Want to know my secret to blogging success? Find out my 5-step winning Pinterest strategy that got me 3.7 million monthly viewers on Pinterest.
What if I told you that 81% of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest? That my monthly views on Pinterest went from 236,000 in August 2018 to 3.2 million monthly views today.That this book blog went from 3,000 monthly page views to over 30,000 monthly page views in just 5 months. And just halfway through month 6, my page views are already at 30K views.
That’s the power of a winning Pinterest strategy!
Am I selling you anything? Not really. Maybe someday I’ll create a course or webinar to profit from my experience. But today, I just want to share my winning Pinterest strategy in hopes I can inspire another blogger out there.
I’m not going to give away all my secrets, but my winning Pinterest strategy is quite simple. It’s just 5 steps.
However, the devil’s in the details. I spent hours and days and weeks researching as much as I could to best implement these steps. It’s the execution that counts.
So I can’t promise you that you will snap your fingers and get 3 million monthly views on Pinterest. Or that your monthly views will translate to page views. But I can tell you that if you put in the hard work to truly implement these 5 steps and create your own winning Pinterest strategy, you, too, can have success on Pinterest.
Step 1: Have content and images optimized for Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search engine. That means you better have eye-catching images.
You won’t do well on Pinterest without spending time on design. Start simple. Get a free account on Canva and use their Pinterest templates. Create vertical images with easy-to-read titles.
Then start to experiment. Combined different elements of the Canva templates into new and unique ways. Scroll through Pinterest and notice what catches your eye. Break down the details and try out similar elements in your pins.
Once you get a handle on creating Pinterest images, go ahead and make some templates of your own. I have about 40 different templates we use. With just a few changes of images, colors, and titles, I can create new images in minutes.
Eye-catching images will only get you so far. You need to have outstanding content to back it up.
If I click through on a link in Pinterest and the article turns out to be fluff? Not saving that image or ever coming back to that website.
Nothing, I repeat, nothing can make up for the lack of valuable content.
Tip: Be sure to advertise things people are interested in! No winning Pinterest strategy will work if no one wants to read your blog posts.
Step 2: Set Up Your Pinterest Account Correctly
You’re probably rolling your eyes at me. This step seems so basic.
And it is basic. It’s the fundamental element of any winning Pinterest strategy. Anyone who has ever played sports knows that you can’t become an expert if you don’t have the fundamentals down pat.
Your winning Pinterest strategy needs a strong foundation. You need to understand the different types of Pinterest boards and how to organize them correctly. You need to enable rich pins and make board covers. Not to mention profile pic, profile description, and board descriptions.
You’d be surprised how many Pinterest accounts I see that aren’t set up correctly. Remember, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
Step 3: Join As Many Group Boards In Your Niche As You Can
Large All Bloggers Welcome! groups can get you impressions, but if you want a winning Pinterest strategy, you need to work within your niche.
But my niche is so small! Trust me, they are out there. It can take a lot of work, but it is possible. Look at other bloggers in your niche and see what boards they are in.
Request to join all the boards you can find in your niche. Some will be full of spam, so you’ll want to ditch those or skip them altogether. But for a winning Pinterest strategy you need to have a nice solid base of boards – yours and others – for you to pin into.
Step 4: Create a Promotion Schedule
Spreadsheet time! Get on Excel or Google Sheets or whatever equivalent you want and create a Pinterest schedule.
Every post I write gets promoted at specific intervals – when it’s new, when it’s 1 month old, etc. I’m not going into too much detail, because I don’t want you just to copy me. Spend some time thinking up your own promotion schedule.
I have a simple spreadsheet where I plug in my latest post, and it autofills that post into my overall schedule. Every week, I look up the date and see what pins are on up for promotion.
I don’t do a lot of seasonal posts, but for those of you who do, feel free to create a second seasonal schedule.
For your winning Pinterest strategy, create a schedule that fits your needs. Having a custom plan of attack will save you time. You won’t have to spend time every week wondering which posts to promote. Just look at the schedule and follow it.
Step 5: Pin a New Image to Each Applicable Board
How does my Pinterest account always seem fresh? Because I never repeat images. Every time I promote a post, I use a brand new image.
For example, here are three different pins for the same post.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
The first time I promoted my post, I saved Image 1 one time into up to ten of my applicable boards, both personal and group. So, I didn’t save it to my blogging tips board since it has nothing to do with blogging.
A book list pin like this one used to get saved into 34 different boards, but nowadays, Pinterest best practice wants you to limit it to 10.
A few weeks later, it was time for another round of marketing. I created image 2 and saved it one more time into each of those same boards.
Weeks or months later, the cycle repeats, but now with image 3.
Yes, occasionally I will repin my image a second time if it’s doing well. But all in all, people are consistently seeing new material from us – even if it’s just the same material marketed differently.
Tailwind: The Must-Have Pinterest Tool
I promise I’m not just trying to sell you Tailwind. You really can achieve success without it. But the price you’ll pay might be steep indeed.
Any business person will tell you that efficiency is the key to success. You could pin all day long – or you could just use a scheduler. And Tailwind is the absolute best scheduler there is.
Want to know a secret? I get all these amazing Pinterest results – and I hardly spend any time on it. Only 1 hour a week scheduling! And I couldn’t do it without Tailwind.
Not sure about Tailwind? Read all about the concerns I had before we joined and the reasons why I’m so glad I did. Is Tailwind Worth It? Lessons from 6 months of Tailwind
Have any more questions about Pinterest marketing for bloggers? Ask me below, and I’ll do my best to answer – either here or with another blogging tips post.
This post is so helpful! I just recently launched my own book blog and really want to delve into Pinterest so it’s great to hear that Tailwind seems to be worth the added expense. Any tips on how to start into finding the best group boards? Any “don’t dos” when it comes to joining group boards or just join all of them in your niche? Thanks!
The easiest way to find group boards is to look at the Pinterest accounts of other bloggers in your niche. See what group boards they are in and try to join them, too. Unless the board looks like spam, just join everything in your niche. Over time, you’ll find out which ones are productive and which ones to leave.
I appreciate you sharing all your info! I also just started my own book blog a few months ago and am still feeling my way. I love all your lists and watch for them all the time. The idea of promoting the same post several times with different art hadn’t occurred to me, so that was really helpful. So when you create a new pin art, how do you post it to Pinterest without it being in the blog post? I’ve tried just uploading an image and attaching a link, but when I try the link, I only get a larger image, not the link back to my post……I obviously am doing something wrong…. If you have a suggestion or process there, I’d love to hear it.
I’ve heard of Tailwind all over the place but was kind of feeling like I wasn’t ready to commit to it. You’ve given me a good push to give it more thought and figure out what I really want to accomplish this year.
BTW, I joined your reading challenge this year for the first time – not sure I’ll finish everything, but I’m sure going to give it a try! Some really fun categories there. And, I did promote it on my blog 🙂
If you want to just add a pin without placing it in the post itself, you can either do it on Pinterest or Tailwind. On Pinterest, you click the Add pin button at the top right (it’s a big red plus sign). From there, upload your image, and choose the title and description. Where it says “Add destination link” make sure you are inserting the url for the post you are promoting. Then just save it to one of your boards and repin it to other boards from there. Shoot me an email if you have more questions!
I’ve wanted to do this for a while, tried a couple of things that didn’t work, so gave up. Reading your post reminded me to move Pinterest to a higher priority. I’m off to give this a try. Thanks so much for responding.
I am horrible at spreadsheets. Would you be willing to show part of yours as a template? I am going to start working more on my images but I think the schedule is my biggest hurdle.
Thanks for the advice. I have been pinning for a long time using tailwind but there are some good tips as to how i can freshen things up to get some more link clicks. I had also been told many times over to make 4-5 pins and post them all at once. I like the concept of spacing them out and and not using them again as seems more practical for longevity.