I used to think Pinterest was just for wedding planning, online window shopping, and meal prep brainstorming. And I thought that if you were even going to try to use it to promote a business, you would have to be selling a product or service that’s a natural fit for a visual platform (such as clothing or makeup application services). After all, how would you even pin images about something as nonvisual as copywriting and content writing (which is how I help brands soar)?
But with growing chatter about the power of Pinterest and my email list growing at a snail’s pace, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. And I’m so glad I did. Within a year of getting started, Pinterest increased my email subscribers by 1018%! And that’s not all. The number of page views and users I got on my website skyrocketed too. Want to see the numbers and learn how I did it? Keep reading below!
Want to skyrocket traffic to your website so you can grow your email list and make more sales?
Download my free cheat sheet on creating the perfect Pinterest account profile.
Where I was at before I started using Pinterest
Before I started using Pinterest to promote my copywriting and content writing business, I was trying to grow my email list by blogging regularly and adding content upgrades to my posts. If you read blogs on how to grow your email list, you’ll often see experts say that content upgrades are the key to growing your list. Once you add content upgrades to your posts, they say, your email list will grow like wildfire. Well, I added content upgrades to my blog. But instead of growing like wildfire, my list grew more like the fake flame on a cheap electronic candle.
What I’ve since realized is that the experts weren’t entirely wrong—content upgrades are a key part of a solid list building strategy. But if you want them to work, you need something else too: a large, steady flow of traffic to your blog. After all, content upgrades aren’t going to do much for you if you don’t have a steady stream of people who are going to visit your blog and sign up for them. And that’s where Pinterest comes in. Pinterest increased my email list because it substantially boosted my blog traffic and put my blog posts and content upgrades in front of many more eyeballs.
Ready to check out my results? Let’s get to it!
Related: 7 reasons to use Pinterest to promote your business + free Pinterest profile cheat sheet
My results
Email subscribers
This graph shows the % change in my number of email subscribers each month from April 2017 to May 2018.
I started dabbling in Pinterest in June 2017 but didn’t implement a systematic set of strategies until the end of July 2017. I’ve included April 2017, May 2017, and June 2017 in the graph to show you where I was at before I started using Pinterest to grow my email list.
As you can see in the graph, my email list was growing by only about 10% each month before I started using Pinterest. But by the end of the summer and into the fall of 2017, it started growing exponentially. And by the end of May 2018, Pinterest increased my subscriber count by 1018% (relative to where I was at in March 2017).
Website page views
Growing my email list was my primary goal with Pinterest. But as I mentioned above, Pinterest typically helps you grow your list by boosting traffic to your blog or website. That’s why my website’s page views grew too—by 530% to be exact.
Website users
Pinterest also increased my number of website users by 1008%.
What I did
So how did I do it? I implemented a systematic set of strategies. If you search blogs and forums online, you can probably find information about each of the strategies I used for free. However, I’ve found that when I’m trying to achieve a complex goal, I always get better results when I take an online course that provides a systematic process for tackling it. That’s why I decided to take Melyssa Griffin’s Pinfinite Growth course. (I don’t get affiliate income for mentioning it here, but I do give it a thumbs up if you’re looking for an online Pinterest course.)
And then it was time to take on Pinterest on my own. Here’s what I did:
Crafted an optimized Pinterest profile
Your Pinterest profile tells people on Pinterest what you’re all about. You can optimize it by including keywords in your profile description and a link to an opt-in or lead magnet. Although most of your email subscribers will come from people who sign up for a content upgrade on your blog, linking to an opt-in in your Pinterest profile can boost your subscriber count.
Want to skyrocket traffic to your website so you can grow your email list and make more sales?
Download my free cheat sheet on creating the perfect Pinterest account profile.
Created blog posts and content upgrades as usual
Succeeding with Pinterest isn’t just about sharing content on Pinterest. Pinterest increased my email subscribers because it directed more people to my blog posts and content upgrades. That’s why you’ve got to have valuable and engaging blog posts and content upgrades if you want to get the best results possible from Pinterest. Remember that Pinterest is essentially a source of traffic. You can have lots of traffic coming to your site. But if people don’t like what they see once they get there, it won’t matter that they ever came.
Lay the foundation for Pinterest to work its magic by taking the time to create blog posts that meet your audience’s needs. Then make useful content upgrades and set them up on your blog.
Related:
- 6 reasons why your blog needs content upgrades + free idea list
- 6 content upgrade tips that will skyrocket your email list + free fillable checklist cheat sheet
Designed attractive pins
Once I’ve created a new blog post and content upgrade, I design pins for them. There’s no single formula for the perfect pin. But here are some tips for designing successful pins:
- Make them vertical (for example, 800 x 1200)
- Add text to your pins to tell people what your pin links to
- Make text large and easy to read
- Use the same colours, fonts, or designs across pins (so they have a consistent look)
- Subtly brand your pins by including your URL at the bottom
I design multiple pins for each new blog post I create. Some of them mention the topic of the blog post and the content upgrade. Others feature the content upgrade only.
Only a fraction of people on Pinterest see each pin I share. So having multiple pins per post allows me to promote each post to more people on Pinterest. It also gives me more pins to share without having to create more blog posts.
Here are examples of pins I’ve created using Canva:
Added keywords and hashtags to pin descriptions
Although Pinterest may look a lot like a visual social media platform (think Instagram), it’s really more of a search engine. Don’t believe me? Use the search function on Pinterest and you’ll see that it looks a lot like Google.
Because Pinterest is a search engine, I boost the visibility of my pins by adding keywords and hashtags to my pin descriptions.
Related: 10 Pinterest tips that boost your traffic, leads, and sales + free Pinterest SEO cheat sheet
Used scheduling tools
Although the optimal number keeps changing, successful pinners typically share more content on Pinterest each day than they do on Facebook and Instagram. This can add up to a lot of pinning, which can be hard to do completely manually. That’s why I use automation tools to share most of my content on Pinterest. In particular, I use Tailwind to schedule new pins and reschedule existing pins.
Leveraged group boards and Tailwind Tribes
Ideally, you don’t want to be the only person sharing your content on Pinterest. You want other people to share or repin your content to their Pinterest boards so their audiences see it too. How can you encourage people to do this? You can do what I did and join several group boards and Tailwind Tribes.
Group boards are Pinterest boards with multiple contributors. You share pins on the group board (which everyone in the group has a chance of seeing) and in exchange, you share other pins from the group board on your Pinterest boards.
In comparison, a Tailwind Tribe is more like a pin library that members of the tribe can use to curate content for their boards. You add pins to the library with the hope that members of the tribe share your pins on one of their Pinterest boards. In exchange, you agree to share other pins in the library on your boards.
If Pinterest increased my email subscribers, it can help you too
If someone had told me 2 years ago that Pinterest would give me the results I have today, I would have laughed. After all, at that time, I still thought Pinterest was for very specific niches that are an obvious fit for a visual platform.
I now know, however, that Pinterest is a powerful tool even for brands that aren’t inherently visual. And that’s why it would be crazy NOT to give it a try. Your results may not look exactly like mine do. But if Pinterest increased my email subscribers by a whopping 1018%, there’s a good chance it can do something pretty awesome for you too.
Want to skyrocket traffic to your website so you can grow your email list and make more sales?
Download my free cheat sheet on creating the perfect Pinterest account profile.
I always look for pinterest strategies from fellow bloggers.
Here’s the post you shared having actual golden nuggets.
Thank you for sharing this.