The Do’s and Don’ts of Pinterest Marketing

Last Updated on December 6, 2020 by ellduclos

Did you know Pinterest marketing is known to be one of the quickest ways to grow your blog traffic WITHOUT ads, if done properly. I have been a Pinterest marketing strategist for over 3 years working with bloggers to help grow their blog traffic via Pinterest. If you aren’t using Pinterest to market your blog, I highly recommend it! I wanted to share what I have learned which includes Pinterest marketing dos and don’ts. 

Think of Pinterest as a visual search engine that you can use for FREE to get your blog in front of millions of eyes! This list dos and don’ts for Pinterest marketing are strategies I have tested out personally. 

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Disclaimer: What works for one Pinterest account might not work for the other, BUT using my Pinterest marketing strategies I have always been able to see growth. I also use affiliate links and only recommend products I use and love! You can read my disclosure policy here.

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For this post I am going to use my lifestyle blog as a reference. I started this blog in April 2017 and have worked hard on my Pinterest marketing strategy to get it to the point it’s at today.

For awhile I was sitting at 4 million monthly Pinterest views and 80,000 monthly blog views. Once I cracked the new Pinterest algorithm I was able to consistently increase my Pinterest views and blog views. Now I get over 7 million monthly Pinterest views and 150,000 monthly blog views.

 

I had a HUGE burst of traffic at the beginning of the month when 3 of my pins took off and brought me thousands of page views. Having a few viral pins each month helps! I share all of my tips for creating viral pins in this post. 

I consistently still receive thousands of page views daily using my Pinterest marketing strategies. In this post I am going to go over all of the what you SHOULD be doing on Pinterest and what you SHOULD NOT be doing on Pinterest in order to get growth and real results.

Let’s get to it!!

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The Dos and Don’ts of Pinterest Marketing

DON’T leave your pin descriptions blank

It’s so important to make sure you have a pin description when you are adding a pin that links to your blog post. This is going to help Pinterest know more about what your pin is about. It will also help Pinterest know how to rank your pin in Pinterest searches and in the smart feed. You also don’t want to keyword stuff in your pin description. What I mean by this is instead of listing out 5-10 keywords, use those keywords to create 3-5 sentences that share what your pin and blog post is about.

DO Use Keywords

It is SO important to use keywords. Pinterest is a visual search engine which means that having keywords in important places like pin descriptions, board descriptions, and your profile is a MUST if you want your pins to rank in search.

For example: I can search competitive keywords like “personal growth” and “journal prompts” and my pins will pop up top in search results. This is because I use keywords and practice solid Pinterest SEO strategies.

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PAUSE! If you want to learn all of my in-depth Pinterest strategies (including Pinterest SEO) this course is for you. You will learn everything I do in detail, step by step.

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DO change your strategy as the algorithm changes

Just like everything else Pinterest has an algorithm and it DOES change. If you are following strategies that are from before 2020, chances are some of those strategies might not work as effectively anymore. Be open to learning how the algorithm works and make adjustments to your pinning strategy when needed.

DO pin your own content frequently

I think this is a BIG one that bloggers need to pay attention to. There are many bloggers out there who are still following the “80/20” rule. This is a very outdated rule that is no longer necessary. This is a rule where Pinterest marketers would say you need to pin 80% others content and 20% your own. This will not get you the results you want.

Here’s a secret: I pin 99% my own content. It makes a heck of a difference. SWITCH IT UP.

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Need some pin templates? Grab these! 

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DON’T pin in a spammy way

Although I recommend pinning your own content more, you need to find a balance where it doesn’t come off as spammy. Pinning the same link multiple times in a row will set of Pinterest’s spam filters. You also don’t want to pin a ton of pins all at once. Spread out your pinning.

If you do get flagged as spam by Pinterest don’t panic. Simply reach out to Pinterest and let them know it was a mistake and that your content isn’t spam. They usually will respond back apologizing!

I always get asked what the magic number is when it comes to how many pins you should pin daily. The truth is, there is no “magic number” but I always recommend starting out by pinning 5-10 pins sporadically throughout each day. You can make adjustments when needed. I currently pin 10 pins a day for the most part. Gone are the days where you need to pin over 50 pins a day.

DON’T pin the same image to the same board more than once

This is a newer pinning strategy that I have been testing out in 2019 and it works! Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, changing up your pin image is a HUGE game changer. Pinterest’s algorithm relies more on FRESH NEW pins. Don’t recycle your old pin designs and don’t pin them to the same board over and over again. It looks spammy in the eyes of Pinterest and won’t be as effective as fresh pins.

DO create fresh pins every week

THIS IS THE GAME CHANGER. You need to create fresh pins every week. Pinterest doesn’t mind if you create multiple pin images for the same link. As long as you aren’t pinning the same link back to back in a spammy way, you will be fine. You need to dedicate the time to create fresh pins weekly, especially for popular blog posts. If it becomes too overwhelming and hard to keep up with it might be worth looking into hiring a Pinterest Strategic Manager.

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*BONUS TIP: Create one template design each week on Canva, you can simply change out the image and text to make it easier to create new pins weekly. OR invest in Pinterest templates. Here’s some that are affordable. 

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DO create pins that stand out in the Pinterest feed

I know we aren’t all graphic designers and designing Pinterest pins can be tough! It does make a difference though… You need to care a bit about your Pinterest pin design. You want a pin that stands out in the feed. The goal is to get the viewer to want to CLICK on your pin and read more.

Some tips for designing Pinterest Pins:

1. Make them at least 600 x 900. Pinterest recommends keeping a 2:3 ratio for best results! Long vertical pins stand out in the feed more than horizontal short pins.
2. Use welcoming colors that aren’t harsh to look at.
3. Having clean white space helps too, make use of overlays to make it easy to read your text. If you put text directly onto the image of the pin, it might make it difficult to read.
4. Use fonts that are easy to read, especially when it comes to script fonts.
5. Use words that entice the viewer to want to click, maybe include a call-to-action, example “click to read more!” 
6. Study your Pinterest analytics to see which pins perform the best. That will give you a better understanding at what your audience is more attracted to.

I also suggest investing in stock photos! I use stock photos to design my Pinterest pins and they are always a hit!

Here are my favorite stock photo membership sites for feminine stock photos:

• Pixi Stock
• Styled Stock Society 
• Ivory Mix

Here are some examples of pins that I have recently created:

DON’T Focus on the wrong analytics

I know it’s impossible not to stress about your monthly Pinterest views because the number is on display for all users to see, HOWEVER it’s not the most important analytic to worry about. What matters most is how many link clicks you are getting because that means your pins are converting to blog traffic.

Pinterest views go up and down all the time. I’m not saying to ignore monthly Pinterest views all together because they do matter. The more your views increase, so does your pin reach! Reaching more people means getting more blog traffic!

In my personal experience, every time my Pinterest views go up, so does my blog traffic! There are a lot of Pinterest marketers out there who will say Pinterest views don’t matter at all and have no effect on your blog traffic but I personal disagree. Even for my clients accounts, if you are pinning your own content consistently and you see an increase in your Pinterest views, your blog traffic is probably increasing too.

The only time I would say that Pinterest views don’t have an effect on blog traffic growth is if you have millions of Pinterest views and aren’t pinning your own content at all or aren’t pinning your own content frequently enough. This will definitely skew your results.

SO, focus on your link clicks FIRST, and monthly Pinterest views SECOND.

DON’T pin to group boards

Group boards used to be “the thing!”, but now in 2020 they aren’t as important and effective as they used to be. If you are a part of spammy group boards that have multiple different niches being pinned to it, then it’s probably hurting your reach.

For example: a group board called “Bloggers Promote Here!” or “Blogging Friends Group Board” aren’t helping your Pinterest SEO. You need to be pinning to boards that are niche specific with good keyword descriptions and titles.

I personally ditched pinning to group boards all together. 

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That wraps up my dos and don’ts of Pinterest marketing! I hope you found these tips helpful. If you are ready to dive into a detailed Pinterest strategy that will help you UP your pinning game, STEP BY STEP, then be sure to enroll into Pinterest with Ell!

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If you liked it, PIN IT!

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