The 5 Most Common Pinterest Marketing Mistakes
Wowza, there is SO much mixed information out there when it comes to Pinterest Marketing. I mean, am I right? This is probably the 500th blog post you have read about Pinterest Marketing, and I am sure what I am about to say will conflict with 50 other things you have read.
So what should you believe? Who is right and who isn’t?
When it comes to Pinterest Marketing, I think the part many creators get frustrated with is the “you need to be pinning like this” or “you need to be pinning like that.” type of information.
I am here to tell you that what works for one pinner, most likely, will NOT work for the next.
Why is that?
Even if you are in the same niche as another food blogger who had success pinning a certain way, you, believe it or not, have a VERY different audience.
See Pinterest users respond to different kinds of imaging and wording. In addition, they are active at various times throughout the day. So while your food blogger friend has success sending out her pins in the morning, you may have better success sending out your pins in the middle of the day or even late at night because YOUR audience is more active at those times.
She may have to post three new idea pins a week and three new static pins a day. But, at the same time, you may be able to do less. Or maybe more.
See, I work with all kinds of clients in different niches. And I pin VERY differently for every single one of them. VERY differently. And after 7 years of working in this field, I can say with 100% certainty that you HAVE to try to learn what works for YOU over reading what is working for others. And yes, it will take a little time.
BUT, once you figure it out, you will be golden!
Before I talk about what I know to be true RIGHT now when it comes to Pinterest marketing, I want to talk about the VERY common mistakes many pinners make and what you should NOT be doing.
Mistake #1
You are using a personal Pinterest account.
If you want to use Pinterest for your business, blog, Etsy store, or anything you are looking to drive traffic to, you need to have a business account.
Why a business account?
- You can claim your website.
- You can promote your pins so they get in front of the RIGHT audience.
- You will be able to see your analytics to see what is and is not working. You can see who is responding to your content, males, and females, their ages, what type of device they are finding you on, etc.
The cool thing is it’s 100% free to sign up and use a Pinterest for Business account! You can convert your personal account and take your followers with you, OR you can start from scratch!
Mistake #2
Followers matter.
FALSE. Unlike Instagram and other social platforms, you don’t need thousands of followers on Pinterest to succeed.
Pinterest is a search engine. So the key to success on this platform is consistency and proper SEO.
Followers are a vanity number. Sure it looks cool that I have 41K followers, but that does NOT mean all 41K of them will see what I pin.
So you don’t NEED people to follow you; you want your content to appear in the correct user’s feed. Followers will come.
Here is a pin of mine from LAST year that still trends at the top under “Pinterest Marketing Strategy.” The cool thing about Pinterest is once a pin is on the platform, it’s there for LIFE.
Here is a client of mine’s stats, after 5 DAYS of me working on her account. Updating her entire account with proper SEO, and optimizing her pins properly. Again, it has been LESS than a week. Her reach is over 1,000+ and her engagements are up over 700%. They have 12, followers total. This is the steady growth I always see when proper SEO and pinning come into play!
Mistake #3
Pinning the same image to more than one board.
This is SUCH an outdated practice, yet I still see SO many Pinterest experts telling users to do this. Pinterest themselves have said more than once that this is a NO-NO!
So if you are doing this, STOP it right now!
Pinterest wants us to give them at least one fresh new pin image daily, even if it links to an old URL. In addition, they prioritize fresh new pins, so your fresh pin image will have a much larger reach than a pin you are re-pinning already on the platform.
Mistake #4
Using Pinterest without a strategy.
This is where many users run into issues and get frustrated and give up. A lot of times, due to the mixed information out there on the web telling them they HAVE to pin a certain way.
Here are some basics everyone should follow when it comes to strategy:
- Create pins that target your ideal reader or client. Use wording that gets them interested in what that pin links to. Try out different imaging and coloring to see what type of look receives the best response from YOUR audience. (In terms of conversion.)
- Stay consistent with your pinning. Pinterest wants us to be active on the platform. In fact, by you pinning at least one new pin image a day, your confidence score will go up, and so will your reach! You can learn more about confidence scores here.
- Plan your content in advance. Each Monday, I create pins I schedule to post for the week (until the following Monday). I spend about 60 minutes a week creating, optimizing, and scheduling pins. This way, I stay consistent. For my idea pins, I make them and then save them as drafts. That way, when I want them to go out, I simply log in and hit post.
While many users want a “quick fix” when it comes to Pinterest traffic, it takes time and effort to see what works best for YOU regarding how much content you are creating and how often and when you are pinning.
Mistake #5
Thinking you can only create one pin per URL.
SO false! Pinterest DOES NOT CARE how many times you share an external URL. All you need is a FRESH new graphic each time.
And the added bonus is by creating different graphics for one post, you can get a good idea of what type of look and wording receives the most engagement!
I think the biggest frustration users get with Pinterest is they are used to hearing content creators talk about how they got thousands of views overnight.
I am here to tell you they are lying. Pinterest does NOT work that way. It never has. It will take time and effort, BUT as you saw from my client’s results above, some effort and proper Pinterest knowledge go a LONG way!
If you want to learn more about Pinterest Marketing and current best practices and strategies, click HERE!
Happy Pinning!
xo Megan
