Your Pinterest strategy

Crafting an effective Pinterest marketing strategy that drives business growth

In this lesson you'll learn:

  • A five step process for building an effective strategy that works for your unique business
  • Why Fresh Pins are the key to successful Pinterest marketing
  • How to quickly create the Fresh content Pinterest craves (and rewards)

This lesson provides a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to crafting an effective Pinterest strategy that transforms casual browsers into loyal customers, driving your business' growth. We'll cover everything from understanding your audience to leveraging analytics and automation, ensuring your Pinterest presence becomes a source of targeted, organic traffic that grows month after month, year after year creating a cost-effective way to find and make new customers so your business can grow.

Step 1: Understanding your ideal Pinterest customer

Your Pinterest marketing will work best, and you'll get significant results much faster, if you understand precisely who you're creating it for. Defining your target audience on Pinterest goes beyond basic demographics. It's about understanding their interests, pain points, what they're searching for, and what motivates them to click that "buy" button. Think of it like creating a customer avatar:

As much as possible, you want to get inside the mind of your customer. You want to understand the exact headspace they're in when they have the problem(s) your content and products solve.

  • Demographics: Likely age, gender, location, income level.
  • Psychographics: Their values, lifestyle, interests, hobbies.
  • Pinterest Behavior: What boards do they follow? What types of Pins do they engage with? What are their search terms?
Take action:
Create a Pinterest persona for your business. Give them a name, a face (even a stock photo will do!), and flesh out their profile with as much detail as possible. Bold or highlight aspects of this persona that should guide your content creation. This will help you visualize your ideal customer and tailor your content to their specific needs.
Image showing the formation of a Pinterest persona: Three colored arrows (purple for demographics, pink for psychographics, and blue for Pinterest behavior) merge into one. Each category includes specific factors like age, gender, values, and followed boards.

Step 2: Keyword research and optimization — aligning with your customer

Remember that Pinterest is a search engine, which means keywords are king. Effective keyword research unlocks the door to reaching your target audience organically. Now that you have a clear picture of who your target audience is, think about what terms your ideal customer would use when searching for products or services like yours. Use keyword research tools like Tailwind's free Pinterest Keyword Finder Tool to identify relevant keywords and phrases, then strategically incorporate them into your:

  • Pin Titles: Be descriptive and concise.
  • Pin Descriptions: Provide context and include a clear call to action.
  • Board Names: Use relevant keywords to categorize your content.
  • Board Descriptions: Expand on the board's theme and incorporate related keywords.

Since all your content creation flows from these keywords, it's critical that you invest the time to identify the optimal keywords.

Take action:
Conduct a keyword brainstorming session. Start with broad and obvious terms related to your business, then drill down into more specific long-tail keywords (phrases of three or more words). Use your ideal customer profile as inspiration.

Put yourself in their mindset, open Pinterest, and start searching. Make note of any possible keyword opportunities. Prioritize your list into three groups: high-priority, medium, and low so that you know which words to focus on, which to sprinkle in occasionally, and which to experiment with.  
Image depicting Pinterest keyword strategies: The central Pinterest logo is surrounded by orbit-like lines and text bubbles for board names, pin titles, and pin descriptions. Each bubble contains specific strategies, such as using relevant keywords and crafting descriptive titles.

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Step 3: Crafting visually stunning Pins — first impressions matter

On Pinterest, your eye-catching, appealing visuals are key. High-quality, vertical images and videos are essential for capturing attention in a sea of competing content.

Having design chops certainly helps, but there are also tools like Tailwind Create that help you generate professional looking Pinterest designs very quickly.

Consider these key elements:

  • Image Quality: Use professional-looking, high-resolution images.
  • Vertical Format: Pinterest favors vertical images (aspect ratio of 2:3 or 1:2.1 is ideal).
  • Branding: Maintain a consistent brand aesthetic across all your Pins.
  • Text Overlay: Add compelling text overlays that highlight key benefits or calls to action.
  • Video Pins: Incorporate engaging video content to showcase your products or services in action.
Take action:
Create a mood board for your Pinterest visuals. Gather inspiration from other successful brands in your niche and define your own visual style. This will help you define and leverage a consistent brand.
Image illustrating elements of effective Pinterest pins: A circular diagram with segments for text overlay, image quality, vertical format, video pins, and branding. Each segment has associated tips, like using compelling text and maintaining consistent branding.

Step 4: Optimizing your Pinterest profile — build a welcoming storefront

Your Pinterest profile is your digital storefront. Make it inviting, informative, and easy to navigate.

  • Business Account: Convert to a business account to access valuable analytics and advertising features.
  • Claim Your Website: Verify your website to build credibility and track referral traffic.
  • Profile Photo: Use a professional headshot or your brand logo.
  • Bio: Clearly state what your business offers and who you serve.
  • Boards: Create boards relevant to your niche and organize them logically.
  • Board Descriptions: Use keywords and provide context for each board.
Take action:
Review and update your Pinterest profile. Ensure all information is accurate and up-to-date.
Image detailing how to optimize a Pinterest profile: Five arrow-shaped segments outline steps, including business account access, website claiming, using a professional profile photo, writing a clear bio, and organizing boards.

Step 5: Building a consistent posting schedule — Work smarter, not harder

Consistency and volume are the keys to Pinterest success. You want to Pin at least 5 times a day (we recommend between 5 and 25 times a day). You also need to maintain that volume week after or week so that your traffic continues to grow. If your pinning is inconsistent, your results will be too.

But who has time to manually pin multiple times a day? This is why scheduling tools like Tailwind are essential for anyone serious about Pinterest marketing. Tailwind is your secret weapon for effortless scheduling and creating top-quality content at the scale it requires to generate significant traffic from Pinterest.

  • SmartSchedule: Tailwind analyzes your audience's activity and suggests optimal posting times.
  • Interval Pinning: Spread out your Pins throughout the day and week to maximize reach.
  • Content Calendar: Plan and organize your Pinterest content in advance.
  • Board Lists: Easily pin to multiple boards at once.
Take action:
If you haven't already, sign up for Tailwind and invest the time it takes to learn how to quickly generate Pin content. Start with scheduling five Pins a day for just one week (create and schedule 25 Pins). You'll find that each week you get faster and faster as you identify the bulk pin creation and scheduling workflow that works for you.

After scheduling a month of Pins, you'll have mastered an efficient bulk pinning workflow. From then on, you'll be able to create and schedule a month of Pins very quickly. It's at this point that your Pinterest marketing results will begin compounding and you'll see an increase in traffic month after month.
Image about utilizing tools for consistency on Pinterest: A vertical list with icons highlights steps like identifying the need for consistency, using SmartSchedule, implementing interval pinning, organizing with a content calendar, and utilizing board lists.

Creating a successful Pinterest strategy takes a little effort up front and a willingness to adapt as you learn what's working over time. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you'll begin your Pinterest marketing with a strategy built on the rock-solid foundation — an understanding of your customer's needs and desires — a proven, battle-tested starting point for effective marketing.

The most important thing is to get started with creating and scheduling Pins. After you've defined and understood your ideal customer and the keywords they use, you'll learn more by actively pinning than you will by continuing to learn and strategize.

Key takeaways:

  • Keywords are critical – Remember, Pinterest is part search engine. Your customers will only find you only if your content appears when they search for terms relevant to your products and services.
  • Volume and consistency are key – By consistently pinning between 5 and 25 times per day, you'll see steady growth in organic traffic that drives sales. User a scheduling tool like Tailwind that is designed for bulk pinning.
  • Analyze and adjust – Keep an eye on what is working (and what isn't) so you Pinterest strategy continues to evolve

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