If you use Pinterest (or want to) do NOT miss this episode!
Today, I’m talking with Kate Ahl, and she shares ALL the things you need to know to use Pinterest to market your handmade business in 2021 and beyond!
The founder of Simple Pin Media, Kate Ahl has been helping businesses discover, learn and master Pinterest marketing for over 7 years.
She combines the data learned from working with clients, education from Pinterest, and her knowledge of the platform to help people expand the reach of their business using Pinterest.
Pinterest is always changing, and this is the up-to-the-minute, latest Pinterest knowledge you need to help your biz succeed – I know I learnt a few things during this interview!
You can listen to this episode below, or on your fave podcasting app!
Support the show
You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.
Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.
In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.
You can also:
- Leave a review on the C&T FB page.
- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
- Join the Thriver Circle – without the members of the Circle, this podcast would not be possible.
Highlights from this episode:
-
- Pinterest is one of the top referrers of traffic to Create & Thrive and is a great way to market your business without having to spend a lot of time in the social media space.
- Kate explained how she started out helping a friend with social media (Facebook) in 2010, and moved into Pinterest marketing in 2014 with her brand Simple Pin Media. Kate now has a team of almost 40 and over 120 clients.
- “Pinterest is a search and discovery platform…people go there to find information or to get solutions to problems or dream” {Kate}
- Jess noted that every pin that is placed in Pinterest will stay active forever, unlike the ephemeral nature of social media such as Tik Tok, Instagram or Facebook. Kate stated that you should get your pins right the first time because once the pin is out there, you can change the original pin but all the other instances of that pin will remain the same.
- Kate advised new starters to begin by getting a Business Pinterest Profile that reflects who you are and what you do, before starting on your Boards. Boards are how you divide up your content / products, for example Rings, Earrings, Jewellery for Men, Jewellery for Women etc. Five to ten boards are recommended by Kate.
- Pinterest users can also link to their business website or Etsy store. However, if you are linking from Pinterest to your website, you should always link to the product page, not your homepage.
- Previously it was important for users to pin other users’ pins on their boards in order to maintain engagement, however Pinterest now states that users can pin 100% of their own products.
- Jess asked about the process of transferring a private Pinterest account to a business account. If you have some boards that could relate to your business, should you make them public or keep them secret? Kate advised that because of the algorithm that Pinterest uses, you should only keep boards public if you can include some of your own business related pins on those boards.
- So what do you do if you run out of products, or you only have a small number of products to market? You can create as many images or types of images as you want and then link to these pages, for example an FAQ page, a product review or a recent blog post.
- Board or pin names should not use hashtags, be simple and to the point (1 – 3 sentences), and you should think about the key words and key phrases pinners might use to search for your particular product.
- Pinterest now uses a number of Pin types: Standard Pins, Video Pins which are ideal for clips less than 1 minute 30 (for example a scan of your products), and Idea Pins which are Cards listing or displaying items (for example your top 5 products) but they do not link to a website..
- Analytics were discussed. “With Pinterest (analytics) you want to just do once a month and you want to get a holistic view of what’s working and what’s not working” {Kate}
- Recommended pinning schedule and scheduling tools (Tailwind, Plannerly, Later) were discussed. Kate suggested that users set aside one hour per month to review analytics. Then schedule one Idea Pin per week and 3 – 5 Standard Pins per day to drip feed on to Pinterest. No more than 5 – 7 hours per month should be required on Pinterest. You can even pin the same item / image to Pinterest on different occasions to stretch your products or images further.
- Jess queried the new Shop feature (not yet in Australia). Verified Merchant Program or the Shop Tab. Kate advised that while this is in place in the US, Canada and the UK, the process of applying for the Verified Merchant Program is still clunky and there are many hoops to jump through. Watch this space for further developments.
- To find out more information, visit simplepinmedia.com for free resources etc.
