Hello, all today we are going to talk about 5 Pinterest Marketing Mistakes That Newbies Make. I see lots of new entrepreneurs who want to use Pinterest to market their new blog posts or affiliate business, unfortunately, they are making some common mistakes that are stopping them from reaching their true potential of awesome results that could be achieved if they used Pinterest in the correct way.
This article may contain affiliate links which means I could make a small commission if you purchase anything using one of the links. The price you pay will not be affected. It helps to keep me in coffee when I’m researching and writing these posts for you.
We are going to jump straight in and find out just what those mistakes are.
Mistake #1: Not Pinning For Your Ideal Client
This is a massive one. Your Pinterest account has not been made with you in mind, it is especially for your ideal clients. Everything that you do from creating a new board or a new pin always stop to think: will this pin be of value for my ideal client? If you answered no, then think very carefully before pinning it for the public, instead add it to your secret board.
I would definitely recommend you make any boards that don’t serve your ideal client’s into secret boards. So then, you can still pin that Strawberry cheesecake recipe, that you love to make, only on a secret board.
When it comes to your pinning pins, I want you to get into the mind of your ideal client. What are they searching for? How can you help them today?
For example, my ideal client is a new blogger that needs help with getting started with blogging tips, marketing, and social media strategies. So I have boards that address those topics.
Mistake #2: Not Utilizing Keywords Properly
Keywords are everything on any search engine, but even more so on Pinterest.
Know this: Pinterest is in fact a search engine, It is a Google but with pictures.
So in order to succeed on Pinterest, you need to understand and make use of keywords and use them properly.
What are keywords on any search engine?
Using keywords is a way of adding specific words from your niche subject that allows Pinterest users to find the information that they are looking for. For example, if I’m searching for how to lose belly fat for women, Pinterest will bring up all of the pins with those words in the pin description.
Why are keywords very important on Pinterest?
As I have already said, Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform, therefore the keywords need to be specific to your niche, and the more specific the better!
When I niched down in my health and wellness business from just fitness to diet planning and eating a keto diet, my blog traffic grew 10 fold from Pinterest!
By doing this and using the right keywords on Pinterest, you will be able to target a more specific audience.
How to find and use keywords on Pinterest, firstly you can use Jaxxy for keyword research and brainstorm your ideas.
Once you get the hang of using Jaxxy it is very easy to find keywords to use for Pinterest and any other social media that you use.
Finding long-tail keywords with low QSR results will have you ranking faster on Pinterest and as a bonus on Google as well.
Please read below to see some examples of keywords that I use:
- How to get more interest from your clients
- Pinterest marketing strategy explained
- Social media marketing tips and tricks
- Female entrepreneur tips and strategies
- Social media marketing strategies explained
Instead of using one word such as female entrepreneur or Pinterest, If I substitute those for the long-tail keywords, I and you will get found much quicker.
Mistake #3: No Consistency To Your Pinning
Being consistent on any social media platform including Pinterest is extremely important, just like being consistent in everything else you do in your business.
Consistency is a big yes because of Pinterest’s algorithm, called the Smart Feed. The Smart Feed takes a few things into consideration when deciding to show your pins to the other pinners, and an important one is how consistent you are.
It is not necessary to spend all day every day on Pinterest. I use a scheduler called Tailwind to pin all of my pins for me. You can pin a month’s worth of pins in one sitting of an hour or so.
Get Started for free with Tailwind.
I do pay for some of Tailwind’s features especially the Tribe feature which is a community, these communities will help your pins to get shared and repinned.
Mistake #4: You Need To Have A Clear Call To Action
This is imperative. When someone clicks through from Pinterest and onto your blog, what do they find? What is their user experience like?
Imagine that in each blog post you’re writing, you’re speaking to a new client who has no clue who you are. Sharing that you have more resources to help them besides the original blog post is a clear call to action.
It is good to do this within each blog post (did you see that I did it above?)
I share other useful resources that I know my ideal customer will find helpful so that when they have finished with this blog post, they will want to check out other pages on my blog instead of going back to Pinterest.
1. Ensure your posts have clear messages on them.
I want you to think about these two scenarios with me here, so you can grasp the importance of having a clear message for your blog posts.
Scenario 1: Pinner comes to blog A via a pin about how to do the latest makeup technique. The blog post is very helpful, but when the visitor starts to look around the blog, she sees all different kinds of posts like about the blogger’s new exercise regime, their green smoothie routine, and more. The visitor is left feeling a bit disappointed because they wanted more from the blogger, so she goes back onto Pinterest.
Scenario 2: Pinner comes to blog B via a pin about A new keto recipe. The blog post is extremely helpful, and when the pinner starts to look around the blog, she sees tons of recipes to get her started with the keto diet. Then she also sees a free ebook full of the recipes. She’s thinking, oh yes! This is exactly what I was searching for!” and she stays on the blog, opts in for the e-book, and even checks to see how else she can work further with this person.
Can you see the differences here?
There is a lot of power in having a clearly defined message. If your blog is all over the place, I recommend checking your google analytics to see what blog posts have the most engagement with your audience and create more of that type of blog post. See how you can help even more so that when a visitor comes from Pinterest, they’ll want to stay around longer.
2. Make sure each post that you write has a clear call to action for the reader to opt-in to.
It needs to be extremely clear that the blog post has an intended call to action for the reader to opt-in.
People actually need you to tell them what to do, so make sure to draw attention to your freebie in the post and tell them what’s in it for them.
3. Create Killer Blog Posts.
Your posts need to be the kind of content that is extremely helpful for your Pinterest traffic.
Make sure your blog content is thorough and leave your Pinterest traffic needing to learn more from you and see what else there is that you offer.
(linking to another post on your site) is going to teach you how to do just that.
4. Format your blog properly
The final step to optimize your blog for Pinterest traffic is to make sure your blog posts are easy to read. The posts that tend to perform best on Pinterest are list formats.
Remember that people are scrolling and not generally reading every single word. Make it easier for them by writing small paragraphs and include sub-headings within the blog post to break up the content.
See how I did that was achieved in this one?
Mistake #5: Not Having Enough Patience
Pinterest marketing is normally a long-term strategy. Some people if they use the right strategies in the beginning can see results pretty quickly, but the majority of results generally come around the 3-6 month mark.
So keep being consistent with it, keep creating informational content, and keep pinning new pins. The results will definitely come, you just have to believe in the process.
If you have learned something from reading this then feel free to share it using the social media buttons below.
Lisa.
Okay this has really been helpful for me. I just started a pintrest recently and all what I did was post all my pins at random times and crunched into an hour because I had no idea that there was a consistency factor that applied to it… Now I see that I was wrong… and when you showed that you schedule your pins, I thought, ‘why have I not been doing this’? And I connected my interest to my scheduling tool, I already have one but since you mentioned that yours has a community feature, I might be switching over to that ones soon
Using a schedular saves a ton of time.
Tailwind
is the one that Pinterest shares its best practices with.
Be careful using an unauthorized scheduling tool that you don’t get your account suspended.
This article Pinterest Mistakes Newbies Make has been great for me now, I can say that I read it just in time. One of my current tasks is to become more active in the social space on the internet, and Pinterest is on my list where I intend to create a profile for my website. Your tips and warnings are therefore very useful to me at the moment, and I will follow them when creating and actively working on Pinterest. I am still very weak in social media on the internet, and I need to strengthen this area, so such articles are very welcome.
I wish you all the best
Nina
Pinterest is where 90% of my traffic comes from.
Using Tailwind has helped it to grow to 9.7k monthly views in 7 weeks.
Lisa.
Hmm, the internet is a fascinatiing place. This is an awesome website, by the way! I’m admittingly a noob at Pinterest! I want to learn, but with all of the other social media vectors, you can only really specialized in one or two without hired help. I love your writing style and perspective. May the Gods of Google shine upon your SEO.