Yes, you read that title correctly. I started with ZERO followers and ZERO monthly views on Pinterest, but with a lot of trial and error I’ve finally nailed down a strategy that has had my reach on Pinterest growing at a consistent pace.
I now consistently get over 8 million monthly viewers on Pinterest, and growing!
How I Got Started
Now, I’m not a big blogger with hundreds of thousands of followers. In fact, I’d be considered a “micro-influencer” in terms of social media, because my presence there is generally pretty small. (Pop on over to instagram and say hi!) What I’ve learned though, is that you don’t need to have a large social media presence to make a huge impact and earn money. I’m living proof!
All you need is a good Pinterest marketing strategy!
When I started my blog, I was not into Pinterest marketing at all. I had hardly any views on my blog (less than ten a month!), and I felt like my dreams of ever having an audience were crushed before I even started. Then I read an article about Pinterest from a blogger that I trusted, and she had a Pinterest e-course. Score, right?!
Unfortunately, the price tag was heavier than my big butt and there was no way in HELLLLLL that I was going to be able to afford that. I was overdrawing my account every month just to make rent, a college student drowning in loans, and trying to keep my little family afloat! Spending that kind of money on an e-course?? Hahahahaha. A joke.
But the idea of Pinterest marketing fascinated me, especially because it was something I could do for FREE! I pulled out my zippy little fingers and BOOM! You’re looking at new Pinterest user, Hey Sunny Jess, right here!
Only at the time, my account was Onyx & Blush Co. because that was my old blog name before rebranding… that’s a story for another time though!
After that, I spent years of painful trial and error, ridiculously slow growth, and HOURS of research trying to figure out how to use Pinterest. Thankfully that research paid off, and I finally had a Pinterest marketing strategy that was working for me.
Over the last year, I have grown my monthly views and reach to over 8 million a month, and that number is still increasing. Not to brag, but this has completely changed my life- and I want to share that with every single badass boss babe out there because girl, you freaking deserve it!
Great! So what’s the first step?
You’re a go getter! I like that.
No matter where you are in your Pinterest marketing journey, trust me I have been there. I started completely from scratch, absolute zero. So here is the first step- you need to START YOUR ACCOUNT NOW.
If you haven’t already, create a new account specifically for your business or blog. When you first create a Pinterest account, it will automatically create the account as a personal account- don’t worry about that, just go into the setting option after your account is set up and you’ll be able to change it to a business account.
Your account needs to be a business account so you can access all of the analytics and see how well your pins and account are performing.
If you want to learn more about setting your account up step-by-step in a way that is going to help support the voice of your brand and get noticed, I include detailed instructions and tips in my Pinterest marketing e-course!
Yep… I created my own e-course for Pinterest. You know why? Because there needs to be an e-course out there to help the people with normal-sized pockets!
When I was just starting out, I vowed that if I ever figured out Pinterest that I would create an e-course that was actually affordable and not hundreds of dollars for the boss babes out there that are like me- hungry for growth and success, interested in learning, but don’t have the time or money to spend hundreds of hours or dollars to get there.
My goal is to help women that are serious about having a Pinterest strategy to grow their income and business in a way that is valuable, easy, and affordable for the girl that is just starting out in the Pinterest world.
So that’s exactly what I did. I started my account, I spent literally HUNDREDS OF HOURS researching and experimenting, discovering what worked and what didn’t, and when I finally cracked the code, my monthly views, followers, and income shot straight up. If you’re interested in a detailed, robust guide for setting up your Pinterest account, growing your views, and earning money from Pinterest, then this course is for you!
All set up? Great! Let’s optimize those pins!
There are a couple of really important rules when pinning on Pinterest that will make a huge difference in how well your pins perform.
1- The pin must be visually appealing.
Make sure you are using good imagery with a clear message when you create your pin graphics. Vertical pins tend to perform better than horizontal pins as well, so when you create your pin try to find an image or design that is vertical.
2- Pin descriptions MATTER.
A lot, actually. Pin descriptions aren’t just telling viewers what the pin is about, they are KEY in helping your pin stand out in a search. You need a description on EVERY SINGLE PIN if you can, because it’s going to improve the results you see for each pin.
When you are writing up pin descriptions, make sure that they accurately describe the pin and aren’t misleading. For example, if you have a recipe pin, don’t put in a description about cute puppies just because cute puppies are searched more.
You want to choose RELEVANT descriptions to your pin. That way, when people are searching for something specific and your pin pops up, they are excited to click through to your content and aren’t misguided.
3- Keywords. Keywords. Keywords.
Pin descriptions should include a sentence or two about the pin, then you can add in some keywords.
Keywords are a huge factor in how often you will pull up in a search, which effects how many people see and click on your pin. The more you pop up in a search, the more eyes are on your pin, the more clicks you have, and the more traffic you’ll have both on Pinterest and your website.
If you are interested in learning more about keywords, there is an entire section about keywords, how to use them effectively, and how to find great keywords to use in my new Pinterest e-course, which you can find here!
Pin content multiple times
Your pins are not a one-and-done type of deal, thank goodness! You can re-pin your own pins to your website over and over again, of course leaving some space between each pin! Obviously don’t pin it back to back, that is annoying and a sure way to lose followers, ha! But if you have a pin that you want to get out there, pin it over several boards, and keep re-pinning it every few weeks!
I always look to see what my top performing pins are in my analytics page (learn how to utilize your Pinterest analytics in my course!) and then I will re-pin those again after it’s been a couple of weeks or more since last pinning them. I try to pin to new boards if relevant as well so that it stays fresh content.
This is a great way to get your content seen continually and increase the chances of someone re-pinning your pin, which improves traffic to your page. In my e-course, I also discuss how often to pin and the best strategies for re-pinning your own content in a way that is effective, so you can find more information there!
Now for the secret sauce… CONSISTENCY!
I know, I know, pretty much every social media or Pinterest marketing guide says that consistency is key- but it is SO TRUE. The key to truly growing your reach is to show Pinterest that you are a consistent user. Pinterest rewards its users, so the more consistent you are, the more your pins are going to naturally occur in their smart feed for people with interests in content like yours.
Now, technically once a week could be considered “consistent,” but you definitely want to be pinning much more than that. In fact, you want to be pinning multiple times daily, at optimal times!
When I first started hearing that I should be pinning on my business account multiple times a day, every single day, I just shook my head. No way, I mean I was working, a mom, a student- I didn’t have time to do that! In fact, I still don’t have time to do that! Who has hours to spend every week trying to pin simply so that Pinterest can see that you’re consistent?
The answer? NOBODY. Girl, your time is MONEY- there is nothing that you have that is more valuable than your time in the business world!
I started looking into ways I could optimize my strategy so that Pinterest could see I was pinning every day and consistently, without actually having to get on every single day and pin, and I discovered Tailwind.
Get those pins AUTOMATED!
I don’t want to get all sales-y about Tailwind, but I absolutely have to because the truth is, I could NOT have been successful without it. I just didn’t have the time to make it work. Tailwind is an automated pin scheduler that you can use to manage all of your Pinterest content and review your analytics, it’s an incredible, invaluable tool.
Using Tailwind, I can get on once a week (or less if I want!) and batch all of my pins up, so I only spend about an hour scheduling all of my pins. Then Tailwind automatically pins them at regular intervals on whatever schedule I set for me. Not only does it save me time, but it makes pinning consistently incredibly easy and it pins at optimal times, when more of my users are on Pinterest and likely to see my pins.
Tailwind also has really great analytics and reporting features, so you can see which pins perform really well, which ones don’t, and you can loop your pins so that they’ll automatically re-pin themselves.
Not only are the reporting features phenomenal, but they also have Tailwind Tribes which are groups you can join and add your content to, and then everyone that is part of the tribe can choose to pin that content. This is a huge benefit because you’ll gain followers faster through meeting tribe-mates and you’re getting your pins in front of more eyes, increasing your monthly views on Pinterest.
It starts at just $10 a month (or $15 if you just want to pay monthly), and it manages everything for you. Seriously, this has been what truly skyrocketed my monthly viewers on my blog. I was growing, and I had even started growing quickly doing everything else that I mentioned here (using keywords, good pin images, etc.), but it wasn’t until I used Tailwind to automate my processes that I jumped up to 1 million monthly views.
Within just a few months I was hitting over 8 million monthly views. I make back every single penny (and a whole lot more!) that is spent on Tailwind, it’s the one tool that I could never live without for my business.
Not ready to use Tailwind?? That’s cool, I get it. I put it off for MONTHS before trying it. But I want to be completely honest about my success, and Tailwind has been vital to that journey. If you’re interested, you can also try a free trial, or I’d recommend even just trying it for a month or two to see how you love your results. You can pay month to month and there’s not any contract, so it’s worth trying out for a small time.
If you want more details about how I use Tailwind to help with my Pinterest marketing strategy and success, you can find that in my e-course as well, along with alternatives to Tailwind in case you’re not ready to buy!
Slaying the Pinterest game
Creating a business account and starting use my analytics to guide my strategy, optimizing my pins with good images and strong keywords, and automating my posting process has totally transformed my Pinterest strategy. I am currently gaining more than 100 new followers a week, get more than 600 thousand monthly engagements, generate traffic to my blog and income to my bank, and reach well over 8 million monthly views – all as a result of implementing this strategy.
I promise, this will work for you too! Pinterest is an incredible business tool, and I am LIVING PROOF that using Pinterest as a business tool can help you make a huge impact and huge income, without having a huge following.
Be sure to check out my e-course and save yourself hours of research by getting all of the information you need to be successful on Pinterest in one place.
You can start with zero, at the very bottom, and climb your way up. You are a badass boss babe and you have GOT THIS! I can’t wait to see where you go!
XXOO Sunny
Jessica
August 1, 2019 at 8:34 pm (5 years ago)Thank you for sharing this! I can’t wait to really dive in and ready every detail that you shared. I’ve been wanting to use Pinterest to grow traffic to my blog but I’m with you…small pocket book! Thank you for creating an e-course that’s affordable. I’m so glad we are part of the Style Collective community so I could find you and read this post!
Sunny
August 1, 2019 at 8:51 pm (5 years ago)Thank you so much for the sweet comments! I’m so excited to have met you through Style Collective, too! Please let me know if you have any questions at all about the course, I’m happy to answer! XXOO