, who are teaching what they know and monetizing that and who are leveraging personal brands. And that’s really what coaches are doing in most cases.”
On the type of Idea Pin she encourages her clients to try…
“One of the types of Idea Pins I’ve been encouraging people to think about when they think about different approaches to creating Pins is a comparison. Like, taking two different things and comparing them.”
Pinterest just introduced an update called “Idea Pins”, previously called Story Pins.
The new feature makes producing your multimedia pins more creative and engaging to your audience. It’s available for Pinterest creators who want to tell stories using videos and music. Pinterest for Business users in Germany, Austria, Canada, the US, UK, and Switzerland will also have access to use the new creator tools!
So why are Idea Pins such a big deal? Pinterest is a visual search and discovery destination to create inspiring content.
Pinterest gives creators and advertisers an easier way to interact with their audiences, building more engaged communities directly on Pinterest – and Idea Pins are the latest way to do that!
What are Pinterest Idea Pins and How Should You Use Them to Engage Your Audience?
The most important thing about the video-first feature Idea Pins is the way it changes how you engage your audience with your Pinterest content. They allow you to engage the viewer with your content. They bring a more compassionate, interested audience, allowing for a better connection to your brand or product.
Relating to your audience on a personal level with multimedia campaigns gives you the ability to have viewers like you a lot more than other types of content production. It’s more emotional, fun, and creative. You’ll start to develop trust and a brand personality- and that is what the audience is looking for.
How Do I Become a Creative Storyteller on Pinterest?
Storytelling is a big buzzword for content producers using social media. It’s such an important aspect of your brand strategy because it really resonates with audiences. After all, it’s human nature to appreciate a good story. It’s how we learn and how we connect!
The first step to becoming a creative storyteller on Pinterest is to use Idea Pins. To get access to Idea Pins, you’ll want to make sure you have a Pinterest business account.
Then, you want to define your audience and define your core message. Prepare to inspire, motivate, and create a narrative around your brand.
Make it memorable and offer solutions to problems and new, easier ways to do things. And most of all, incite action, be authentic and let your audience know the real you, and convey your values.
Pinterest says the update will, “create inspiring content and better interact with their audiences, building more engaged communities directly on Pinterest.”
In-app editing tools include adding images, record multiple videos, create lists, and adding custom text within a single Pin.
Pinterest has also added Epidemic Sound for royalty-free music for your videos.
After publishing just one Idea Pin, it gets displayed on top of your business profile at the top of the “Created tab” and displays along with other Idea Pins you create thereafter.
Idea Pins will also be included in the search and the “Today Tab”, which allows for higher visibility.
There’s a lot of cool things you can now do with your Pins. Some features include:
Voiceovers Tagging People Creating Stickers Selecting Music
Writing Up Instructions ( A Plus for Recipe Ingredients!)
Topic Tagging to Get Discovered Within Your Niche
Why Topic Tagging is So Important
Topic Tagging in Pinterest is a feature where you add text overlay to your video. It’s a plus for the hearing impaired, which is a big step in making your social media content accessible! But it does more than that. It can drive traffic to your website or blog. And it helps with rankings because more views and clicks get ranked higher in the Pinterest algorithm!
Here’s how to do Topic Tagging on your Idea Pin:
Click Create at the top-left of the page and then click Create Pin
Click the circle icon to place the video into the uploader
Move the selector left or right to select an image in your video for the cover image photo
Alt-text: Explain what people can see in the Pin (500 characters max). Remember, this is for accessibility and is different than your description!
Add up to 10 related topic tags and place a link to your website which is optional.
Hit publish or schedule your Pin for a later date.
Additional Idea Pin Tools and Features to Know
There’s also a “Ghost Mode” feature which is a transitions element allowing you to line up your video shots from the end of one clip to the beginning of another.
That’s handy if you’re using multiple takes, but want to maintain cohesiveness!
If how-to videos are more your style there are now “detail pages” where viewers can find the ingredient list or instructions!
You will be able to have 20 pages of video and image content, which will show in full-screen stream view on mobile devices.
Yet another feature allows you to export your Pins across social media and other internet platforms, even your own website!
Just download the Pin as a video, which includes a Pinterest watermark and your Pinterest profile name so others can share it.
Visually this is much more attractive and less distracting than a YouTube video, in our opinion!
Pinterest Idea Pins don’t diseappear after 24 hours, unlike Stories on Facebook and Instagram. They will be out there for someone to find forever!
That’s important because as you start to build a community, you need a good amount of content. Your fans will love checking out all your other Pins once they get to know you.
Pinterest has become a popular search engine within itself to discover ideas for home design, art, recipes, health, and fitness and more.
Pinterest’s tagline is “ You know a great idea when you see it.” Your content could be that next great idea for someone! It is a place for creative marketers to be part of a community with those who share your passions.
Whether you are there to make your own vision boards or promote your business to others, it the perfect destination to showcase your brand personality. With 480 million users, the chance to reach new customers is something to take advantage of.
And if you want to keep your audience engaged, make sure to create a Call-To- Action (CTA) at the end of your videos.
After an audience had seen your video, what would you like them to do? If you’re fostering a community, tell them to share your Pin. If you’re selling a product or service, instruct them on how to learn more or buy at the end of your video.
Who should use Pinterest Idea Pins?
Pinterest gives you a wide range of creative opportunities to promote your business.
If you are a creator who shares multimedia stories with videos for recipes, step by step guides, beauty products, workouts and more, the updated tool is for you.
It lets you tell your story in a brand-new way. It is especially good if you curate many products from your brand, as you have a new way to feature them independently or together!
Plus, it is now easier to upload video content and design it in an appealing, user friendly way with Idea Pins!
And now that you’ll be creating more video content on Pinterest, it’s a great idea to use a social media scheduling tool like Tailwind! You can design beautiful Pins, upload and schedule them, and even share your new Idea Pin content across your favorite social media platforms! Curious to know more? Try it out today!
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you’ve noticed conversations recently about falling impressions on Pinterest Pins, you are not alone. Should you be concerned? If you’ve noticed a decrease in Pin impressions on your own account, what can you do to reverse the trend? We have the answers, so stick around!
We recently had a lively discussion with Jeff Sieh and Jennifer Priest on Facebook on this topic. Have a watch!
What Is a Pinterest “Impression”?
Impressions simply count the number of times your Pin appeared on screen. It doesn’t mean anyone noticed it, engaged with it, or clicked on it, simply that it was displayed on someone’s screen.
If you’re looking at the overall Impression count for your profile, by default you will see impressions of everything you saved – Pins to your site, Pins to other people’s sites – and this figure includes impressions you paid for via Pinterest ads.
It includes impressions from your activity in sharing your own content AND that resulting from other people sharing your content. You can easily filter your impression analytics by adding filters.
Here I’ve filtered to just see impressions resulting from organic shares of content linking to our site:
What Does it Mean if My Pinterest Impressions Are Falling?
It could mean that your content is getting less distribution. Or it could mean that the content you are sharing which links to other people’s sites are getting less distribution. The really important thing to look at is – is your Pinterest referral traffic being impacted?
Use Google Analytics to find out.Go to Acquisition → All Traffic → Channels to see the bigger picture.
Falling impressions may have very little correlation to falling traffic, especially if you are sharing other people’s content.
Is Using Tailwind Causing My Impressions to Fall?
No. Using an approved partner tool will not decrease your distribution.
We have recently confirmed via our Pinterest Partner team that, Pins published through Tailwind or any other official Pinterest partner are not distributed differently than those published natively.
What is Causing a Decrease in my Pinterest Impressions?
Distribution of Pins varies for many reasons including:
What Pinners Are Searching For
If you’re Pinning about Spring dresses in July, you’re not likely to get a lot of distribution for that content – not because there is anything wrong with your content, but because no one is looking for it. It is not relevant today.
If, however, it’s August and you’re sharing your back-to-school tips, well, hello!
HOT TIP: Not sure when that cozy comfort food mac and cheese recipe post will be most relevant? End of November. How do I know? Pinterest Trends!! If you haven’t used it to plan your content, I’m begging you: try it.
Of course, it’s not just about seasonality. Styles and trends come and go. Tie dye was big this spring and ‘Home screen aesthetic and wallpapers’ is all the rage today. As in real life, fashions and trends come and go.
Try creating and sharing a variety of content relevant to multiple seasons, moments, life events, and trends to try to even out your highs and lows over the year.
How Much Engagement the Pin Receives
Your content is served up to your followers first, and their level of engagement sends Pinterest a signal as to its relevance and quality, which will impact your distribution.
Make sure that what you share to Pinterest is of interest to your audience. How? Check out your audience insights (found under “analytics”). You can see the interests and categories which are most engaging to your audience.
Encourage people who already like your content to follow you on Facebook! Your blog and email readers already enjoy what you share – having them as members of your Pinterest audience can give your engagement a boost!
Whether It’s a Brand New Post/Product or Older Content
The best way to increase impressions on your Pins overall is to share brand new, engaging content on Pinterest. That means a new blog post or product which is useful and inspiring to your audience. The recent Pinterest Creators Festival event suggests that creating 2-3 new pieces of content per week is a good goal to aim for.
This is not to say that you cannot create new images for existing content which would appeal to new audiences and new searches or to refresh still-relevant content (like that gift guide for last year – update your post and Pin it with the new date and content). Just leave plenty of room between shares and don’t overdo it.
One thing we’ve noticed is that some are making many images for the same content, sometimes sharing many in quick succession with the same photo, text, and title. This can make for an unpleasant user experience and can impact your distribution.
It’s better to stick with just a couple of images for each idea and experiment with different contexts to reach a new audience and appear in different searches.
When the Pin was Published
If your Pin went out 6 hours ago and you’re looking for thousands of impressions, you’re likely to be disappointed (in fact, you may not see anything at all yet!). More often than not, it’s a slow build. You share, people engage, they share, and it’s exponential.
Another way timing impacts distribution is seasonality, which we discussed above. If your content goes out when it doesn’t feel relevant to your audience, it’s not going to get much engagement, which will in turn limit distribution.
How Well Pinterest Can Identify the Content of the Pin and Map it to the Interests of Pinners
Are you making your product, service, or idea central to your Pin image? Are you using keywords in your Pin titles and descriptions? Are you sharing only to relevant Boards, which are also making use of keywords in the name and description?
Give Pinterest as many signals as possible to help them identify your content and serve it up to the right people. Learn more about Pinterest SEO.
Adherence to Pinterest Best Practices
Pin performance can also vary based on how well they adhere to Pinterest’s best practices. Pinterest has a series of courses available in their Pinterest Academy that we recommend to get up to speed on current best practices.
This does mean that over a long enough period of time, you may see engagement drop or rise substantially across all of your Pins, or you could see engagement drop for certain types of Pins, regardless of how they were published to Pinterest.
You may have noticed a new product name on one of our classic Pinterest tools lately.
Don’t worry, you’re not seeing things – Tailwind Tribes has become Tailwind Communities!
Here’s some backstory in a June 2020 letter from our Founder Danny:
A Letter From Our CEO
In 2017, we introduced a product called Tailwind Tribes. At the time, we thought the term “tribe” represented the community atmosphere of the product and seemed like an appropriate name on the surface.
We were wrong to do so.
“Tribe” is a term many Native nations hold in esteem with deep meaning and connection, but the term also has a challenging past.
Over time, we started to get a few messages stating concern over the use of the word “tribes.” But there weren’t many messages…so, we noted the concern and kept on our present course. One day, if we kept hearing from enough people who were upset about it, we’d make a change.
But that’s the problem when it comes to discrimination and racism. If you rely on the majority perspective to guide the proper action, you’re going to end up being in the wrong an awful lot. Because the majority isn’t the group at risk of being oppressed.
And we fell into that trap. Our privilege was on display.
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, our team started having a lot more honest discussions about racism and how we can work intentionally to become more anti-racist. Inclusion has always been one of our core values, but this moment in history showed that we needed to push beyond Inclusion to be the type of company we want to be.
One such discussion focused on the name “Tribes.” Could we feel right about offering a product with a name that isn’t only not Inclusive, but downright offensive to some of our members?
Our answer was “no.” So, we’re committing to changing the Tailwind Tribes name and branding by the end of the year. We don’t want to keep adding to the trivialization of the word “tribe,” nor propagate its hurtful connotations to Native communities.
We’re working through the plan and will seek feedback as we choose a new name, especially from members who have expressed concern or are impacted more personally by this decision. Once we have a new name, it’ll take some time to implement the changes in our marketing materials and software, but we expect to complete the transition by the end of the year.
We promise to continue to listen and learn so we can do better. Thanks for being patient with us. We hear you — and we promise to keep doing just that.
After months of careful planning, discussion, and seeking input every step of the way, we’re pleased to introduce you to Tailwind Communities!
Tailwind Communities is a tool that enables you to connect and grow with other Pinterest creators just like you!
Connect with Pinterest creators, get inspired by fresh ideas, and build relationships with members in more than 20,000 Communities.
With our Community tool, you’ll be able to share your Pinterest content to a Community, and other Community members will view, schedule and share your content to their audiences.
This helps build is so helpful because not only are you sharing your own content, but you are leveraging the collectively large audience of your peers.
Here is how it works:
Let’s say that you have created a Community with a few of your friends (we would call this a Community Lead).
While you are creating and scheduling Pins, you’ll be able to hand-pick content you would like to share with your Community Members.
Since other Community Members are doing the same, you end up with a pool of content by people you know and trust—helping you share new, inspiring content. You can also assign Community Admins to help invite and manage your Community.
Although collaborating, networking, and sharing content is not a new strategy, Communities makes it easier for anyone to build relationships and develop a healthy marketing strategy on Pinterest.
If you are a current Tailwind member and would like to use Communities, please reach out to us to learn more. If you are a current Communities member who would like to invite someone to a Community, head over to this article on “How to add Members to a Community“.
Happy Pinning! We’re so glad you’re a part of our Community!
If you had a nickel for every time you’ve heard that “Content is King,” you would probably be sitting on a beach right now sipping on a drink with an umbrella in it. I get it.
And while the real story of success in marketing (and even what constitutes success) is obviously much more complicated than an overused 3-word statement, nowhere is the King of marketing (Queen of Marketing?) more powerful than on Pinterest.
Yes, your content has the power to bring in meaningful, targeted traffic from Pinterest, where over 300 million people search and discover new ideas and products every month.
The One Thing You Can Do To Increase Pinterest Traffic in 2020 is…
Create more fresh, high-quality content.
That’s it.
No tricks, no gimmicks. Just create new blog posts,new pages, new products listings, and especially, create new images for existing relevant and new posts that will inspire Pinners to engage with, save, and click on your Pins.
Fresh content works on @pinterest ! Users respond to new Pins and the algorithm loves them, so get ahead of the rest by adapting to these changes now. @tailwindapp can help. Introducing – SmartGuide! #pinterestmarketing – – Tweet this!
And while fresh content is already favored in the Pinterest algorithm, you’ll see it becoming more and more important as the year progresses. Start adapting your strategy with the advice below and we’ll be with you all the way with new resources, webinars, tools, and more!
Ideally, you’ll create at least a few new pieces of content to save to Pinterest every single week. Pinterest wants to keep the platform fresh and exciting for users, and to that end, they’re favoring content Creators who regularly contribute great, fresh content.
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Over the course of developing updated recommendations, we’ve had the pleasure of working with several key players at Pinterest, including Lucy Matthews, Programs Partnership Manager. She joined me and Tailwind CEO Daniel Maloney to talk about the official Pinterest recommendations for optimal content distribution on Pinterest. Have a watch, or keep reading for the highlights
What is Fresh Content on Pinterest?
The easiest way to think about it is that new images count as fresh Pins. The Pin can link to a blog post, product listing, or a page on your website that already has Pins linking to that url; as long as it’s a new image it will count as fresh content.
What if I just rewrite the Pin description or title – or use different hashtags? Is that “fresh”?
It’s ok to test new approaches to copywriting this way, but that alone would not qualify as “fresh.”
How different does an image have to be in order to be “fresh”?
Is a filter or different text overlay sufficient? What about just moving the background image a few pixels?
The threshold will change over time, but making minor tweaks (i.e. moving a background image a few pixels) is NOT the spirit of this. A/B testing different background images or text overlays seems like a valid strategy.
Focus on creating unique images that are helpful and inspiring to Pinners. Give them a new focus, a new angle, or a new story. The better you are at that, the more future-proof your process and strategy will be.
One great way to generate several Fresh Pins would be by trying to create many versions of a Pin for your content by recreating it in meaningful ways. For example, if you had written a blog post about how to “create a DIY Towel Ladder in 4 steps”, each of the images below would be great alternatives to create more Fresh Pins. Notice the different angles, text on image, and focus on the items in the room:
Remember: the key is that the image must be new and fresh to Pinners! So use your best judgment and don’t try to make minor imperceptible changes to try to “fool” Pinterest into thinking that it’s a Fresh Pin. If you have to look really hard to see what’s different about one Image from another, that’s probably a good sign that you need to make some more meaningful changes.
What is FRESH content on @pinterest? Simple: An image that’s new! A new angle, a different zoom, meaningful changes will drive more distribution and traffic. Get the official scoop and see how @tailwindapp SmartGuide can help you Pin smarter. #pinterestmarketing – Tweet this!
No time to blog every day? Create a new image (or two) for a still-relevant post and share it to Pinterest to give your content new life! Try our free Pinterest templates now.
What are the benefits of sharing more fresh content? Is fresh content performing better?
The Pinterest algorithm values recency (freshness) and relevance as key factors.
That means that more recent, more relevant content will be distributed more (and reach larger audiences) in places like the Home Feed and Search results in comparison to less relevant or stale content.
Is there a disadvantage to sharing the same Pin image again?
Duplicate content will be distributed less or be seen by smaller audiences compared to fresher content, assuming equal relevance. However, there are legitimate and natural cases where it makes sense to reshare a Pin – for example, relevant seasonal content or periodic evergreen content.
Accounts that share far too much duplicate content could see suspension or penalties, although many factors impact those spam fighting algorithms.
How much duplicate content is “too much”?
Pinterest hasn’t and likely will not publish exact guidelines.
That said, Pinterest works with Partners like us to help make sure that the products you rely on guide you toward best practices and away from outdated or poor practices. SmartGuide is a good example of how we’ll be able to help you stay in line with good practices
SmartGuide was developed using the latest recommendations from Pinterest. As an approved partner tool, we have been working on communicating these new best practices directly with Pinterest and are baking them into a new free feature called SmartGuide.
SmartGuide (in your dashboard now!) has already begun monitoring your Pinning volume, alerting you where action is needed, and helping you adjust your Pinterest marketing for optimal distribution. Over time, you’ll start to notice more and more guidance in your Tailwind dashboard, including additional best practices and recommendations to increase your reach.
SmartGuide will be rolling out in waves in the coming weeks. The vast majority of Tailwind members who have SmartGuide enabled and are publishing a healthy volume of Pins will see our SmartGuide “All Clear” badge, like this:
Get a [sc name=”free-trial-of-tailwind-for-pinterest”].
What if I have been sharing duplicate Pins and am still seeing success (although maybe not as much as before)?
Isn’t any incremental traffic better than nothing?
Some duplication is natural, but in the long run, you’ll best maximize reach by focusing your time and energy on generating more relevant and fresh content for Pinners.
Will my older content no longer surface on Pinterest?
I’ve gotten used to my content living longer on Pinterest than anywhere else!
Not to fear! Pins are still evergreen on Pinterest. Invest in fresh content and be thoughtful about their creation strategy, only repinning content that is truly valuable and relevant to users. Pins will still live on as evergreen content on the platform, nothing is changing there. As we work to ensure the best Pinner experience, you and your followers will ALSO notice a variety of fresh content to engage with.
Can we use the same Pin description and Pin title for the piece of content but just refresh the image? Or do I need a new title and description as well?
Try different titles and descriptions to see what works best and then use analytics to verify this. Look into trends and think more carefully about how you want to position your content to capitalize on search behaviors or seasonal moments.
As you are making new images, it’s likely that you’ll emphasize certain aspects of your product or service more in some images than in others, so naturally you’ll want to change the title and description. However the “fresh” part of the content is the new image itself.
Keep in mind that titles and descriptions that don’t accurately reflect an image or landing page experience are less valuable to Pinners and will not perform as well on the platform.
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Here’s how you could use SEO and a different image with different title, description and Board to get the most out of your content:
Description: A swoon-worthy copper ladder in 4 easy steps? Yes, please! Beautiful and functional for displaying towels and blankets, you’ll save a bundle by making it yourself. We’ll walk you through the whole thing and even tell you where to get the best deals on the simple supplies needed. Decorating is way more fun (and affordable) when you can do it yourself! #towelladder #easydecoratingproject
Board: Easy Decorating Projects
Second Pin:
Title: Make a Copper Towel Ladder! DIY Decor
Description: If you’ve had your eye on a pricey copper towel and blanket ladder (THE home decor trend of the season), but couldn’t justify the spend, why not just DIY!? It’s easier than you thought – and we’ll walk you through it step by step. We made this one for under $40! #diyblanketladder #diyhomedecor
Board: DIY Home Decor
Is a new blog post, page, or product with a fresh image going to give me more distribution than making fresh images for older, equally relevant content?
While Pinterest does not necessarily give preference to newer links; newer Pins likely feature content that is more timely and relevant and hence more likely to be useful for users.
What is Tailwind doing to help people implement these best practices?
Introducing SmartGuide!
Smartguide is now available for all Tailwind Plus members! It helps members evolve their own marketing to take advantage of the latest Pinning practices for best results – not only now, but in the future as well.
Best practices will continue to evolve and change, but SmartGuide will be there to clearly and proactively bring awareness and actionable insights to you as things change.
We’re already monitoring all accounts and you might notice in-app messages to alert you to possible risky behavior and easy fixes to maintain a healthy queue. SmartLoop, which has from the start incorporated best practices from Pinterest to make sure Pins aren’t repeated too frequently, also now includes updated guidelines.
Over time, SmartGuide will continue to keep you up to date with the latest best practices on Pinterest (we’ll continue working closely with them as Partners!). We’ll keep on providing updated, easy, actionable recommendations on how to improve your strategy, maintain healthy Pinning habits, and make the most out of your Pinterest activity.
Assistance with Pinterest Content Creation
We’re working on ways to help people to create more fresh and relevant content. Early changes there will begin rolling out as soon as next month, but it’s a significant area of investment for us that will be continuing throughout 2020 and beyond. Stay tuned!
What is a “Fresh” Pin? Is a new image enough to make a Pin “fresh” – or do I need a new URL, title, and description, too?
A new image makes a fresh Pin. Period.
When you create a new image, the focus of the image may change, so you may WANT to change the title and description, but it is not a requirement.
New URLs (posts, pages, and products) are great, but are not prioritized over new images on the platform. So, go ahead and make new images for older, still-relevant content!
Does this mean I can never share the same Pin [image?] to the same Board more than once?
No. There is definitely a natural rate of duplication of Pins and some very legitimate cases for resharing. For example, you can share timely, seasonal Pins once or twice a year, surfacing content when it’s most relevant, meaning more engagement and traffic for you! SmartLoop always has been and always will be built to enable this kind of healthy resharing, with recommendations being updated as needed.
As often as possible, and for best distribution and traffic generation, create new images to support resharing a link.
Saving a Pin to the most relevant Boards (usually no more than 10) is more important today than ever. Doing so gives Pinterest a lot of helpful signals to let us know what the Pin is about and who it might be most relevant to.
If saving to many Boards, it would be most impactful to use as many unique images as possible across those Boards. Try our free Pinterest templates now.
Tailwind SmartLoop is an effective tool for resharing your content without relying on tedious spreadsheets or randomly resharing when it comes to mind – both of which methods could have you resharing too often. When might you benefit from resharing content to Pinterest?
The best use cases for resharing the same Pin to the same Board are:
Sharing timely seasonal Pins once or twice a year. This can surface seasonal content when it’s most relevant, meaning more engagement and distribution for the content people are ready to act on now.
To engage new followers. Once or twice a year, you can save the same Pin to the same Board to surface it in the following tab of your newer audience members.
If you’ve altered the overall duration in the Advanced Loop Settings, we encourage you to revert to the recommended settings which are designed to reshare at healthy intervals and update with best practices as they change. Here’s how to edit those settings.
Monitor your loops regularly and create fresh content for your best performing Pins.
SmartLoop is designed to help you get the most from the content you’ve worked hard to create as well as identify the best opportunities to refresh your Pins.
Instead of resurfacing the exact same pins, it would be even better to update the Pins in some way to make them more seasonally relevant, or try a slightly different spin. This will lead to better distribution and more engagement!
SmartLoop makes it easy to spot these opportunities to improve your account:
Remove Pins that are past their shelf life or no longer relevant
Experiment with new images for Pins that haven’t performed well
Refresh images for Pins that are your best performers
Using SmartLoop as intended will not cause you to be suspended. We are constantly updating the Loop recommendations in partnership with Pinterest. To update your existing Loops to incorporate the newest best practices, edit a Loop, and when you get to the set schedule step, select either YOUR CORE CONTENT or NICHE TOPIC. If you had previously selected one of these options, you’ll be able to refresh your settings here.
The focus of upcoming SmartLoop enhancements will be to enable Creators to make the most of their content library with new insights into content opportunities.
When in doubt, think about and emulate the way a regular Pinterest user Pins. They may incidentally Pin the same content to the same Board more than once, but it’s not usually in quick succession – and there are usually other Pins saved in between. Though you’re marketing a business on Pinterest, make it a matter of personal policy to always Pin like a Pinterest user.
Is it impossible for me to Pin more than 25 or 50 times in one day?
Not at all! We’ve stated in various places that many of our successful members Pin around 15-25 times per day. However, the optimal number is different for everyone and you should adjust your schedule as is appropriate for YOU.
For some Pinners, scheduling 15 times per day might be more than needed and for others with a large volume of content or many images to share, 40 might not be enough! What works best is as unique as you are.
If you still want to Pin at substantially higher levels than recommended, and you’re comfortable with the risks and potential for decreased distribution, you’ll be able to relax SmartGuide’s Spam Safeguard when it makes sense to Pin more than 50 times per day, and continue to have full control of your Pinning strategy.
With the emphasis on “fresh” content, can I still use Tailwind Communities?
Yes! Communities remains a great way to connect with peers who share your interests! Just remember to use it judiciously by authentically sharing content you’d want to save.
Like your own audience, Community Members will most appreciate when you share your latest, fresh content rather than Pins they’ve seen in the past.
Many people enjoy sharing other people’s content because:
Their audience may enjoy it.
They want to support another business owner by sharing content.
They want to save it to read it later themselves!
Just keep your sharing natural – Pin like a regular Pinner would!
Help! Any time I’ve Pinned less, my results have suffered!
Pinterest is directly calling out that this is a change from the past. We understand their skepticism based on what has worked historically, but Pinterest is giving us all a heads up that what works has changed and is changing.
Do I need to worry about sharing two Pins to the same content too close together?
Example: I have 5 images for one article, can I share them out (to the same Board even) on the same day, or should I spread them out?
As long as the images are distinct (meaning they look noticeably different), it’s fine to share them out the same day, but be mindful of how this might look to your followers in the following tab.
If I save a Pin for the first time to a SECRET Board, when I save it to a public Board after that, is that a Fresh Pin?
No. That Pin would no longer be considered fresh. If this was part of your workflow previously, you might want to instead upload all your images to Drafts in Tailwind.
How can I make a video Pin “Fresh”? Can I update the cover image and have it be seen as new?
You would need to upload an entirely new video. A new cover image would not make it fresh. Remember that video content is harder for most creators to make than static images, so there is less competition amongst quality video Pins.
Didn’t find your question answered here? Please contact us through the dashboard or email help(at)tailwindapp.com. We’re happy to help.
In Conclusion: What’s the ONE Thing You Can Do to Increase Pinterest Traffic in 2020?
Give your audience on Pinterest plenty of fresh, inspiring content. Whether that means creating a new page, post, or product – or just making a new image (or two!) to give your existing content new life – when paired with a keyword-rich title and description and saved to a relevant Board gives Pinterest a reason to reward you with more and more traffic to your site.
It’s not often we get a heads up on upcoming algorithm changes. Getting ahead of upcoming changes gives us all an early-adopter advantage. Let’s not squander this one! 🙂
Schedule something new today – get a [sc name=”free-trial-of-tailwind-for-pinterest”].
This is a guest post from Tasha DaCosta of Lady Boss Studio.
Did you know that Pinterest can be a serious powerhouse when it comes to increasing traffic to your website or blog and for growing your email list with free opt-in offers?
When you’re looking to build your email list with Pinterest, there needs to be a plan. There always needs to be a plan.
The good news is, I HAVE the plan – the plan I used to focus on Pinterest and grow my email list by 700% in just a few months. And I’m super excited to share it with you!
The even better news is that IT DOESN’T matter what your niche, business, and blog are about. You can market your opt-in offers – ebooks, webinars, checklists, etc. on Pinterest and massively grow your list regardless of your topic.
Content on Pinterest typically gains traction over time. Which means you need to implement the steps below now, so you can start getting more email subscribers as soon as possible.
Before we dive into the plan though, I want to make you sure you know why opt-in freebies are super important if you want to build a list with Pinterest, and why I’ve made them my jam!
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Why Grow Your Email List with Pinterest and Opt-In Offers
So why the heck do you need to care so much about opt-in offers as you’re growing your email list on Pinterest?
Let me tell you, there are A LOT of reasons to build an email list with Pinterest. Here are the three most important ones.
1.Opt-in offers allow you to build your email list with your target audience – and Pinterest is a great place to use them. When you create opt-ins specifically for your target audience, you will build a list of subscribers that you know will love your content and want to support your biz.
An email list without the RIGHT subscribers for your brand won’t get you very far in terms of increasing your sales or building your empire.
2.Valuable opt-in offers work so much better than a generic, “Sign up for my email newsletter” offer. You may notice that many of the visits from Pinterest to your site are brand new visitors. This is great – it means people are discovering you and your content on the platform.
However, they’re likely to need more than a “get my newsletter” prompt to motivate them to hand over their precious email addresses. If you give your audience something of value right off the bat, they’re much more likely to jump on board with your brand!
3.Opt-in offers easily allow you to demonstrate authority and develop trust. If your potential clients haven’t heard of you before, they are much more likely to opt in for your freebies than make a purchase right away.
This in-between step allows you to give your reader value, establishes trust, and sets the stage for sealing the deal down the road in a very positive and non-pushy way.
So now that you understand why you need those opt-in freebies soo bad, let’s dive into how to get them noticed on the best marketing platform there is. It’s no secret, I crush hard on Pinterest.
How and Where to Market Opt-In Offers & Freebies on Pinterest
We’ve covered the why, so now let’s cover the how! Let’s go through the three places and ways to market your opt-in freebies on Pinterest to increase distribution and finally hit those subscriber goals you’ve been dreaming of.
PS – We had a fun discussion about Growing your email list on Pinterest, check it out!
Save Your Opt-In Pins to the Most Relevant Board First
Pinterest is looking to you, the content creator, to provide context for your Pins. With that aim, they pay the most attention to the first Board on which you save a new Pin. So, your “How to get to 10K on Instagram” Pin should be saved to your “Instagram Marketing” Board before it goes to your “Social Media Tips” Board or your “My Blog Posts” Board.
That first save tells Pinterest that your Pin and the content linked from the Pin are about Instagram Marketing. This allows Pinterest to understand and surface your Pin to the right people and in the right search results.
Create a Dedicated Opt-in Freebies Board
While Pinners can search for content and free resources via individual Pins, they can also search for Boards that are entirely dedicated to these. Your own followers in particular may want to find all your offers in one spot.
This is the perfect way to market all of your opt-in freebies in one convenient place for your ideal reader to fall in love with.
You also don’t need to only include your own freebies, either. Fill up your Board with other valuable resources related to your topic if you like!
Kyla, from Dish It Out Social, does an excellent job of this with her Blogging and Freebies Board. She uses it to showcase her opt-in freebies, but also includes Pins from other websites that she knows her audience will love!
Your audience will also love that you’re providing them with great value, no matter the source. This is how you Pin consistently and supply a steady stream of engaging content.
Create Pinterest Pins that Actually Get More Email Subscribers
As far as I’m concerned, there are two ways to promote your opt-in freebies with your Pins: create blog post Pins with visuals and create separate freebie Pins.
You’ll never know exactly what might attract a reader to click on your Pin, so why not cover all of your bases and increase those odds? Besides, creating more than one image for each piece of content is a good idea anyway. Each new image gives your page, post, or opt-in offer new life on Pinterest!
So, What are Blog Post Pins With Opt-in Visuals?
These Pins show the actual Opt-in offer (or a visual representation of the offer) that Pinners can get when they check out the blog post.
Pinterest is a visual platform after all, so people are more likely to click on a Pin once they see what’s in store.
This one from Lady Boss Studio entices readers to check out the ultimate list of Pinterest Group Boards and shows them the free Group Boards List they can download.
This one is from Celina at Aligned with Celina. She explains the topic of her post and also shows you the free download.
As you can see, this can work for any niche!
Now for the Freebie Pins
Trust me, it’s as easy as it sounds! You place your opt-in freebies front and center on the Pin to grab as much attention as possible.
Sometimes, people might not want to dig in or read through an entire post because they just want the free goods.
It’s time to give it to them!
Here’s a great example from Alex Tooby where she is promoting her free Instagram course.
If you’re sitting there thinking that this all sounds great, but wondering how in the world you are going to create such pretty Pins, then be sure to check out our Pinterest and Social Media Templates!
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We’ve got you fully covered!
Now that you know where to build a list with Pinterest by using opt ins and how to create Pins that convert, let’s have a quick chat about making it all work long term.
‘Cause you want your business and blog to be around long term, right?
Set Your Opt-in Pins on Repeat
This isn’t a one and done kinda deal. If you want max results and want to seriously explode your list, then you need consistency.
My opt-in freebies strategy takes almost no time at all and I’m able to grow my email list by 700-1,000 new subscribers per month.
And you can do the same!
There’s this special, beautiful, amazing tool that Tailwind has called SmartLoop.
It’s truly been a gift. [sc name=”Pinterest Signup – Text Link”]
I can set up all of my existing opt-in freebies to be posted on a cycle that I’ve chosen and Tailwind just works its magic. Therefore, whenever I have new opt-in freebies, I just add them to the Loop and move along with my day.
The clear, simple analytics in SmartLoop tell me when it’s time to refresh an image or if a particular Pin is simply not resonating well.
My freebies are consistently being pinned and marketed while I change diapers, cook dinner, oh, and sleep!
Grow Your Email List When You Become a Pinterest Opt-in Freebie Boss
I hope you’re super geared up to market the heck out of your opt-in freebies now that you know how to make it happen.
Make sure you’ve got your freebies in your profile description, you’ve created a freebie Board, and given your readers drool-worthy Pins that they can’t help but click on and share.
Save this post on Pinterest so you can make sure you’ve covered every step and then come back to let us know how much your email list is growing because of it.
In your quest for more website traffic, you’ve likely investigated SEO, advertising, Instagram, Facebook, blogging, link building and more. But this may well be the first time you’ve ever considered the traffic-driving potential of Pinterest. If so, you’re not alone in your reluctance.
In fact, according to a study conducted by Social Media Examiner in 2018, only 27% of marketers are using Pinterest. What!? Maybe what people say about Pinterest is true. Maybe Pinterest marketing only works for the fashion industry, or wedding planners, or for cupcake recipes.
OR, maybe that 27% of marketers have realized something the others haven’t, namely that:
With 265 million monthly active users, that’s a LOT of people looking for ideas to try and things to buy. And since 98% of searches are unbranded – meaning people haven’t decided from whom they want to purchase – they may be very happy to discover and purchase from YOU.
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The Exciting Truth about Pinterest’s Traffic-Driving Potential
Pinterest can easily become a substantial contributor to your website traffic. In fact, for a long time, Pinterest has been the #2 driver of social referral traffic, right after Facebook. But, notice this trend chart from Shareholic. In the year (plus) since, has Pinterest traffic overtaken Facebook traffic?
For us, and for many of our members, it absolutely has.
A recent, as yet unpublished study by BuzzSumo and Chris Penn of Trust Insights found that for top B2B content, being shared on Pinterest had more impact on traffic potential than did content length or format. For those in B2C markets, that correlation may well be even stronger.
While it can take some time Pinning consistently to see substantial results, the time you spend on Pinterest pays off for months and even years to come as content can surface in search for as long as people find it engaging. In fact, while the half-life of a Facebook post is about 24 minutes, that of a single Pin is 3.5 MONTHS. Given the fact that you can reshare content at sensible intervals, it’s possible to make a Pin (and it’s traffic-driving power) last forever…
How To Skyrocket Your Traffic from Pinterest – Pinning Strategies That Work
Enough with the numbers already! Let’s dig in to how to drive traffic from Pinterest to your site.
One foundational bit of intel you need to make a success of Pinterest is that Pinners are there for inspiration and aspiration. Figure out how your products or services can improve their lives in a meaningful way, and they will visit your site.
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Use Keywords Wisely
The words you use on Pinterest can be as powerful as the images you share. Pinterest does read the text on your image in determining how to distribute your Pin in search, related Pins, and feeds. Where else might Pinterest look for these clues? They’re looking for keywords on:
Board Titles
Board Descriptions
Pin Descriptions
Meta data on the linked content (that is, your title and description on the content on your Pin’s link)
But you have to think a little differently when planning keywords for Pinterest than for Google. On Google, people are more likely to be ready to act right away, so “Wicker patio dining set” makes perfect sense. For Pinterest, consider that they’re a bit earlier in the process, so, “Patio inspiration” might be a good angle to try.
You can also use keywords as hashtags in your descriptions – #patioinspiration for example! Hashtags can help your newer content surface more quickly, so include a couple in your Pin descriptions.
Save Content to the Most Relevant Board First
Help Pinterest figure out your content so they can distribute it to to the right people in the right searches. More distribution to the right people at the right time = more website traffic.
Save your content to all relevant Boards (try Tailwind’s Interval Pinning), but tell Pinterest which is MOST representative of the content with that very first Pin.
Choose Quality Over Quantity
Scheduling a few quality Pins per day with a focus on compelling images, motivating, keyword-rich descriptions, and a strong call to action will serve you better than 100 hastily-Pinned images.
Pinterest looks for signals from your followers to decide how much distribution a Pin will get. Share only content that is relevant to your audience and at least somewhat related to the products or services you offer to maintain an engaged audience.
And when it comes to Pinning, focus on your own content first. It’s nice to support others, but that’s not what will help your traffic. That means you can forget the “magic ratios” of 80/20 20/80, or whatever else you may have heard. The only magic is the strategy that works for you.
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Tweak and Plan Your Content For Pinterest
If you can tap into the aspirations of your followers, you’ll see that reflected in growing traffic – but what if what you’ve written isn’t exactly framed that way?
Think about how you can tweak your content so that it is encouraging and empowering to your followers.
For example, if your blog post on “10 Mistakes You’ll Make On Your Taxes This Year,” did great on Facebook and LinkedIn, you could change your Pin just a little bit to be, “10 Ways to Save On Your Taxes This Year.”
You can even use Pinterest to help you plan engaging content. Go to Analytics > Profile from the main menu. Then click on “Link clicks” to see the Pins you’ve save that get the most clicks.
If you’re Pinning other people’s content, you’ll get a great idea of what topics are popular with people but that you might not be writing. Is there a topic that you haven’t covered that appears over and over? Or maybe a different angle on a topic?
If you want LOTS more detail, more understanding of how Pinners use the platform, and in-depth how-tos for growing traffic from Pinterest, grab our new guide here (it’s free).
Pin Consistently
Pinterest rewards content creators who Pin consistently rather than in a rapid-fire flurry of Pins. The most reliable way to stick to a Pinning schedule that gets your content seen is to use an approved scheduler like Tailwind.
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Make it Easy for Others to Do the Pinning for You
Every blog post and product page on your site should have a great Pinnable image and adding the “Save” widget from Pinterest makes it easy for people to share your content with just one click.
How to Design Pins for More Traffic
Pinterest looked 25 elements of 21,000 Pins to learn what goes into Pins that drive:
Discovery/Awareness
Email Signups
Online Sales
Offline Sales
And while none of these specifically call out “traffic” as a result, clearly most of them involve getting people from Pinterest to your site.
While the specific features of successful Pins can improve your Pin results, there’s always going to be an element of art to creating great Pins. A Pin which resonates emotionally with Pinners, feels relevant to the brand, and creates a connection with Pinners is the one that succeeds.
Check out the short webinar with their findings:
Elements of Traffic-Driving Pin Creative:
Tasteful logo placement
Bold, clear use of text overlay
Striking visuals
Call out unique features when relevant (ex: “new”)
Make your product or service the focal point
Provide context that clearly shows how to use your product or service
Use a vertical format (2:3 ratio – 600×900 px or equivalent)
In Conclusion: Growing Your Website Traffic with Pinterest
If Pinterest isn’t yet part of your traffic-building plan, you’re missing out! By tapping in to Pinner’s desires to be inspired, you can massively increase your website traffic. It’s pretty simple when you:
It’s understandable that a decrease in your Pinterest monthly viewers number has you concerned. After all, we all want our content to be seen!
However, before we dig into the “Why?” it’s important to realize what “viewers” really means and how much impact (or not) it is having on your business.
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What Is Pinterest “Monthly Viewers”?
“Viewers” indicates how many people may have seen your own content that you save to Pinterest, as well as your own content that others have saved to Pinterest. It also includes views of content you have saved from other people’s sites AND views on any Pins you may have promoted.
That said, it’s not the best metric to go by if you’re looking to measure your success on Pinterest, as it’s not a great indication of the engagement on your Pins or on the true impact that your Pinterest marketing has on your bottom line. For a more meaningful number, look at the traffic Pinterest is sending to your site. For that, just go to this link in your Pinterest analytics (that’s analytics > website > click on “clicks”).
Why Does my Pinterest Reach Go Up and Down?
You may notice your viewers and/or traffic fluctuate and that’s perfectly normal. Most businesses have some seasonality. You can compare year-over-year analytics to see if that might be the case for you.
Another thing to consider is that people using Pinterest have a lot of seasonality to their habits! For instance, many people notice a big drop around holiday time and then an upswing the first of the year. You’ll also likely see a slowdown in Pinterest usage when the weather starts to warm up in whatever area your followers live. People are out DOING all those things they were Pinning all winter.
Reasons Your Pinterest Reach Went Down
It’s not usually possible to say for sure, but here are some possibilities:
You Pinned someone else’s Pin which took off for season or other reasons (Pinterest shared it in an email, etc.) and that flurry of activity has died down.
Maybe you wrote about someone’s product or service and they promoted it for a while with ads and have since stopped.
You’re not adding your own new content to Pinterest weekly.
What Can I Do to Increase Pinterest Viewers?
Keep an eye on your Pin Inspector in Tailwind. See which Pins are working for you – and which aren’t. Don’t bother deleting Pins that didn’t get engagement – Pinterest looks for fairly quick engagement, so if it didn’t happen, deleting it won’t fix that and you may miss out on traffic when that Pin picks up later. Just continue improving over time, making more Pins that engage, learning from your Pins (and others’ Pins!) that do well. A great place to find those high-performing Pins is in Pinterest analytics (Analytics > Profile). Learn more about how analytics can help you up your Pinterest game here.
If you’re using Tailwind SmartLoop to reshare your best content, make sure to keep an eye on your Loop analytics. If you see that a particular Pin isn’t getting engagement, you may want to remove it from the Loop and replace it with another image for that content. Try changing up the description keywords and hashtags, too.
Stay active on Pinterest. Pin daily, even if you don’t have enough content of your own to Pin something new every day. Use Tailwind Communities to find great content to share. Keep your queue full – and remember that SmartLoop is a great tool for making sure you NEVER have an empty queue!
Create new content. Pinterest loves new content. They love creators who add their new content. Try to create a new page, post, or item listing at least weekly.
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Is Tailwind Causing my Drop in Viewers? Should I be Pinning Manually?
Tailwind is an official Pinterest partner and we work closely with them to ensure that our products, features, and recommendations will keep your account growing in a healthy way for the long term.
Some people claim that Pinning manually grew their viewers and that may be so, but it likely has more to do with the way they choose Pins and craft careful descriptions when they Pin manually – all things you can also do when using Tailwind!
We asked Pinterest’s Head of Product Marketing if it was important to Pin manually some or all of the time and her answer was an unqualified, “NO.” You can see the short clip here.
In Conclusion: Why Did My Pinterest Monthly Viewers Decrease?
While no one likes to see their numbers decrease, there are lots of reasons why this one might. Seasonality, Pinner habits, waning popularity of a Pin of someone else’s content… It may not be anything you’ve done wrong! But, there are things you can do to increase views and (more importantly) Pinterest traffic, including:
Watch your Pinterest referral traffic for a more meaningful indication of success.
Learn from high-performing Pins and make more Pins like that!
Stay active on Pinterest by using Tailwind, SmartLoop and Tailwind Communities.
Create content on a regular basis, weekly if possible.
That’s it! Have you seen ups and downs in your Pinterest reach? Will you try any of these methods to get back on an upswing? Let us know in the comments!
Tailwind Communities are made up of like-minded content creators who support each other and curate engaging Pinterest accounts by sharing each others content to Pinterest – right from inside Tailwind.
There are thousands of active Tailwind Communities today, with between two and 2,800 (!!?!) members in each. They range in topic from Animals and Pets, to Books, Movies, Personal Finance, Teaching, Fashion, Organic Gardening, and so many more (find your Community here!).
While Tailwind Communities have become an integral part of many Pinner’s marketing efforts, Community Leads sometimes ask – how can I keep my Community and all the Community Members in it, active and thriving over time?
As successful Community Leads will tell you, it starts with the way you set up your Communities.
Set Your Tailwind Community Up for Success
The way you create and present your Community has a lot to do with the Community Members you’ll attract, so in all aspects of Community setup, think carefully about how to make choices that will draw in your ideal Community Members.
Choose the Right Name and Topic for Your Community
Will you go broad or niche? While a broad topic can appeal to a large number of potential Community Members, a narrow topic increases the likelihood that your Community will be full of content that’s relevant for all – making for a happier Community Members and a more active Community.
Nienke of The Travel Tester, is the owner of the Dream.Pin.Go. Community where she and her nearly 200 Community Members have generated over 80 thousand shares to Pinterest. She suggests,
Once you’ve determined the vision and focus for your Community, make sure your Community name and “About” section reflect it. The “About” section is also the place to set expectations for those who are not familiar with the collaborative nature of Communities.
If you’re open to new members joining automatically or by request, you’ll also want to use relevant keywords in your name and description to help people in your niche discover your Community. Choosing a relevant category and tags will also help the right people find you (you’ll set up tags after you create the Community). Learn More
Setting Community Rules
Your Community is your Kingdom, so you make the rules! What kind of guidelines will make your Community a fantastic resource for you and your Community Members?
Rules can cover everything from the subject of Pins allowed, whether or not product photos are allowed, the size of images allowed, the volume of submissions allowed, etc.. Learn More
The first 20 Pins added to a new Community don’t count toward your limit for the month, so go ahead and fill it up! If you already have some invitees in mind, add in some of their content, so when they view your invite and preview your Community, they’ll see that some of their content is their already – and they’ll feel very welcome, indeed!
Grow Your New Community
Leads of brand new Communities may feel at something of a disadvantage when it comes to attracting the best Community Members. After all, how appealing is it to join a Community of one? But, we’re giving our start up Communities a little boost by making the first 20 submissions to a brand new Community not count against a Community Members allotted submissions for the month.
These new “Starting Up” Communities are clearly marked to attract people who might otherwise overlook a brand new Community with only a few members. Of course, you don’t need to wait for people to come to you. In fact, it can be much faster and more effective to build your Community yourself!
Invite Trusted Collaborators
Do you have a mastermind group, some friends who create similar content to yours, or a Facebook group made up of people who are hap
py to share each other’s relevant content? Why not start your Community off this strong core of people whose content you already know and love and whom you are happy to support. You can post an invite to a group, in a direct message, in an email, or a blog post!
Alyssa Basinger owns the public Community, Bloggers & Creative Infopreneurs. Her nearly 1,000 Community Members have generated over 45 thousand shares to Pinterest. About finding great Community Members, she says,
Invite Newer Bloggers to Join
Bloggers who are just starting out or who are new to Pinterest may have more incentive to stay active in a quality Community than those with established followings.
While you can include well-known content creators in your Community, don’t leave out the newbies thinking that they have less to contribute. Pinterest loves the new, fresh content beginning content creators create, and newer content creators may be more inclined to generously share Community Member content, too.
Four Ways to Keep Your Community Active
Maintaining an active Community doesn’t have to be a full-time job. In fact, your Community will save you hours of time you’d otherwise spend searching for great content to Pin. And with your setup optimized, this part should be a piece of cake!
Here are four tasks you might want to include in your weekly Community maintenance:
Weekly Action Items for an Active Community:
Lead by example
Manage join requests – send welcome messages to new Community Members
Preserve the quality of your Community – review the content and sharing habits of Community Members
Encourage
1. Lead by Example
Set aside time once or twice a week to add your content and share out content from the Community. Set a calendar reminder if you’re afraid you’ll forget.
2. Manage Join Requests Thoughtfully
If your Community requires people to request to join (a good idea for screening potential Community Members), you’ll see notifications in your dashboard when people ask to join. Potential Community Members can add a personal message to the request or not, but you’ll always see which Community they want to join and you’ll be able click to view their Pinterest account and website (assuming they have them!).
The first thing I look at is their website. Do they have a blog? If so, would the topics of the posts fit well in my Community? Further, do the blog posts have great Pinnable images and do I think they’ll go over well in the Community? Look at the descriptions on Pins that lead to their website. Are they well written and appealing?
I’m very protective of my Communities, and have no problem ruthlessly rejecting requests when I think either they or the Community as a whole will not benefit,
If anything looks amiss, you won’t be doing them any favors if you accept their request – and you could be damaging your Community. Protect the quality of your Community by only accepting good Community Members.
Note: Sometimes people without a blog join a Community for the express purpose of sharing other people’s content. If they state that in their join request, I’m likely to let them in! Otherwise, if they have no blog and they don’t send a note, I don’t see much value for them or the other Community Members in my accepting their request.
When you do approve a new Community Member, make them feel wanted by sending a welcome chat! It can be particularly motivating and a great testimony to the collaborative nature of Communities if, when they visit for the first time, they see that you have already added some of their content to the Community.
3. Preserve the Quality of your Community
Your Community is a place where Community Members can find fresh, quality, relevant Pins to share with their audience. If ever it starts to feel like the quality of the content or the relevance of the Pins is slipping, that can quickly discourage your Community Members from continuing to participate.
So, keep an eye on what’s in the Community. Remove content that isn’t relevant or otherwise breaks the rules. And send offenders a chat to remind them of the purpose of the Community and the rules. Make sure to emphasize that you’re happy to have them and you just want to make sure this remains a valuable resource for all Community Members – including them!
Pamela Arsena owns the join-by-request Community ‘All Things Beautiful Home Decor & Art.’ Search for that Community by name in Find a Community if you’d like to join! She explains why she sometimes removes content from her Community.
Most of the time you’ll find that a Community Member shared an irrelevant piece of content by mistake and they appreciate the reminder of the purpose of the Community. If one Community Member continues to break the rules, you can always remove. Heather, quoted above, says, “I give people the boot if they don’t comply with the rules.”
Similarly with Community Members who visit the Community to drop their content in and never share anyone else’s content. If they’re not finding content worth sharing, they may be better off in a different Community – but send them a chat first to ask them if that’s the case. They may just need a reminder to share…
Appoint Administrators to Help
As your Community starts to grow, you might want to enlist some help with maintenance. Consider appointing a Community Admin or two! Community Admins can edit Community info, accept or reject requests to join the Community, remove content from the Community, and invite or kick out members (except you – they can’t kick you out!). Learn More.
Reach out to Encourage More Activity
What if, despite the outstanding quality of your Community, the relevant content that flows in daily, and the reshare and repin numbers that grow all the time, you find that some Community Members never quite get going. Or they might start out strong, and seem to lose steam? All is not lost.
Reactivate Lapsed Community Members
If you see that Community Members have not started using the Community, or have slowed their activity, send them a message using Communities chat to tell them you miss sharing their content, to make sure they understand how best to use Communities, and why it’s so valuable. You could perhaps point to an example of their content that was particularly popular in the Community and let them know how many shares and saves it generated. Everyone likes to be missed!
It’s also possible, particularly if they never used your Community at all, that they do not understand how! You can send them to the Communities explainer video or give them some of your own favorite tips.
Reward Stellar Community Members
Most of us respond well to positive reinforcement – so use it for the good of your Community!
Is someone’s content doing really well in the Community? Send them a chat and let them know how happy you are to have them and how much you appreciate their amazing content.
Is someone a super sharer – scheduling out more than they add to the Community? Tell them thank you and give their content a few extra shares in return.
Finding it difficult to get Community Members to respond to Community chat? It’s very possible they’re not seeing your messages. We are working on enhancements to the chat feature which will (very soon!) make them much more prominent to all Community users. In the meantime, you might find their email addresses from their websites and send messages there.
In Conclusion
We value all the hard work Community Leads invest in keeping their Communities active and we know your Community Members do as well! With an intentional setup strategy, invite process, by sticking to a simple maintenance schedule, your Community can continue to serve for years to come.
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