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If you’ve been looking for ways to grow your business, you’ve no doubt experienced three types of traffic no matter which platform you are on:
- those who come and stare at your offer but don’t dive in
- those who stick a toe in the offer pool but don’t go in any further
- those who wade or jump in and stay to enjoy the experience
While many say that the first two rack up only vanity metrics (likes, shares and engagement that never lead to conversions), that’s not the entire picture.
Because after all, today’s vanity metrics could be tomorrow’s purchasers. They just need to see the right offer to move them from standing on the side to stepping into the pool.
What that really means is that while we tend to compress the two, reaching traffic is different than converting traffic.
While reaching the right kind of traffic can make converting them into buying customers far easier, it all starts with reaching traffic.
So how do you reach more Pinterest traffic?
Here’s 5 things to do:
Table of Contents
1. Make Your Pins Discoverable
If no one can find you, no one can buy from you. So you have to make your pins discoverable.
Because Pinterest offers both text-based and visual search, the better you are at making your pins optimized for the searches your ideal customers are doing, the more likely you’ll be discovered.
(And with 84% of people on the platform using Pinterest as they consider a purchase and 97% searching for items and not brands, you’ve got a huge potential for reaching people with buyer’s intent.)
So add into your posts descriptive words your ideal clients are using when they search. Put them in the title, the description, your hashtags, your video tags – everywhere.
Because you can find what people are searching for when you do your own search (phrases pop up by popularity), play with different words to get better results. If you have a strong brand presence, try using brand descriptors. If you are new, try using lesser searched terms that give you a chance above stronger brands.
2. Publish Often and Consistently
We’ve heard this a dozen times but it’s even more important here than on other platforms.
That’s because Pinterest’s search results often populate more recent pins above older pins.
That means that if you post a pin and let it sit for a while, it is at risk for falling to the bottom of the search results pool.
Stay closer to the top of the search engine results list by pinning regularly and consistently. Refresh old pins so they get new attention by resharing them. This will help prevent them from heading to the bottom of the pool.
And remember – Pinterest operates on an algorithm. So if you try to game the system by dumping in tons of pins all on the same day, you’ll likely be discovered … and penalized. Keep your daily post to a maximum of 30 to avoid getting the wrong kind of attention.
3. Use video. A lot.
Like is true on most platforms, users enjoy the video. It grabs attention and entertains all while helping them decide whether your offer meets their needs.
3. Keep the videos short
Like any video, you want it to be relevant to your viewers and entertaining in a way that keeps them engaged.
But keep it short. Videos MUST be at least 4 seconds in length. But for best performance, videos should be between 6 to 15 seconds.
Here, more is not better.
- Add text to the videos.
Because many people here, like elsewhere, watch the video at least initially with the sound off, help them out. Create videos that contain text overlays to help users get the gist of what you’re offering even if the sound is off.
And if you’re concerned about how tech-savvy you are (or aren’t), remember that Canva has Pinterest video templates and tools to make your Pinterest video work easier.
- Use KEYwords for video pins.
Just like with picture posts, you can add key words to optimize your search-ability.
Add relevant searched words to your titles, the video descriptions, the hashtags you are using and the video tags. Adding search optimized words (words your potential clients are using) can improve your discoverability.
And given that Pinterest will auto-populate suggested key words once you start typing, they are working with you to help improve your user’s experience.
4. Run ads
With such a high percentage of users searching for solutions and then buying, running ads is a great way to get more products and offers discovered.
So crunch the numbers. Given that ad rates have tended to drop during the pandemic, it can be a perfect time to bring the most engaging pins that you have to the feed of more Pinterest users.
5. Create great content
No amount of stealth SEO work, video pins or consistent publishing can make up for content that sucks. After all, users won’t engage with bad content.
So take the time to figure out what your ideal clients want.
Create content that speaks to not only who they are but who they aspire to be. The more engaging the content, the more they will come back for more.
Pinterest provides a wealth of opportunity to get traffic for your business.
By using these 5 tactics, you’ll have much better success with getting more traffic and converting them to buyers.
And if you’re wanting some help doing this, reach out. We’ve been getting over-the-top results for clients for years.
Do you need to bounce ideas off someone? Dive into your current strategy and come up with a game plan for how to stay on top of the changes? Maybe you have a big launch coming up and you aren’t sure how to best leverage Pinterest. I’m here to help! Book a consultation with me so we can tackle your questions and maximize your Pinterest efforts to make the most of your time and strategy.