Pinterest is a great tool for promoting your business! If you haven’t started generating traffic from Pinterest to your site, stop what you’re doing now! Below are 10 steps on how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website. These key steps will increase Pinterest traffic to your site and generate new customers.

10 Steps to Improve your Pinterest Strategy

One way to increase Pinterest traffic that I repeatedly mention in this article is through use of the Tailwind app (which I love after trying all of the subscription services). I outline ways you can do everything for free, but believe me Tailwind is worth it! If you’re interested in Tailwind here’s $15 off the subscription service – which allows you to schedule unlimited Pins, find the best times to post and find your audience. You can even try for FREE before purchasing a subscription!

1. Start a Business Pinterest Profile

If you’re running a business, then you need a Pinterest business profile. Selling products on your personal page is against Pinterest’s user agreement. So go ahead and switch over to Business (trust me it’s better).

2. Create Your Profile and Pinterest Boards

Add a profile pictures that reflects your businesses theme. I already have a logo which is what I use as my profile picture for easy recognition. Some Pinterest marketing experts recommend using a personal picture to personalize their profile. Whether you use a logo or a personal picture it is up to you!

Pinterest Board setup can go a long way to the success of your page. Create one or two Pinterest boards that include your products. The rest of your boards will be what your audience is into. For example: if you sell crocheted hats, include boards with free patterns, and diy projects. Here’s my page (no pressure to visit) but you can see I have one products page and the rest of the boards are what my audience likes.

Name the boards with common keywords. The boards function as mini search engines, so using SEO rich keywords in your board name is important. Name the board in a way that will allow viewers to understand what’s on your board before clicking. You can use the board’s description to elaborate on the title.

Add 5 Featured Boards. These boards will rotate on your homepage. I pick boards that advertise my products and boards that are most visited on my page.

3. Get Inspiration from Related Brands

When first starting on Pinterest, I researched successful competitors and tried my best to make my Pinterest page look like theirs. These businesses are popular for a reason, so use there pages as a model for your own! If you don’t know who your competitors are, use Pinterest search to try and find other products like yours. Note how your competitors design their page, design their Pins, and the types of boards they have. Do they use certain colors or themes? Do they engage in comments? What’s their most popular product/Pin/board?

If you want your Pinterest page to have a competitive edge, check out Tailwind’s industry trend feature (part of the free trial of Tailwind). This feature will compare your page with your competitors and provide information about your most popular boards. If you’re interested in even more data for your Pinterest page, check out Tailwind’s (paid) Industry Trends feature. It benchmarks your brand’s followers, engagement and reach.

4. Create Beautiful Pins

I’m a huge fan of Canva for creating Pins! Canva is a free online platform for creating compelling visual content. You can use the free version to create amazing designs with their awesome free images and fonts. Although I have the Creative Cloud, I find Canva easy and perfect for my needs. Check it out!

Besides my obsession with Canva here’s a few Pinterest tips to consider while making a Pin:

• Create vertical pins!
• Use a 2:3 aspect ratio for Pins.
• Search your topic on Pinterest and take note of the top 3 Pins in your search results. What colors and themes do they use? Create Pins that are unique, but also similar in style and color. Canva has so many templates to choose from that you can find a template very similar to what you find on Pinterest.
• Add a Pin description rich with keywords that will allow an audience to find your product (if you’re lost with this, Tailwind premium can help you create a rich text title using SEO keywords based on what your audiences searches!).

5. Create Seasonal Content

Pinterest is heavily related to seasonal content. Create Pins that reflect the major holidays, themes and seasons. Download and print a content calendar so you know what to Pin throughout the year.

If you need help finding a seasonal content calendar, then search on Pinterest or Google “seasonal content calendar”. You will find infographics from other Pinterest marketers that you can print for your office!

My Pinterest Traffic Case Study: When building my Pinterest page I joined a few cooking group boards (only because my audience likes to cook). After Halloween I posted a ton of Pumpkin Spice recipes to group boards. As a result, I received a ton of Pinterest users clicking back to my profile and following me! During this time I gained 1K followers!

6. Join Pinterest Group Boards

To further expand your reach, join Pinterest Group Boards. Group Boards are a great way to maximize your exposure when you’re just starting. If you are not sure how to find Pinterest Group Boards, then head over to pingroupie.com. Find a Group Board that meshes well with your products, and ask the maker of the Group Board if they would be willing to add you as a collaborator.

7. Figure Out The Best Time to Pin

There’s many theories out there about the best time to publish. When starting out, the best general time to publish is between 8 – 10pm Eastern every day of the week. I recommend linking a Google Analytics account to your website to get in depth data on the times Pinterest users are clicking to your site.

After a month of Pinning, go to your Analytics account to find the times when Pinterest users are visiting your website. Use those times to publish Pins. Publish about 10 – 15 Pins per day in those time slots.

I found that although Saturday is a popular time for most businesses, Saturday was my slowest day and Monday evening was my busiest time. This is why I recommend getting Google Analytics and finding your own time slots!

If you want to take the thinking out of finding the best times to Pin, use Tailwind’s Smart Scheduler to let their algorithms find the times based on your audience! I used to sign in at various times every day to publish, but after having kids I needed to make my life easier. Tailwind will find the best times to Pin based on your audiences traffic! You simply schedule your Pins into those time slots. Super easy!

8. Pre Schedule Your Pins

Pinterest Business accounts can schedule Pins in advance, up to 30 Pins every month. To schedule your Pin select “Publish at a later date” when you’re creating your Pin.

To schedule more Pins in advance you will need to use a paid subscription service such as Tailwind, Buffer or Hootsuite. I’ve tried them all and found Tailwind is the best because there’s no limit to how many Pins you can schedule. I love Tailwind because the Smart Scheduler will find the best times for me and publish at those times. I use the Smart Scheduler plus some pre-made timeslots I’ve created to schedule all my pins up to a month in advance.

9. Check Analytics

Pinterest business users have analytics to improve their Pinterest traffic strategy such as tracking engagement, clicks, time of traffic, and audience demographics. With Pinterest analytics you can find:

• Which Pin is being seen the most (impressions).
• Which Pins are leading to the most clicks.
• Audience demographics such as age, interests, and location.

As mentioned in tip #7, I recommend linking with a Google Analytics account. Google will give you more information on audience visiting times, traffic to your site, more in depth demographics and what your audience is interested in. You can also view traffic in real time!

10. Promoting on Pinterest

On Pinterest you can promote Pins, videos and carousels (multiple images). Before jumping into paid advertising, consider what your goals are:

• What is the objective? Would you like to increase Pinterest traffic? Sales? Expand your audience?
• What audience are you trying to reach? Think about an actual person – What is their gender? how old are they? What are they into? What are their needs?
• What is your targeted demographic searching for? Advertisements are targeted to certain search behavior, so it’s important to know the keywords that your audience is searching for.
• How much are you willing to pay? Depending on your objective, align your budget with your desired outcome. Pinterest offers cost per click, cost per action, and cost per impression bidding.

As mentioned I love Tailwind, here’s the result of my boosted traffic! If you’re interested in Tailwind here’s $15 off the subscription service – which includes scheduling unlimited Pins, scheduling at the best times and finding your audience. Happy Pinning!

More on this topic:

• Guide to starting an online business
• Case Study: How I Made 30K selling printables