What would an extra 200 visitors a day mean for your business? How about 100 visitors? It’s a big number, but you could be achieving similar results from Pinterest. I want to show you how you can get traffic from Pinterest and rank content on Google for your keywords.
Before I get into the Pinterest marketing plan I’m using, here’s a screenshot of the results I’m getting with one site in the travel niche. You can see Pinterest is the top source of referral traffic to by a long way. The best bit is that this is that you can get traffic to your website using Pinterest without spending a penny!
These stats aren’t fully representative of the traffic I’ve got from Pinterest using this marketing plan. All of the content that has gone viral on Pinterest receive a big SEO boost, sending articles up the Google rankings for multiple keywords I want to rank for.
This might not be a simple case of cause and effect. The correlation between the higher SEO rankings and content going viral on Pinterest might be indirect (more people view the content, find it useful and link to it). Regardless of whether it’s correlation or causation, what’s important is this Pinterest marketing plan is getting me results and I think it will do the same for you.
Step 1: Set Up Your Pinterest Boards
Like most things in life you’re more likely to achieve success when you have some kind of strategy. A good Pinterest marketing plan starts with creating and joining boards that reflect the focus of your business. For example, if you’re a design company you might have a board on design inspiration, design theory and a showcase of your best work.
If you’re marketing through Pinterest I recommend creating a minimum of three personal boards. One of these boards should showcase the best content from your website. The other boards can be group boards. These are boards where you invite other bloggers or influencers in your niche. Running a group board is a good way to get more Pinterest followers, which helps you get more shares on Pinterest.
You should also create two secret boards (these are boards only you can see). One board is for bookmarking relevant content from other content creators in your niche. The other board is for bookmarking your own content. I’ll get into why these two boards are an important part of your Pinterest marketing in a bit.
Step 2: Join Relevant Pinterest Boards
In addition to creating your own boards you need to find relevant boards to join. Finding relevant Pinterest boards to join is easy. Pingroupie is a useful starting point. The site has a database of public boards you can join across multiple niches. Alternatively search for the accounts of established bloggers or companies in your niche and try and join the boards they are active in.
At the top of every Pinterest board you’ll find a brief. The brief will either have a variation on the statement that the board is ‘now closed’ or instructions on steps you need to take to join the board. This will be something like follow the board, follow the board creator and email/ message the person.
I’d recommend joining five group boards. That’s a minimum. You can join as many boards as you like. However many boards you do join, make sure you are active on all the boards all the time.
Step 3: Social Outreach
The last part of your Pinterest marketing plan is getting people to join the group boards you manage. This is quite tough when you’re starting out, because you’ve got no followers. It could be worth waiting till you have a couple of hundred followers before you start cold outreach.
Start your outreach by tapping your personal network for relevant influencers or bloggers and invite them to join your board. Once you’ve exhausted that avenue begin with the cold outreach (check out this article for useful tips on influencer marketing).
I use a simple email template for cold mailing influencers. I’ve saved a copy of the template in Google docs. Feel free to use it or adapt it for your own outreach efforts.
Step 4: Creating Your Pins in Youzign
Before you start making graphics for Pinterest you should create a style guide. This will help your audience as well as other bloggers easily identify your content. If you’ve never heard of a style guide before, it should include the following:
- Color Scheme: the primary colors you will use on your pins.
- Font Pairing: choose two fonts for your designs.
- Logo Location: defines where logo/ website url will be.
Use your style guide for the onsite Pinterest graphics. To increase the chance of your content going viral on Pinterest you should create multiple pins for each piece of content you create. The variations you create shouldn’t follow your style guide. Instead you want to experiment.
Use different color schemes for your designs. Change the headline, the font and meta description. Use a mix of photos, infographics, mockup images and regular pins (here’s a list of the best mockup creators).
Just to clarify, when I talk about creating multiple pins for your content I don’t mean adding multiple Pinterest graphics to your post. You’re creating multiple graphics of your post for Pinterest. To do this add a graphic to your post, update the article and then save the image to Pinterest before deleting it from your article. Rinse and repeat.
Step 5: Pinning Schedule
There are a couple of factors that determine how likely the content you pin is viewed by other users. Two key factors are the number of followers you have and the number of followers of the boards that you’re active on. The Pinterest algorithm also determines the likelihood of your content appearing in the feeds of other users.
The two most important factors for the Pinterest algorithm are time on site – how often you pin content – and the type of content you are sharing. Basically the more often you pin content throughout the day the more likely your content is to appear in other people’s feeds. Secondly, Pinterest rewards/ penalises you if you only pin your own content.
Ideally you should post one piece of your own content for four pieces of content from other users and be on Pinterest as much as possible. To ensure the highest level of engagement with your pins you’ll want to first check out where your audience comes from. You can find this information in the Pinterest analytics section, there’s a screenshot below.
Caption: Use the Pinterest analytics to see where your audience comes from.
Obviously you want to be most active on Pinterest when your audience is online. The best time to pin is basically first thing in the morning, around lunch, just before the end of work and in the evening before bed. If your audience are from multiple time zones then you need to create a pinning content accordingly.
At a minimum you should pin content across all your boards at least three times a day. The more active you are though the better, which is why I recommend using Pinterest automation software. This allows you to spend less time of Pinterest and get better results (here’s a list of the best Pinterest software).
Pro Pinning Tips
To get the maximum amount of exposure for each piece of content, post the same pin across your various boards over the course of a day or more. Once this pin has been posted across all of your boards you can delete it from your secret board and pin the next piece of content.
Another tactic you should use is looping. This is where you delete content from the bottom of your board and repin it to the top (don’t do this with a group board you’ve joined). This keeps your content active. I’d recommend deleting three pins at a time from your boards three time a day.
Conclusion
Pinterest should be one of the top five sources of referral traffic to your website (you really haven’t got an excuse if it isn’t!). By implementing the tactics I’ve shared in the article you will see a slow and progressive growth in referral traffic. It normally takes a month or more before you start seeing results from your work. Over time that initial trickle of visitors will turn into a flood.
I’ve just started a new Pinterest account where I’ll be implementing these exact strategies for my new website. If it’s relevant, feel free to join one of the group boards on online marketing and blogging tips.
Oh. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments below.
Nico works with startups to put together ‘no brainer’ software deals for people working online. Sign up to Launch Space to start receiving exclusive offers.
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