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Pinterest is Back: Using Pins to Drive Traffic to Your Content image

Pinterest is Back: Using Pins to Drive Traffic to Your Content

S1 E22 · Content in the Kitchen
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48 Plays7 months ago

In this episode, Ashley Segura, Head of Content at ContentYum and Kate Ahl, the founder of Simple Pin Media, discuss how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website.

Kate, an absolute Pinterest expert, shares her journey from helping a friend with her blog to building a successful Pinterest marketing agency. She reveals why Pinterest stands out from other social platforms and why it's a powerful, often underutilized tool for content creators and brands aiming to boost their content traffic.

You’ll learn the essential metrics to monitor on Pinterest, discover the types of content that get the most traction, and master the art of crafting a successful keyword strategy. Kate also offers valuable tips on optimizing your Pinterest profile, refreshing your visuals, and maintaining a consistent pinning strategy.

Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, or content creator, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you harness Pinterest’s potential and drive more traffic to your website.

Subscribe now for your bi-weekly dose of content strategy wisdom that's practical, actionable, and twice as likely to make you question everything you thought you knew about SEO and content marketing!

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Follow Kate Ahl:

Website: https://www.simplepinmedia.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-ahl/

Follow Ashley Segura:

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Transcript

Optimizing Pinterest for User Experience

00:00:00
Speaker
So I would say it's important to know that like if people are visiting a particular like page on your site, think of it as, okay, you're getting a ton of Pinterest traffic. How do you really warm them up in this page? How do you let them know? like How do you give them a good user experience that says you're in the right place?
00:00:20
Speaker
And that is a little bit of a dance. I wouldn't say there's this hard and fast formula for it. But if you've never looked at your blog post from Pinterest, like clicked on a pin, come to Pinterest, especially on your phone, then you don't know what kind of user experience they are having.

Introduction to Pinterest as Traffic Driver

00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome back to Content in the Kitchen, where we gather around the kitchen and chat about content marketing. Today, we're talking about Pinterest, an often overlooked but really incredible platform for driving traffic to your content.

Meet Kate All: Pinterest Expert

00:00:54
Speaker
Joining us is none other than Kate All, the founder of Simple Pin Media and an expert in all things Pinterest.
00:01:00
Speaker
Kate saw the potential of Pinterest marketing nine years ago and turned it into a full-fledged marketing agency that now manages hundreds of Pinterest accounts. Today, Kate's here to share her wisdom on how to use Pinterest strategically to get traffic to your content. So grab your favorite cup, settle in, and let's explore how Pinterest can take your content marketing to the next level.
00:01:26
Speaker
Okay, so when you are not at your desk playing around with Pinterest boards and optimizing Pinterest profiles and you find yourself in the kitchen, what is your go-to dish to cook? Ooh, that's such a great question. Well, I'll tell you what I just recently cooked, which was I love fried rice. And I did a variation on a fried rice, like a Mexican fried rice. So I feel like when I go into the kitchen, I'm not intimidated. I love it. I love creating. And probably the thing I make most is my overnight oats recipe for the next morning. But I think cooking is relaxing. I love going to Pinterest and finding new things and just kind of
00:02:07
Speaker
I don't know, getting lost in the cooking. Maybe it's like meditative for me. Yeah, I definitely think cooking is really meditative. Like at the end of the day, no matter how busy my day was, being able to go into the kitchen and start cooking literally anything brings me into this calm state regardless of the dishes to be done and the mess that comes with it.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yes, I try not to think about that part and think I'll just get to that later. It's fine. But I've known been known to have like a full sink of dishes and just go to bed. I'm like, it'll be fine. Yeah, it'll still be there for you.

Navigating Pinterest in a Financial Crisis

00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:02:42
Speaker
All right, let's get into Pinterest and figure out how to use Pinterest to really drive traffic to our content. I first want to kind of go over your company, Simple Pin Media, and your journey to Pinterest. So can you kind of tell us how you got into Pinterest marketing and what drew you to Pinterest, like out of all the platforms out there?
00:03:02
Speaker
So initially I was helping a friend back in 2010 on her frugal and deal blog. It was the days of extreme couponing. And she had gotten into that and it kind of taken off. And she asked me to work on her Facebook page. And it was before Facebook had added in ads. And I loved this element of engagement, of getting to grow. It felt like a game to me. And then I waited into the waters of WordPress, affiliate marketing, all of that.
00:03:28
Speaker
She watched a webinar about Pinterest marketing and she had a Pinterest board, but we really weren't doing anything with it. And it kind of turned out on its side a little bit. This was like 2012, probably two years after Pinterest had started. And I did initially get an invite to Pinterest when it was invite only, but I remember opening it and thinking, I don't, I don't get it. Like, I don't know how to use it. So I didn't.
00:03:52
Speaker
And then when she kind of explained this whole idea of naming boards just exactly what they were at the time you were using horizontal photos and just pinning and then seeing if that traffic will come to your website and it works like we sat in her living room and kind of redesigned her whole profile and started to pin and we started to see this traffic and I thought okay this is really cool and back to the game thing And it was great when things are chronological, right? Like the change of the algorithm and that's just how things are now. But then in 2013, we were faced with a financial crisis.

Services of Simple Pin Media

00:04:27
Speaker
And that's when she suggested to me that I manage people's Pinterest pages. And I thought it was a dumb idea. I said, there's no way people are going to go for it. But she reminded me like we were poor, we needed to do this. So in 2014,
00:04:40
Speaker
I got the domain Simple Pin Media and I started to think about what bloggers had on their plate because I had been so intimate with the owner that I was working for that ah SEO was coming up. Facebook had changed their algorithm for their business pages and Instagram was coming on the scene and it felt like they were so stretched thin. So it really started with this whole understanding of how can I take Pinterest off their plate?
00:05:05
Speaker
but then still direct traffic to their websites and give them like this powerful tool, but they don't have to figure it out because it felt tough for them. So that's really how I started Simple Pin. And still how we feel about it today is that there are people who don't understand how Pinterest works or how it can fit into their overall marketing. And frankly, they're so stretched then they don't want to. And so for us, we just take it off their plate because we've been doing it now for over 10 years.
00:05:35
Speaker
I love how you took consumer pain points, literally built an entire business around it, and you've pivoted over the years as Pinterest has changed, and but you're still addressing that original consumer pain point of, hey, we're even more stretch thin than we were in 2012 as individual business owners or brand owners, and so how can you help us with this? So what kind of services are you seeing or what kind of help are you seeing people needing the most with their Pinterest profiles?
00:06:06
Speaker
I would say for those businesses that have really put Pinterest on the back burner or maybe they had an account a long time ago, for us, but we have an accelerator package where it's basically doing everything up front. So it's building the profile, it's building the images, it's nailing the keywords.
00:06:22
Speaker
setting up a structure for analytics and then at that point they can choose like either they want their team to do it or they want us to do it. It is very rare that a corporate team will take us up on their team doing it. They mostly just see that they're like we want you to do it which leads to monthly management being our top service that we provide because it really allows the business owner to kind of take the backseat but still get a report to say, this is what's happening. Because that was also a big thing for me when I started Simple Pin was that I knew communication had to be key because if somebody was working for me and actually at the time somebody was working for me and I had no idea what they were doing. And so if I could make communication a number one core value, then I could tell them, here's what's happening with your Pinterest, here's what it's doing for you.
00:07:10
Speaker
And then here's how we can kind of collaborate, too, to say, you should create more of this. This is already doing well. And so that whole, you know, service kind of got infused to monthly management. And that's what we find most people want, again, because they feel this draw towards Instagram or towards TikTok.
00:07:29
Speaker
which feels so personal to them. Whereas Pinterest, it's a little bit more detached. They're like, okay, I can let this go. Let somebody else manage because I don't have to be front and center or commenting or engaging all the time.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, that that's a good point because with Instagram and TikTok and even for the blessed lucky ones who are still getting organic Facebook engagement. I mean, even on LinkedIn, like you still need a really personal touch and you need to be commenting back to people so quickly, plus responding to any DMs, making sure and checking wherever your tags.
00:08:03
Speaker
That's an entire workforce just managing those profiles. Whereas Pinterest is more of a, would you say like more of a post and repeats and posts and repeat? Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And not as much engagement. Like you can definitely comment on what people are commenting to you.
00:08:22
Speaker
But it's not built on that. Like it's built on, are you creating the main content that can go out everywhere else, right? But putting this particular content on Pinterest in the right way and then letting it kind of get lift as it will. And and yeah it really doesn't require that personal touch that it needs. What it requires is an analytical touch to understand like what's working and not working.
00:08:45
Speaker
But I think to your point of like LinkedIn or Instagram, like when you comment over there, that's where you're learning about your audience. That's where you're learning about other people, whereas you don't need that element on Pinterest.

Importance of Analytics over Engagement

00:08:58
Speaker
So let's talk about analytics though, because when, when you're identifying if a social media network is beneficial to you, that's basically like, is it helping you reach your ultimate goal, which usually no matter what kind of industry ultimate goal is some form of conversion or revenue. And then you have all the under supporting goals, such as getting website traffic, getting people even to your page. So in the back end of Pinterest, when you're looking at analytics, what are some of the most important metrics that you're looking for, especially for bloggers?
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, saves is number one. And Pinterest has told us that too. It's the number one indicator to let the algorithm know and even to let you know that people are finding it interesting enough to save to their board for later. And then that means that they'll take action later. So we definitely see a correlation between saving about six to nine months in advance before they would do a project. Food, a little bit different because a lot of people When it comes to events, they'll save about 45 days to two months in advance. So they're doing searches for Halloween right now, or they're even the high planners are like really looking into anything to do with fall or anything to do with the Christmas time, right? So ah saves indicate future visits.
00:10:17
Speaker
Now, when you're looking at clicks, so we call them outbound clicks in the analytics on Pinterest, that is those who took action. It gives you an indicator that like, yes, they found this interesting, but you can't always tell, which this would be super cool if Pinterest did this, if it was a saved pin and how long until they visited. Do they visit right away? well yeah And I mean, I would love that data because especially in food,
00:10:45
Speaker
I don't think we necessarily know if it's a right away or if it, if it's not. I know that some people, you know, five o'clock, they've always said at any time time zone is usually where people go to Pinterest and they'll look for recipes or Sunday. Sunday is a big day on Pinterest because a lot of people are weekly meal planning for the week yeah and they go back to their saved recipes because they want to plan everything out.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm definitely that Sunday person. Definitely very guilty of that and like put together my notepad and my phone with links to all the recipes. So say a user like like me who is meal planning on Sunday, they have the list of pins and they're ready to go to the grocery store. like Where do we really tap into that engagement to Get them to become regular users on the website and not just use that one recipe that one Sunday and then never visit us again. Yeah, that's a tough one, right? Because Pinterest users are

Converting Pinterest Traffic to Loyal Followers

00:11:43
Speaker
cold. They're not going loyal. They're loyal to the platform, giving them the vast knowledge or pins that they need.
00:11:52
Speaker
But it takes about seven or eight touch points before we find that people get threaded in. And sometimes it's a I click on your recipe. I really like it. Now I might follow you on Instagram because then I can get a little closer to you. Right.
00:12:07
Speaker
And so then we don't even see people giving their email quite yet because and especially if people have that pop up, they're just trying to close it right away to see if the recipe will even match them. So I would say it's important to know that like if people are visiting a particular like page on your site, think of it as, okay, you're getting a ton of Pinterest traffic,
00:12:30
Speaker
how do you really warm them up in this page? How do you let them know, like how do you give them a good user experience that says you're in the right place? And that is a little bit of a dance. I wouldn't say there's this hard and fast formula for it, but if you've never looked at your blog post from Pinterest, like clicked on a pin, come to Pinterest, especially on your phone, then you don't know what kind of user experience they are having, because I will tell you a lot of times, and you probably know this too, coming from Pinterest to websites,
00:13:00
Speaker
is your pop-up covers the whole thing. And I'm more annoyed by that than I am trying to get the recipe. Or even I use my iPad in the kitchen all the time. yeah I was on Pinterest. I was searching, going to the website, and I will hit jump to recipe. And it's like it either just sits there or it refreshes in this like weird way that I'm like, oh my gosh, I just needed to stick with the recipe.
00:13:25
Speaker
But if I find that I like it, I save it and I'll revisit it. But I'm never going to tell somebody that it happens easily. It happens over multiple touch points, right? If I see the name of a recipe creator and I've made it a couple of times, then I'm going to go follow them on Pinterest. But my primary action is not really to follow them on Pinterest, if that makes sense. So that's why we have follows be a hardly I don't even care about follows. It's not a huge metric to pay attention to.
00:13:55
Speaker
whereas other social networks follows really do matter because that's a big pool of who is going to see your post and what your organic reach represents. So is there a specific kind of content that does really well for driving traffic to your website without bouncing off? A totally great point on how UX, your user experience,
00:14:17
Speaker
can really make or break if the user is going to stay let alone if they're going to go to heaven forbid another page on your website but have you found certain types of content really just winning on pinterest yeah i would say any type of content that answers a question like a lot of our clients will go to their like faqs right and when it comes to When it comes to recipes, I understand there is a ton of competition out there. So in thinking about what sets you apart, right? Like you're not going to be able to compete with like a brownie recipe, but maybe you're going to be able to compete when it comes to this is a really great Halloween brownie recipe or this is great for Mother's Day or something like that. You can compete on events.
00:15:00
Speaker
which I think is really good, but I also think when people answer the questions that people on Pinterest are already asking, that sets to you apart, right? So if you go to the search bar and you see somebody's asking like, what is the best sous vide machine or what is sous vide, right? Like thinking of what people would put in Google, but they also put it in Pinterest because they like looking at images.
00:15:23
Speaker
And I think a lot of times we just assume, oh, people are going to Google for that, but sometimes they're going to Pinterest for it. So how do you continue to answer those questions, balancing it with creating content like you are for Google or me?

Creating Seasonal and Targeted Pinterest Content

00:15:37
Speaker
So I find with any kind of recipe.
00:15:40
Speaker
If you can take an evergreen one, even like bread and kind of spin it a little bit to do a spin off of something for fall or winter or spring or giving a gift, that tends to do pretty well on Pinterest for people when they get creative and play on that. And here's my trick. You don't have to create a new blog post. You could create a new image for it.
00:16:02
Speaker
So the image itself, yeah let's say you have sourdough bread, right? And I'm sure everybody has a bazillion recipes out there. But maybe yours is different because you make it in this amazing dutch oven that costs like $2. I don't know. But yeah you ah what you can do is you can say, make this for Thanksgiving brunch.
00:16:22
Speaker
Or it could be your December brunch or your fall. so So like whatever, there's a lot of things you can do, it but you can put that on the image with those keywords and Pinterest reads that image with those keywords and they're still going to the main recipe. You haven't changed that. So you get a little more extension of your content by playing around with images.
00:16:45
Speaker
That's such a great way to reuse the same piece of content without a ton of resources. So when you're saying the keywords on the image, you're literally talking about like, say we're inside of Canva, putting a text bubble of Christmas brunch sourdough recipe and then like a photo of the sourdough. Yes, exactly. Okay, so as simple as that. As simple as that. And also whatever industry you're in, pay attention to the trends with the images that are on Pinterest.
00:17:13
Speaker
So if you find that food images always look the same, try to change them up a little bit, add a border, add something different, differentiate your image. Yes, with the text, but also with a little bit of the look too, because a common way that we see this is like teachers pay teachers TPT.
00:17:32
Speaker
They always have curriculum products and they feel like they always use the same font. And we're like, stand out a little bit, make it less busy, give more white space. I think sometimes with food, you can have like the up close shot and then the after shot. But like maybe you can throw in ingredients. Maybe you can throw it in as a lifestyle. Like if it is Christmas, add something even in Canvo with like Holly or something and that really helps it stand apart.
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, and also touches on the seasonal aspect. Speaking of industries, I feel like when I personally think of Pinterest, I think of it for food. I do a lot of home remodels. So I think of like the renovation aspect and hairstyles, everyone's sort of like a lot of creative things. So are there specific industries that just simply don't belong on Pinterest or do you think there's an opportunity for everyone on Pinterest?

Industries Thriving on Pinterest

00:18:25
Speaker
I would say if you're a local business, it's Pinterest really isn't the place for you because it's harder unless you're in the wedding industry. So I think that's where it kind of changes because people look for destinations and that has to be local specific, right? If they were going to Bend and they wanted this particular venue or an Oregon wedding or something like that. But if you are a brick and mortar,
00:18:49
Speaker
like a chiropractor or a massage therapist, those are things that are best for like Yelp. Nobody's really searching for that on Pinterest. They might be searching for hairstyles, but chances are if you come across a hairstyle that you like and it's somebody in Kansas, you're like, well, I'm not gonna go see them. I'm just gonna take this to my hairstylist. So if somebody came ah came to us and they were a brick and mortar in person, we would probably say, this is we're not the right fit for you.
00:19:16
Speaker
The other is, this is a funny one because we've had it, is I would say and ah men over 50. If you're targeting the audience that's a little tougher, unless it's in like the contracting space, ah so ah because a lot of contractors have Pinterest, right? Because a lot of their clients have it. I've worked with a contractor before. He's like, I love Pinterest because every single time someone opens it up, the project gets more expensive.
00:19:42
Speaker
ha there so But if you're doing, I would say that category and especially we worked with somebody who wanted to try it for financial investing targeting men over 50 and it just didn't work. Like they're not there, right?
00:19:59
Speaker
And then I would say evaluate if you think go on to Pinterest, search your name, search your topic. What do you see there? And if you really don't see anything and you're thinking, okay, is this an opportunity for me to be like an industry disruptor to get out ahead of my competition or is it just because nobody really is searching for it? But I mean, I met a guy on LinkedIn.
00:20:23
Speaker
He's huge on YouTube and dirt biking. And he started using Pinterest to drive people to his dirt biking YouTube. And it's working. Because liold Gen Z is using Pinterest like crazy. And their topics are all over the map. So I think it's also generation dependent too. So you know we've got Gen Z all the way up to Boomers using the platform. So I think that's an important aspect to consider before asking yourself, is Pinterest the right place for my business?
00:20:53
Speaker
Yeah, which really comes down to understanding your audience and knowing where they are, where they are the most frequently, and then from a resource perspective, do you have enough resources to meet them in all of those places? And if not, then dive into the ones where they are the most. yeah So say there's a brand who's like, OK, I used to do Pinterest. I stopped doing Pinterest for a while because of that lull that I had years ago. Now I'm hearing it's back again, and and people are getting lots of traffic, which personally is what I'm hearing from a lot of clients. that yeah they're getting tons of website traffic from Pinterest now. So say a brand wants to revisit their Pinterest, what are some of the first things that they should do coming back to their profiles? Yes, we actually just had a meeting with a company last week that fits this bill perfectly because they had been investing so much of their resources
00:21:42
Speaker
into growing TikTok, into Instagram. And with the Instagram slowdown, with people feeling really frustrated, they had a Pinterest pre-2020, but they kind of just let it kind of, you know, fade into the background. yeah So for them, we're saying, okay, here's what you need to do. First, we got to reset your profile. Doesn't match the keywords that you're targeting. Are those the same keywords that people are using on Pinterest? How can we give it a full refresh check?
00:22:08
Speaker
Then how can we go into your image refresh? Maybe you're just pinning things from Instagram, which is very common. We hear that all the time where people are like, I just turned on the Instagram feature and let it go. The bummer part about that is the descriptions are not optimized. Then you have hashtags and you have square images. So there's no real like design strategy for Pinterest. So then we get to what is your unique design that we're going to use in your Pinterest image that keeps that builds that awareness, builds that branding so people recognize it's you. And then we're going to go into keywords and we're going to say, what are the keywords that we want to target for? What's the main focus here? How do we want to take these and target them for three to four months?
00:22:52
Speaker
And then we go into setting up what is your baseline of analytics? What are you getting right now so we can see what is your growth pattern? Now, we can't use any historical data because you really weren't using Pinterest. But once we establish the baseline and make sure that that all the connections are set up, that is a big thing, right? Like we've gone through the G4 change.
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of people didn't do it. Do they have everything connected? So getting that set and then really creating a Pinterest strategy for them. What is your pinning strategy? How often are you going to pin?

Refreshing Pinterest Strategies for Brands

00:23:25
Speaker
Are you creating content? And then how often are you going to create content which dictates? Okay, then that's tied to your keywords and that's tied to your images. And now we have this consistent strategy that we can try for three to six months and see, can we jog the traffic again? Can we get people visiting your website? And even during that, like that takes about six to eight weeks. During that six to eight weeks, you can see a bump already from just being active on the platform, from Pinterest going, oh, you're here again. Okay, let's you know let's show you show your stuff to people. And that's pretty cool to see because that's,
00:24:04
Speaker
That's what you want the platform to acknowledge. Acknowledge that you're there and that you're contributing. Yeah, and in give a chance for your new content to get some eyes and get some traffic and see what's working and what's not working. You mentioned keywords a lot and you know everything with content is kind of based around keywords even.
00:24:21
Speaker
the topic idea that you're gonna come up with is from keywords. So how do you build a keyword strategy for Pinterest that fits content that you already have published on your blog? Yeah, so I would say the best example we give people is that it's easy to go with what's on your blog. A lot of people say, can I just use what I pull in Google?
00:24:40
Speaker
That is fine and unless, let's say you're plant-based or vegan. Those are two different terms that people are searching. So going to Pinterest and seeing, okay, what are people searching over here that more closely matches what I talk about? So beginning to build kind of this keyword bank of here's your top 10 or 20.
00:25:01
Speaker
We're gonna use this in every single image we do, every single description we do. We're gonna see if that's what the they use the audience over here is searching. And if they're new, that's a little bit of throwing darts, right? To see if that's exactly what they are searching. But I think it's fine to take what you know about your SEO strategy and apply it over to Pinterest. Just go check the search bar. Your search bar is your best friend on Pinterest. That's where you get a lot of the keyword research from.
00:25:29
Speaker
and then the Trends tool, which is trends dot.pinterest dot.com. and That's really the closest thing we have to tell us like when search terms are trending, what the volume of trending is, and then getting more ideas from over there.
00:25:44
Speaker
So it it really is like taking SEO strategies and like when you go to Google and search for a term and see what's populating, see what's currently ranking, or when you go to Google Trends to see what are people talking about right now and how can I create a piece of content that maybe will fit in this as well as match my

Pinterest vs. Instagram: Algorithm Dynamics

00:26:02
Speaker
niche. It's a really similar concept, doing that within Pinterest, but it sounds like with Pinterest you don't have as many algorithm changes or constraints as you do with, say, meta or Google. Is that about right? Yeah, I would say definitely. I would say as far as algorithm changes and updates,
00:26:24
Speaker
One, it's never publicized with Pinterest. It's all guessing and you never ever really know. You know when there's a glitch, but it's mostly guessing like, okay, we had a change in Pinterest traffic. Did we have a change in the algorithm? But what's also interesting is that the Pinterest algorithm The best way to explain it is like over on Instagram you always have like they love 20 hashtags or today they love two hashtags or they like square versus they like real and there's there always seems to be this method that you can follow. Whereas on Pinterest it's always have you maximized keywords in everything that they've given you. Do you have a vertical image?
00:27:07
Speaker
Do you have keywords in that image and are you pinning consistently keywords image consistency? That's really it. So other than that what you're watching for is are they taking certain keywords that maybe you use? And they're publicly saying like, if you've been talking about losing weight in 10 pounds in 10 days, they're like, no, we don't want that yeah here on the platform. yeah So they'll be super transparent to say, if you use diet, if you use these terms, we won't show it to people. But other than that, they'll have this whole thing like, okay, well today I can't use a vertical image, I gotta use horizontal. Or today I have to use video.
00:27:47
Speaker
it's It's just not that cut and dry with Instagram, which I actually kind of appreciate because it stays the same. like yeah And you can at least plan your content around it for the most hard weeks in advance. Exactly. It's not as... I feel like Pinterest also isn't as labor intensive because of that. So there's not this, okay, is today hashtag day or is it not? Like, is it changing this week? And there's so much of a lag time in
00:28:21
Speaker
people responding to your content that you know if somebody doesn't respond to your content on Instagram within the first 24 hours, you're like, well, it's dead, right? that Where yeah with Pinterest, if somebody doesn't respond to your content in the first month, oh, well, like i you don't know because month six,
00:28:39
Speaker
All of a sudden it gets picked up and now you have a ton of traffic and that it can happen over and over and you just you just don't know. So a lot of people will ask about like deleting pins. Should I delete it? Didn't get any engagement? No, just leave it.
00:28:53
Speaker
Interesting. So then it's, it's almost anti the normal social network of you have a very limited shelf life. You actually have the opportunity again, just like SEO to down the road, get a pin discovered that can eventually drive a lot of traffic to your site. A hundred percent. And it's, it's like this really great.
00:29:17
Speaker
cold lead source, work force for you, that i I think it's a little bit like YouTube, but YouTube does have engagement metrics and comments and things like that. But that's how we put Pinterest next to YouTube and SEO because they hold the same properties, right? Of being these traffic sources that are almost like your sustainable foundations. Like they are the thing that's gonna hold your business up when all these other ones feels so scattered or feels so over the map. And it's interesting when I watch that from even like my own business or as a marketer, I think people are spending 20 to 30 hours a month on Instagram, whereas they can spend four five hours a month on Pinterest. like It doesn't have to be as labor intensive, which I appreciate. And I think the same is true sometimes with YouTube. like It doesn't have to be as intense. I don't know. I think i think we chase Instagram for a lot and I sometimes wonder why.
00:30:24
Speaker
Also, especially because like the conversion path, if you're trying to get people to see your content on your website and get people over there, Instagram's so far from that path, whereas Pinterest, you're literally clicking, going directly to the website, and they're attracted by that one image. They're able to click on that image, whereas Instagram, we are so limited with link options, which is why <unk>ing these are just brands are just flooding stories, because at least there, they can get the link or they can click in there, but even then,
00:30:54
Speaker
It's such a stretch of the network, whereas users go to Pinterest for a specific piece of information that they're looking for, whether they're trying to be inspired by something or need an idea or a recipe, whatever that looks like. And they're trying to make an action with that. Whereas Instagram, we're we're scrolling, we're killing time. Like, yes, yes.
00:31:16
Speaker
you And we're going to Pinterest like what you are doing. You're going in on Sunday and you're being very intentional about meal planning or you are going in to plan your yard or you're going in to figure out a next home project. And I think that it's like you're wanting to meet people when they're intentionally searching for the type of content that you have.
00:31:40
Speaker
And they know that once they find that they're moving off the platform or yeah are saving for later because maybe they're you know killing they are killing time searching for this thing that's important to them and they're going to revisit that board later.
00:31:56
Speaker
I think connecting with that user behavior and thinking, OK, how can I get in front of that person? And it's going to take a lot of darts and it's going to take a lot of visits of them coming to your website because they don't know you and they're not ready to commit. And so seeing it as this long term nurture platform is really the best way to frame it up in your whole marketing plan. Yeah, because that's that's truly what it is. And as you continue to create more content,
00:32:24
Speaker
It's tools like this and platforms like this that give you the opportunity to get engagement over time versus that initial 24-hour pull, and then now it's kind of a dead piece of content. Yes. that As we wrap up, I would love to know what your current secret sauce is, what your favorite tool or a new strategy that you found is just working really well with Pinterest. What's your current secret sauce?
00:32:49
Speaker
high Current secret sauce, I would say I really love playing up with images.

Crafting Creative Images for Diverse Audiences

00:32:55
Speaker
I think there's a lot to really be gained from spending time creating amazing images. And we find that with our clients, those ones who are willing to either let us do it for them, or we give them suggestions of things to play around with, are actually getting greater reach.
00:33:12
Speaker
And I think it's normal that people hit this exhaustion point where they're like, I've written a blog post. I've thought about Instagram. It's almost like Pinterest is the last one. And they go, let's go into Canva, grab a template, throw it up and call it good. And we're just going to put like amazing chocolate brownies.
00:33:30
Speaker
But it's like when you take an extra 10 to 15 minutes to think creatively about, okay, how can I create two to three images for this that look different, but maybe maximize an event for one, a holiday for another, evergreen for one, now you're kind of targeting like three different groups of people with one image. And I see the greatest incururt the greatest increase with clients who do that, as opposed to ones who are exhausted, which no fault at all. We're in an exhausting environment of business. I mean, I'm exhausted of just trying to figure out what's next, right? And where we're going. So it it is hard to sit in front. But I would say if you're going to be intentional about your Pinterest strategy, that is one thing we see get overlooked. And all the time is that piece. It's just dig in on your images.
00:34:21
Speaker
yeah that It's such a great strategy to take this brownie recipe, for example, and do like day after wedding brownies, Christmas brownies, and then girls night in brownies. like Those are three totally different audiences searching for three very different things, but all they want is a brownie recipe. It really doesn't matter what it is, but if you say the word that they're wedding brownies, then all of a sudden the person who's planning their wedding is gonna find these and be like, oh, this is perfect. This is exactly what I was looking for.
00:34:49
Speaker
right right right it's true and that's what you're looking for is that hit and what's great is that in all these different recipe creators what we see is google pinterest number one number two driving traffic pinterest google pinterest sometimes number one because people know that they're they know that they have to come to your site to get it. And so if you like intrigue them enough, they're like, oh yeah, what is this for, you know, Girls Night? Yeah, let's make this. Because they might not have connected that dot ah when they saw a brownie, but now they've connected the dot when they see Girls Night. So play around with it, have fun with it. Yeah, and truly understand your user intent, because there's definitely a lot there. Yeah, for sure.
00:35:34
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you so much Kate for joining us today and for everything that you shared. Really appreciate it. Yeah, you bet.