How to Use Pinterest to Effectively Grow Ecommerce Traffic

What do I need to pin? How many boards should I have? How many pins is a good amount per day? How do I know it's working? 

These are all valid questions, and ones even I had before doing my fair amount of research and having to experience some of these on my own. Below, I try to knock it down to the most important parts of gaining followers on Pinterest and making sure eyes are always on your pins (which means traffic to your business).

Do you need to be using Pinterest?

The majority, 85%, of Pinterest users are females. If you're target market is males, you may be in the wrong place. In some cases, you may still be okay, if your product could be bought by moms for their boys or by wives for their husbands, but just make sure the content your pinning is relevant to the target buyer of your product. 

How do I make my pins look legit?

Pinterest is all pictures. If your visual isn't attractive, people will scroll right by it. One of my favorite resources to create cool Pinterest graphics is Canva. They have a great platform and many tools to make your Pinterest graphic catch the eyes of your viewers. (Beyond that, they also have templates for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other cool templates that make social media content creation much easier.) If you are selling a product, and need to make sure your product pictures look professional, I have done another blog on how to do that on the cheap. Read that here.

What should I pin?

If you are a beauty company, but you have boards about sports, you're not on the right track. Delete or make private those boards that are not seen as "on brand." When people see your pins and boards, they need to see a cohesive image of who you are as a company. People want to follow boards and pinners who are consistent and have great content.

What is great content?

Ever click on a pin and it says page not found? Or takes you to some random site that doesn't have anything to do with the pin? That is not great content. Make sure what you are pinning comes from reputable sources. The pins that you do not create should be just as visually appealing as the ones you do create, so make sure to keep that in mind also.

How much should I pin?

A good daily goal is 50 pins. OMG. FIFTY. NO. THAT'S SO MANY. Yes, I know. And so does everyone else. That's why there are tools out there to help you pin great content with little effort. A good tool to use is Board Booster. It looks back through past pins for you and repins so there is fresh content daily. 

How many of those pins should be ones I create?

Well, this is up for discussion, your pins obviously direct traffic to your site, but you also want users to see you as someone that is helpful in general, not just solely trying to direct traffic to their site. So the usual rule of thumb is for every 10 pins, 2 can be ones you have created. This will make for diverse, helpful boards, but also drive great traffic to your site. 

How will I know it's working?

IT TAKES TIME. It is good to look at your Google Analytics from your website to see where your traffic is coming from to see how much Pinterest is contributing. But, nothing is going to happen quickly. I would say give it 4-6 months before you will really be able to tell a difference in your traffic patterns and will begin to see returns from all your pins. 

NOW PIN AWAY!